Photo Essay: The Power of Popular Protest: El Verano Boricua

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Photo Essay: The Power of Popular Protest: El Verano Boricua

Federico Cintrón-Moscoso and Vanessa Díaz
Text by Jean Hostetler-Díaz

In July and August 2019, hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans participated in a series of mass mobilizations in San Juan and municipalities across the island, demanding that officials be held accountable for their betrayal of the public trust and calling for the immediate resignation of Governor Ricardo “Ricky” Rosselló. These protests were triggered by the revelation of digital chats between the governor and his closest collaborators that included mocking those who died in Hurricane Maria, misogynistic comments, homophobic slurs, and remarks reflecting class bias.

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Political Report # 1428 Ecuador's Strike is a Class Struggle, Not an Endorsement of Previous Governent

Political Report # 1428 Ecuador's Strike is a Class Struggle, Not an Endorsement of Previous Government by  Oscar León, The Real News Network

October 9, 2019 On the second week of massive protests in Ecuador, thousands of indigenous protesters paralyzed the country and thousands more arrived in the capital of Quito, where they marched and eventually faced martial law. They reject President Moreno's Neo-liberal reforms, but also emphasize their opposition to former President Rafael Correa, whom Moreno is blaming for the uprising. We spoke to representatives of 2 of the largest indigenous organizations CONAIE and CONFENAIE. Massive protests have brought Ecuador almost to a standstill. Much of the country is paralized by a coalition of social organizations, including the indigenous movement under CONAIE, many student organizations, the Unitary Front of Workers or FUT, and many citizens in general, especially farmers and workers. The protests erupted after President Lenin Moreno declared a host of economic and social austerity measures, proposed by the IMF, as a condition for loans. These included eliminating subsidies, raising gas and food prices, and restructuring work laws, based on more neoliberal standards, among other things. Building up to the protests, anger among Ecuadorians reached a boiling point when the National Assembly struck down a law that would have made it possible to confiscate private assets from people involved in corruption. By the second week of massive protests, thousands of indigenous protesters paralyzed towns and roads and thousands more arrived in the capital, after walking in many cases hundreds of miles from their rural homes, all the way to Quito. Andres Tapia, Communications Director CONFENAIE: “We are all striking against a massive increase in food and transport prices, also the government’s agreement with the IMF. These agreements with oil, mining and timber corporations, represent a great danger for our indigenous lands.” We spoke over the phone with Andres Tapia, he is the Communications Director of CONFENAIE, short for Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Andres Tapia, Communications Director CONFENAIE: “We are extremely worried about [the destruction of the biosphere], and that is precisely the central demand of the indigenous movements articulated under CONAIE. However, on this particular strike our demands are the following: 1- no to the austerity measures imposed by the IMF, 2- no to a mining and oil based economy, 3- no to the new laws regulating work. So we want to be categorical on this: our protests are an organic process by social organizations, along with the indigenous movements and in no way is it an endorsement of Correa or any other Ecuadorian political figure.” The fact that the protests, at least from the indigenous movement, do not endorse former president Rafael Correa, is precisely a very important part of the issue. President Moreno and other high ranking government officials have alleged a destabilization plot by Correa, as a justification for declaring a state of exception, similar to martial law, and sent the military and riot squads to repress the protesters. Even the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido tweeted about his support for President Moreno, claiming that there is a Pro-Maduro – Pro-Correa plot that is financing the protests. Guaido made these claims despite a decade of Correa’s forceful opposition to the indigenous movement. Correa not only imprisoned many indigenous leaders, but also intensified a surveillance state apparatus on them, violently repressing demonstrations and waiving many of their constitutional rights in favor of mining projects. Andres Tapia, Communications Director CONFENAIE: “The indigenous movement’s agenda goes beyond supporting a political or presidential figure, like Rafael Correa was. Historically, In that sense the indigenous movement spoke for the great majority of the Ecuadorian people. Now is not the exception. Over the last decades, we have been protagonists of Ecuador’s social changes.” Recently there have been many documented cases of human rights violations, including three deaths (by Oct, 7th), about 600 people detained, dozens of cases of often grave injuries, such as shots with pellet bullets and even live rounds, public beatings, run-overs, and even many alleged cases of torture. The official in charge of this operation is General Oswaldo Jarrin, who was trained in Israel and The School of the Americas, as part of “Operation Condor,” back in the nineteen eighties. Jarrin ordered elite troops and assault vehicles to be stationed outside the Carondelet Presidential Palace in preparation for Wednesday’s general strike. In the early 2000’s, very similar strikes took down three governments, one after the other. However, this time, to avoid being deposed like many before him, President Moreno strategically flew to Guayaquil, under the protection of the Social Christian Party which runs the city and surrounding areas. Apawki Castro, Communications Director CONAIE: “[The alleged plot of Correa financing us], is a lie, a “PR strategy”, trying to control information, and also the Correa faction is obviously trying to use our momentum and get on board. We are not supporting any character, our struggle is about rights, ours and nature’s, along with the rest of our demands. They have that strategy, trying to use us, on a move to bring back Rafael Correa, but we are steering clear from any of that.” There are supporters of former president Rafael Correa on the streets, trying to swing the momentum in their favor, including the Governor of Pichincha and many Alianza Pais figures, some like Luis Tuarez where violently rejected by the crowd. But by far, the core of the protests is formed by the indigenous and student movements, along with an angry population tired of imposed austerity measures, while corruption cases involving millions of dollars multiply, many unprosecuted. And while on the streets people protest, in the background, the political right stands to win. Right wing parties, have encouraged and supported Moreno, letting his government do all the “dirty” austerity work, and they are now in a position to win the next elections and take over a stronger state apparatus. Apawki Castro, Communications Director CONAIE: “As indigenous movements, we have proposed a new economic model, away from the current extractivist model, which is not a sustainable model for our nationalities and territories. So for now, that is demand number two on our agenda.” Furthermore, Tapia, who represents a group from the Amazon regions, stresses the importance that nature has for the indigenous movement. Andres Tapia, Communications Director CONFENAIE: “The indigenous movement has always been active defending the land, locally, internationally, and even in a global context. We have been at the forefront of the fight against climate change. In our struggle, [PachaMamma or Mother Earth] has been represented in one of our main traditional standard flags, and it still stands as such. In that context [taking care of nature] is one of our main demands, especially in the amazon. In principle, we oppose the many mining and oil concessions, given all over the country, by this and past governments, including that of Rafael Correa Delgado.” On October 7th two official CONAIE documents were published. The second document addressed several cases of looting, stating that whoever committed such crimes is not part of their movement, and furthermore stating that they have identified several groups of agent provocateurs, sent by the military, operating to spread chaos. And as a response to that, in the build up for the general strike on October 10th, indigenous guards will provide security and detain violent individuals. Original article can be found (here). URL:      Click here for article

Political Report #1418 Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez Call for Reversal of Puerto Rico Austerity Measures

Political Report # 1418 Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez Call for Reversal of Puerto Rico Austerity Measures by  Kate Aronoff, Alleen Brown, The Intercept

When hundreds of thousands of people poured onto the streets of San Juan, Puerto Rico, last July, it wasn’t just the resignation of Gov. Ricardo Rosselló they wanted. “Ricky renuncia y llévate la junta,” many of them cried - “Ricky resign, and take the junta with you.” For three years, a federally imposed Financial Oversight and Management Board, known as the junta or the FOMB, had imposed severe austerity measures on Puerto Ricans, ostensibly in an effort to get a handle on the soaring debt. Like Rosselló’s administration, the junta’s members and consultants were riddled with conflicts of interest. The people had had enough. Rosselló did resign, but the junta is still in place and pushing punishing austerity in the form of cuts to health care, public pensions, and the public university. The people have not stopped fighting. In dozens of municipalities across the island, newly formed public assemblies are meeting weekly to discuss how to carry forward the energy of the protests. In many of them, fighting debt management policies involving crippling cuts to public services has become a key focus. On a very hot Saturday morning at the end of August, around 200 people showed up to a public assembly specifically focused on the debt crisis. Many of the retirees there were concerned about a deal the board had made earlier in the summer to cut as much as 8.5 percent of people’s pensions. Luis José Torres Ascencio, president of the Citizen Commission for the Comprehensive Audit of Public Credit, recalled the words of a retired public employee who attended. “I supported PROMESA and the fiscal control board,” he said, referring to the law that created the board. “Today I see that they are doing the same thing we were criticizing our government for. So now I want the board gone.” On Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and 11 other members of Congress sent a letter to the board. “We agree with the demands of the Puerto Rican people who came into the streets: Puerto Rico must no longer be treated as a colony,” the letter says. Signatories demanded that the board “reverse the crippling austerity imposed on Puerto Rico” and provide details regarding conflicts of interest among members of the board, as well as its consultants. The letter also demands that the board explain exactly how these massive cuts are going to achieve economic growth. As a window is left open for the board to exploit the island’s governance crisis to exert more control there, Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, and others appear to be firing back at the idea that the board members are any more responsible than was Rosselló’s administration. “As the Puerto Rican people seek to compel transparency and accountability from decision makers, we believe the FOMB should heed this call.” “What we are doing with this letter is telling the unelected austerity board that enough is enough,” Sanders, who is running for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, said in a statement to The Intercept. “Two years after Hurricane María, they are still working hand in hand with ultra-rich investors to try to squeeze blood from a stone. We are saying, stop dictating Puerto Rico’s economic decisions and let the people decide their own future.” As Puerto Rico continues to rebuild after Hurricane Maria devastated the island, the stakes of the debt fight are high. “Puertorriqueños will continue to die in the face of a severe health crisis and others are using blue tarps as roofs two years after Maria,” said Ocasio-Cortez in a statement to The Intercept. “We must hold la Junta accountable - otherwise Wall Street vultures will continue to be prioritized over the needs of the people.” Torres Ascencio offered a measured response. “We are opposed to the existence of the fiscal control board and we are opposed to PROMESA, but while we have to deal with those institutions, we definitely support congressional efforts to oversee what the board has done,” he said. Steep Cuts and High Fees The debt restructuring the board was tasked with has been slow-going, involving a dizzying number of actors. On the island, Washington-appointed commissioners - who report to the House Natural Resources Committee - have final say over economic life on the island and have gone toe to toe with the local government in pushing still deeper cuts to everything from pensions to the minimum wage to Christmas bonuses. Meanwhile, the bankruptcy-like proceedings the PROMESA legislation created, via its Title III, are taking place in the Southern District Court of New York, while debt repayment is on hold. Involving several different classes of creditors, those have also limped along. That there are so many people to pay off also means that any boost in the island’s economy - like the modest bump provided by federal recovery funds and the jobs they created after Hurricane Maria - are used as bargaining chips in the Title III talks by bondholders eager to scrape as much as they can. Rather than disburse that money to the Puerto Ricans desperate for jobs and aid to rebuild homes and infrastructure, recovery would mean more money available to the vultures. After the largest demonstrations subsided and Rosselló stepped down, the board had said it planned to submit a new restructuring plan this month, though it hasn’t yet. As Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez’s letter notes, the board’s most recent fiscal plan proposes hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to health care and public education, having this summer won steep cuts to public-sector retiree pensions. “They are determining the economic development of Puerto Rico for the next 40 to 50 years,” said Julio López Varona, a member of the steering committee of Vamos4PR, who advocated for a letter from Congress members. In exerting control over the island’s budget, the board has operated under the premise that cutting local taxes and scaling back labor protections and social programs would create a welcoming business climate for investors, increasing islanders’ incentives to work for cheap and thus, fuel economic growth. It’s not an uncommon approach, deployed by the International Monetary Fund in its so-called structural adjustment packages and the Troika in Greece in the wake of that country’s debt crisis. But as the bicameral letter points out, the strategy has been better at delivering lucrative fees and contracts to banks and consultants than recovery to Puerto Ricans, living in a painful recession that has lasted well over a decade. The consultancy firm McKinsey & Company has already collected $50 million from the board, whose budget is furnished by Puerto Ricans. “In what appears to be blatant disregard for conflict-of-interest norms,” the letter notes that McKinsey “is also a holder of Puerto Rican debt and stands to make millions on any potential restructuring deal for investors.” Revolving doors between those tasked with reining in the debt and those who either engineered or stand to profit from it aren’t unique in Puerto Rico. Board member Carlos M. García, for instance, oversaw a massive bond issuance as the head of Puerto Rico’s Government Development Bank, deals underwritten by the Spanish bank Santander where he has served as a top executive. For Wall Street especially, underwriting new Puerto Rican debt has proven profitable. “FOMB members are reported to have been involved in government institutions that contracted billions of dollars of debt; served as officials in banks that underwrote that debt; and currently maintain familial relations to some of the largest financial institutions in Puerto Rico. Under federal statute, board members are required to provide financial disclosures and reveal any conflicts of interest. However, we are deeply concerned by the apparent failure to comply with the law,” the letter states, citing García’s failure to disclose third-party compensation. “These incomplete disclosures make the full scope of possible conflicts of interest impossible to assess.” By October 7, Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and their co-signers, who include Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Cory Booker and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, call for detailed accounts from the board, including an “explanation for the increasing fiscal surplus available to creditors despite the absence of significant changes in the FOMB’s economic assumptions,” an analysis of potential negative effects of budget cuts, and “all documents related to the FOMB’s consulting arrangements” with banks and contractors that could profit off debt repayment deals. They’re also requesting any and all documents about the board’s internal conflict of interest policy and a “full accounting of each member’s professional or familial ties to any institutions and people who hold Puerto Rico’s debt or maintain contracts with the FOMB, and thorough financial disclosures of each board member, including details of outside compensation.” Calling for a Citizens’ Audit This isn’t Sanders or Ocasio Cortez’s first foray into Puerto Rico issues. Sanders has introduced a “Marshall Plan” for Puerto Rico’s recovery. And Ocasio-Cortez has called for a full audit and cancellation of the debt, as well as the abolition of the junta. Congressional intervention has been meaningful in the past. This past winter, after years of pressure from activists, the board took a half-measure in the direction of its demands, declaring $6 billion in bonds illegal. But months went by without any corresponding action penalizing the banks involved. After members of Congress sent the board a letter, a series of lawsuits were filed. “What we have seen is that, because the local government has no power over the control board, it is important that Congress uses its oversight capacity to hold the board accountable,” said López Varona. But it’s not just any intervention that people on the ground want. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, recently said he would hold a hearing in October to present proposed reforms to the PROMESA law. Among the proposals he’s considering is the cancellation of unsecured debt, as well as a debt audit. He’s also calling for the appointment of a federal reconstruction coordinator to oversee Hurricane Maria recovery and new federal funding for the FOMB, which is currently funded by Puerto Rican taxpayers. He would also include measures to protect funding for education, health, and retirement. “We support any effort by any governmental entity to conduct an investigation on the debt. But our project is a citizens’ audit,” said Torres Ascenscio. “We’re not going to endorse a federally created governmental audit commission.” López Varona also pushed back on the idea of a new PROMESA. “We as a coalition of groups in Puerto Rico and the U.S. continue to oppose PROMESA and any other legislation that imposes federal oversight in Puerto Rico, because it hasn’t worked,” he said, referring to a coalition that includes Vamos4PR, the Center for Popular Democracy, Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora, Diáspora en Resistencia, Diáspora en Acción, and Construyamos Otro Acuerdo. “The summer uprising showed people want democracy; they want to be part of the decisions being made.” Original article can be found (here). URL:      https://theintercept.com/2019/09/24/puerto-rico-austerity-congress/

Political Report # 1404 Celebrating the Young Lords-Amid Revolution in Puerto Rico

By Juan González The Nation

Last Friday evening, less than 48 hours after Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló resigned in the wake of a series of unprecedented mass protests in the streets of San Juan, several hundred people jammed Harlem’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture to celebrate Puerto Rican activism from another era. The occasion was the 50th anniversary of the founding of the New York Young Lords, and the timing could not have been more apt. After all, young people made up the bulk of the protesters in Puerto Rico the past two weeks-including the July 22 march of more than half a million-and the audience at the Schomburg instantly understood the connection. Back in 1969, a few dozen young Puerto Ricans, all children of post-World War II working-class migrants from the island, gathered in Tompkins Square Park on the Lower East Side, sporting purple berets and green field jackets, and we announced to the world that the Young Lords were here to start a revolution. Over the next few years, the Lords became a household name in more than a dozen Northeastern and Midwestern cities, with our militant and often theatrical protests against inadequate city services, our free breakfast and free clothing programs, and our occupations of churches and hospitals that were aimed at spurring reforms by local officials. Along the way, we taught ourselves Puerto Rican history and politics, sparked a cultural renaissance among a generation of Latinos, changed our ways of relating to each other-including launching one of the earliest lesbian and gay caucuses among people of color-and controlled our own narrative through our newspaper, Palante, and our own local radio show. And we somehow managed to receive more favorable news coverage in the mainstream media than virtually any other radical group of that era.

Abstract, The Politics of Strolling

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The Politics of Strolling

by Pedro Erber

The large gatherings of youths from impoverished urban peripheries in the shopping malls of São Paulo and Rio, known as rolezinhos (little strolls), in the first two months of 2014 and their disputed relation to the wave of political protests in Brazilian cities since June 2013 became the topic of heated debates among intellectuals and journalists in Brazil. Historical parallels ranging from nineteenth-century Paris to colonial Korea help situate the rolezinho phenomenon in a transnational history of urban strolling and to problematize its ambiguous politicality between ostentatious consumerism and revolutionary practice.

Exclusive, The Right to Protest: Women Retake the Streets in El Progreso, Yoro, Honduras

By Suyapa Portillo, Pitzer College

@SuyapaPV

Women and Jesuit Clergy, among them Father Melo of Radio Progreso, take over the road near Quebrada Seca bridge after a meaningful mass that called for an end to militarization and violence. Photo taken by: Suyapa Portillo

Women took over the road for a peaceful march in Quebrada Seca, El Progreso, Yoro, on November 25, 2018, National Day of the Honduran Woman. On this same road, just a day before, protesters experienced heavy repression.  People have been here almost daily protesting the fraudulent elections of November 26, 2017. They have been met with disproportionate force and violence from riot squads of the National Police, Military Police of Public Order and the Armed Forces, who have harmed, threatened, and shot real bullets at innocent people. One young man was taken out of his house without proper warrant and falsely accused of burning a police station and taking police gear. Unable to find the actual perpetrators of the alleged crime, police have framed him. Contrary to the fabricated story of the police, this young man’s only activity was his participation in peaceful street protests in opposition to electoral fraud. Another young woman was picked up at a protest by an unmarked civilian car. She was beaten, insulted and then thrown out of the car in the street down the road. Other protesters have been followed by National Police and Military Police agents after the demonstrations to their homes, beaten, and told they would be killed, as happened to the son and brother in law of former LIBRE congressperson Bartolo Fuentes on November 26, 2018. These intimidation tactics are infringing on local Progreseños right to peacefully protest the imposition on them of a repressive authoritarian government, which is starting to look more and more like a nascent dictatorship.

 

"Pare 1 minuto y proteste es su derecho Fuera JOH" Quebrada Seca, El Progreso, Yoro

Photo taken by: Suyapa Portillo

Since the elections of November 26, 2017, there has been no peace in Honduras.  The unrest is not that of hopeful, peaceful protesters who bring banners, flags and creative chants calling for the resignation of the fraudulent president, Juan Orlando Hernandez, but rather the violence of the Military Police and Armed forces who shoot to kill, invade homes and shoot tear gas canisters often affecting children and the elderly. Far from a true democracy, the government regime has sought to repress civilians’ right to peaceful protest, a protected value alongside freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

Quebrada Seca was heavily militarized on January 20, the first day of the Paro Nacional (National Stoppage) to oppose the illegitimate president’s swearing in ceremony, a national strike called by those who oppose the dictatorship—the Alliance Against the Dictatorship.  The exaggerated levels militarization that day dwarfed contingents of protesters and local citizens in El Progreso and the nearby Valley of Sula.  In this context, the taking of Quebrada Seca by young and elderly women on Honduran Women’s Day has special significance.

Women have had to fight for any political and labor rights they have in Honduras, including the right to vote. This is why many are unhappy their vote was stolen by Juan Orlando Hernandez. They are confident in their claims, even if ample proof of vote rigging and Nationalist Party intimidation tactics, doctoring of voting documents, and plain force and repression have not convinced the US State Department, nor the Organization of American States, to invoke the Inter-American Democratic Charter, demand due process in Honduras, call for annulment of the elections and a new electoral process, with full civil society participation as well as international observers.

 

Resident of Quebrada Seca shows International Observers real bullet casings shot at them the night before during protest. Photo by: Suyapa Portillo

November 25, 2018 marked 63 years since women in Honduras gained suffrage. Though they won the right to vote in 1955, they did not vote until the election of 1957, when President Ramon Villeda Morales was elected, the first Liberal President since the dictatorship of Carías Andino, and his hand-picked successors.  Since 1955, women in Honduras has been important social actors in every ambit of society, yet Honduras remains one of the most violent countries to be a woman.  The feminicide rate soars as does impunity, where apparently most of these cases remain in file cabinets. Now, with the current electoral coup (as many local women call the illegal re-election of Juan Orlando Hernandez), many Feminist groups consider their situation dire. Women are employed mostly in the informal economy, including maquiladoras, which are non-union and enforce no-pregnancy and negative HIV test to hire workers.

 

Military Police for Public Order, National Police and DPI Investigators stationed on both sides of street during peaceful protest. Photo by: Suyapa Portillo

Locals ascertain that they were not physically harmed on that day only because of the solidarity of international observers, a delegation of 50 North American clergy members, Jesuit priests, pastors, ministers and affinity groups accompanying local Jesuit Radio Progreso. On January 27, 2018, the inauguration of Juan Orlando Hernandez, took place with no international dignitaries present. Even more noteworthy, 5 rings of security, including National Police, Military Police and the Armed Forces, created a fortress around Juan Orlando Hernandez in the National Stadium, where he was installed as president of the people he was keeping at bay.  The event was underwhelming and overshadowed by protesters courageously taking the streets to express their discontent in the face of vicious military response against unarmed citizens.  While National TV and Radio stations were forced to play the ceremony live, over 80% of the population throughout the country protested, took over streets, and made their voice heard using creative protests tactics chants and posters that in invalidated the inauguration. Honduras’ future remains in the balance as the various social movements align in one concrete demand: #FueraJoh.

Abstract, Social Movements in Chile (1983–2013): Four Theoretical and Historical Moments

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Social Movements in Chile (1983–2013): Four Theoretical and Historical Moments
by Mónica Iglesias Vázquez         


During the 1980s, the study of social movements became a central element of Chilean social thought. In the context of the struggle against the dictatorship, the forms of organization and protest deployed by the popular sectors attracted the attention of academics and politicians in an attempt to determine their nature and democratizing potential. Hegemonic sociology concluded that social movements did not exist in Chile and that social mobilizations had to be subordinate to the strategy of political parties, thereby bestowing a “scientific” status on the social-political divide. In the 1990s, with the end of the dictatorship, those sociologists abandoned the study of social movements. Only social history persisted in the understanding of the formation of popular subjectivities, contributing tools for characterizing the popular realm and the most recent outbreaks of protest and mobilization.

Political Report # 1262 Time for the International Left to Take a Stand on Venezuela

By Gregory Wilpert,  teleSUR

Venezuela is heading towards an increasingly dangerous situation, in which open civil war could become a real possibility. So far over 100 people have been killed as a result of street protests, most of these deaths are the fault of the protesters themselves (to the extent that we know the cause). The possibility of civil war becomes more likely as long as the international media obscure who is responsible for the violence and the international left remains on the sidelines in this conflict and fails to show solidarity with the Bolivarian socialist movement in Venezuela. If the international left receives its news about Venezuela primarily from the international media, it is understandable why it is being so quiet. After all, this mainstream media consistently fails to report who is instigating the violence in this conflict. For example, a follower of CNN or the New York Times would not know that of the 103 who have been killed as a result of street protests, 27 were the direct or indirect result of the protesters themselves. Another 14 were the result of lootings; in one prominent case, because looters set fire to a store and ended up getting engulfed in the flames themselves. Fourteen deaths are attributable to the actions of state authorities (where in almost all cases those responsible have been charged), and 44 are still under investigation or in dispute. This is according to data from the office of the Attorney General, which itself has recently become pro-opposition. Also unknown to most consumers of the international media would be that opposition protesters detonated a bomb in the heart of Caracas on July 11, wounding seven National Guard soldiers or that a building belonging to the Supreme Court was burnt by opposition protesters on June 12th or that opposition protesters attacked a maternity hospital on May 17.

María Inclán and Paul Almeida: Surveying Demonstrations in Mexico

María Inclán and Paul Almeida: Surveying Demonstrations in Mexico Protest crowd assembled in the main square of Mexico City (photo by María Inclán)

Dr. María Inclán, from the Department of Political Studies at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) in Mexico City, and Dr. Paul Almeida, from the Department of Sociology at UC Merced, were awarded a 2011 UC MEXUS-CONACYT Collaborative Grant to launch the pilot project, “Surveying Demonstrations in México,” for which they interviewed protest participants and non-participants. The research integrates into a larger international project, “Caught in the Act of Protest: Contextualizing Contestation” (www.protestsurvey.eu), that seeks to create an inter-university network of research teams interested in collective action and protest surveying. So far nine countries have joined the project officially, and Almeida has undertaken protest surveys in three Central American countries and is in the process of conducting them in Argentina and Chile. With the support of the UC MEXUS-CONACYT collaborative grant, the team of Inclán and Almeida successfully conducted four different protest surveys in Mexico City: the annual rally and march commemorating the 1968 students’ massacre in Tlatelolco, a May Day rally, a LGBT Pride Parade, and one of the marches organized by the #YoSoy132 movement during the Mexico 2012 presidential electoral campaign. The collaborative grant enabled Almeida to gain additional funding from the UC Pacific Rim Program to collect protest survey data in Honduras, El Salvador, and Costa Rica and Inclán to receive support from CIDE’s Fondo de Apoyo a la Investigación (FAI) for four more protest surveys in Mexico City during 2012 and 2013. In 2015, Inclán also organized a two-day conference at CIDE with representation from each of the country research teams with the goal of producing an edited volume, currently in the making. For additional information and publication references, please consult Dr. Inclán's or Dr. Almeida's web pages or their collaborative grant page. El Equipo: the project’s research team (photo by Paul Almeida) Original article and sources can be found here: http://www.ucmexus.ucr.edu/spotlight/inclan_almeida.html

Political Report #1219 Mexican Environmental Protest: What Does It Mean to Defend Territory in a Repressive Context?

Political Report # 1219 Mexican Environmental Protest: What Does It Mean to Defend Territory in a Repressive Context? By Alice Poma and Tommaso Gravante, openDemocracy

Mexico is going through a violent and repressive period not only because of the well-known assassination of six people and the disappearance of forty-three students at the rural school of Ayotzinapa in the state of Guerrero in September 2014, but also due to regular attacks on activists, journalists, women and citizens.

Political Report # 1080 Brazil's New Anti-Terrorism Bill Criminalizes Social Protest By Renata Bessi, Santiago Navarro F., American Program

Photos by Santiago Navarro F.                                    By Renata Bessi, Santiago Navarro F.,                                     American Program

The government of Brazil is on a determined path to place the country among the list of nations that have restructured their legal framework as it pertains to antiterrorism statutes, even though Brazil has never experienced an actual terrorist attack. On August 13, the chamber of deputies approved an anti-terrorism bill submitted by president Dilma Rousseff without any debate. Under this law, arson and sabotage of transportation or of any public property, such as computer systems or communications media operations, are considered acts of terrorism, punishable by up to thirty years in prison.