TELESUR - La presidenta de Brasil, Dilma Rousseff, inicia este lunes una gira por Cuba y Haití para fortalecer los lazos de cooperación con esas naciones. La mandataria se reunirá con su homólogo cubano, Raúl Castro, para firmar acuerdos binacionales en diversas áreas, mientras que en Haití sostendrá un encuentro con autoridades oficiales para conversar sobre la cooperación brasileña con el país más pobre del continente.

Para este martes se prevé que Rousseff realice un homenaje al héroe cubano José Martí en La Habana y luego se reuna con el Mandatario antillano en el Palacio de la Revolución.

En esta visita oficial, la primera que realiza a Cuba, la jefa de Estado también supervisará el proyecto de modernización del Puerto de Mariel, cuya obra ha sido financiada por Brasil por 683 millones de dólaresEste proyecto contribuirá al aumento del intercambio comercial de la isla caribeña.

Asimismo, la presidenta Rousseff conocerá las proyecciones del nuevo modelo económico cubano que fue parte de las conclusiones presentadas el domingo tras la clausura de la Primera Conferencia Nacional del Partido Comunista de Cuba.

Las relaciones económicas de Cuba y Brasil se han intensificado en los últimos años. La nación suramericana se ha convertido en uno de los principales socios en el terreno del comercio y la inversión, de acuerdo a fuentes oficiales.

Entre los años 2006 y 2010, el intercambio comercial entre Brasilia (capital de Brasil) y La Habana, registró un crecimiento de 30 por ciento, al pasar de 376 millones de dólares a 488 millones, según datos oficiales.

Después de su paso por La Habana, Rousseff llegará este miércoles a Puerto Príncipe (capital haitiana) para hablar con el Gobierno haitiano sobre la cooperación de Brasil con la nación caribeña, afectada por unterremoto de magnitud 7,0 que hace dos años dejó 316 mil muertos, 350 mil heridos y más de 1,5 millones de damnificados.

La Mandataria brasileña inspeccionará los proyectos de infraestructura que lleva a cabo en Haití, donde cerca de 500 mil personas aún viven en tiendas de campaña tras el sismo.

Brasil pondrá más énfasis en “acciones de infraestructura y desarrollo económico”, como la construcción de una hidroeléctrica, escuelas y hospitales, informó el canciller brasileño, Antonio Patriota.

Además, supervisará el papel de Brasil en la Misión de Naciones Unidas para la Estabilización de Haití (Minustah), donde la nación suramericana tiene desplegados al menos dos mil 300 efectivos.

Según agencias de noticias internacionales, Rousseff también tratará con las autoridades cubanas la reciente decisión de su Gobierno de exigir visado a los haitianos después de la migración irregular de cuatro mil de ellos desde finales de 2011.

El Gobierno brasileño anunció la regularización de esos migrantes y fijó un límite de mil 200 visas al año para los haitianos, además de las que ya otorga por turismo, estudio y trabajo temporario.

LABOR IS NOT A COMMODITY–More and more women in the global labor rights movement continue to impress us all with their resilience and passionate fight for gender equality in our unions and organizations. In the last few years, women in the banana unions across Latin America have upped the ante. Bananeras, as they are dearly called, have achieved victories we can only dream of in the U.S., including clauses in their union contract that allows them to take a paid day off for a mammogram and/or a pap smear, union-wide campaigns with workshops against domestic violence, as well as union-led campaigns against HIV/AIDS with a focus on reproductive justice and accessibility to healthcare for all women in their communities. Not to mention the fact that ALL local banana unions have a women’s committee.

Well, let’s add another triumph for women everywhere: newly-elected by the Coordination of Latin American Banana Unions, Iris Munguia, General Coordinator of more than 45,000 workers in eight countries across the region! Iris was named coordinator of COLSIBA during its XI Conference in August 2011. She is the first woman to be elected to lead COLSIBA since its founding in 1993. The fact that Iris was elected for this important position illustrates the great progress that unions in Latin America have made regarding the representation of women

I’m sure I don’t speak for myself when I say that Iris is the kind of leader every woman strives to be. Everything about her demeanor says luchadora, yet she emanates so much kindness and wisdom. She’s precise and strategic about her work and how it affects banana and agriculture workers everywhere, especially women workers. She’s a globetrotter unionist and a single mother. And did I mention she has an impeccable fashion sense?

Iris is anything but “new” to the struggles of banana workers in Latin America. Born on a Chiquita banana plantation, Iris began as a rank-and-file worker at the Indiana packing plant in La Lima, Honduras. Her work, fairness, honesty and belligerent defense of the rights of her peers led to her 1994 election as the first-ever female Secretary of her union SITRATERCO (est. 1954). In 1995, Iris’ leadership and advocacy for women’s rights was once again recognized and she was elected Regional Coordinator of the Women’s Committees of COLSIBA. She served as Sub-Coordinator of COLSIBA prior to the 2011 union elections.

– Along with other women unionists from Central America, Iris helped STITCH develop a collaborative women’s leadership training manual to expand its training capacity and systemize its work. The curriculum offers a feminist perspective to training women workers and building their leadership capacity. Completed in 2007, it is still being widely used by COLSIBA and other unions in the region.

As the new general coordinator of COLSIBA, Iris hit the ground running. COLSIBA has organized a global meeting of women workers from the banana sector to be held in Ecuador this February, where women workers are invited to share experiences and discuss how the unions can better support them. It’s expected that these needs will then be shared with all stakeholders at the Second Conference of theWorld Banana Forum. The World Banana Forum (WBF) is the voice for the global banana sector, convening leaders from the entire supply chain. No other platform brings together all the players – workers and producers, multinationals, retailers, certifying bodies, researchers, NGOs, governments and UN agencies– in common pursuit of a more sustainable banana sector.

At a time when the banana sector faces one of its largest threats in history as its unionization rate declines, it is more important than ever for U.S. consumers to stay up to date on the struggles of banana workers and their unions in Latin America. After all, nearly all bananas consumed in the U.S. come from plantations in Latin America and bananas continue to be the most profitable item sold by grocery stores.

Supermarkets like Wal-Mart are now working as wholesalers, buying their bananas directly from non-unionized independent producers. In the race to the bottom, unionized banana plantations- who pay better wages, provide healthcare and other benefits- cannot compete with the low sale prices of non-unionized banana plantations. Fair trade certified bananas have recently become a hot commodity (even the multinational corporation Dole has a line of FT bananas sold in the U.S.) and while they may meet the environmental certifications necessary, most come from non-unionized plantations where workers are not provided with benefits nor paid wages similar to those of a worker from a unionized plantation. Boycott bananas? Our partners on the ground have not called for an international boycott of bananas, and actions like these ultimately further affect banana workers and their unions without calling attention to the real problems.

Doesn’t a union label for bananas and other produce sound great right about now? Unfortunately, we’ve got a long way to go until that happens. In the meantime, enjoy your bananas, but don’t forget about the nearly 300,000 workers who made it possible for you to buy bananas at your local grocery. Support the development and sustainability of stronger banana unions and their women’s committees. Follow and support the struggles and victories of Iris and COLSIBA in 2012. Demand higher standards and benefits for workers from the fair trade movement. Continue to stand up to Wal-Mart, Dole, and other companies that continue to depreciate the rights of workers in the global economy. Talk to your state representatives about the need for new trade rules and the negative affects of current trade agreements being felt by all workers. It’s an uphill battle, but a battle we can win through real solidarity.

AL JAZEERA – Dozens of drug traffickers have opened fire on Brazilian soldiers who were patrolling a slum in Rio de Janeiro in an attempt to regain control of the massive Alemao favela, authorities said.

A 15-year-old girl was killed and at least 16 people were reported injured during the shooting on Tuesday which broke out around 7pm local time.

Hundreds of soldiers were sent into the community of around 100,000 people to prevent a gang from a neighbouring slum to take over the community police units set up in several points across the favela. Brazilian media reported that around 50 drug heavily armed traffickers from a nearby slum raided police units and shot at street lamps, leaving many streets in the dark.

An unidentified woman, the aunt of the girl who was shot in the head and died during the raid, complained about the lack of security a police operation in the area last year.

“I’m very angry because I was born and raised here and no one in my family has ever been killed in shootings and now that it has been pacified I’m seeing one of them be killed,” she said.

“Where is the state? Where are the authorities.”

The woman said Ana Lucia da Silva, 15, was arriving from school when she was killed by stray bullet.

The Alemao slum is the second of many slums that were retaken by Rio police following weeks of widespread violence caused by gangs who had gone on the rampage, setting fire to around 100 cars and buses in the city that will host the 2016 Olympic Games.

Occupying the Alemao slum was the biggest challenge yet for security forces that have been engaged in pushing drug gangs out of slums and installing permanent community police to pacify the crime-ridden favelas.

Brazilian authorities are struggling to pacify Rio before it hosts the finals of the 2014 World Cup and the
Olympic Games of 2016.

TELESUR – La Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU) anunció este lunes que abrió dos expedientes para investigar los casos de explotación sexual a niños haitianos en los que están involucrados varios miembros de la Minustah; cuerpo policial del organismo multiestatal desplegado en Haití en una Misión de Estabilización.

La información fue confirmada ante la prensa por el portavoz de las Naciones Unidas, Martin Nesirky, quien declaró que se trata de dos denuncias de “explotación sexual y abuso de menores”.

El vocero precisó que una de las dos querellas es contra agentes policiales de la ONU que tienen su base en la capital, mientras que la otra es contra “uno o más miembros” de la fuerza policial del organismo en Gonaives, al norte de Haití.

También dijo que “los agentes acusados han sido apartados de sus funciones para reducir cualquier contacto con la población local mientras dure la investigación”.

Aunque Nesirky limitó la información sobre la nacionalidad de los policías involucrados en este nuevo escándalo, la ONU afirmó que “está indignada por estas acusaciones y acepta la responsabilidad de hacerles frente de manera extremadamente seria”.

Asimismo, agregó que ya se ha informado de las denuncias a los países de los que provienen los agentes policiales, aunque destacó que, a diferencia de los casos de abusos en los que está involucrado personal militar, la respuesta a las acusaciones sobre personal policial es “responsabilidad de las Naciones Unidas”.

“La Minustah dará pasos para apoyar a las supuestas víctimas”, sentenció.

Estos dos casos de abusos a menores, anunciados el pasado 16 de enero, se conocen meses después de que cinco marinos uruguayos integrantes de la Minustah fueran procesados y encarcelados por la Justicia militar de su país por la presunta violación de un joven haitiano.

El caso también generó polémica debido a que el momento pleno del abuso fue publicado en un video grabado con teléfono móvil y difundido por Internet, en el que se muestra a cuatro de los cinco involucrados (el quinto es quien las tomó) burlándose de un joven al que mantienen tumbado boca abajo en un colchón, mientras uno de ellos se coloca detrás de él con el torso desnudo.

Ante tales antecedentes, el papel de la Minustah en Haití ha sido cuestionado en varias oportunidades que no sólo hacen referencia a violencia sino a hurto.

En el 2010, soldados de este grupo arremetieron contra centenares de haitianos que esperaban su turno para recibir alimentos mediante un cupón que repartían equipos de esta organización internacional.

TELESUR-El Gobierno de El Salvador confirmó este miércoles la creación de una comisión especial que se encargará de revisar la historia de la Fuerza Armada en la pasada guerra civil (1980-1992), a fin de certificar la cantidad de violaciones de Derechos Humanos (DD.HH.) que se cometieron durante ese período.

Así lo confirmó el ministro de Defensa de El Salvador, Atilio Benítez, quien ratificó que la acción es en respuesta a una solicitud presentada el pasado lunes por el presidente de ese país, Mauricio Funes.

“El señor Presidente nos ha instruido a revisar los textos, la historia de acuerdo a lo que él dio en su discurso, hemos conformado esta comisión con personal del Consejo Académico de la Escuela (Militar), que por cierto es una de las creaciones de los acuerdos de Paz”, declaró Benítez en rueda de prensa.

Posteriormente, fuentes oficiales indicaron que entre los miembros de la comisión estarán el analista de derecha Joaquín Samayoa, el ahora director del Organismo de Inteligencia del Estado (OIE), Ricardo Perdomo, el rector de una universidad privada, César Calderón, y militares de distintas especialidades.

“Esa comisión atenderá las instrucciones que ha dado el presidente y de acuerdo a lo que él determine, eso es lo que se va a ejecutar”, concluyó.

Este lunes, Funes ordenó la revisión de la historia de la institución castrense al conmemorar el vigésimo aniversario de los acuerdos de paz, que pusieron fin a la guerra civil.

El evento fue conmemorado con un acto de desagravio realizado en el caserío El Mozote, unos 200 km al noreste de San Salvador.

Tras reconocer la responsabilidad del Estado en esta masacre, Funes pidió al Ejército que revise su propia interpretación de la historia “a la luz de este reconocimiento”.

Asimismo, el mandatario dijo que no se puede “seguir enarbolando y presentando como héroes” de la institución y del país a jefes militares que estuvieron vinculados a graves violaciones a los derechos humanos.

DEMOCRACY NOW -On the 10th anniversary of when the United States began detaining terror suspects at its Guantánamo Bay military base in Cuba, we speak with a former prisoner and the ex-chief U.S. prosecutor, who both call for the Obama administration to close the base. “People are locked up in isolation camps… People lost their hands, lost their eyes, lost their limbs,” says Omar Deghayes, who was arrested in Pakistan as a terror suspect and held in U.S. custody from May 2002 until December 2007, most of that time at Guantánamo. “Some people were subjected to sleep deprivation. They weren’t allowed to sleep… And they had to live under those conditions for six years … without being convicted of any crime, which is the most unacceptable thing.” Asked if prisoners were tortured at Guantánamo, Air Force Colonel Morris Davis, the former chief prosecutor at the military prison, answers, “I don’t think there’s any doubt.” Davis resigned his position in 2007 in protest of what he called political interference in the military commissions of Guantánamo prisoners. “In many of the cases, we had evidence independent of that [torture] that was sufficient to establish guilt. But to use torture to gain intelligence and then also to turn around and use that as evidence in an American court is just not consistent with American principles,” Davis says. SEE VIDEO/ORIGINAL ARTICLE

ALJAZEERA-A prosecutor in Uruguay has said he may have to shelve an abuse case against six UN peacekeepers accused of raping a young Haitian man because authorities cannot get the alleged victim to testify.

However, the man told the Associated Press news agency on Monday that no one had ever asked him to.

“They know where to find me,” the 19-year-old man told an AP reporter who reached him by cellphone. “If they take me, I will go.”

Al Jazeera’s Andy Gallacher, reporting form the Haitian capital, Port-Au-Prince, said that “it looks like that the Uruguayan prosecutors are looking for an excuse to bury this prosecution”.

“They say they can’t get hold of him. So it is a real breakdown of communication and something that will add more frustration and more anger to that relationship between the UN troops on the ground here in Haiti and the Haitian people.”

The former peacekeepers were freed last week pending a military trial on charges of violating rules against fraternising with civilians inside military bases.

A separate investigation into abuse charges is being conducted by a civilian criminal court, but can only go to trial with the man’s co-operation, prosecutor Eduardo Fernandez Dovat said.

Jorge Menendez, Uruguay’s vice minister of defence, said last week that authorities had tried repeatedly to obtain the man’s testimony, either by bringing him to Uruguay or having him answer questions remotely.

Compensation

They say they haven’t heard from him since his lawyer demanded a $5m settlement, which Uruguayan authorities said was not possible.

Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro, Uruguay’s defence minister, who together with Uruguayan President Jose Mujica apologised to Haiti for the incident, said earlier that Uruguay would compensate the alleged victim.

The six Uruguayan marines were expelled from Haiti in September and jailed at home while military and civilian prosecutors investigated allegations that the man had been raped after his peacekeeper friends invited him inside their base in Port Salut, Haiti.

Mobile phone video footage of the alleged incident, apparently filmed by one of the soldiers, was widely circulated in the town.

The soldiers initially called it a prank that got out of hand, but it angered many Haitians, and gave ammunition to those who have been demanding a departure by the UN mission, known as MINUSTAH.

The alleged victim has moved to Haiti’s capital from Port Salut, but he told AP that authorities in Haiti could easily locate him. He said he was willing to talk, as soon as he was asked to do so.

Word of the peacekeepers’ release prompted fresh declarations of outrage on Monday by human rights activists in Haiti.

“It is hard to think of a stronger rape case” said Mario Joseph, an attorney with the International Lawyers Bureau.

“The perpetrators documented it on their cellphone. Yet the UN still denied it happened at first. Under public pressure, MINUSTAH promised justice, but did not deliver it.”

Dovat, the Uruguayan prosecutor, insisted that from the video itself, it would be impossible to prove the man was sexually penetrated, and that if he doesn’t testify, the case will have to be dropped.

General Julio Halty, the president of Uruguay’s Supreme Military Tribunal, told AP on Monday that a military verdict was expected by March or April.

TELESUR-El Gobierno de Ecuador manifestó este martes su apoyo al programa nuclear que está desarrollando Irán con fines pacíficos. La nación suramericana subrayó que el país oriental “cuenta con una política de paz” y recalcó su interés en fortalecer las relaciones binacionales.

En declaraciones divulgadas por prensa oficial, el canciller de Ecuador, Ricardo Patiño, defendió el derecho de Irán a impulsar un programa nuclear con objetivos pacíficos.

En este sentido, el Canciller ecuatoriano, cuyo país es miembro de la Junta de Gobernadores de la Agencia Internacional de la Energía Atómica (AIEA), resaltó que así como debe respetarse la soberanía de Irán, también debe hacerse con la autonomía de sus decisiones.

“Debe respetarse la soberanía, las decisiones autónomas de los países sobre su economía, su modelo político, también el derecho al uso pacífico de la energía nuclear”, manifestó Patiño.

El Canciller fue apoyado por el subsecretario para Asia, África y Oceanía del ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Rafael Quintero, quien agregó que “Irán, como cualquier otro país, tiene derecho a desarrollar energía nuclear con fines pacíficos”.

“La AIEA no ha podido recopilar evidencia de que el plan (iraní) tenga el fin de desarrollar armas nucleares”, añadió Quintero.

Las declaraciones son dadas en el marco de la visita por América Latina que lleva a cabo el presidente de Irán, Mahmud Ahdmadineyad; cuyo par ecuatoriano, Rafael Correa, ha expresado el deseo del fortalecimiento de vínculos bilaterales.

Avances en intercambios

Según fuentes oficiales, el gobernante iraní llegará este jueves a Ecuador por la provincia costeña de Guayaquil (centro), desde donde se trasladará a Quito (capital) para encontrarse con Correa y sostener un encuentro con el presidente de la Asamblea Nacional, Fernando Cordero.

La agenda prevista para el diálogo entre ambos mandatarios permitirá avanzar en el intercambio bilateral que sostienen los dos países en diversas esferas.

Ahdmadineyad estará acompañado en su visita oficial por una delegación que incluye a los ministros de Energía, Finanzas, Industrias, Minas y Comercio, entre otros.

Actualmente, Irán y Ecuador mantienen un flujo comercial de productos en el campo de la salud, tecnología y la industria. No obstante, para esta visita, Ricardo Patiño afirmó que se abren perspectivas para la prospección de hidrocarburos y la agricultura.

“Se analizan nuevas posibilidades, por lo que espera resultados con la estancia de Ahdmadineyad y su comitiva en Ecuador, como parte de una gira por varios países de la región”, indicó el diplomático.

Del mismo modo, aseguró que productos ecuatorianos están llegando a territorio iraní a través de países vecinos, debido al bloqueo económico y comercial contra la nación oriental.

(Telesur)El Partido Nacional del Pueblo (PNP), encabezado por Portia Simpson Miller, ganó este jueves las elecciones legislativas anticipadas realizadas en Jamaica, al alcanzar 41 de los 63 escaños en el Parlamento, lo que equivale a un 65 por ciento del Congreso.

La líder del partido opositor, Portia Simpson Miller, ejercerá durante los próximos cuatro años el cargo de Primer Ministro.

La tolda política del actual Jefe de Estado Andrew Holnes, el Partido Laborista de Jamaica (JLP, por su sigla en inglés) sólo obtuvo 22 asientos.Al conocerse los primeros cómputos, en horas de la madrugada del viernes, los simpatizantes del PNP comenzaron a llegar al cuartel general del partido, para celebrar el triunfo de cada nueva banca parlamentaria.

En tanto, Holness, de 39 años de edad, aceptó la derrota y expresó: “El pueblo de Jamaica ha hablado (…) Le deseo lo mejor al nuevo gobierno. Hay desafíos que enfrentarán, desafíos que tenemos bastante en cuenta. Esperamos, por el beneficio del país y para el interés del pueblo de Jamaica, que hagan un buen trabajo”.

Tras la victoria, Simpson, quien centro su campaña en la lucha contra el crimen, la corrupción y la pobreza, prometió más transparencia en su gestión.

“Ustedes sabrán todo. No les esconderemos nada. Ahora ustedes tienen un gobierno en el que pueden confiar”, precisó, al tiempo que se comprometió a formar “una sociedad con ustedes, el pueblo jamaiquino, con el sector privado, con los medios y con la sociedad civil”.

Simpson Miller, cuyo partido estuvo en el poder entre 1989 y 2007, fue la primera mujer en ocupar brevemente el puesto de Primer Ministro de Jamaica, en 2006, tras la renuncia de Percival James Patterson. Sin embargo, un año más tarde perdería frente a Bruce Golding.

El ex primer ministro Golding dimitió a su cargo en septiembre pasado, luego de la polémica surgida por la mala gestión de la extradición a Estados Unidos del presunto barón de las drogas jamaicano, Christopher “Dudus” Coke, en mayo de 2010.

El arresto de Dudus provocó violentos enfrentamientos en la capital del país, Kingston, entre la policía y el ejército, por un lado, y los seguidores de “Dudus”, por el otro. Esto obligó al Estado a decretar estado de emergencia tras la muerte de, al menos, 76 personas.

El nuevo Gobierno deberá enfrentar deuda que ronda alrededor del 130 por ciento del Producto Interior Bruto, con un desempleo del 12,9 por ciento y que depende enormemente del turismo, fuente de ingresos bastante mermada actualmente debido al índice de violencia, uno de los más altos del mundo.

(IPS) – “We need to be the ones to provide the answers to the questions of our times, because we are the main victims of the voracious policies of capitalism,” says Alexis Jiménez, a 23-year-old ethnologist who has spent the last two months camping out in front of the Mexico City Stock Exchange.

A native of the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca and an active participant in social struggles since 2006, Jiménez is now part of a pacifist movement headed up by poet Javier Sicilia, aimed at demanding a change in the military security strategy adopted by the government of conservative Mexican President Felipe Calderón.

On Oct. 15, he and a group of other young Mexicans joined the global Indignados/Occupy movement of protesters who are “indignant” over the effects of the economic policies that have led to the profound crisis affecting much of the world, and particularly the countries of the North.

“My family is ready to disown me because I didn’t go home for Christmas, but we need to be here,” Jiménez told IPS during a long conversation, surrounded by mice, on a cold Mexico City night.

The camp, set up on the main avenue of the Mexican capital, has attracted young people aligned with a wide diversity of causes, including anarchists, environmentalists, pacifists and members of the Movement for National Regeneration, led by leftist former presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Most are university students, but there are also staff members from the Mexican Senate, located nearby, a reporter from a local newspaper whose employers have forbidden him from appearing in any protest-related photographs or interviews, and a chef from a major downtown hotel, who asked to take holiday leave in order to serve as the camp’s official cook.

But not everyone stays. Mexico City’s “indignant” movement is a floating population largely connected through online social networks, with its base in two protest camps.

One is the camp outside the Mexico City Stock Exchange, where activities have a decidedly political slant, and visitors have included renowned academics like philosopher Enrique Dussel and Edgardo Buscaglia, a United Nations adviser on security issues.

The other has been set up in the Coyoacán district of Mexico City, historically a neighbourhood of artists and intellectuals. Here the activities are more “playful” and creative, such as the development of a barter-based system.

“We are trying to build organisational alternatives where the power truly lies with the citizens,” mechatronic engineer Miguel Barousse, 26, told IPS at the Coyoacán camp. “We don’t handle money, we only accept donations in kind, and we try to keep the camp clean and orderly.”

In Mexico there are more than seven million young people who neither work nor study, and of these, 78 percent are women, according to figures from the ministries of education and labour.

Mexico has the third highest rate of unemployment among people aged 15 to 29, after Turkey and Brazil, among all the member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) – which groups the world’s industrialised nations – according to the OECD report Education at a Glance 2011, released in September.

But unemployment and a lack of educational opportunities are not the only problems faced by Mexican youth. They are also disproportionately affected by the wave of violence sweeping across Mexico.

Reports from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography reveal that the number of male homicide victims aged 15 to 29 increased 154 percent between 2007 and 2009, while the number of women murdered rose by 89 percent.

Although these figures do not capture the even higher number of violent deaths recorded in more recent years, they nevertheless rank homicide as the main cause of death for Mexicans in this age bracket, far ahead of motor vehicle accidents, the second leading cause.

It is realities like these that have led young Mexicans to begin to organise. Some have done so spontaneously, like Aldo García, a 24-year-old history student who got together with a group of friends to travel around to different city squares and collect proposals. Their method is simple: they set up a blackboard and ask people to write an idea or proposal, then take a photo of it and post it on social network sites.

“The idea is to collect as many pictures as we can and then display them in street exhibitions,” García told IPS while passing through Mexico City, where he was photographing a group of young people gathered at the Monument to the Revolution.

The subjects of his photos were members of the México Toma la Calle (Occupy Mexico) collective, which was formed before Oct. 15 and organises activities such as public “hug days”.

“We want people out on the streets to interact, not just to consume,” explained a young woman from the collective’s media team, who asked to be identified, like the other members, as the character created for the media: “Tomás Calles” (Occupy Streets), a play on words based on the name of the group itself.

“There is massive indignation, which isn’t expressed through mobilisation, a time bomb that hasn’t exploded, in large part because the media have succeeded in getting into people’s heads and fragmenting efforts,” said another group member.

As part of this movement, on Nov. 26 and 27 dozens of university students, campesino (peasant farmer) representatives, trade unionists and human rights activists gathered in Mexico City to define a strategy for joint actions.

The so-called Youth Camp on the National Disaster and Emergency issued a declaration which established two main priorities: the strengthening of social movements in all regions and the creation of their own media.

“It is up to us not to replicate the practices and means that have blocked social change,” the declaration states.

“We recognise as a basic form of coordination and forging links with local populations the occupation of public spaces to draw the community into debates, using the tools of popular education and liberating art to generate active hope, as an engine of human happiness,” it adds.

The murder of two students in the southern state of Guerrero at the hands of the police and the discovery of the bodies of four high school students reported missing in Jalisco were a dramatic illustration of the threats faced by young protesters in this country.

“It’s not easy. We’re used to following figureheads, so it’s hard to understand a horizontal movement without leaders, where all decisions are made by consensus. But this is a process, and one we hope will continue to grow and multiply,” said Barousse at the camp in Coyoacán.