Biofuels and World Hunger

An opinion from Bolivian researcher Santos Mamani about biofuels and world hunger.

Immigration and Mexico

Maria Gonzáles has worked for more than ten years for the integrated defense of Human Rights in Mexico with an emphasis on political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights. Maria also participates in various networks, coalitions, and movements that work in defense of these rights. She is an activist for popular education and communication which contribute to active citizen participation. In her testimony here, Maria places emphasis on the negative effects of the Free Trade Agreement of North America in Mexico and on the effects of United States immigration policy towards her country.

A Question from Uruguay

US free trade policy in Latin America: My name is Carlos Santos and I am from the network - Friends of the Earth Uruguay. Here I launch a question from Latin America regarding the impacts of free trade policies and the protection of private investments as promoted by the United States within Latin America. The question is for the US governmental candidates.

A Video Question about Coca

No issue has been more contentious between the Bolivia and U.S. over the past decade than the issue of coca. The coca leaf has been a part of Andean civilizations for millennia, from medicinal use to rituals. It is also, when altered through an elaborate chemical process, the raw ingredient to manufacture cocaine.

The U.S. “War on Coca’ in Bolivia has left a stark trail of human rights abuses – from violent forced eradication efforts to the jailings of thousands of innocent people, courtesy of special anti-drug police and prosecutors paid by the U.S. government. Yet illegal drug use in the U.S. continues with little change.

Last November, we submitted a question on the coca issue to the You Tube Republican Presidential Debate. You can see it by clicking on the screen here, or via this link. We encourage readers to share the video with their friends, which you can do by clicking on the small envelope icon below.

The video was created by The Democracy Center staff in Bolivia and filmed and edited by our friends at the School for International Training, Ismael Saavedra, Michael Steiner and Talya Hernandez-Ritter.