Political Report # 1233 Ecuadoreans' Legal Fight Against Chevron Continues in Canada

By Joe Emersberger, TeleSur

In 1993, US lawyer Steven Donziger and others filed a lawsuit in New York against Texaco on behalf of Indigenous nationalities and campesino communities in Ecuador's Amazon whose land and water had been thoroughly contaminated over a 26-year period. From 1964-1990, Texaco ran all drilling, waste disposal, and pipeline operations in the region and admitted it had dumped 16 billion gallons of oil waste into rivers and streams relied on by local inhabitants for their drinking water, bathing, and fishing. The damage has been called the "Amazon Chernobyl" by locals and is considered by some experts to be the worst oil-related environmental disaster on the planet and credibly linked to unusually high cancer rates in the area. Texaco spent almost 10 years fighting to get the lawsuit moved to Ecuador's courts, which it praised in numerous sworn affidavits. In 2001, Chevron (which had just merged with Texaco) won that battle and agreed to abide by any judgment issued in Ecuador, subject only to narrow enforcement defenses.

Political Report # 1159 International Financial Capital Targets Farmland in Brazil

Indigenous from various parts of Brazil watch the hoisting of a flag with an image of Indian leader Arnaldo Kaba of the village Mundurukoe, during a demonstration to defend the territorial rights of the Indigenous population against the government, agribusiness and large mining and energy companies. | Photo: Reuters by Maria Luisa Mendonça, TeleSur

Historically, Indigenous and peasant communities in Brazil have resisted against violence and displacement. Land concentration is a root cause of social and economic inequality, in a country where 1 percent of large landowners control over 90 percent of agricultural land. In the past 12 years, 390 Guarani Kaiowa Indigenous people were assassinated in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, where agribusiness corporations and local large landowners have expanded monocropping of commodities. The BAMAPITO region, which combines the states of Bahia, Maranhão, Piauí and Tocantins, has also become a target for land speculation and the expansion of agribusiness. This savanna area, rich in biodiversity, has been the home of traditional peasant communities for hundreds of years. Recently, this so called "last agricultural frontier" is at risk of destruction by a wave of land speculation, deforestation and pollution of water sources. Land market speculation consists of the same logic as the stock market, by the "secret" purchase of "cheap" land and its negotiation at higher prices.

Political Report #1100, 7,000 Honduran Child Migrants Deported From US and Mexico By TeleSur

Children join a protest to call on Obama to protect undocumented children. (photo: AFP) Political Report #1100 7,000 Honduran Child Migrants Deported From US and Mexico By TeleSur

Mexico's role in deporting Central American migrants has been rapidly expanding. Immigration authorities in the U.S. and Mexico deported a total of 6,986 underage Honduran migrants in the first 11 months of this year, as the number of unaccompanied minors apprehended on the U.S.-Mexico border continues to soar.

Political Report # 1050 Honduran Democracy Still in Crisis 6 Years After Coup By teleSUR

Honduran women protest violence and human rights abuses. (photo: Reuters)

Six years ago Sunday, a U.S.-backed military coup ousted democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya, flying him to exile in Costa Rica in the early hours of the morning on June 28. Zelaya had planned to hold a non-binding poll on whether to hold a referendum in the upcoming election on convening a constituent assembly to rewrite the Honduran constitution. Zelaya, of the Liberal Party, showed a progressive turn during his presidency by raising the minimum wage, negotiating land deals with campesino movements, and joining the Venezuelan-led regional energy alternative ALBA, in addition to opening the conversation on a constituent assembly. Coup-backers accused Zelaya of attempting to manipulate the Honduran constitution to extend his presidency, which was limited to one term in Honduras before the recent Supreme Court ruling to change the wording in the constitution. The non-binding poll under Zelaya would not have changed the fact that he could not run for re-election in the November 2013 general election. The coup against Zelaya was widely condemned by governments across Latin America, the European Union, the Organization of American States and other regional blocs.