María Pía Matta. Credit: Courtesy of Mujeres en Conexión.

Marcela Valente interviews MARÍA PÍA MATTA, new president of AMARC

LA PLATA, Argentina, Nov 15, 2010 (IPS/TerraViva) – Chilean journalist María Pía Matta, a feminist and staunch believer that communication is a universal right based on freedom of expression, is the new president of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC).
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Courtesy of the World Association for Community Broadcasters (AMARC).

By Marcela Valente

LA PLATA, Argentina, Nov 11, 2010 (IPS/TerraViva) – “Community radio stations in Haiti play an indispensable role during catastrophes, and so do women, who can identify the most urgent needs of families during the reconstruction of the country,” said a representative of one of these stations in the Caribbean island nation.
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Toxic waste in the Opamayo River. Crédito: Federación Nacional de Trabajadores, Mineros, Metalúrgicos y Siderúrgicos del Perú (FNTMMSP ).

By Milagros Salazar

LIMA, Nov 1, 2010 (IPS/TerraViva) – Four months after Peru’s worst toxic spill of mining waste, workers at the Caudalosa mine are demanding that it be reopened, while local communities want more cleanup of the rivers they depend on for water supplies.
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Apaxco and Atotonilco residents have staged a peaceful sit-in against the Ecoltec plant for nearly 18 months. Credit: Greenpeace.

By Emilio Godoy

MEXICO CITY, Oct 29, 2010 (IPS/TerraViva) – A waste processing company and the surrounding community are at odds over the operation of a plant that provides energy for Mexico’s cement industry.
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Mexican electrical workers on hunger strike. Credit:Daniela Pastrana/IPS.

By Daniela Estrada*

SANTIAGO, Oct 29, 2010 (IPS/TerraViva) – Protesters ranging from prisoners to government leaders have resorted to hunger strikes in Latin America in recent years to press their demands. Behind the growing use of the extreme protest measure is a lack of institutional responses, according to experts.
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Soybean fields in Paraguay.

By Natalia Ruiz Díaz

ASUNCION, Oct 28, 2010 (IPS/TerraViva) – Paraguay’s economy is currently growing at the fastest rate in Latin America, due to growing demand and high prices for agricultural products, especially soy, which is driving the expansion. But the question is whether the benefits of the boom will trickle down to the poor majority.
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'Our Struggle Is for Territory; Freedom for Yukpa Chief Sabino Romero.' Credit:Courtesy of Homo et Natura.

By Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, Oct 25, 2010 (IPS/TerraViva) – An 81-year-old Jesuit missionary in Venezuela ended a week-long hunger strike Monday after the government agreed to high-level talks to negotiate the release of three indigenous prisoners facing murder charges and to discuss land claims by Yukpa communities.
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By Emilio Godoy

ATLAUTLA, Mexico, Oct 21, 2010 (IPS/TerraViva) – Every year since 1975, Castro Solano has left his home in the town of Tlapa de Comonfort, in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, to work in other parts of the country as a seasonal farm labourer.
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Protesters demonstrate against direction taken by climate change talks. Credit:Ana Libisch/IPS

By Mario Osava*

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 20 , 2010 (IPS) – The countries of Latin America, with few exceptions, have weathered the global recession of the past two years relatively well, while they simultaneously continued the process of shedding neoliberal policies in their most fundamentalist form. But in financial terms, non-governmental organisations have not fared so well.
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