Americas

Growing up in the remote mountains along Nicaragua’s border with Honduras, it was Neyrin Rivera’s job to mind the cows. When one wandered off, he knew he had to fetch it, or else face a hiding when he returned to the one-room, mud-brick shack he called home. But he didn’t know that he was following the errant cow into a minefield.

When the ground exploded beneath him, the seven-year-old had no idea what had happened. His leg had become a pulsating stump of blood, torn flesh, and protruding bone. “I didn’t know anything about mines, even what a mine was,” says Neyrin, now 11 and an old hand at riding a bicycle and playing football with the plastic prosthesis that replaced his right leg below the knee. read more

Since President Ronald Reagan launched the modern War on Drugs 20 years ago, the US has spent billions in a largely unsuccessful attempt to put some of the world’s biggest criminal organizations out of business, while imprisoning thousands on drug-related offenses. Yet, cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and other illegal drugs still enter the US freely.

Can anything be done to change the course of this war? Yes, there are alternatives that can ameliorate the effects of illegal drugs Ñ if the country chooses realistic objectives and seeks to achieve them by practical means. Let’s consider 10 strategies. read more

Despite being the smallest segment of the population, Native Americans have the second largest state prison incarceration rate in the nation, according to a recent review of prison statistics. The review, conducted by the Foundation for National Progress, an umbrella organization for the magazine Mother Jones, found that 709 per 100,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives were incarcerated in state prisons in 2000. The rate was surpassed only by African-Americans, whose jail rate was a startling 1815 per 100,000. read more

Since Sept. 11, deep concerns have arisen about the threats to civil liberties and basic rights posed by the US government’s anti-terrorist campaign. Among other things, Uncle Sam has profiled the Muslim-American community, eavesdropped on conversations between people held in detention and their lawyers, and required colleges to provide certain records on foreign students.

Less publicized has been the federal government’s bold move to drastically restrict the right to know what officials are doing. But this is also part of a trend involving several other Western countries, not coincidentally some of US’s closet allies in the “war on terrorism.” read more

On February 24 – Mexico’s Flag Day – twenty-three leaders of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) and the famed Subcomandante Marcos prepared to depart the highland colonial town of San Cristobal in Chiapas on an historic caravan to the capital. Called the March for Indigenous Dignity, the caravan captured the imagination of every sector of Mexican society, from illiterate peasants to national politicians, and occupied the front page of nearly every major Mexican newspaper and many international papers throughout the month-long journey. The attention continued during the additional two weeks the Zapatista delegation spent in the city, while negotiating to speak in front of the national Congress. read more

In Colombia’s northeast Norte de Santander province, the country’s richest oil region, an indigenous people known as the U’wa are in a life and death struggle with Occidental Petroleum (OXY), one of the world’s largest multinational oil companies. It’s been going on since the early 1990s, when OXY began oil exploration plans that threaten to destroy the tribe’s culture and way of life. The U’wa oppose oil drilling in their ancestral lands, saying that oil is “the blood of Mother Earth” and therefore must not be touched. read more