By Ollantay Itzamná - Znet

President Otto Perez Molina...decreed, this past May 1, the second state of siege of his term in office. This time, it was to repress indigenous people, the Xinca, in the municipalities of Jalapa and Mataquescuintal...and in Casillas and San Rafael Las Flores...and to protect the “investments” of the Canadian mining company Tahoe Resources (the San Rafael mine).

By Greg Grandin - February 19, 2013

It seems that, between 9/11 and the day George W. Bush left the White House, CIA-brokered torture never saw a sunset...All told, of the 190-odd countries on this planet, a staggering 54 participated in various ways in this American torture system...No region escapes the stain. Not North America...Not Europe, the Middle East, Africa, or Asia. Not even social-democratic Scandinavia...No region, that is, except Latin America.

By Brayan Brenes - Tuesday, November 20, 2012

On Thursday, November 15, we, more than 20,000 young people, marched through the streets of San José to condemn the police repression of November 8, as well as demanding the resignation of Security Minister Mario Zamora and Chief of Police Raúl Rivera, for being the main culprits on a day in defense of social security … that ended with more than 30 comrades arrested and dozens of people beaten up.

Obama orchestrates coups in Central and South America.

By Noam Chomsky - Znet

Though sidelined by the Secret Service scandal, last month’s Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, was an event of considerable significance. There are three major reasons: Cuba, the drug war and the isolation of the United States...The meetings ended with no agreement because of U.S. opposition on those items...Continued U.S. obstructionism may well lead to the displacement of the Organization of American States by the newly-formed Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, from which the United States and Canada are excluded.

April 20, 2012 - Media Co-op

At the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, Harper spoke to CEOs from across the Americas and unveiled Canada’s plans to expand into Latin America with vigor...Canadian mining companies already have a significant presence in the region, with two-thirds of all mining projects in the Americas...What he neglected to mention was that many communities in the region don’t share his vision of development and that Latin America is rife with resistance against Canada’s extractive industry.

By Bill Van Auken - 17 April 2012

For Obama, the two-day summit was an unmitigated fiasco, with the positions of his government opposed by every other participating nation outside of Canada, and news reports of the gathering in the United States overshadowed by a prostitution scandal at a Cartagena hotel involving 11 members of the US president’s Secret Service detail and five American military personnel.

By Nikolas Kozloff - 13 April 2012

Unhappy with the Obama administration's failed war on drugs, which has led to widespread violence and endemic corruption, some Latin American leaders are bluntly calling for the decriminalization of narcotics...Facing dwindling support for the drug war, Obama recently dispatched Joe Biden to Mexico and Central America. There, the vice-president restated tired US opposition to drug decriminalization and promised that the Obama administration would ask Congress for additional funding toward a Central American Regional Security Initiative.

By Bill Van Auken - 29 February 2012

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano signaled this week that Washington is prepared to utilize the same bloody counter-insurgency methods in Mexico and Central America that it has employed in the so-called “war on terror”...Napolitano is conducting a...five-nation tour through Mexico and Central America with the key purpose of pushing for an escalation of the so-called “war on drugs” — through which Washington seeks to defend its hegemony in the region and tighten links between the Pentagon and local security forces.

CELAC comprises 33 regional countries. America and Canada are excluded. In July 2010, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Chile's Sebastian Pinera were chosen co-chairs to help draft organizational statutes.

Toban Black on the Media Co-op

This audio recording captures some of what members of an arts and storytelling group called the Beehive Design Collective had to say about their work, during one of their events in London, Ontario. Reactions and thoughts from a few locals who attended that Beehive workshop also are part of the recording.

By Toban Black

No human rights standards and no environmental standards are mentioned in [Toronto Stock Exchange] documents. The only stock listing requirements for companies are a matter of accountability to investors -- not communities, and not natural environments. But can we really expect much better from a multinational capitalist stock market? I don't think so.

By Eva Golinger - November 20, 2010

Members of the extreme Latin American right-wing, many of whom have participated in coups d’etat and acts of destabilization and terrorism, held a meeting last Wednesday in Washington with high-level representatives of the US Congress. The event is evidence of an escalation in US aggression toward the region.

By VICENTE NAVARRO - Counterpunch

Since Mario Vargas Llosa was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature, we have seen his beatification in the conservative-liberal media, presenting him as a fighter for human rights worldwide and especially in Latin America. In one press report after another, he is hailed as the great defender of human rights and freedom. But Mario Vargas Llosa’s commitment to human rights is extremely selective.

As long as we continue to prop up the very system of capitalism, whether it be through corporate conceived sustainable economic development projects, or economic bailouts, we will never truly address the root causes of poverty.