Abstract, Community-Based Tourism and Political Communitarianism in Prainha do Canto Verde, Brazil

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Community-Based Tourism and Political Communitarianism in Prainha do Canto Verde, Brazil
by Francisco Javier Ullán de la Rosa, Antonio Aledo Tur, and Hugo García Andreu

Community-based tourism is advocated by indigenous organizations and leftist actors throughout Latin America as a tool for furthering their political and cultural agenda. The ideological biases and structural weaknesses of this model become apparent in a case study of the fishing village of Prainha do Canto Verde, Brazil. The communitarian agenda currently being implemented by means of the community-based tourism project in Prainha is based upon an ideological construct and being imposed through political engineering upon what is simply a local segment of Brazilian rural society. As a result, it is encountering strong resistance. There is also structural tension between the inevitable sociocultural change caused by the development of tourism and the rigidity and essentialism of a community-based tourism model offering a “traditional way of life” as a touristic product. The model is ultimately conflictual and unstable, and there is serious doubt about its long-term sustainability.

Political Report # 1371 Indigenous Communities Reject Oil Drilling in Block 10

by Moira Birss and Carlos Mazabanda, NACLA

Unknown assailants attacked Salomé Aranda’s home on May 13, hurling rocks at her house and threatening her family. Aranda is a Kichwa leader in the Ecuadorian Amazon and an outspoken critic of Italian oil giant ENI, which has operated in the region for 28 years and plans to expand drilling into new fields in the so-called “Block 10” oil concession. There is nothing circumstantial about the attack against Aranda. She belongs to the Mujeres Amazónicas Defensoras De La Selva De Las Bases Frente Al Extractivismo (Women Defenders of the Amazon Rainforest Against Natural Resource Extraction collective), and was one of the representatives who met with Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno on March 22 after ongoing protests against the new concession. In that meeting, Aranda highlighted the social and environmental impacts of the “Block 10” oil drilling concessions, located in the Amazon rainforest 160 miles southeast of the capital city Quito. Among other demands, she and her fellow environmental defenders called on the government to cancel resource concessions in the south-central Amazon to free Indigenous lands of oil, mining, logging, and other extractive industries. Soon after the meeting, the Italian nonprofit organization A Sud confronted ENI at its annual shareholder meeting in Italy in early May over the lack of community consent for its drilling operations in Ecuador. Days later, Aranda’s home was attacked.

Political Report # 1260 Dismantling Power: The Zapatista Indigenous Presidential Candidate’s Vision to Transform Mexico from Below

By Benjamin Dangl,  Toward Freedom

The Zapatistas and National Indigenous Congress (CNI) held an assembly in May in which they chose María de Jesús Patricio Martínez, a Nahua indigenous healer, as their spokesperson and presidential candidate for the 2018 elections in Mexico. Patricio’s candidacy and radical vision for Mexico challenges conventional politics and marks a new phase for the Zapatista and indigenous struggle in the country. The 57-year-old traditional Nahua indigenous doctor and mother of three from western Mexico is the first indigenous woman to run for the presidency in Mexico. Patricio joined the struggles related to the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in 1996, when she was involved in the formation of the CNI, a network of indigenous communities in the country. She began helping out sick members of her community with herbal remedies when she was 20-years-old. Her skills as a healer were passed down to her from elders in the community, and are based on a close relationship with the local ecosystem. “Back then, there was a shortage of doctors and medicine and the health department had no answers,” Patricio told the Guardian. “But we have so many plants and so much knowledge from our elders. My grandmother would give us special teas to cure stress, coughs or diarrhea, and they worked. So I thought: why not give herbal remedies to those who can’t afford medicine?” Her work as an herbalist has influenced her political views: “The political class only see the earth and our natural resources as means of making money, not things that benefit the community and need protecting.”

Free Limited Online Access to LAP Article! Between Two Pasts Dictatorships and the Politics of Memory in Bolivia

(May 2015) Table of Contents Between Two Pasts: Dictatorships and the Politics of Memory in Bolivia by Francisco Adolfo García Jerez  and Juliane Muller Click here to READ and SHARE

Book, "Indians and Leftists in the Making of Ecuador’s Modern Indigenous Movements" by Marc Becker

Indians and Leftists in the Making of Ecuador’s Modern Indigenous Movements by Marc Becker

In June 1990, Indigenous peoples shocked Ecuadorian elites with a powerful uprising that paralyzed the country for a week. Militants insisted that the government address Indigenous demands for land ownership, education, and economic development. This uprising was a milestone in the history of Ecuador’s social justice movements, and it inspired popular organizing efforts across Latin America. While the insurrection seemed to come out of nowhere, Marc Becker demonstrates that it emerged out of years of organizing and developing strategies to advance Indigenous rights. In this richly documented account, he chronicles a long history of Indigenous political activism in Ecuador, from the creation of the first local agricultural syndicates in the 1920s through the galvanizing protests of 1990. In so doing, he reveals the central role of women in Indigenous movements and the history of productive collaborations between rural Indigenous activists and urban leftist intellectuals.

Abstract, Colonial Histories and Decolonial Dreams in the Ecuadorean Amazon: Natural Resources and the Politics of Post-Neoliberalism by Joshua Holst

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Colonial Histories and Decolonial Dreams in the Ecuadorean Amazon: Natural Resources and the Politics of Post-Neoliberalism 
by Joshua Holst

The political changes sweeping Latin America have inspired scholars to declare a “post-neoliberal” era, some even suggesting a potential reversal of colonialism. Despite progressive political discourse in Ecuador, the indigenous movement continues to resist the state. Underlying the conflict between the indigenous and the state is a long-standing conflict between economic growth and the environment. Since Ecuador’s economy relies on Amazonian natural resources, the post-neoliberal Ecuadorean state requires colonial advances into indigenous territory to fund its progressive social programs. The opposite of colonialism is autonomy, which in the right hands can represent a true development alternative.

Abstract, Colonial Histories and Decolonial Dreams in the Ecuadorean Amazon: Natural Resources and the Politics of Post-Neoliberalism by Joshua Holst

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Colonial Histories and Decolonial Dreams in the Ecuadorean Amazon: Natural Resources and the Politics of Post-Neoliberalism 
by Joshua Holst

The political changes sweeping Latin America have inspired scholars to declare a “post-neoliberal” era, some even suggesting a potential reversal of colonialism. Despite progressive political discourse in Ecuador, the indigenous movement continues to resist the state. Underlying the conflict between the indigenous and the state is a long-standing conflict between economic growth and the environment. Since Ecuador’s economy relies on Amazonian natural resources, the post-neoliberal Ecuadorean state requires colonial advances into indigenous territory to fund its progressive social programs. The opposite of colonialism is autonomy, which in the right hands can represent a true development alternative.

Abstract, The Struggle for the Meaning of Dissent: Toward the Social Deconstruction of Dissent as a Crime by Alejandro Cerda García

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Abstract:  The Struggle for the Meaning of Dissent: Toward the Social Deconstruction of Dissent as a Crime 

by Alejandro Cerda García

Political dissent, a significant part of any democratic process, must be understood not only as a historical and social construction but also from a structural and relational perspective. Social movements and organizations, especially autonomist indigenous ones, attempt to persuade the public that dissent is a right and a proper form for thinking about the political. The social construction of dissent as a crime not only is promoted by state regimes but also seeks to be accepted, legitimated, and sustained by the society. Socially deconstructing it requires considering the law as a historical production, connecting its analysis to legitimacy, and recognizing its ideological and fictional dimension and the influence of structural conditions such as the organization of production.

Abstract, Rethinking Latin America: Back to the Future? by Ronaldo Munck

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Rethinking Latin America: Back to the Future? 

by Ronaldo Munck

It could be argued that Latin America is currently at a crossroads every bit as fundamental as that of the 1930s. While according to some the region has escaped the worst impacts of the Great Recession, for others the model of extractive capitalism is simply not sustainable. Clearly there is a new left hegemony emerging, but for many analysts the left’s efforts have been insufficient and have simply continued the neoliberal economic model. A rethinking of Latin America from the perspective of three somewhat disparate thinkers who were shaped by the crisis of 1929—José Carlos Mariátegui, Antonio Gramsci, and Karl Polanyi—can help us reimagine a progressive way forward.