QUITO, ECUADOR — “We don’t have a state! We don’t have any state!” The lady’s voice projects through a loudspeaker amid the crowd. She’s not having it. Nor is the groundswell of hundreds, if not thousands who’ve converged at Plaza Grande trolley stop, just meters from Simon Bolivar’s statue at the entrance to Quito’s historic…

As deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest reaches the highest level in a decade, the rainforest’s indigenous peoples and their supporters have called for action against the political and business interests they blame for a spike in illegal logging and other resource extraction. A report released by Amazon Watch as part of its ongoing “Complicity in…

BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA (Analysis) — Several troubling situations are currently playing out across Colombia, yet the country’s continuing downward spiral into drug-fueled and politically-motivated violence has caused little concern in Washington, offering yet another clear indication that the U.S.’ current posturing on Venezuela is hardly motivated by concerns about “democracy,” “human rights,” or the welfare of…

MANILA – As Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte enters his third year in office, his administration has earned the ignominious distinction of ushering in the country’s ranking as the deadliest country for environmental and lands rights defenders in Asia. It’s just the latest indicator of Manila’s careless, if often hostile, attitude toward the rural poor and…

CHERAN, MEXICO (Report) — On the road leading into this hardscrabble town in Mexico’s southwest corner, there stands a checkpoint staffed by heavily-armed guards, clad ominously in balaclavas, or ski masks. This scene is not particularly unusual for this violence-plagued country, but Cheran is no ordinary place: seven years ago this month, the mostly indigenous…

BIR-AS-SABA’, NAQAB (Analysis) — The Naqab region is assumed to be an integral part of the apartheid state of Israel. However, like all other parts of historic Palestine, it was taken by force and occupied since 1948, when the Zionist state was established. For the last seven decades its indigenous people, the Palestinian Bedouin who…

A concerted push is underway in South America that could see one of the world’s largest reserves of fresh water soon fall into the hands of transnational corporations such as Coca-Cola and Nestle. According to reports, talks to privatize the Guarani Aquifer – a vast subterranean water reserve lying beneath Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay…