NETPICKS: UNDERSTANDING LATIN AMERICA

April 2019

Selected food for thought about Latin America. That’s what we intend to offer you here every month. We are trawling the web for a selection of texts we think are particularly worth reading: in-depth analysis, research summaries and opinions you might not find in the mainstream media news.

Take a look at our picks of the month:

 

VENEZUELA’S DEADLY BLACKOUT HIGHLIGHTS THE NEED FOR A NEGOTIATED RESOLUTION OF THE CRISIS

The blackouts that have recently plagued Venezuela offer us a glimpse of the suffering foreign military intervention would bring to a population already afflicted by shortages and violence: destruction of infrastructure, thousands of deaths, and lasting social and psychological trauma. There is no simple solution to the country’s internal contradictions and violent social divisions, but one thing is clear: the possibility of a direct or indirect US military intervention must be avoided. The devastating US sanctions and destabilization campaign that has inflicted so much damage on the population must also cease, as must the repression and siege mentality used by a corrupt Maduro government to maintain its hold on power. Only a peaceful, broad-based, process of change, led by Venezuelans themselves, can solve the problem and bring back peace and security for all.  

https://www.thenation.com/article/venezuela-blackout-us-sanctions-maduro/ (Gabriel Hetland, The Nation, March 13, 2019) 

 

‘THE STRUGGLE IS PERMANENT’: AN INTERVIEW WITH PERUVIAN ACTIVIST HUGO BLANCO

Hugo Blanco is committed to revolutionary struggle. Now 84, he was a student leader and joined the Trotskyist Revolutionary Workers Party at the age of 24. Sentenced to 25 years in prison in 1961, he was deported to Chile in 1971 after a major international campaign to free him. During the 1973 military coup against Salvador Allende the Swedish embassy helped him to leave the country, and in 1978 he returned to Peru to stand as the Workers Revolutionary Party candidate in the 1980 presidential elections. Blanco was elected to the Peruvian senate, where he remained until going into exile in 1992, this time in Mexico, where he still lives. A newly published biography, Hugo Blanco: A Revolutionary Life by Derek Wall, profiles a fascinating life dedicated to resistance to capitalism and environmental destruction. 

https://alborada.net/hugo-blanco-interview-revolutionary-struggle-indigenous/ (Nick MacWilliam, Alborada.net, 5 March 2019)

 

FACING WRONGFUL DETENTION AND THREATS, AFRO-COLOMBIAN WOMEN CALL FOR JUSTICE

The suffering of Afro Colombian populations during the country’s internal conflict has received scant attention, even within Colombia itself.  It was hardly a surprise, then, that these communities were extremely supportive of the Peace Process with the FARC: women from those communities even managed to insert a chapter in the Accords on the protection of and promotion of Afro-descendant and Indigenous rights, including gender rights. The arrival on the scene of Ivan Duque, elected president in 2108 on an anti Peace Accord platform, is consequently extremely worrying for Afro Colombian women. Two community leaders from the Pacific province of Tumaco, an area still affected by extreme violence, are being held on charges of being associated with the ELN (National Liberation Army), the last of Colombia’s armed guerrilla groups. For Afro womens’ leaders the charges are trumped up, simply another example of the suppression of human rights workers.  According to one estimate, more than 550 human rights defenders have been killed in Colombia since the start of 2016, and Black and Indigenous communities have been disproportionately impacted by violence of all kinds. The question now is how stop the abuse in the hostile climate of the Duque government and its allies.

https://truthout.org/articles/facing-wrongful-detention-and-threats-afro-colombian-women-call-for-justice/ (Maureen Drennan, Truthout, 17 March 2019) 

 

TAKING STOCK: A HUNDRED YEARS AFTER WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE IN LATIN AMERICA

Looking back from the reality of 2019, in which women are increasingly represented in parliaments and many other areas of Latin American social and political life, it seems implausible that women’s suffrage was actually blocked in Mexico in 1939, and only finally recognized in 1955; Ecuador was the first to recognized womens’ right to vote in 1929. But not for all.  Many prominent women’s rights activists in Latin America came from middle or upper class families, and while recognizing the need to trace their own path and challenge U.S. imperialism, they were often influenced by ideas of class and race superiority. Today, while women in the region still suffer from and fight against violence and subjugation, as well other types of inequality, it is widely recognized that black, and indigenous women suffer disproportionately greater discrimination. The need for inclusion and unity in the fight against discrimination and violence is now consequently recognized as a priority.

https://nacla.org/news/2019/03/27/taking-stock-hundred-years-after-women%E2%80%99s-suffrage-latin-america (Linda Grimmel, NACLA, 27 March 2019) 

 

BRAZIL: FINDING MARIELLE FRANCO’S KILLERS

On the 14th of March 2018, Marielle Franco, the black, favela-born, bisexual city councilor for the Radical Left Party of Socialism and Liberty (PSOL) was murdered, together with her driver Anderson Gomes. But one year later, while police have arrested two men allegedly involved in the crime, the investigation keeps coming up against the most powerful people in Brazil—such as President Jair Bolsonaro. Some have claimed that people close to Bolsonaro are connected to the murders, but there is no clear evidence, only coincidences that may or may not have a bearing on the case. However, the assassination of Franco has opened up a debate about what to up until now has been an open secret: that the political class in Rio di Janeiro, including Bolsonaro’s people, to say nothing of the entire country, is in league with Brazil’s deadly militias: making sure of votes by intimidation, use of illegal campaign funds, and the elimination of rival politicians. The recent celebration official of  Brazil’s 1964 military coup, and the attendant attacks on left wing militants, together with recent threats against PSOL politicians Marcelo Freixo and congressman Jean Wyllys, (who has left the country) show that socialist politicians are once again becoming the target of right wing violence. 

https://jacobinmag.com/2019/03/marielle-franco-assassination-conspiracy-bolsonaro (Stephanie Reist, Jacobin Magazine, 28 March 2019)