By Staff, MercoPress. Residents of the towns of Famatina and Chilecito, in Argentina, led a huge march that arrived on Thursday March 1, 2012, at their governor’s office in La Rioja – the provincial capital – to call for a halt to Canadian firm Osisko’s open-pit gold mining project.
Continue reading →By Rene Depestre. The Poet, The Final Degree of Exile, Consciences in Bloom: three offerings from the poetry collection In a State of Poetry (En Etat de Poesie, Les Editeurs Francais Reunis, Paris, 1980). (French, with English | French bio)
Continue reading →By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Authorities in the Dominican Republic repatriated over 15,000 Haitian nationals in 2011. Individual interviews by the Support Group for Repatriated and Refugees GARR uncovered a pattern of sudden removals, sometimes at night: practices that disregard a Memorandum of Agreement on Repatriation Mechanisms signed by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Continue reading →By Roger Clark, Arizona Republic. Environmentalists, Native Americans, and Arizonans welcomed a 20-year ban by the U.S. Interior Secretary on Jan 9th on new uranium claims on a million acres of public land around the Grand Canyon National Park because mining activities would have violated sacred sites, polluted the river and aquifer, created relatively few short-term jobs, and principally benefited foreign companies. The ban was challenged with a lawsuit on Monday Feb 27th by the National Mining Association.
Continue reading →By L. Joseph Olivier, HPN | English translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. “…the UN force will not be in Haiti forever, and so we look to our partners for a guarantee of public assistance for the design and formation of a new force.” – Haitian Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Lamothe during the announcement in Paris on Jan 24, 2012 that France had agreed to grant aid to Haiti for a new armed force.
Continue reading →Amos Cincir, Le Nouvelliste | Staff, HPN | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Over 2,000 Haitian children are adopted each year by foreigners, over 55 percent of them French. This is an activity fraught with scandal. The Haitian government has announced that it will resume international adoptions that had been frozen since the earthquake.
Continue reading →By Mario Osava, IPS. There are nearly 700 Haitians in Porto Velho, a Brazilian city of 436,000. The Santo Antonio hydroelectric plant has hired 100 Haitians to work in construction of a dam. Odebrecht has hired 42 Haitians to help build Teles Pires, another hydroelectric dam 800 km east of Porto Velho; 40 to work on a shipyard building submarines in Itaguaí near Rio de Janeiro, and 22 for a sugar plant in the central state of Goiás. (English | Spanish)
Continue reading →By Meredith McCarthy, Food & Water Watch. An international alliance coordinated by The World Bank and called The Global Partnership for Oceans proposes a global expansion of a program called “catch share” that allocates percentage quota of fish per year to coastal areas and arranges for these quota to be leased, bought, and sold.
Continue reading →By Lauren Indvik, Mashable | Naomi Spencer, WSWS. The entire Icelandic Parliament and the Oklahoma Center for Conscience and Peace Research are among those who have nominated24-year old U.S. Army private and Wikileaks whistleblower Bradley Manning for a Nobel Peace Prize. On Feb 23, after 9 months of detention without charge, 22 formal charges were brought for the first time against Manning.
Continue reading →By Joseph Yoldi and Julio M. Lazaro, El Pais | Translated from the Spanish by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. By a vote of 6 to 1, Spain’s Supreme Court acquitted ex-Judge Baltasar Garzon of the charge of overstepping his jurisdiction while trying to open an investigation into Franco-era fascist crimes. The court held, however, that Garzon had misinterpreted the Spanish amnesty law as being like those of South America. Another case against Garzon, alleging his corruption was dismissed. The decision to disbar him remains in effect. (English | Spanish)
Continue reading →By Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes | Melissa Harris, Chicago Tribune | Alternet | Labor Beat, YouTube. Members of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Local 1110 (UE) won another reprieve for a Chicago window factory after they re-occupied the plant they famously held in 2008, this time with support outside from Occupy Chicago.
Continue reading →By Staff, Bird Life International | Groupo Jaragua | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The Black-capped Petrel is a Globally Threatened bird species with a population estimated at 1,000 breeding pairs. With support from Cornell’s Laboratory of Ornithology, a Haitian-Dominican field team found several individuals in Haiti’s Massif de la Selle. (English | Spanish)
Continue reading →By Haitian Speaker of the Senate and Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, AlterPresse | Translated by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. “You stood up in 1804, 1934, 1986 and 1990. Stand up today for respect for the preamble to the 1987 Constitution and respect for the laws passed by Parliament! Stand up and call for the President of the Republic to respect his oath and faithfully follow the Constitution and the laws of the Republic! Stand up to back democratic gains, and demand free and fair elections within the time prescribed by the law and the Constitution!” – Joint statement from Simon Dieuseul Desras and Levaillant Louis-Jeune.
Continue reading →By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Thirteen Haitian mayors were dismissed and replaced on February 18, 2012 by presidential decree. In a press conference, one mayor said that a new individual recently arrived claiming to be his municipality’s new mayor, and two days later he got a letter telling him to assist this person in taking inventory of the region’s heritage. Another mayor wrote in open letter on February 3 that his life is under threat. Secretary of the Interior Georges Racine is thought to be behind the wave of illegal dismissals. (English | Portuguese)
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