Now that much of Latin America has shifted to the left, Paraguay remains a key Washington ally. The country's political landscape continues to be dominated by the Colorado Party, which has been in power for 61 years. Yet as the panorama of candidates for the April presidential election makes clear, a new right-wing faction is emerging within the party, pledging to cut the umbilical cord with the past.Blanca Ovelar
From Art Spiegelman's Maus to Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, the graphic form has proved a powerful narrative tool. Combining memoir and social commentary in a visually appealing package, such illustrated stories blur the boundaries of art and history, reality and fantasy. It should be no surprise, then, that social movements-those rare hybrids of reality and fantasy-are finding themselves increasingly illustrated. Walter Benjamin's argument that radicalism politicizes art seems more relevant now than ever.
The recent fighting in Ndjamena, Chad on February 2-6 between an alliance of insurgencies and the army of President Idriss Déby Itno has highlighted the transnational politics of Sudan, Chad, and the Central African Republic. Europeans and Americans living in Ndjamena were flown out by French Army planes, mostly to Libreville, Gabon where France has a military airbase. Many ordinary Chadians, an estimated 20,000, walked or drove across the two bridges which span the river Chari into northern Cameroon.Refugee Camp in Chad, Photo by Mark Knobil
A thick fence, surveillance cameras, and armed guards protect the U.S. Embassy in La Paz. The embassy is a tall, white building with narrow slits of windows that make it look like a military bunker. After passing through a security checkpoint, I sit down with U.S. Embassy spokesman Eric Watnik and ask if the embassy is working against the socialist government of Evo Morales. "Our cooperation in Bolivia is apolitical, transparent, and given directly to assist in the development of the country," Watnik tells me. "It is given to benefit those who need it most." From the Bush Administration's perspective, that turns out to mean Morales's opponents. US Embassy in La Paz
As the US military establishes more bases across Africa, the US government continues to seek a home for AFRICOM, the future center of US military power on the continent. Meanwhile, multi-national corporations continue to plunder Africa's natural resources, and play troubling roles in the region's conflicts.
Outside the Bishop's residence about a hundred Tamil women are crying and wailing, many of them clutching copies of death certificates or missing person's reports to their chests. Crumpled up in their fists are photocopies of ID cards belonging to their husbands, their sons, their fathers-all murdered, abducted, or officially classified in a log somewhere as 'missing.' These women have all come here with the same intention: to try and gain an audience with the visiting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, to tell their story and to plead for justice. In Jaffna, when someone disappears, they unfortunately have a way of never turning up again. Making the atrocities known is often the only solace these women can have.Wife with late husband's photo
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019