Full Coverage: South America

28.05.2005 BUENOS AIRES, May 27 (IPS) - Twenty-year-old Romina Tejerina is scheduled to stand trial in June in Argentina, and could very likely be sentenced to life in prison for stabbing to death her newborn daughter.

26.05.2005 La capitale bolivienne a passé la journée d'hier isolée du reste du pays en raison des manifestations et des barrages de routes, auxquelles s'ajoutera aujourd'hui la fermeture de son aéroport international. Le président Carlos Mesa a répété qui continuera son mandat jusqu'en 2007 tandis que se multiplient les doutes sur cette possibilité.

26.05.2005 The second Latin American and the Caribbean Conference on Free and Open Source Software Development and Usage will be held from 28 September to 1st October 2005 Recife and Olinda, Brazil.

24.05.2005 With their hopes fading, 12,000 rural Brazilians marched over 200km to the capital last week to encourage President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to push for land-reform. When Lula came to power in 2002, his working-class background legitimized promises for land reform--but the policy has since stalled with inter-administration bickering.

24.05.2005 Throughout Argentina, hundreds of people--primarily young women and adolescent girls--have vanished, kidnapped by trafficking rings operating with the complicity of authorities. Fernanda Aguirre, 13, was abducted in July 2004. State investigators have focused on finding a body, but Fernanda's mother believes her daughter was sold into forced prostitution.

17.05.2005 Two leaders of Ecuador's Huaorani indigenous group traveled to Washington, D.C. last week, asking for help to get a moratorium on new oil projects in their territory and one of the world's most important parks in terms of plant and wildlife biodiversity. The group says those who live in the area and would me most directly affected have had no say in the process.

14.05.2005 In occasione della Giornata Mondiale del Commercio Equo e Solidale che si svolge oggi in tutte le città italiane è arrivato il messaggio di auguri del Presidente della Repubblica Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. “Un punto di arrivo di un percorso collettivo che vede i vari soggetti italiani confrontarsi con la neonata Associazione dei Parlamentari per un commercio equo e solidale” ha sottolineato Alberto Zoratti di Roba dell’Altro mondo. Per Andrea Reina, presidente di Assobotteghe nel 2004 il 50,5% degli italiani ha acquistato prodotti solo dopo averli reputati "etici". Rispetto per l'ambiente e garanzie per i diritti dei lavoratori i requisiti ai quali si fa più attenzione. Le parole di Carlo Azeglio Ciampi arrivano a soli tre giorni dal lancio nazionale della Campagna contro lo sfruttamento minorile "Difendiamo i loro diritti". Intanto in Ecuador a Quito si è conclusa l'ottava Conferenza di Ifat, il più grande network del commercio equo e solidale a livello mondiale, con riflessioni e proposte.

12.05.2005 BRASILIA, May 11 (IPS) - The summit of South American and Arab countries took on clearly political overtones, in contrast to what the Brazilian government apparently intended when it organised this "alliance of civilisations" aimed at bolstering economic ties between the two regions.

10.05.2005 The ineffective "Plan Colombia," a U.S-backed strategy to fight the Colombian drug trade, was endorsed by Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice during a recent visit to the country. Lutheran World Relief's president Kathryn Wolford argues that the U.S. position only adds to the political instability and drug trafficking in the country considered to have the worst humaniarian crisis in the Western hemisphere.

06.05.2005 Venezuela’s burgeoning participatory democracy--based on people’s power--is helping development projects to flourish and especially benefit minority groups in inaccessible places. Nora Castañeda, president of Venezuela’s Women’s Development Bank explains to In Motion Magazine how the institution gives women sovereignty from poverty.

05.05.2005 "Ce travail constitue une narration "depuis l’intérieur" du procesus de luttes et de discussions qui a donné lieu à la formation d’un secteur du mouvement de travailleurs sans emploi, de ses débuts jusqu’à la veille du 20 décembre 2001. (...) Mariano Pacheco est un militant, membre des Mouvements de Travailleurs sans emploi (MTD) qui se dévelloppèrent surtout dans le sud du Grand Buenos Aires(...)", Daniel Campione.

03.05.2005 Brazil has turned down $40 million of HIV grants from the U.S. because of a Bush administration requirement that organizations must pledge to oppose commercial sex work in order to qualify for funding. Brazil's AIDS program, considered a model by many around the world, cannot be successful "with principles that are Manichean, theological, fundamentalist and Shiite," said a top Brazilian official.

01.05.2005 RIO DE JANEIRO, May 1 (IPS) - The massive march that will set out this Sunday - May Day - and reach the Brazilian capital on May 17 has been organised by the Landless Workers Movement (MST) to protest the government's economic policies, which are an obstacle to agrarian reform, the activists say.