by Marie Trigona

A federal court in Argentina has sentenced a former police chief to life in prison for crimes against humanity and for the murder and torture of political dissidents during the 1976-1983 dictatorship. It is the second sentence since an amnesty law was overturned.  

Retired police chief Miguel Etchecolatz, now 77, ran clandestine detention centers in the Buenos Aires province during the military dictatorship. He is the first military officer to be sentenced for crimes against humanity and sentenced to life. In the court room Etchecolatz kissed a crucifix after the sentence was read. Several spectators threw red paint on him and chanted assassin as he was escorted out of the courtroom. Human rights activists and relatives of the disappeared celebrated the verdict and embraced inside and outside the court room in La Plata, 40 kilometers from Buenos Aires. 

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The Latin American and Caribbean Community Center offers an intensive training for individuals and organizations interested in learning how to produce media or sharpen up their existing media skills.  The training workshop will cover issues around alternative media and political activism.

Workshops Include:
Participatory Communication, Global Movements, The ins and outs of Radio Journalism, Radio Production 101, Cultivating a Listening Culture, Interview Workshop, Pop Culture: An Analysis of Mainstream Radio. Plus Film Screening, Participation in Live Radio Show, Networking, and more!!!

Limited to 15 Participants.  Please email info@lacccenter for an application form.

“Welcome to Ascendant Copper, a socially responsible corporate citizen,” states the Canadian mining company’s website.  Ascendant also boasts of being a member of the UN Global Compact. Ironically it was officially accepted into the group on July 12, the same day that several hundred Intag residents marched in Quito to protest the company’s mining project.

The Global Compact is a voluntary initiative developed by the UN to streamline the human rights agenda into the day-to-day practices of global corporations. There is no monitoring or enforcement of declared standards, which relegates the compact to nothing more than a public relations tool for corporations, helping to put a human face on often inhumane business practices, such as those carried out by Ascendant. Read Full Story

A radio ad urging Haitians to reveal illegal weapons caches to the U.S. Embassy has angered politicians and fueled debate on whether the troubled Caribbean nation has become a tacit U.S. protectorate.The embassy denied any attempt on its part to undermine Haiti’s sovereignty but critics say U.S. authorities have appropriated the proper role of the Haitian police.

This week Radio Diaspora will be discussing in its series “Myths of Independence”, the realities around countries being independent when people are not liberated.

Our guests this week includes:

Lucilene Lira

Coordinator of the Annual Summer School for Union Women, the Young Workers in the Labor Movement and many other community and labor activities. She does a good amount of cross-border organizing and solidarity work by supporting resistance and autonomous peasants and indigenous movements, community and labor organizations at the fore front fight against capitalist corporate power. Born and raised on the banks of the Amazon River, Brazil, she participated actively in political and social movement during the 1980s working to support the struggle of river dwellers, fishermen, rubbertappers, landless workers and many rural communities affected by the industrialization of agriculture and rapid deforestation. A worker and union organizer herself, she was and still is a member of the Workers’ Party (PT).

Other guests include Afro Brazilian organizer Raquel de Sousa.

Tune in on Saturday September 8th at 5:00pm EST on WRFG 89.3 (Georgia) or on www.wrfg.org