Democracy
Chile has finally overcome the Pinochet dictatorship!
Millions of Chileans have been protesting for social concerns for over a year. They called for a new constitution to leave the dark past of the Pinochet dictatorship and regime behind. In a constitutional referendum at the end of October 2020, 78% of the population… »
Luis Arce, President of Bolivia: “Let’s rebuild the country and live in peace”
November the 8th, Luis Arce was declared the new President of Bolivia. During the inauguration ceremony, after being sworn in before the multinational Legislative Assembly, the incoming President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia stated as follows: “On this November 8th, 2020, we are beginning a new stage of our… »
Vote for Land Justice
By Jean Willoughby Voting is such a powerful tool for impacting our communities that it’s often said that “your vote is your voice.” If that statement strikes you as naïve, consider the resources invested in voter suppression in just the past decade, in which partisan and racial gerrymandering reshaped the… »
Bolivia: Democratic Election Processes are not Afraid of Observers from Abroad
This is what every serious citizen thought until he read that, even before the team of observers from PROGRESSIVE INTERNATIONAL set foot in La Paz, Bolivia, in view of the upcoming elections, they were receiving threats. And if the current government, which took power via a coup d’état and canceled… »
How Ecuador’s Democracy Is Being Suffocated
By Vijay Prashad and Pilar Troya / Globetrotter A recent poll showed that if Andrés Arauz Galarza were allowed to run in Ecuador’s presidential election of 2021, he would win in the first round with 45.9 percent of the vote. The pollsters found that Arauz—who was the minister of… »
Top Human Rights Tweets of the Week
Trending rights tweets this week: Five years since Angela Merkel admitted one million refugees to Germany, they have largely been a success story; violent protests erupt in Colombia after a man dies in police custody; a devastating fire breaks out in the refugee hotspot on Lesbos island, Greece; and children power… »
Bells Toll for India’s Diversity and Democracy
Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandaran * August is a month of memories for India with memorable dates redolent of history, freedom and politics. August 15, with that unforgettably evocative ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, is, doubtless, the most important of the dates observed. Inextricably linked to… »
Ecuador: obstacles for Rafael Correa and his party to participate in next year’s elections
On July 20, the National Electoral Council of Ecuador announced the suspension of four political organizations and with it, their inability to participate in next year’s general elections. One of the suspended organizations is Fuerza Compromiso Social, an organization under whose legality the former members and followers of Correa’s former… »
COVID-19 crisis threatens democracy, leading world figures warn
More than 500 political, civil leaders, Nobel Laureates and pro-democracy institutions have signed an open letter to defend democracy, warning that the freedoms we cherish are under threat from governments that are using the crisis to tighten their grip on power. The coronavirus pandemic poses serious threats to democracy. Many… »
U.S. Trails World in Coronavirus Response and Almost Everything Else
Data from around the world on how nations are handling Coronavirus makes clear that, as in most things (this claim is documented below), the United States is exceptionally awful. Among wealthy countries, only Sweden, which has chosen to intentionally allow the disease to spread, has done worse. A handful of countries… »