The Possibilities for Buen Vivir

By Asad Ismi You may have heard the term “Buen Vivir” when it was made part of the constitutions of Bolivia and Ecuador (in 2009 and 2008 respectively), the first countries to give rights to nature. Buen Vivir (BV) is an Indigenous-led philosophy and movement spreading throughout Latin America and beyond that presents an alternative […]

Brazil: Bolsonaro’s Clearcut Populism

Resistance to environmental and social reforms is growing among Indigenous peoples, teachers, students and organized labour “The barbarism has begun,” declared the Pankarurú Indigenous nation after Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s neofascist president, won fraudulent elections in October 2018 amidst accusations of breaking financing rules and shamelessly spreading fake news. The Pankarurú inhabit a northeastern part of […]

Brazil’s Non-Elections: A Crisis of Trust, a Failure of Democracy

By Asad Ismi Former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva was still, at publishing time, the Workers Party (PT) candidate and frontrunner in Brazilian elections scheduled for October 7. This was despite him being sentenced in July to 12 years in prison for what his allies and vast supporter base (June polls put Lula […]

A Nation on the Brink

Mexico Cannot Endure Another PRI Government but Can the Left Really Take the Presidency this Year? By Asad Ismi Since taking office in 2012, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has faced almost constant protests against government corruption, an inability or unwillingness to deal with criminal and official violence in the country, and regressive neoliberal reforms […]