BOGOTA, COLOMBIA - Ariz Carrillo spent two years and five months locked behind bars at one of Colombia's maximum security prisons, La Tramacua -- a place so renown for its human rights abuses that it has been dubbed "the Guantanamo of Colombia". "For no reason, only because I was a political prisoner. They tortured me …
‘Plan Colombia’ Has Been a Nightmare for Women (teleSUR English & Truthout)
QUITO, ECUADOR - Six women were raped every hour in Colombia during the first nine years of Plan Colombia. That figure was taken from a joint survey done by women's rights organizations, which include Oxfam and other Colombian based groups. The study also revealed that some 489,678 women were victims of some type of sexual …
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‘You Can’t be Scared of Death There’ Life as a Colombian Refugee (teleSUR English & Truthout)
QUITO, ECUADOR - Keli did not leave Colombia voluntarily. Neither did Luis. And neither one of them grew up thinking they would one day be labelled a refugee. The two of them fled very different situations of violence in Colombia, what together epitomize the complexities of the ongoing war in the country. Keli – which …
A Life Behind Bars (teleSUR English & TruthOut)
"An inmate at the Michigan department of corrections, Muskegon correctional facility. If you feel you're being victimized or exploited by this prisoner, please contact GTL customer service at 855 466 2832. To accept this call press 0. This call is from a corrections facility and is subject to monitoring and recording. Thank you for using …
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Zapatista Schools Open Doors in Chiapas (The Media Co-Op)
International solidarity in the classroom SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS, MEXICO—Over the last few years, the Zapatistas in Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas have garnered very little media attention and been infamously secretive. But although they’ve shifted away from their militant stance of the 1990s and their national political campaigning of the early 2000s, the movement …
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Los Vigilantes de Tepito / Vigilantes in Mexico’s Capital (El Dominical)
(English Version to follow) CIUDAD DE MEXICO - Armados con walkie-talkie y placa de identificación, ellos patrullan uno de los barrios más peligrosos de la ciudad de México. Es un grupo, integrado principalmente por ciudadanos, el que brinda seguridad en un área que la policía no puede o no quiere proteger. Se autodenominan “policía comunitaria”, …
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Mexico’s escribanos: sending email without the internet (The Toronto Star)
Also known as scribes, they continue to be in demand, writing letters for estranged lovers and complaints to government MEXICO CITY—Typewriters are long thought to be a thing of the past, or an essential piece of vintage decor, but not in Santo Domingo Square in Mexico City. Here, some 20 escribanos sit outside, behind their …
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Fighting Impunity in Mexico – An interview with John Ralston Saul (PEN Canada)
Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a journalist or writer. Since 2006, over 46 Mexican journalists and writers have been killed or disappeared, and their lives continue to be threatened. As a result, many journalists and media outlets have opted to sensor themselves and have stopped reporting on …
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Kimberley (Michelle) Brown 