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Peruvian State Protects Mining Company Instead of Citizens: Interview with Mario Tabra Guerrero http://tiny.cc/g9VKX

Is the Peruvian state acting as the transnational corporations' private army? That is the intention, shown by what the last supreme decrees have granted to Newmont company and other corporations: the government gave them 18.000 hectares of moor and cloud forest. The Aprista [party of President Alan García’s] government has practically given up all the Ayabaca mountain range, border between Ecuador and Peru.

First, it was Alejandro Toledo's government with the decrees 022 and 023 (2003); and now Alan Garcia's decree 072 (2009) gave away the sections of the range that remained. This is a serious attack against the environment, in the province where the water spouts out from the plains and goes down the mountains towards Piura. If these mining projects are developed in the highlands, Piura and the provinces north of Cajamarca -like San Ignacio and Jaén- won't have water anymore.

Is that why they threatened to install of a military base in Ayabaca? Exactly. The government started to throw out the idea, aiming at us. It's a trial to see what the towns people would say about the possibility of this installation. It'd be an early test of militarization in Ayabaca, so they can later militarize other zones when resistance against transnational corporations arises. The trial to see if it is possible to militarize and silence Ayabaca has to do with the fact that this is one of the most resistant communities against mining in Peru. If they can get their way here, they can do it in other places. That's the idea

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Blackfire adding threats to injury in Mexico: Canadian mining firm looks to pocket $800 million via NAFTA  http://www.miningwatch.ca/en/blackfire-adding-threats-injury-mexico-canadian-mining-firm-looks-pocket-800-million-nafta-ch-11

A coalition of Canadian organizations is condemning the threatened use of NAFTA by Blackfire Exploration to extract 800 million dollars from the impoverished Mexican state of Chiapas. The Calgary-based mining company is embroiled in accusations of corruption of Mexican public officials and the murder of a prominent environmental activist in the Mexican State of Chiapas.

Now, according to a recent report in the Mexican press, Blackfire is also threatening to sue the government of Chiapas for $800 million in compensation under NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) Chapter 11 for the closure of its barite mine in December 2009.In response to this development Rick Arnold of Common Frontiers states, “You’d think that Blackfire, mired as it is in controversy, would seek to mend fences with the affected communities in Chiapas by offering compensation.

Instead the company is proceeding to bully Mexican public authorities by threatening a mega-million dollar NAFTA Ch. 11 action that the country could ill afford to pay.”REMA members point out that Blackfire has not lived up to its development promises of roads and water storage tanks, and has instead created a negative environmental impact, fostered a climate of threats, murder, and corruption, and further impoverished the local population.

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State Terrorism in the Global South: Foreign Policy, Neoliberalism... By Ruth Blakeley http://tiny.cc/11hOV

This book explores the complicity of democratic states from the global North in state terrorism in the global South. It evaluates the relationship between the use of state terrorism by Northern liberal democracies and efforts by those states to further incorporate the South into the global political economy and to entrench neoliberalism.Most scholarship on terrorism tends to ignore state terrorism by Northern democracies, focusing instead on terrorist threats to Northern interests from illiberal actors. The book accounts for the absence of Northern state terrorism from terrorism studies, and provides a detailed conceptualisation of state terrorism in relation to other forms of state violence.

The book explores state terrorism as used by European and early American imperialists to secure territory, to coerce slave and forced wage labour, and to defeat national liberation movements during the process of decolonisation. It examines the use of state terrorism by the US throughout the Cold War to defeat political movements that would threaten US elite interests. Finally, it assesses the practices of Northern liberal democratic states in the 'War on Terror' and shows that many Northern liberal democracies have been active in state terrorism, including through extraordinary rendition.

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Cuban killer Luis Posada Carriles goes on trial http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-02-25/news/cuban-killer-luis-posada-carriles-goes-on-trial/1

There's ample evidence Posada tried to assassinate a world leader, hatched a plot that killed scores, and dismembered a tourist in a hotel bombing. Yet he is not being tried for any of those offenses, because the government botched the case and shredded critical evidence.

In the end, Posada is being accused of lying to authorities, a slap on the hand that would outrage the nation if he were, for instance, an Arab. But he's Cuban, and that makes all the difference.Even the FBI, which spent millions of dollars over several decades probing Posada's spy work, inexplicably shredded most of its evidence.But the court has essentially rebuffed the attempt, sealing more than 300 documents just this year.The government destroyed much of the evidence.

comment-see article below...

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Trial Against Posada Carriles Postponed Indefinitely http://www.embavenez-us.org/news.php?nid=5275

Everything seems to indicate that the U.S. administration strategy is to prolong, postpone and delay the trial of Luis Posada Carriles until he dies of old age in Miami. The last postponement was last Friday in El Paso. Judge Kathleen Cardone announced that the trial, initially scheduled for March 1, would be postponed indefinitely.  Posada Carriles is an international fugitive with 73 pending murder charges in Caracas. Venezuela formally requested his extradition on June 15, 2005, but Washington has chosen to prosecute him for having made false statements regarding his illegal entry to the United States.

The U.S. attorney’s office has evidence that Posada Carriles entered the country on a boat called Santrina with some of his conspirator friends. Nevertheless, Posada alleged that he had crossed the U.S.-Mexican border on foot when he was 79 years-old, a story nobody believes.To prevent Posada from playing his last valuable card, thus telling all he knows, the U.S. administration has managed to block more than 90 percent of the documents presented in court. The district attorneys, defense attorneys and the judge are the only ones allowed to have access to them. Neither the press nor the audience have had access. Some journalists blame Judge Cardone for not keeping the “case open and clear.”  

Oddly, the secrecy was requested by the U.S. attorney. A judge forcing the government to reveal delicate information that may allegedly damage the nation’s national security is very strange.What is clear is that the true goals of the U.S. attorney are being accomplished. So far the legal process has been secret, and the case continues in a legal limbo without precise trial date. Judge Cardone’s decision announced a hearing for May 20, in which she wants to know the “status” of the case to determine if she can finally schedule a date for the trial.  

comment-also see...Posada Carriles to stay in US: Washington shields CIA terrorist http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/sep2005/posa-s29.shtml

Posada Carriles: The U.S. Double Standard On Terrorism http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/articles/partisan-number-21/596-posada-carriles-the-us-double-standard-on-terrorism

 CIA Operation Mongoose Cubana Flight 455 shot down http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FucAigJIKPg

Kucinich Urges Terrorist Be Returned To Venezuela  http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=62722