Working Together to Make the Streets of San Jose Cleaner: Interview with Julieta Chan
Costa Rica has always emphasized environmental standards, however in the capital city of San Jose, this respect for the environment is hard to find. However, Fabrice Gernigon found one Costa Rican woman who didn’t wait for new Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla to initiate cleaner policies for San Jose.
Ecuador and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Ecuador has long championed the struggle against colonialism and criticized exploitative neoliberal policies in Latin America, however, the government’s continued support of resource extraction on Indigenous lands have led them to repress legitimate protest movements, and to violate key legal documents including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the country’s own constitution.
A Victory for Democracy: Bolivia
The Bolivian President has promoted a true transition: A constitutional reform, which introduces elements of direct democracy and allows for the postulation of independent candidates in municipal elections, the systematic depolitization of public posts, the ratification of reasonable and realistic agreements (which reconstructs the confidence in negotiation), the rejection to the old practice of “buying” leaders, the revision and reformulation of the Hydrocarbon Law.
After all, do guns increase or decrease crime? Let’s see the data
Originally published by Carlos Goés at Instituto Mercado Popular. Translated by Pedro Henrique L. do Nascimento
Regional Water Congress, City of Guápiles, Costa Rica
Jorge Tortós Barquero reports on the main ideas, arguments, and visions shared and discussed in the recent Regional Water Congress held in the City of Guápiles, Costa Rica.
What is happening in Brazil?
Paulo Guerra sent us this commentary from the protests in Brazil.
Chatting about Peace
An interview conducted by Vicky Rossi with Ms Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Rector of the Universidad para la Paz, and Prof. Abelardo Brenes who is Head of the Peace Education Programme, University for Peace. The interview originally appeared on the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research website, and was conducted via e-mail.
Learning from the Past and Looking Towards the Future: The Situation of Child Soldiers in Colombia
In light of the current peace negotiations between the FARC and Colombian government there is the potential for thousands of children to be demobilized in the upcoming year(s). While this is promising, children have not been adequately included in the peace process so far. This is ominously reminiscent of the 2003 demobilization of the AUC, which led to only a few hundred of potentially thousands of children being formally demobilized, many of whom are believed to have been re-recruited by neo-paramilitary groups and organized criminal gangs. This paper will explore the current situation of children associated with illegal armed groups in Colombia, the challenges facing their reintegration, and the lessons learnt from the failure of the previous demobilization, all with a view towards improving the potential demobilization of child soldiers following a successful peace process between the FARC and Colombian government.
Europe’s second conquest of Latin America
With a view to promoting public discussion and debate about these agreements, we present here an analysis of the implications and scope of some of those that have already been signed. We also analyse the implications of some European Union documents, published over the last two years, that set out the EU’s strategy and intentions in the negotiations.
Violence and Poverty Entangled in El Salvador
In the first of a two-part series, researcher Paula LeRoy discusses several ways in which poverty and violence interact in El Salvador. Of particular emphasis in this analysis is the inadequate fulfilment of the 1992 Peace Accords. The companion article (forthcoming) will assess the viability of potential responses to the issues discussed here.