Americas

In this interview, author Ben Dangl speaks about the emerging social movements in South America and how they are threatening Washington's power in the region.

Many Guatemalans are rich in family and traditional culture. Yet under the soil lies something that's important to corporate interests. These corporations are willing to sweep aside all that is beautiful about Guatemala, to dig up the earth for a drop of oil or a piece of gold. 

There is a tradition of a large sector of the U.S. peace movement identifying with and being co-opted by what it perceives to be the most liberal and/or charismatic presidential candidate. As we saw in the first years of the Carter and Clinton presidencies, there is often a felt need to believe that with a Democratic president in office, there is little need to take a critical view or for mobilization.

What happens when "Business as Usual" clashes with the vocabulary of the "War on Terror"? We got a glimpse of one case this March when the Cincinnati-based Chiquita Brands International, Inc., paid a $25 million settlement to the United States Justice Department for paying off right-wing paramilitary groups in Colombia, groups which Washington classifies as "terrorist organizations."

Benjamin Dangl has written a detailed and first-hand study of popular social movement in Bolivia which emerged in response to economic and military violence.  "My aim is to make complicated issues more accessible and give a human face to the looting and struggles of a continent," he writes.