Argentina Court Freezes Chevron’s Assets: Penalty for Polluting the Amazon in Ecuador

By Pratap Chatterjee
Global Research

Adrian Elcuj Miranda, a judge in Buenos Aires, has ordered the seizure of Chevron’s assets in Argentina, to force the company to pay a $19 billion penalty for polluting the Amazon in Ecuador. The plaintiffs are seeking similar legal action in Brazil, Canada, Colombia and other countries.

Chevron – a Northern California-based oil and gas company – merged with another company named Texaco in 2001 whose actions are the basis of the lawsuit. Between 1964 and 1992 Texaco admitted to dumping more than 16 billion gallons of toxic “water of formation” into the streams and rivers of the Ecuadorean Amazon that were used by local inhabitants for their drinking water sickening indigenous tribespeople and farmers.

Some 900 open-air toxic waste pits still dot the area, where approximately 9,000 people are expected to contract cancer unless it is cleaned up, according to a study by Dr. Daniel Rourke, former of the Rand Corporation.

New film: WWF beds with Monsanto to steal public lands, promote GM crops

By Rady Ananda

“We need to start focusing on food production.  It takes 15 years to bring a genetically engineered product to market. The clock is ticking.  We need to get moving.” ~ Dr Jason Clay, Senior Vice President, World Wildlife Fund, 2010.

A 2011 film by Wilfried Huismann, The Silence of the Pandas, targets the World Wildlife Fund, the largest, most trusted, and best-funded environmental “protection” organization in the world.  Its reputation does not live up to its actions, however, which green wash industries that are destroying the environment as well as indigenous cultures.

Latin America condemns US/UN invasion of Libya

Bolivia’s Morales demands Obama forfeit his Nobel Prize

By Efe – Agency
Los Tiempos
(Partly Translated by Bolivia Weekly)

As US President Obama visits neighboring Chile, Bolivian president Morales has called on the Nobel committee to strip him of his peace prize and has called for the United Nations (ONU in Spanish) to be renamed “ONI,” The United Nations of Invaders.

“If the Nobel Peace Prize committee was to dignify this prize, they should revoke it from the US President,” said Morales at a press conference. Morales himself received the $50,000 “Gaddadi Human Rights Prize” before becoming the Bolivian president and said that the world should ask itself if Obama is defending peace or provoking massacres.

Morales said that the United Nations was bombing hospitals and schools on the pretext of savings lives. He said that the Libya invasion was just a pretext to invade and take Libya’s natural resources.

“How is it that a Nobel Peace Prize winner heads a groups of gangsters to assault and invade? This is not part of the defense of human rights, nor the rights of self determination of peoples.”

Who’s afraid of a Palestinian State?

By Bob Row

On Feb.16 a summit to be held at Lima, Peru will be attended by nine South American leaders and eleven Arab chiefs of state to discuss a proposal of declaration by the first, recognizing an independent Palestinian State.

Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador and Bolivia  recently recognized a Palestine State along borders prior to the 1967 war, including East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Chile also did it, but without reference to a map. Others are yet to decide (Venezuela and Uruguay favor to agree).

Worker-run companies show how to profit without a boss

By various sources

There are now 205 “recovered” companies in Argentina, with nearly 10,000 workers — up from 161 companies with 6,900 workers in 2004, according to a study published in October. Though the economy has improved since the 2001 crash, the current economic downturn has caused a recent increase in factory take overs. There are now some 10,000 cooperatives in Argentina, where workers control profits and make management decisions — while saving their jobs.

Monsanto, Blackwater and GM crop saboteurs

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By Rady Ananda
Food Freedom

Agribusiness giant Monsanto, which genetically modifies plants to exude or tolerate pesticide or to produce nonviable seed, hired the services of the mercenary firm Blackwater to spy on activists, Jeremy Scahill reports. A death-tech firm weds a hit squad.

This is no doubt in response to a decade of GM crop sabotage efforts around the globe.

Che Guevara, until Victory Always

Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna (Photo by Alberto Korda)

By Fidel Castro

On 18 October 1967, 10 days after Che Guevara’s death, the details of the revolutionary hero’s last moments finally emerged. Before a nation in mourning, Fidel Castro gave this speech. In this emotive text brought to you by Pambazuka News, ‘El Lider Máximo’ revisits the journey of his comrade-in-arms, revealing Che’s human side, his military prowess, his philosophy and his great revolutionary pedigree.

Latin Americans Ditch US ‘War on Drugs’

Mexico and Argentina move towards decriminalising drugs

by Rory Carroll in Caracas, Jo Tuckman in Mexico and Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro

Argentina and Mexico have taken significant steps towards decriminalising drugs amid a growing Latin American backlash against the US-sponsored “war on drugs.” Argentina’s supreme court has ruled it unconstitutional to punish people for using marijuana for personal consumption, an eagerly awaited judgment that gave the government the green light to push for further liberalisation.