Latin America Follow

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has announced that a number of multinational metal companies are to be nationalised. This follows the government take over of several oil companies, ports, airports and some food producing firms.

The indigenous peoples of Latin America were once seen as passive and resigned to the exploitation they have suffered for so long.

A left wing candidate has become president of El Salvador in Central America, as part of a sweeping defeat for the right.

Just after 9pm last Sunday a crowd erupted into cries of joy in Venezuela's capital, Caracas. They were gathered on Urdaneta Avenue, the street that runs alongside the presidential palace, and had just heard the announcement that President Hugo Chavez had won a hard-fought referendum on a constitutional amendment.

Last Saturday two marches started in the huge barrio of Petare, in Venezuela's capital Caracas.

Imagine going into work to find a government supporter urging you through a megaphone to "say no to imperialism" and defend "our beautiful revolution".

For a decade global capitalism has suffered setbacks and defeats in the continent where it had been at its most aggressive. Mike Gonzalez argues it is the new forces that have led the resistance which are central to continuing the struggle for a new society.

Sympathetic cinema portraits of great revolutionary figures are rare. So this new film – by Hollywood director Steven Sonderbergh – about Che Guevara, which is released on 1 January, is extremely welcome.

Venezuela went to the polls last Sunday supposedly to elect new state governors and mayors. In reality the election was a confidence vote in left wing president Hugo Chavez.

Colombia’s president Alvaro Uribe bluntly admitted, "Yes, the police fired on the indigenous protesters." This followed several days of attacks by police and the military on the communities of the Cauca region.

On 28 September, more than 60 percent of Ecuador’s population voted to support a new radical "Bolivarian" constitution.

Masked groups of young men smash their way into government offices, burning documents and destroying everything they can find.