South America

Mired in poverty and with few land rights, indigenous groups saw little to celebrate on the bicentennial of the nation’s independence from Spain on May 14. Representatives of indigenous organizations headed to the capital, Asunción, to demand the government take immediate action to stem the severe problems afflicting Paraguay’s 20 native peoples.

Many are those who throughout history have not found a way out the conflicts imposed by the conditions of social injustice, and have resorted to self-immolation as a form of denunciation and struggle. With their own suicide they seek to awaken in others a sense of solidarity with the powerless, to open the way for the collective modification of the conditions of oppression

There have been many expressions of non-violent protest by students which have spread via social networks. The educational crisis has manifested in several institutions which are on strike. Activities are expanding the debate on an issue which is one more symptom of a violent and inhuman system heading for total breakdown, with a crisis that is growing stronger every day.

Reporters Without Borders welcomes the withdrawal of charges against photographer Marcela Rodríguez, a contributor to the Mapuexpress website (http://www.mapuexpress.net/), when she appeared before a court in the southern city of Temuco on 22 June. The public prosecutor decided it was not in the public interest to prosecute her.

Ednaldo Figueira, a blogger, politician and owner of the local newspaper O Serrano, was gunned down on 15 June in Serra do Mel, a town in the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte. He headed the Serra do Mel branch of the Workers Party (PT), the party of President Dilma Rousseff and her predecessor, Lula da Silva, and posted regularly on the Serra do Mel blog.

On Monday night Ireland suffered the most violent incidents in a decade between Protestants and Catholics, who clashed in the city of Belfast some even firing guns, according to Irish police. In the images broadcast by television there were hundreds of youths throwing stones and Molotov cocktails in the Short Strand area.

The elected President of Peru, Ollanta Humala, arrived Sunday in Uruguay as part of his tour to strengthen the economic and political ties with South American countries.

The official agenda will begin on Monday when the president, José Mujica, receives Humala at the seat of government, confirmed the presidential website.

Costa Rican production: The documentary URANIUM 238 – The Pentagon´s Dirty Pool, produced by Pablo Ortega, wins the prize for best short film category of the First International Uranium Film Festival which ended last Saturday night (28th of May 2011) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
URANIO 238 had also won an award as best documentary in Costa Rican Movie and Video Festival in 2009.

The privatisation of Chilean seed has become a scandal and paves the way for the arrival of genetically modified products. After the realisation that, as well as the North American company Monsanto, the patents for Chilean crops are in the hands of people linked to the government who will now benefit from the privatisation of seed, as in the case of Ena Von Baer’s father.

It was presented yesterday (on May 12th), at USP (University of São Paulo) at room 08 of the building of the Faculty of Philosophy, the field research “La conciencia inspirada en el chamanismo siberiano-mongol y el budismo tibetano en Buryatia y Mongolia”, by Hugo Novotny, independent researcher of Park of Studies and Reflection Carcana (Argentina).