Latin America In Revolt

Public forum

Jeb Sprague, author of the new book ‘Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti’

Roger Annis, coordinator of BC Haiti Solidarity and Canada Haiti Action Network. Author of many reports and articles on Haiti and delegate on several investigative tours of Haiti.

Saturday, September 15

4:00 – 6:00 pm

UVic, David Strong Bldg

Rm C118

Across Latin America, people and communities are rebelling against the encroachment of mining and other mega-industrial developments. Some governments, notably Bolivia, have recently nationalized foreign enterprises deemed to be acting against the national interest.

But economic elites, backed by paramilitaries, are fighting back. In Paraguay, the elected president, Fernando Lugo, was recently pushed out of office for resisting pressure to sell Paraguay’s hydro electricity resources cheaply to Rio Tinto Alcan, one of the world’s largest aluminum producers. Similarly, the 2009 coup in Honduras benefited the corporate elite.

 In Haiti, as the post-earthquake humanitarian crisis continues, the government has declared the country “open for business,” and mining interests have staked claims over a huge part of the national territory.

Sponsored by Victoria Peace Coalition, Mining Justice Action Committee, UVic Social Justice Studies, Central American Support Committee, Friends of Cuba, and the Barnard-Boecker Centre Foundation.

Free Admission.  For more information 250-655-6691.

Jeb Sprague

Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti

In this path-breaking book, Jeb Sprague investigates the contemporary role of right-wing paramilitarism in undermining the democratic aspirations of the Haitian people. Through interviews, declassified government documents, and other sources, Sprague traces connections between paramilitaries and their elite financial and political backers, in Haiti, the United States and the Dominican Republic.

Jeb Sprague is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He received a Project Censored Award in 2008 for an article (coauthored with Haitian journalist Wadner Pierre) from Port-au-Prince, and has written for the Inter Press Service, TeleSUR, Al Jazeera, Z Magazine, NACLA, Haiti Liberté, Haiti Progrès, among numerous journals. This is his first book.

visit his blog at: http://jebsprague.blogspot.com/

and his university website http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~jhsprague/

Roger Annis

As Mining Conglomerates Target Haiti, Latin Americas Rises Against Them

By Roger Annis and Kim Ives, July 18, 2012