articles-july 09

Peru's indigenous peoples reawakening to power of social protest

BY TYLER BRIDGES AND CARLA N'NAN BASS
Knight Ridder Newspapers

ILAVE, Peru - (KRT) - For 23 days and nights, Aymara Indians filled the town square in freezing weather to demand the ouster of a mayor they said had stolen the public's money.

On the 24th day, a mob pulled Mayor Cirilo Robles from a house, dragged him through the streets and finally beat him to death in the square.

Lost in the headlines of that brutal act in Ilave, Peru, was the rare Aymara protest, the latest sign of the growing activism by the large indigenous populations in the Andean nations of Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. This political awakening threatens the countries' elected presidents and the traditional ruling elites descended from Spanish colonizers. full article


Bury the Truth at Wounded Knee
Dennis Banks's new memoir - and the murder that won't go away
Bury the Truth at Wounded Knee

By Mike Mosedale

Before the Indian civil rights movement, before the Hollywood friendships and the movie auditions, before the FBI shootouts and the fugitive years, before the murder of an idealistic young activist--before all of this, there was a 31-year-old ex-con who was tired of getting arrested at bars. It was 1968 and Dennis Banks, outraged by the abuse of Native Americans at the hands of the Minneapolis police, was determined to do something. His early efforts were pretty modest. After an organizational meeting in the basement of a run-down church, Banks and a ragtag crew of tough young natives painted three old cars bright red. They then donned identical red berets, got their hands on some walkie-talkies, and started patrolling the streets of south Minneapolis. Their goal: to police the police.

In those days, as Banks tells the story, the cops routinely raided the Indian bars along Franklin Avenue, where they'd fill their arrest quotas by indiscriminately rounding up patrons on drunk-and-disorderly charges. Banks figures he was personally caught in such dragnets about 25 times. So sometimes Banks and his partners would spend their evenings standing guard outside the saloons. If they saw cops coming, they would rush inside and alert the customers of an impending raid. If they were too late, they would use cameras to document the arrests. full article

On their way to Panama

Dozens of Native Americans pass through SLO County on a journey to reconnect with their roots
Serena Daniels

The Tribune
SAN LUIS OBISPO - Dozens of American Indians from throughout the West Coast made stops in San Luis Obispo County on Thursday as they continued a spiritual run that began in Alaska and will end in Panama City, Panama.

Participants in the fourth Peace and Dignity Run, an indigenous spiritual journey that takes place every four years, made stops in Templeton and at Cuesta College Thursday in their second month of running. full article


Congressman blasted for ties to Guatemala

By MOLLY PARKER

Of the Journal Star

PEORIA - U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller should denounce his Guatemalan fiance's father as an evil dictator before the congressman ties the knot, his opponent, Tari Renner, said through a spokesman Thursday.

Weller, R-Morris, announced plans Tuesday to marry Guatemalan Congresswoman Zury Rios Sosa following the November election. Both will remain residents of their perspective countries and travel to see one another.

Her father, former Gen. Effrain Rios Montt, became Guatemala's president for a year after a 1982 military coup, in the midst of a civil war that had raged in that country since 1960.

According to a U.S. Department of State profile of the country, "Rios Montt's brief presidency was probably the most violent period of the 36-year internal conflict, which resulted in about 200,000 deaths of mostly unarmed indigenous civilians." full article

WA scientists make germination breakthrough
By Holly Nott
09jul04
WEST Australian scientists have become the first in the world to isolate and identify a potent molecule of smoke that stimulates seed germination. The discovery is said to be one of the most significant advances in seed sciences.

The research, published today in the international journal Science, has potential application world-wide for the agricultural and horticultural industries.

Scientists from the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority, in collaboration with the University of Western Australia and Murdoch University, carried out the research.

Dr Dixon said scientists realised about 15 years ago what indigenous Africans had known for centuries:(emphasis mine) that the smoke from burning plant material promoted germination of some seeds of plant species. full article

The Lie That Will Not Die
Cheney and the Iraq / al-Qaeda Link
By GARY LEUPP

In this context, Vice President Cheney, even more (and more creatively) than President Bush, defends the indefensible war against Iraq, pursuing the original immediate post 9-11 strategy of linking Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. He says it over and over again, in steady, studied, weariedly impatient tones: We know. We have so much evidence! So much overwhelming evidence of longstanding official contacts between al-Qaeda and Iraq. The irresponsibility and laziness of the media, he avers (alluding to what has in fact been criminally complicit mainstream journalism), has denied the American people information that would better establish the connection (which, in fact, in the real world, bogus journalism and political hype has consistently ingrained in the impressionable public mind). Cheney knows that tendentious talk, plus racist predispositions, persuaded the majority long ago that Saddam Hussein, in some way, attacked the U.S. on 9-11. He knows that all the efforts of reasonable humans since to challenge this idiotic falsity have failed to educate a population usefully vulnerable to (officially deplored) Islamophobia. The ignorance is useful, since it allows millions disinclined to sort through all the complicated facts to merely conclude: Saddam and bin Laden both hated the USA. That's the link. And of course their evilness connects them, as evil connects everything not American. full article

The October Surprise?

by William S. Lind
Shortly before I left Washington for the summer (in the good old days whose passing I regret, few stayed in Washington in summertime), my informal intelligence network gave me an interesting report: Iran was beginning to mass troops on the Iran-Iraq border. Did this portend overt Iranian intervention in Iraq? I said I didn't think so. Events in Iraq are not unfavorable to Iran, and the risks of direct intervention would be great.

However, there is a potential situation that could lead to Iranian intervention: if it were in response to an American-Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. Such an attack may very well be on the agenda as the "October Surprise," the distraction George Bush desperately needs if the debacle in Iraq is not to lead to his defeat in November. full article