Chocolate farmers in Choco, Colombia. Anna Vogt
From 1968 to the missing 43 – why Mexico’s dead and disappeared refuse to go away
“That’s true, this place matters,” says Villafuerte, whose father was at Tlatelolco, and was briefly jailed for his part in the protest. It’s a subject he wouldn’t talk about with his daughter about for years afterwards. Now, the images of the massacre are on display for families to visit together. Nevertheless, Villafuerte wants more for her country. “There have been changes since 1968,” she says. “I’ve studied the history and I’ve heard what happened from my parents. But when things like Ayotzinapa happen, I wonder how much has really changed. I feel like we still can’t tick off the list of what’s required for a democracy: justice, press freedom … We still don’t have that.”
Afro-Mexicans Are Pushing For Legal Recognition in Mexico’s National Constitution
Recently, member’s of Mexico Negro – an Afro-Mexican advocacy organization – launched a national movement to officially recognize Mexico’s Afro-descendants on the national census. The proposed bill would create a census category for Afro-Mexicans, which would help ensure that Mexico’s African descendants receive important access to social and economic resources. “We are joining senators and deputies to be recognized in the Federal Constitution and the missing federal states, so that the Mexican state pays off its historical debt with Afro-Mexicans,” explained, Sergio Peńaloza Perez, the leader of Black-Mexico. The bill also plans to be launched later this month in Oaxaca, Mexico at the 16th annual meeting of Black peoples taking place on November 13-14th.
Haiti to hear challenges in presidential elections results
Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., said Haiti is facing a crisis of confidence. The 915,675 accreditation passes that were handed out to political-party monitors and observers, he said, make it hard to see where the elections, which had about 1.5 million ballots cast, “are credible.” “We don’t know how many of the votes are fraudulent,” he said. “There are several relevant conclusions. Among them, the U.S. and its allies really don’t care about either the credibility or the fairness of an election process as long as they get the results that they want. That was demonstrated overwhelmingly in 2010 and now you see it again.”
Guatemala bans child marriage but ‘cultural shift’ required, advocates say
Guatemala has raised the minimum age for marriage to 18, but women’s rights campaigners said enforcing the new law would be a challenge in a country where nearly one-third of girls are currently married by that age. The law, approved by Congress earlier this month by 87 votes to 15, raised the minimum marriage age from 14 for girls and 16 for boys, but said 16-year-old girls would still be able to marry with a judge’s permission under some circumstances.
Honduras Indians’ land being seized by drug gangs and settlers, UN official says
Indians on Honduras’s Caribbean coast are suffering invasions of their lands by squatters, loggers, palm-oil planters and drug traffickers, a UN official said on Tuesday. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, said drug traffickers cut down trees to carve airstrips from the jungle, recruited Indian youths into the trade and bought up land to launder money. Honduran Miskitos and other groups are demanding the government help them protect their territory in the swampy, heavily forested region.
The Nicaraguan Teen Teaching Young Girls Their Reproductive Rights
Despite the abhorrent state of women’s rights in Nicaragua, young women like Calero are continuing their fight at the forefront of countless strong movements, such as Born to Fly. “Thanks to feminism, and [the] courageous women who gave their lives in the fight for gender equality,” she says, “today I understand that as a woman I have a right to political participation, to work, to study, to decide on my body and my life, to build my identity independently and without impositions from any man or formal institutions that dominated society in the past—like the church—or who still dominate today, like the state.”
Electoral Results, Justice Accords Considered (Colombia)
The Colombian government and the FARC-EP headed back to the peace table in Havana last week and are scheduled to complete their 43rd round of talks on November 13. It has been a busy month for politics in Colombia, with a longer than usual pause between cycles to accommodate the country’s October 25 municipal and regional elections. At the polls, peace and the post-Accord agendas played a relatively minor role in determining the voters’ preferences for mayors, council people, and governors. Political analyst Alejo Vargas underscored the complexity of the results, in which personalities seemed to triumph over party politics. In the cases of the mayors of Colombia’s major cities, he noted that “the tendency in nearly every case was to not identify candidates with a particular political force, but to underscore their management skills or their previous experience.” Minister of Defense Luis Carlos Villegas, for his part, called the elections a “mandate” for “a balanced Colombia, without the extremes,” that should ultimately strengthen the peace talks.
Responses to Justice Accord (continued)
For now, the recent agreements have struck what political analyst Laura Gil called a “coup against skepticism,” and the expectations for peace are mounting quickly. It is important all the same to keep in mind that what is being negotiated is the end of the conflict and to adjust expectations accordingly. That said, a successful peace accord will not produce immediate change and change will not happen automatically. A sustainable peace will depend on the actions of the citizenry to help keep political will strong and consistent. For this to happen, there is an ongoing need to educate the public about the peace process, what to expect, and the citizenry’s responsibilities for peace-building. The clock is ticking however and there is little time to waste.
Bolivia Purchases Radars to Combat Cocaine Air Bridge
Morales has reason for optimism. Radar equipment has previously been credited with drastically reducing drug flights in Colombia, and more recently in Honduras. Moreover, the lack of radars has consistently been identified as one of Bolivia‘s key vulnerabilities in the fight against transnational drug trafficking. If the Andean nation manages to gain control over its airspace it could potentially reverse its growing role in South America’sresurgent cocaine air bridge. Radars should also enable Bolivia to better enforce other already-existing measures intended to reduce drug flights. Bolivia approved a plane intercept and shoot-down law in April 2014, but security forces have reportedly been unable to implement it due to lack of aerial monitoring equipment.