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Sunday, November 15, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Indigenous Rights
PERU: Intercultural University Scores Poorly on Equality
Peru’s only intercultural university was established in the country’s Amazon jungle region to provide higher education for indigenous people, thanks to a concerted struggle by native leaders. Yet only 40 percent of the students are actually from indigenous communities, while the majority are "mestizos" (people of mixed-race) from urban areas.POLITICS-BOLIVIA: Morales Reaches Two-Year Milestone
Exalted by the success of his social programmes, but harassed by opponents who are threatening to declare de facto autonomy in four of Bolivia’s nine departments (provinces), indigenous President Evo Morales completes two years of his mandate on Tuesday, a milestone the country’s three previous presidents failed to reach.POLITICS-GUATEMALA: New President Pledges ‘Privileges for the Poor’
Social Democrat Álvaro Colom, winner of the presidential elections in Nov. 2007, took office this week amidst great challenges and great expectations. Guatemalans are anxious for better security and economic improvement, analysts say.CHILE-ARGENTINA: Pascua Lama Mining Project on Hold
Nearly two years after winning environmental approval from the Chilean government, the controversial Pascua Lama gold mining project of the transnational Barrick Gold Corporation remains without a launch date.
ARTS-MALI: Festival Fosters Cultural Exchange in the Desert
A polar bear is in the middle of the Sahara desert. It is not a mirage.THAILAND: Muslim Insurgency Headache For New Gov’t
The twin attacks mounted by suspected insurgents in Thailand’s restive southern provinces this week offer a stark warning to the country’s next government of the unresolved conflict that it will soon inherit.BRAZIL: Land Shortage Provokes Murders of Indigenous People
At least 76 indigenous people were murdered in Brazil in 2007, 58 percent more than in 2006. The killings increased the most in the west-central state of Mato Grosso do Sul, where the Guaraní people are confined to territories too small for them to maintain their traditional way of life.CUBA: Economic Independence for Rural Women
María Valido has stopped thinking of herself as a simple farmer devoted to traditional household chores since becoming involved in an agricultural innovation programme that has changed the lives of hundreds of families in rural regions of Cuba since 2000.MEXICO: Teotihuacan Sun Pyramid in for a Muon Scan
Who ruled the pre-Columbian city of Teotihuacan, in Mexico? Where are their bodies buried, what ethnic group did they belong to, and what kind of political system did they develop? A project to delve into these mysteries is under way, and may start producing answers next year.MEXICO: Army, Paramilitary Build-Up in Zapatista Stronghold
The Zapatista guerrillas and their supporters in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas are experiencing the worst onslaught by state forces in the last 10 years, although most people are unaware of the fact, according to reports from a research centre working in the area.PHILIPPINES: Mindanao Tribals Caught Between Army, Insurgents
The troubles of Ata-Manobo tribal chief Camid Lapindoy mirror the struggle faced by the Lumads (indigenous people of Mindanao) as they walk a line between two opposing armed forces - while enduring poverty, corporate invasion and marginalisation.
COLOMBIA: Black Communities Organise in Country’s Poorest Region
During the "high season" of popular festivals in Colombia’s Chocó region, "pregnant girls as young as 13 start flowing in," says a nursing assistant in the obstetrics department at the hospital of the provincial capital, Quibdó.HEALTH: Native Suicide Surge Rooted in Colonial Traumas
When the spotlight hits Canada for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the event will be promoted with a traditional Inuit "inukshuk" - the official logo for the 2010 Olympic Games.AGRICULTURE-BRAZIL: Still Waiting For Promised Land
In their mud and clay tile house in a camp set up by the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST), Eliana and her husband Eleidimar started the new year with a sense of trepidation. They know that at any moment an order can be issued to evict them from the land they have occupied for almost a decade.PAKISTAN: Bhutto's Murder Rekindles Ethnic Suspicions
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto, leader of the powerful Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and twice prime minister, has pushed to the brink a country already known for regionalism and ethnic suspicion.RIGHTS-CHILE: Mapuche Land Conflict Stained With Blood
An indigenous Mapuche university student was shot and killed Thursday in southern Chile in a confusing incident with the police. In the meantime, an imprisoned activist who is on a hunger strike for the Mapuche cause is at death’s door after 82 days of fasting.MEXICO: A Naked Call for Indigenous Peoples’ Right to Land
Every year, some 300 indigenous people from the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz march naked through the streets of the capital to demand land. But while their unusual form of protest certainly attracts attention, there is little chance that it will achieve their goals.EDUCATION-US: Seminole School Thriving In Florida
Elementary school children in U.S. public schools are preparing for their winter holiday vacations, but at a charter school here on the Seminole Indian Tribe of Florida’s Brighton Reservation, the children are enjoying their education so much that some of them want to keep on attending classes throughout the holidays.
BOLIVIA: Guarayo Indians Struggle to Hold Onto Their Land
The Guarayo indigenous people in eastern Bolivia are losing their land to large landowners. But one woman is heading a social movement to fight the greed of timber companies and agribusiness interests in the area.
GUATEMALA: Waking Up to a Better Coffee
"Before, we didn't know how to market the coffee, or who would buy it in other countries, all we knew about was planting and harvesting," says Guatemalan coffee grower Pablo Pérez.MEXICO: Transgenic Maize Knocking at the Door
Mexico’s first experimental trials of genetically modified maize will take place next year, a government official has announced. The news has put environmental and campesino (small farmer) organisations, still hoping that this will not happen, on the alert.« 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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