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Behind the fire: Ben Dangl on struggles in Latin America

If the government-run water system is sufficient and affordable, people won't revolt. If farmers have access to land, if people see their mineral, oil and gas wealth used nationally, or going toward developments in healthcare, education and roads, there will be less conflict. If coca growers can expand their crops and produce in peace, without U.S.-funded military and police terrorizing them, then they won't protest as much. These advances are happening across the continent, with contradictions and problems, but heading in a positive direction.

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Chiquita in Colombia: Terrorism Gone Bananas?

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."

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Could this be the year the SOA is shut down?

This may be the year that the infamous SOA of the Americas (SOA), implicated in massacres and human rights violations throughout Latin America, is finally closed. The prospect of an impending vote in the U.S. Congress, combined with a steady movement of Latin American countries withdrawing their troops from the school, makes the shut down of the school very possible in 2007.