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‘Don’t let them take it’
On 28 May six men, some of them armed, arrived at a farm in the Bolívar province of Colombia, called Finca Alemania, asking for Julia Torres. A few days before, men dressed in black had been seen crossing the farm. In rural Colombia, such warning signs are taken very seriously. Julia’s husband, Rogelio Martinez, was…
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Genocide in Guatemala
In 1954, the elected, mildly progressive president of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz, was deposed in a coup orchestrated by the CIA. Arbenz planned modest land reforms that threatened the interests of the United Fruit Company. His successor reversed the reforms and put to the firing squad an estimated 8000 opponents. The coup launched 42 years of dictatorship…
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Chávez’s legacy of change
From Guardian Weekly letters, 22 March Your editorial and Tariq Ali’s piece on Hugo Chávez (15 March) had a fairness and balance. To understand Chávez’s significance, it is vital to be aware of the role the US has played in Latin America for well over a century, deposing or assassinating elected leaders and carrying out…
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Why they love Chávez
You would expect the New York Post to say Glad to see Hugo (get it?). Or Britain’s Daily Mail to label him a brutal despot (ignoring the fact that he won four elections). Toby Young in the Daily Telegraph, looking for the most obnoxious comparison possible, said he was the Latin American Kim Jong-il. More…
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A Bridge between Continents
Central America is one of the worlds connecting points. The land bridge that now exists through Panama (though one that even today is not open to vehicles) is – in geological terms – brand new. It was created only about five million years ago. Few such bridges currently exist (although many have been built and…
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The Landfill Harmonic
In the huge rubbish dump in the barrio of Cateura, on the south side of Asunción, Paraguayan youngsters who sort through the capital’s rubbish have found the means to make music. The orchestra known locally as Melodias de la Basura or Los Reciclados, and in English as the Landfill Harmonic, was started in 2006 by…