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Friday, November 6, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
100 Million Trees for Venezuela
Over the next five years, a reforestation project aims to replace a total of some 140,000 hectares of woodlands -- the number of trees logged in Venezuela each year.VENEZUELA: Mass Hunger Strike Hits Prisons
With the final match already played at the football World Cup, which may have stolen the limelight from their protest, inmates at seven of Venezuela's 30 prisons went on hunger strike on Monday, and by Wednesday 8,000 inmates at 13 prisons were refusing food.SOUTH AMERICA: New Member Venezuela Politicises Mercosur
The addition of Venezuela as a full member of Mercosur, an economic bloc created in 1991 by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, marks a new era - more political and turning the five countries into the driving force behind regional integration.COLOMBIA: Armed Conflict Generates Hunger, Violence in the Cities
Ciudad Bolívar and Altos de Cazuca (Cazuca Heights) form an endless landscape of humble dwellings along mud or cement streets and sidewalks on the barren hills south of the Colombian capital, where thousands of displaced people continue to suffer the effects of the civil war.COLOMBIA: Armed Conflict Generates Hunger, Violence in the Cities
Ciudad Bolívar and Altos de Cazuca (Cazuca Heights) form an endless landscape of humble dwellings along mud or cement streets and sidewalks on the barren hills south of the Colombian capital, where thousands of displaced people continue to suffer the effects of the civil war.RIGHTS-VENEZUELA: Step Back Renews Women’s Drive to Move Forward
A recent Supreme Court ruling that undermines the safety of domestic violence victims has galvanised activists in Venezuela, who vow to step up the fight against a scourge that the country's advanced gender-equality laws have so far failed to eradicate.VENEZUELA: Many Housing Plans, but Limited Resources
"Where's the end of the line? Another queue; whatever it takes to get a house," said Ángela Rodríguez as she reached Panteón Plaza in the Venezuelan capital, where thousands of housing rights activists who support President Hugo Chávez gathered after a recent march through the central part of the capital.OIL: OPEC Maintains Output, Opens Door Slightly to New Members
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will maintain its current output quotas over the next few months, despite the saturation of the market, which will help contain record-high prices of over 70 dollars a barrel.OIL: OPEC Caught Between the Depreciated Dollar and the Arrogant Euro
The special meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in the Venezuelan capital Thursday could make progress on key mid- to long-term issues, such as shifting the group's working currency from the dollar to the Euro, establishing a common shipping fleet or setting up a monetary fund for developing countries, according to experts.OIL-LATIN AMERICA: Nationalisation in Context
A perusal of the history of the nationalisation of energy resources in Latin America shows that Venezuela's process three decades ago involved lengthy negotiations with the foreign companies involved - in stark contrast to Bolivia's recent surprise occupations of natural gas fields, refineries and petrol stations.ANDEAN COMMUNITY-EU: More Suspense Than Negotiations
Venezuela's planned withdrawal from the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) has thrown a wrench into negotiations of a free trade agreement between the South American trade bloc and the European Union (EU), ahead of the fourth EU-Latin America/Caribbean summit in Vienna.LABOUR: Workers Will Suffer from Weakened Andean Community
Free trade agreements with the United States and Venezuela's announced withdrawal from the Andean Community trade bloc will have an impact on workers, the ‘Cinderella' of decades of integration, said trade unionists and experts in the region consulted by IPS.VENEZUELA: Barber ‘Filmmaker’ Finds Success for 100 Dollars
The most sought-after film at hundreds of stands offering pirate DVDs and videos in the Venezuelan capital is a film that had a total production cost of less than 100 dollars.SOUTH AMERICA: Last Rites for Andean Community?
The Andean Community "is dead" said Presidents Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia Wednesday, referring to the trade bloc that their countries form part of along with Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.AGRICULTURE-VENEZUELA: Mixed Feelings Towards Admission to Mercosur
Farmers in Venezuela have begun to take a closer look at their country's admission to the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) trade bloc, made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, with mixed feelings.CARIBBEAN: Dutch Islands Caught Up in U.S.-Venezuela Friction
Several Dutch islands in the Caribbean, off the coast of Venezuela, have been caught in the middle of the war of words between the Venezuelan and U.S. governments, while the United States is getting ready to carry out naval exercises in the area.WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: NGOs Learning a Great Deal, Fast
This year's meetings of the Sixth World Social Forum in Karachi (Pakistan), Bamako (Mali) and the Venezuelan capital have provided examples of both strengths and weaknesses in dealing with global and regional agendas.VENEZUELA: British Corporation and Government Smoke Agrarian Peace Pipe
Britain's Vestey Group of companies has handed over two cattle ranches covering 56,000 hectares to the Venezuelan government, in return for keeping another eight totalling 258,000 hectares, in an agreement that has been presented as a model within the agrarian reform process underway.EU-LATIN AMERICA: From the Washington to the Vienna Consensus
Now that the Washington Consensus has proven ineffective, after guiding the free-market liberalisation of Latin America and the Caribbean in the 1990s, regional policies on integration and governance could now begin to look for direction to the May summit with the European Union in Vienna.VENEZUELA: Land Reform Tripped Up by Red Tape, Lack of Planning
The Venezuelan government has distributed more than two million hectares to 160,000 landless rural families over the last three years in an agrarian reform effort that has been marked by a certain lack of planning, say experts.SOUTH AMERICA: Mega-Pipeline – Costly and Controversial
A proposed South American mega-pipeline that would carry natural gas southwards from the Caribbean Sea across the Amazon jungle to Brazil and Argentina is still just a dream. But it has already given rise to doubts regarding economic, political and environmental questions.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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