The Human Consequences of Economic Sanctions

Francisco R. Rodiguez Executive Summary This paper provides a comprehensive survey and assessment of the literature on the effects of economic sanctions on living standards in target countries. We identify 32 studies that apply quantitative econometric and calibration methods to cross-country and national data in order to assess the impact of economic sanctions on indicators…

Canadian Aid for Cuba? 35 National and Regional Organizations Support it

Stephen Kimber and John Kirk Fidel Castro: “Luchar contra lo imposible y vencer” (“To fight against the impossible and win”).  Cuba desperately needs food and medical aid now. It also deserves an end to the longest-standing embargo in modern times It is not often that the United Church of Canada, the (Anglican) Primate’s World Relief and Development…

Restoring the Land Rights of the Garifuna African People of Honduras

Chika Ezeanya-Esiobu The Garifuna people are being dispossessed of their lands to the extent that they do not even have enough lands to cultivate food The age-long severe oppression of descendants of West African slaves in the South American nation of Honduras has yet to receive wide attention. The Garifuna African people in Honduras are…

The Complexities of De-dollarisation in Latin America

Saheli Chowdhury De-dollarisation marches on inexorably on the global scale, and Latin America is not outside its ambit. To analyse the situation on the ground, The International spoke with Diego Sequera, Venezuelan geopolitical analyst and editor of the news and investigative reporting outlet Misión Verdad, who discusses the de-dollarisation processes in Latin America and the…

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Calls for Renegotiation of the IMF Debt and Judicial Reform in Argentina

Peoples Dispatch Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner calls for renegotiation of the IMF debt on May 25. (Photo: Cristina Fernández de Kirchner/Twitter) The Argentine vice president also called for coordination between public and private sectors to regulate strategic natural resources, and renewal of the democratic pact established after the last civil-military dictatorship On…

Who Does Francia Márquez Work For?

Misión Verdad Following her tour in Africa, the vice president of Colombia, Francia Márquez, publicly thanked tycoon George Soros’ Open Society Foundations for the funding and logistical support of her high-level diplomatic visit to South Africa, Kenya, and Ethiopia. Over the last few days, controversy has grown around Márquez’s remarks, which, in the Colombian political…

‘U.S. Blockade Against Cuba Could Bring New Special Period’

Radio Sputnik’s “By Any Means Necessary” co-hosts, Sean Blackmon and Jacqueline Luqman (a Black Alliance for Peace [BAP] Coordinating Committee member), spoke to BAP member Musa Springer and BAP Coordinating Committee member Erica Caines on the impact of the criminal U.S. blockade against Cuba. The pair commented on what many observe as a second Special…

Slavery and Prior Accumulation in Venezuela

Cira Pascual Marquina Enrique S. Rivera is a historian, journalist, and documentary film producer. He teaches at UCLA, and his recent book, The Untold History of Capitalism: Primitive Accumulation and the Anti-Slavery Revolution (2021), focuses on the 1795 anti-slavery rebellion in the west of what we now know as Venezuela, but it also examines the origins of…

On the Long Path to Reparations

Cira Pascual Marquina Jesús “Chucho” García is an intellectual and activist, and the author of several books, including Afrovenezolanidad e inclusión en el Proceso Bolivariano [Afro-Venezuelanness and Inclusion in the Bolivarian Process, 2018]. He is also a founder of the Network of Afro-Venezuelan Organizations and a member of the National Decolonization Commission. In this interview, García talks…

Haiti’s Women Food Suppliers Face Mounting Pressures

Rose Hurguelle Point du Jour ROSE HURGUELLE POINT DU JOUR, GPJ HAITI Cedeniese Lexima, a wholesale produce buyer known as a Madan Sara, searches for quality produce at the market in Maniche. The Madan Sara provide a vital service by collecting farmers’ produce and selling it in urban communities. But natural disasters and growing insecurity…

Approval of US Troops to Train Peruvian Armed Forces Proves US Behind Coup

Clau O’Brien Moscoso Peruvian military training at Fort Hood, Texas in 2021 (Photo: jbsa.mil Donald Sparks) US SOUTHCOM is strengthening ties with Peru’s coup government by training that country’s military and police force. National Strike, Day 140 Amid continuing social upheaval five months after the parliamentary coup against Pedro Castillo, the Peruvian Congress, controlled by…

Colombian Government Partially Suspends Ceasefire with FARC-EP

Peoples Dispatch Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced the partial suspension of bilateral ceasefire between the government and the Estado Mayor Central (EMC) on May 22. Photo: Colombian Presidency/Twitter The Petro government suspended the bilateral ceasefire with the Estado Mayor Central (EMC), a dissident group of the FARC-EP guerilla group, in four departments after the murder…

The Day After the Dollar

Emanuel Pietrobon In a growingly multipolar world, where the United States is slowly ceasing to be the primary pole of power, it is not strange, but absolutely normal and physiological, to witness a worldwide process of reserve currency diversification, writes Valdai Club expert Emanuel Pietrobon. Brazil and China have recently struck a multi-billion-dollar currency swap agreement…

‘Colonial Canada and the Caribbean’

To mark Black History Month, the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute hosted a webinar discussion on Canada’s colonial role in the Caribbean, past and present, from Canadian trade relations with the slave plantation economy to gunboat diplomacy and Canadian banking power in the late 1800s. This event featured discussion with four people, two of which are…

Rafael Correa’s Shadow Back on Ecuador’s Horizon

Yunus Soner PIA Global and United Word International share this exclusive interview with Ricardo Patiño Aroca, former foreign minister and minister of economy and defense in the government of Rafael Correa (in government 2007 – 2017). Aroca presents us an analysis of the current situation in the brotherly Andean country. In the session that began…