Bolivia Protests

Bolivia’s Trial By Fire

After winning a landslide election victory on December 18th, Bolivian president-elect Evo Morales announced plans to nationalize the country's gas reserves, rewrite the constitution in a popular assembly, redistribute land to poor farmers and change the rules of the U.S.-led war on drugs in Bolivia. If he follows through on such promises, he'll face enormous pressure from the Bush administration, corporations and international lenders. If he chooses a more moderate path, Bolivia's social movements are likely to organize the type of protests and strikes that have ousted two presidents in two years. In the gas-rich Santa Cruz region, business elites are working toward seceding from the country to privatize the gas reserves. Meanwhile, U.S. troops stationed in neighboring Paraguay may be poised to intervene if the Andean country sways too far from Washington's interests. For Bolivian social movements and the government, 2006 will be a trial by fire.

Oil Spill in Ecuador

Ecuador: Toxic Theater by Texaco

Oil Spill in Ecuador
According to offical statistics from the Ministry of Energy in Ecuador, there is an average of one oil leak every five days in the country. Such statistics only hint at the actual daily damage on the ground, not to mention subsoil, due to rampant oil exploitation. Cell phones in this area include a computer game with the aim to build oil pipelines to prevent oil spill. This game is symbolic of the normalization of oil exploitation in this region, which is the goal of Chevron's propaganda defense in the case filed against them by 30,000 Ecuadorians who claim that the company's oil operations led to massive environmental destruction and widespread health problems.

Thomas Naylor

Vermont: Most Likely to Secede

Naylor
Thomas Naylor moved to Vermont in 1993 after almost 30 years' teaching economics at Duke University. He helped form the Second Vermont Republic, an organization dedicated to the peaceful dissolution of the country, starting with the secession of Vermont.

Benjamin Dangl: What is the Second Vermont Republic?

Thomas Naylor: The Second Vermont Republic is a peaceful, democratic, grassroots, libertarian populist movement opposed to the tyranny of the U.S. Government, corporate America, and globalization and committed to the return of Vermont to its rightful status as an independent republic, as it was between 1777 and 1791.

No Picture

Israel likes March for Iran strikes

TEL AVIV/WASHINGTON – March is shaping up as “go time” for Israel. With a general election looming on March 28, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is eager to look strong, and has ordered the armed forces to be ready that month for possible strikes on secret uranium enrichment sites in Iran, military sources have told the UK Times.

"Israel – and not only Israel – cannot accept a nuclear Iran," Sharon proclaimed recently. "We have the ability to deal with this and we’re making all the necessary preparations to be ready for such a situation." read more

No Picture

Protesters get FBI terrorism treatment

COLORADO SPRINGS – Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) confirm what many activists and civil libertarians have been claiming for several years – that the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF) collect information on nonviolent protest activities and consider them part of domestic terrorism investigations.

The documents, discovered due to a request by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Colorado, show that the names and license plate numbers of about 30 people who protested in Colorado Springs during 2003 and 2003 were put into FBI domestic terrorism files. read more