Evo Morales was sworn in as Bolivia's president before assembled foreign dignitaries at the congressional building in La Paz Jan. 22, dressed in a sports jacket and white shirt but no tie. One day before, he celebrated with his indigenous supporters at the pre-Columbian ruins of Tiwanaku, dressed in full indigenous regalia, including a head-dress embroidered with the wiphala, symbol of the Quechua-Aymara peoples. This marked the first time that Bolivia's traditional indigenous authorities, known as mallkus (condors), handed over a staff of command and ceremonial vestments to a Bolivian president-elect. (IPS, Jan. 19)

From the AP, via Israel's Ha'aretz, Jan. 22:

CARACAS - Hundreds of Venezuelan intellectuals expressed "shock and consternation" in a public condemnation Saturday of allegedly anti-Semitic remarks made recently by President Hugo Chavez.

The lines are drawn ever more sharply in Latin America. Peru could be the next to join the growing anti-imperialist bloc if the indigenist/populist candidate Ollanta Humala takes the presidency in this year's election. And Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has wasted no time in showing whose side he is on. From Reuters, Jan. 13:

From AP, via the New York Times, Jan. 10:

President-elect Evo Morales of Bolivia met with President Hu Jintao of China in Beijing and called China an "ideological ally," a day after he invited it to develop Bolivia's vast gas reserves. China has been developing links with Latin American nations as sources of fuel and raw materials and as markets for its exports. Mr. Hu promised to encourage "strong and prestigious" Chinese companies to invest in Bolivia, the official New China News Agency reported. On Sunday, Mr. Morales met with Tang Jiaxuan, the Chinese state councilor, and invited China to help with his country's gas industry after he carries out plans to nationalize its reserves.

On Dec. 21, police agents from Chile's militarized Carabineros Special Forces attacked the Mapuche community of Juan Paillalef in Cunco commune in the 9th region (Araucania). The attack came as community members were protesting a decision by the Ministry of Public Works to widen and pave a road through Mapuche land without following required legal procedures. Police used tear gas, clubs and firearms against community members and badly beat lonko (chief) Juana Rosa Calfunao Paillalef; some children were among those injured in the raid.

from Weekly News Update on the Americas

BUENOS AIRES: HOTEL WORKERS ATTACKED

Early on Dec. 8, a delegation of 12 cooperative members from the autonomous worker-controlled Bauen hotel were violently ousted from the Buenos Aires municipal legislature as they sought to attend a debate concerning their dispute with the hotel's former owners. A larger group of Bauen workers had been waiting for eight hours outside the legislature, but when the debate finally began at around 2:30 AM, only 12 of the 60 workers remaining outside were allowed to enter the chambers, even though the sessions are supposed to be open to the public.

from Weekly News Update on the Americas

Residents of the Machiguenga and other indigenous communities of the lower Urubamba river area in Peru's Ucayali region began a 72-hour strike on Dec. 2 to protest the government's failure to address the problems caused by gas spills on the Camisea pipeline. The strike was prompted by a spill of at least 5,000 barrels of condensed liquid gas on Nov. 24 in the Machiguenga Communal Reserve near the Vilcabamba mountain range in Echarati district, which has affected the communities living in the Urubamba and Ucayali river basins. It was the fourth spill from the 430-mile long Camisea pipeline in less than a year. (El Diario del Cusco, Dec. 6 via Amazon Alliance; Dallas Business Journal online version, Dec. 8; Regional Indigenous Organization of Atalaya-OIRA, Nov. 30)

from Weekly News Update on the Americas

The 31 new judges of Ecuador's Supreme Court of Justice were sworn in, along with 21 alternate judges, on Nov. 30 by Carlos Estarellas, president of a four-member commission appointed to choose the magistrates. Ecuadoran president Alfredo Palacio and Organization of American States (OAS) secretary general Jose Miguel Insulza attended the ceremony. Ecuador has had no functional Supreme Court since last April 15, when president Lucio Gutierrez dismissed the entire court and was himself ousted from office five days later. (ENH, Dec. 1 from AFP; MH, Dec. 1 from wire services; AP, Dec. 4)