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Saturday, November 14, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Indigenous Rights
ENVIRONMENT: Amazon Increasingly Oily
More than 180 oil and natural gas fields extend across the western Amazon, shared by five South American countries and threatening biodiversity and indigenous lands, warns a study by U.S.-based organisations.PERU: Courts Move Closer to Clarifying Accomarca Massacre
"They entered the village and called all the peasants together, tortured them to make them say who were terrorists, and killed them because they didn't talk," testified former soldier José Contreras, one of those involved in the 1985 killing of 69 people in the southern Peruvian village of Accomarca.ECUADOR: President “Stabbed In the Back” by Church Over Constitution
The campaign for the Sept. 28 referendum on Ecuador’s newly rewritten constitution has got under way, with fierce arguments between the document's supporters and opponents.
INDIA: Mining Boom Affecting Tribals, Environment
While India has been steadily attracting foreign investment into its booming mining sector, the fact that the best prospects lie in tribal-dominated and heavily forested areas is cause for concern.
Q&A: “Amazonas State Is in the Environmental Vanguard”
The Brazilian state of Amazonas is "a quarry of ideas and creativity" and is in the vanguard for having preserved 98 percent of its native forests, paying for environmental services, and enacting the pioneering Climate Change Act, says Nadia D'Ávila Ferreira, the state's secretary for the environment and sustainable development.PERU: Indigenous Groups Win Major Battle in Congress
The Peruvian Congress voted Friday to repeal two decrees that opened up communally owned native lands to private investment and that triggered a wave of protests this month by indigenous people in Amazon jungle provinces.BOLIVIA: Beef Producers’ Boycott – Latest Opposition Strategy
A beef producers’ boycott declared by agribusiness interests in eastern Bolivia is the latest attempt by the pro-autonomy opposition movement to undermine the government of Bolivian President Evo Morales.
SPORTS: Angst Follows Olympic Torch from Beijing to Vancouver
The 29th summer Olympics cast renewed light on China's treatment of ethnic minorities in Tibet, and as the games wind down, a similar, if less pronounced set of controversies will follow the torch to Canada when Vancouver hosts the 2010 winter games.PHILIPPINES: Hopes Narrow for Peace With Muslim Rebels
Hopes for peace in southern Philippines have grown slim as fighting escalates between government troops and Muslim separatist rebels. When August began, a different mood prevailed as negotiators on both sides reported progress on reconciliation talks on the sensitive issue of land.
LAOS: Film Reveals CIA's 'Most Secret Place on Earth'
It was known as the ‘secret war’, a covert operation waged by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) throughout the sixties and early seventies against communist guerrillas in Laos.
BRAZIL: Setting an Important Precedent for Indigenous Lands
An imminent decision by Brazil’s Supreme Court on the demarcation of the Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous reservation in the Amazon jungle region has the country’s native communities on edge, because of the precedent it will set.
BOLIVIA: Businesses Take On the Green Challenge
What do Bolivia's largest textile mill, an organic cacao cooperative and an indigenous-run tourist hostel in the Amazon have in common? The answer lies in the path, shaky but inspiring, that they are all taking towards sustainable production.CHILE: Exhibit to Celebrate Indigenous Art
More than 100 artists from Chile’s nine indigenous groups will take part in the second biennial exhibition of indigenous art in the capital Oct. 17-Nov. 2, which hopes to draw at least 30,000 visitors.PERU: Native Groups Protest Laws Facilitating Sales of Land
Defending the state of emergency declared in three provinces in Peru to crack down on protests by indigenous communities against a law facilitating the sale of their community-owned lands, Prime Minister Jorge del Castillo said the government was safeguarding "the rights of the great majority of Peruvians."PARAGUAY: “Today a New Country Is Born,” Says New President
Former Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo was sworn in Friday as president of Paraguay in a ceremony charged with emotion that broke with protocol, promising to rebuild this impoverished landlocked South American nation that was ruled by the rightwing Colorado Party for 61 years.
POLITICS-PARAGUAY: Rocky Road Ahead for Lugo
Amidst anticipation and apprehension regarding the imminent political transition, Paraguay is gearing up for Friday’s inauguration of centre-left President-elect Fernando Lugo, known as the "bishop of the poor", who is putting an end to six decades of Colorado Party rule.BOLIVIA: Divided Along Regional, Social and Ethnic Lines
The dialogue with opposition governors that Bolivian President Evo Morales has called for in the wake of Sunday’s recall referendum, to overcome the growing polarisation in the country, will run up against regional, social and ethnic divisions, according to analysts.
POLITICS-CHINA: Tough Policy in Xinjiang Backfires
China’s success in eliminating clusters of Muslim insurgencies in the western province of Xinjiang may have pushed an alleged separatist movement across the border into Pakistan and Afghanistan, exposing it to greater influences by jihadist groups in those countries.
BRAZIL: Small Hydroelectric Dams Not So Green
The combined impacts of numerous small hydroelectric dams in one river basin can be at least as harmful as one large dam, warn experts, environmental activists and indigenous groups, who face a flood of new projects along the rivers of the western Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.INDIGENOUS PEOPLE: U.S. and Canada Found Guilty of Racism
The international community now fully recognises the native peoples’ right to protect their lands and live distinct lifestyles. Yet, most of the world’s 370 million indigenous peoples continue to face abuse and injustices at the hands of state authorities and commercial concerns.HEALTH: Indigenous People Speak Out Clearly on AIDS
"In my community, living with HIV is synonymous with death," Fernando Solís, a 34-year-old member of the Cuna ethnic group in Panama, told IPS. Solís, who was diagnosed four years ago, is now working in prevention efforts among other young indigenous people, which he described as "the key to eradicating the epidemic in our communities."« Previous Page — Next Page »
The planet's roughly 350 million indigenous peoples took notable steps on the international stage in the last decade. They got the world's governments to agree to create a body to represent them at the United Nations, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and to appoint a special rapporteur responsible for their human rights. In 2007 a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was approved by the UN. Yet the living conditions of most "tribal", "aboriginal", "native" or "first" peoples remain precarious. IPS, with its network of contributors at the UN and linked to indigenous communities worldwide, is committed to tracking the world community's efforts to do justice to the rights and aspirations of these peoples, with a special current focus on Latin America's 40 million rural indigenous peoples.
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