Sorry I am a day late but I’ve been having network card problems since yesterday.
Today’s listicle chock full of news from El Sur!
- “Slut Walk” Hits Mexico City: Women Take Aim at Machismo [Fox News Latino] Hundreds of scantily clad women marched this city on Sunday to protest the blame and shame assigned to victims of unwanted sexual attention or assault.
- Seventy percent of arms seized, traced in Mexico came from US [The Washington Post] About 70 percent of the guns seized in Mexico and submitted to a U.S. gun-tracing program came from the United States, according to a report released by three U.S. senators Monday. […] Most of those weapons — 15,131 — were U.S. made, while another 5,373 were of foreign manufacture but had moved through the United States into Mexico.
- Mexico, other countries join Georgia immigration suit [The Associated Press] Mexico and 10 other countries have filed amicus briefs in a lawsuit that asks a judge to declare Georgia’s new immigration law unconstitutional and to block it from being enforced. The lawsuit was filed two weeks ago by civil liberties groups.
- New Che Guevara diary published in Cuba [BBC News] A previously unpublished diary by the Argentine-born revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara has been unveiled in Cuba. His widow, Aleida March, said she had decided to publish the writings unedited.
- CUBA: South-South Diplomacy Props Up Economic Modernisation [IPS ipsnews.net] The introduction to the guidelines document states that beginning in 2004, new possibilities were opened to Cuba for international integration in the framework of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), a bloc to which Cuba belongs, along with Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Antigua and Barbuda.
- U.S. oil company demands contract from Costa Rica [Costa Rica Newspaper, The Tico Times] U.S.-based Mallon Oil Company invoked the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) to pressure Costa Rica’s government to sign a contract that will allow for exploration of oil and natural gas in the northern part of the country, according to the daily La Nación. Two letters sent in the past seven months by representatives of the U.S. company warned that Costa Rican officials would face “legal, economic and international consequences” if the 11-year-old exploration contract is not honored.
- Drugs barons accused of destroying Guatemala’s rainforest [The Guardian] Environmentalists say settlers working for traffickers aiming to launder money or build airstrips have burned down huge tracts.
- Nicaraguan Women Demand Their Rights In Face of Rampant Sexual Violence [Amnesty International Blog] In its most recent global report, Amnesty International reported on the high rates of violence against women and girls in Nicaragua, especially rape and sexual violence.[…] In Nicaragua, girls are especially vulnerable to rape and sexual violence. Two thirds of rape victims are under 18, and the most common cases are for girls between the ages of 13 and 15.
- Colombian Human Rights Activist Ana Fabricia Córdoba: a death foretold [Comment is free | guardian.co.uk] “They’re going to kill me and no one’s done anything.” When Colombian activist Ana Fabricia Córdoba spoke those words last April during one of the last public meetings she attended, a sense of defiant outrage was evident in her demeanour – an unsurprising reaction for a woman who experienced first-hand years of armed conflict, and yet remained an outspoken advocate for the human rights of internally displaced people in the country. Her family may have to leave Colombia for security [Colombia Reports] and other human rights leaders continue to receive death threats and call for protection [Colombia Reports].
- Peru’s sterilisation victims still await compensation and justice [ Comment is free | guardian.co.uk] Between 1996 and 1998, some 300,000 women were sterilised in Peru. All came from the poorest backgrounds, most from the Andean and Amazonian areas where Spanish is still not widely spoken. Newly elected President Humala Pledges Justice for them [IPS ipsnews.net] He promised he will push the legal system to investigate and prosecute those responsible for a massive forced sterilisation campaign targeting poor indigenous women carried out by the government of Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000).
- Peru’s capital declares itself a GMO-free zone [AFP] The city council, lead by Mayor Susana Villaran, officially declared the city of eight million a “territory free of transgenic and genetically modified organisms,” to protect the population’s health and preserve biodiversity and the environment.
- The teenage miners of Bolivia [Al Jazeera English] An excellent feature (including videos) that follows the lives of two young boys who work in Bolivia’s mining industry. The reporters began chronicling their lives several years ago (when they were still children) and now present their struggles as 15 year old boys looking for a way out of desperate poverty and lives blighted by mining-induced ill health.
- Brazil’s catwalks are too white, say protesters [The Guardian] The lack of indigenous and Afro-Brazilian faces on the catwalk at São Paulo fashion week has triggered protests and calls for a 20% quota of black models. “We cannot accept the world of fashion insisting on being a stronghold for the Eurocentric,” said Frei Davi Santos, the Brazilian race campaigner behind the protests.
- Gold rush another blight to ailing Amazon jungle [AP] A gold rush that accelerated with the onset of the 2008 global recession is compounding the woes of the Amazon basin, laying waste to Peruvian rain forest and spilling tons of toxic mercury into the air and water. And in related news, Another Amazon activist killed in logging conflict [AP] A landless peasant activist was killed by a gunshot to his head outside his home in Brazil — the fifth murder in a month likely tied to the conflict over land and logging in the Amazon.
- Argentine leader’s support dips, holds lead [TrustLaw] Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has a comfortable lead over opposition challengers ahead of an October presidential election, but her support has slipped, a poll showed on Saturday.
Have a great Sunday everyone!