In Defence of Liliana Patricia Obando Villota and the Rights of Colombian Workers: National Campaign (Canada), August 22, 2008 (Keep reading…)

Hernando Calvo Ospina’s recent book, Colombia, Laboratorio de Embrujos: Democracia y Terrorismo del Estado is the most important study of Colombian politics in recent decades and essential reading in light of the Western media’s and politicians’ celebration of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.  Calvo Ospina’s study provides a wealth of historical and empirical data that highlights Colombia’s peculiar combination of electoral politics characteristic of a Western capitalist democracy and the permanent purge of civil and political society characteristic of totalitarian dictatorships. <a href="http://canadiandimension.com/articles/2008/08/13/1983/#more-1983" class="more-link">(Keep reading...)</a>

When President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela called on the FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, to end their armed struggle and declared the ‘guerrilla war is history’, he was following a path taken by many revolutionary leaders in the past. (Keep reading…)

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1356/1/ 01 July 2008

This January, after little more than 6 months of negotiations, the Canadian Government announced the completion of negotiations of the Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. (Keep reading…)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( T h e B u l l e t ))))~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Socialist Project e-bulletin …. No. 112 …. June 11, 2008 ______________________________________________________________ (Keep reading…)

Special to Canadian Dimension May 23, 2008

        Pedro Antonio Marin, better know as Manuel Marulanda and 'Tiro Fijo (Sure Shot)', was the leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-Peoples Army (FARC-EP).  He was without a doubt the greatest revolutionary peasant leader in the history of the Americas. Over a period of 60 years he organized peasant movements, rural communities and, when all legal democratic channels were effectively (and brutally) closed, he built the most powerful sustained guerrilla army and supporting underground militias in Latin America.  The FARC at its peak between 1999-2005 numbered nearly 20,000 fighters, several hundred thousand peasant-activists, hundreds of village and urban militia units.  Even today despite the regime's forced displacement of 3 million peasants resulting from scorched earth policies and scores of massacres, the FARC has between 10,000-15,000 guerrillas in its numerous 'fronts distributed throughout the country. <a href="http://canadiandimension.com/articles/2008/05/28/1848/#more-1848" class="more-link">(Keep reading...)</a>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( T h e B u l l e t ))))~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Socialist Project e-bulletin …. No. 110 …. May 27, 2008 _____________________________________________________________ (Keep reading…)

The Dominion March 18, 2008

A 2006 landslide ripped through Marmato’s historic centre. The area has since been abandoned. Rather than constructing mitigation projects, the government has been promoting the displacement of the entire town to the neighbouring community of El Llano. (Keep reading…)

Special to Canadian Dimension March 16, 2008

    President Uribe’s troop and missile assault, violating Ecuadorian sovereignty came very close to precipitating a regional war with Ecuador and Venezuela.  During an interview I had with President Chavez, at the time of this bellicose act, he confirmed to me the gravity of Uribe’s doctrine of ‘preventive war’ and ‘extra-territorial intervention’, calling the Colombian regime the ‘Israel of Latin America’.  Earlier, during his Sunday radio program ‘Alo Presidente’, in which I was an invited guest, he followed up with an announcement that he was sending ground, air and sea forces to the Venezuelan frontier with Colombia. <a href="http://canadiandimension.com/articles/2008/03/16/1707/#more-1707" class="more-link">(Keep reading...)</a>

Special to Canadian Dimension
November 2007

In contrast to North America and Europe, in Latin America political regimes, social movements and ideologies are in constant flux.  Within a period of a few years, the political pendulum can swing from a seemingly radical leftist wave, to center-left and even rightwing ascendancy .  Likewise major social movements emerge, expand from local or regional power bases to significant actors on the national political scene, play a major role in dispatching right-wing regimes, support and even enter governmental coalitions and then decline, especially if they fail to achieve any of the minimum demands of their supporters.  <a href="http://canadiandimension.com/articles/2008/03/12/1670/#more-1670" class="more-link">(Keep reading...)</a>