A one-day general strike brought Uruguay to a halt on 20 August. It was strong across industry, transport, education, the health service and even in the shops.
One of the striking things about life in Venezuela is the level of passionate political debate. Squares on Sunday mornings fill with people talking about current issues and the way forward for society.
It is impossible to visit Bolivia and not be marked by the heady atmosphere of solidarity and popular political engagement. These elements continue to dominate the mass of the oppressed majority.
Thousands of people took to the streets in Peru last week in a series of strikes and demonstrations against the free market policies of president Alan Garcia.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the Farc, has existed since the late 1940s. But it has rarely received the kind of worldwide attention it has today.
A few weeks ago US presidential hopeful Barack Obama travelled to Miami to speak to the Cuban American Foundation, a right wing organisation much loved by George Bush.
Bolivia is at a crossroads once again. A referendum last weekend on increased autonomy for the country’s largest state had one clear purpose – to undermine the democratically elected government of Evo Morales.
The global crisis over rising food prices continues to grow. Robert Zoellick, head of the World Bank, warned last Sunday that the price rises have put 100 million lives under threat.
Colombia’s government is not just a vicious regime that targets trade unionists and civil activists. It is also George Bush’s key ally in Latin America and on the front line of his intervention in that region.
