Category: Latin America & the Caribbean

By Ryan Mallett-Outtrim* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

CARACAS (IDN | Venezuelanalysis.com) – Two events that defy hawk logic have taken place in the same month. First, on June 5 United States secretary of state John Kerry met with Venezuela’s foreign minister, Elias Jaua, and stated that he had agreed to pursue a more “positive relationship” with Venezuela. Then, just weeks later, Iranians voted in a president who has openly argued against nuclear proliferation.

What happened? Iran and Venezuela’s amiable relationship of the last decade was supposed to be the sum of all fears for Washington. Two “tyrants”, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez, were accused of co-sponsoring all sorts of wild, fantastical plots by Washington’s warmongers. But was the Iran-Venezuela relationship ever about crushing the “free world” by assembling an unholy alliance of druglords, Islamists and socialists, or is there a slightly saner explanation?

By Ted Hewitt* | IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint

LONDON, ONTARIO (IDN) – Much of the global media has focused on the protests occurring throughout Brazil. Almost all have drawn their own conclusions as to the cause of the tumult, and almost all in splendid contradiction. Similarly, there has been an enduring preoccupation in most news reports with the violence and looting associated with all such public demonstrations.

In reality, both the causes and the effects of the Brazilian protests are only poorly understood at this point; and for its part, the violence portrayed in the media has primarily been the exception rather than the rule.

By Paulo Genovese, Pressenza

IDN-InDepth NewsReport

The writer, a member of the Humanist Movement, gives not only a personal account of protests that appeared to have come from nowhere, but also looks behind the scene and beyond.

SAO PAULO (IDN) – Millions of Brazilians have been protesting in the streets since June 6 when students blocked streets in downtown Goiânia, set fire to car tires, threw homemade bombs, and broke windows of police cars.