Americas

"Nos tienen miedo porque no tenemos miedo." ("They are afraid of us because we are not afraid of them.")  This slogan was chanted by the thousands of demonstrators who defied the illegitimate de facto government imposed by the Honduran military in the protests that erupted throughout the country immediately after the after the coup of June 28, 2009.  On a recent human rights delegation to Honduras, I was introduced to the role that fear plays in the political life of the country, and to the importance of the fact that so many people are ready to defy that fear. 

On a pleasant autumn day in 1890 the Cuauhtémoc brewery was founded in Monterrey, Mexico. This brewery, which also specialized in ice production, went on to become Mexican Economic Development Inc. (FEMSA), brewing such beers as Dos Equis, Tecate and Sol. Recently the Dutch brewing giant Heineken bought FEMSA, bringing over half of the world's beer production into the hands of just four mega-corporations. One Mexican columnist wrote of the merger in La Jornada, "Just a bit more globalization and we will all be lost."

Jan. 21, 2010, will go down as a dark day in the history of U.S. democracy, and its decline. On that day the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government may not ban corporations from political spending on elections-a decision that profoundly affects government policy, both domestic and international.