Plans for new coal mining in the Sierra de Perijá, the northwestern region of the state of Zulia, Venezuela, were suspended by President Hugo Chávez last year following anti-coal declarations by Chávez and several ministers. The Wayúu, Yukpa, and Barí indigenous communities who would have been displaced by the projects cautiously interpreted the suspension as a temporary sign of relief. But their struggle against coal mining has lasted a quarter of a century and will not conclude until mining concessions are repealed for good.

On May 11, 2008 President Hugo Chávez announced on his weekly Sunday talk show Aló Presidente that Corpozulia, the state-owned development corporation in the oil and mineral-rich state, would acquire 51% of all coal mining projects in the region within two years. Transnational coal companies which already operate in Zulia, such as Carbones de la Guajira, which is controlled by the Chevron-Texaco-owned holding company Inter-American Coal, shall be turned into state-run “socialist” enterprises, the president said. (more…)

This week Radio Diaspora examines the impact of race on the electoral process both in United States and on the impact that it has on the Region.

In the US criminal justice system, the politics of the police, the politics of the courts, the politics of the prison system and the politics of the death penalty are a manifestation of the racism and classism which governs the lives of all of us. Every part of the criminal justice system falls most heavily on the poor and people of color, including the fact that slavery is mandated in prisons by the 13th Amendment of the US constitution. The US didn’t abolish slavery; it just transferred it into the prisons. Prison slavery in the form of involuntary labor is real. Listen as Radio Diapora Talks to Andrea Ritchie and Hakkem Shaeed

Interview with Makani Themba, Ramona Ortega and Paola Mosquera Arce about the history of WCAR Pre and Post 2001.

Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made a brief official visit to Haiti on May 28. During the few hours before he headed off for a tour of Central America, Lula had a private conversation with Haitian president Rene Garcia Preval, took part in a signing ceremony for six agreements (including accords on agriculture, education and women’s rights), and visited the headquarters of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), a 9,000-member military force headed by Brazil.”We have told President Lula to send more police instead of military,” Preval said as the two leaders made statements at the National Palace after their meeting. Lula too played down the military occupation, expressing his “certainty that social, institutional and economic recovery is the only way to avoid new crises in Haiti.” Lula was accompanied by representatives of various Brazilian corporations, including the Odebrecht construction company, the Andrade Gutierrez S.A. industrial group and the Camargo Correa holding company. An unnamed Brazilian company has already received $80 million from the European Development Bank for the first phase of the rebuilding of Haiti’s highways. (more…)

June 20th marks World Refugee Day. The day is intended to focus on the fundamental need for protection. As cited on the United Nations web page, for some, this means economic security; for others, protection is freedom from violence and persecution It is then a day in which, we turn our attention to the millions of refugees who live without material, social and legal protection.

“Around the world women, children and men find themselves disconnected from their homes, their communities and their loved ones because they were forced to flee persecution and injustice in their original homeland, the failure to protect the rights of states to protect the rights of refugees is one of the most egregious, ongoing human rights crisis on the planet” said Ajamu Baraka, Executive Director of the US Human Rights Network.

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