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QUITO, ECUADOR – Pink Floyd front man Roger Waters took a break from his South America-Mexico tour on Tuesday to visit Ecuador and denounce oil giant Chevron Texaco. Rogers said he wanted to draw attention to cleanup in the Amazon Rainforest the company was ordered to carry out by a judge in Ecuador, who also …
Continue reading "Rock icon Roger Waters denounces Chevron in Ecuador (Mongabay)"
QUITO, ECUADOR - More than 1,500 indigenous protesters had a clear message as they march through Ecuador's capital Quito on Wednesday: Stop mining on, or near, indigenous territory. "We need to fight together," said Alexandra, a Kichwa indigenous woman who walked more than 600km in traditional sandals from the southern Amazonian province of Zamora Chinchipe …
Continue reading "Ecuador’s indigenous march over 600km to demand an end to mining (Al Jazeera)"
SANTANDER de QUILICHAO, COLOMBIA - In June, Clemencia Carabali received her first death threat this year. She was in her office planning workshops for the local community, when an unknown man called her personal phone and told her she had until 5 p.m. that day to leave the territory, or be killed. Then he hung …
Continue reading "Colombia’s New Killing Spree (The Progressive)"
My first live TV news spot. I spoke with TRT World about Ecuador enforcing their new policy for Venezuelans trying to cross the border, now requiring their passports. This was put into effect Saturday, Aug 18 and is going to make things a whole lot worse for a lot of people before it makes things …
QUITO, ECUADOR - Ecuador’s oil palm industry has taken what many see as another step forward by committing to a jurisdictional RSPO system as a way to transform the entire sector by making it cleaner and more sustainable. But some wonder if a commitment to RSPO is enough, considering the industry’s questionable reputation in some parts …
WIMBI, ECUADOR - When Yessenia Padilla heard that her community crops were being destroyed, she and about 70 of her neighbors rushed out to intervene. They grabbed large boards, rocks, the machetes they use to harvest their fields, and took off yelling. She said that when they arrived, they saw workers from the oil palm …
Continue reading "Community vs. company: A tiny town in Ecuador battles a palm oil giant (Mongabay)"
LA CONCORDIA, ECUADOR - Jorge Jurado has been farming oil palm on Ecuador’s coast for almost 20 years, and has seen the industry go through many changes. But over the last few years, he and hundreds of other small-scale farmers have been hit by two major plagues: abnormally low market prices for palm oil over …
QUITO, ECUADOR - When Donato Sanchez, a transgender man, walked into a “gay rehab” clinic for the first time, he didn’t know he was going to stay. His father had convinced him to “check out the facilities,” nothing more. Sanchez had been told that if he chose to enter the clinic, it would “be of …
Continue reading "When the “Cure” for Homosexuality Is Torture (In These Times)"
ICONONZO, COLOMBIA - A handful of former guerrilla fighters met Sunday at La Tienda (The Store), the only store and social area in the FARC reintegration zone near Icononzo, Tolima, to watch the election results. But the space that is normally full of laughter and banter was grim Sunday afternoon. Many wondered what will be …
Continue reading "FARC fears after rightwing Duque elected (New Internationalist)"
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA - Piedad Cordoba has long been a well-known Colombian human rights activist, lawyer, former congress woman, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and was once named the most influential Ibero-American intellectual by Foreign Policy magazine. She also briefly ran as a candidate in this year’s presidential elections, but dropped out of the race in March. …
