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German Court Tosses Farmer's Case But Climate Groups Cheer 'Remarkable Precedent'
"This historic judgment lays the next building block in corporate climate accountability," said Jasper Tuelings of the Climate Litigation Network.
May 28, 2025
After a decade of legal proceedings, a German court on Wednesday dismissed a Peruvian farmer's case against energy giant RWE, but both he and green groups still hailed what they called a "landmark ruling" that launched a "new era of accountability" by "setting a powerful precedent."
The farmer, 44-year-old Saúl Luciano Lliuya, grows barley, corn, potatoes, and wheat outside Huaraz, Peru. In 2015, he sued RWE—one of Europe's biggest climate polluters—in Essen, Germany, where the company is headquartered. Although the German utility doesn't operate in Luciano Lliuya's country, he argued that its emissions contributed to the melting of Andean glaciers.
"He said that as a result, Lake Palcacocha—which is located above the city—now has four times as much water than in 2003 and that residents like him were at risk of flooding, especially if blocks of ice were to break off from Palcacocha glacier and fall into the lake, causing it to overflow," according to the BBC. The farmer sought around €17,000, or $19,000, from RWE toward a $3.5 million project to protect Huaraz.
As Reuters reported Wednesday:
Presiding judge Rolf Meyer, at the court in the western city of Hamm, said experts' estimate of the 30-year damage risk to the plaintiff's house of 1% was not enough to take the case further.
Had there been a larger adverse effect, a polluter could have been made to slash emissions or pay damages, Meyer said.
Meyer said the plaintiff's case was argued coherently and that it was "like a microcosm of the world's problems between people of the southern and the northern hemisphere, between the poor and the rich."
"Today the mountains have won," Luciano Lliuya said in a Wednesday statement. "Even if my case doesn't go any further, it has reached an important milestone, and that makes me proud. This ruling shows that the big polluters driving the climate can finally be held legally responsible for the harm they have caused."
"I am, of course, disappointed that the court reached a different conclusion from the glacier scientists who have studied this region for decades and believe my home is at risk," he continued. "We won't receive support from RWE to protect us from the flood risk. But this case was never just about me. It was about all the people who, like us in Huaraz, are already living with the consequences of a crisis we did not create. This ruling opens the door for others to demand justice."
The farmer's lawyer, Roda Verheyen, also framed the decision as a major step forward, saying that "today's ruling is a milestone and will give a tailwind to climate lawsuits against fossil fuel companies, and thus to the move away from fossil fuels worldwide. The plaintiff is grateful to the German courts for the seriousness with which his case was treated."
Other advocates and experts similarly weighed in. Ecojustice climate director Charlie Hatt declared that "this is a historic moment for climate litigation," while University of Oxford professor Thom Wetzer said that "this decadelong case has borne fruit," setting "a remarkable precedent that could enable future cases."
Jasper Tuelings, a strategic adviser with Climate Litigation Network, said that "this historic judgment lays the next building block in corporate climate accountability. Last year's Shell ruling showed us that big polluters have a legal obligation to reduce their future emissions in line with the Paris agreement—today's ruling affirms that these companies can be held accountable for their past emissions too."
The era of major polluters not having to pay for the environmental harms they cause is over. The case between Saul, a Peruvian farmer, and RWE, an energy giant, has shifted the landscape of climate justice. There are over 40 similar ongoing cases. Accountability is coming #SaulvsRWE
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— Friends of the Earth International (@foeint.bsky.social) May 28, 2025 at 8:10 AM
RWE, meanwhile, said in a statement that "the decision of the Hamm Higher Regional Court means that the attempt, supported by German NGOs, to use Mr Luciano Lliuya's lawsuit to create a precedent for holding individual companies responsible for the effects of climate change worldwide under German law has failed."
"RWE has always considered such civil 'climate liability' to be inadmissible under German law," RWE added, warning of "unforeseeable consequences for Germany as an industrial location," and noting that "other German courts have dismissed similar climate lawsuits—for example against Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW."
Despite the company's comments, climate advocates appeared undeterred. Sebastien Duyck, a senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law, said that "Saul's breakthrough opens up a well of opportunities for the more than 40 similar cases ongoing. It makes it more likely that those living at the sharp edge of climate change, such as Saul and his community, can succeed in holding heavy emitters to account for the damage they cause."
Friederike Otto, a senior lecturer at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, highlighted how science has evolved since Luciano Lliuya's case began a decade ago, which could impact ongoing and future legal proceedings.
"The science is absolutely clear... Human-induced climate change is already affecting weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe," Otto said, citing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. "This includes Saul's city of Huaraz and RWE contributed without any doubt to climate change."
"The precedent that this case has set underlines just how important scientific evidence is in the global fight against climate change," Otto added. "Since the case was filed 10 years ago, scientists have developed a large body of evidence showing how much companies and states can be held responsible for climate disasters. This is therefore a landmark moment for climate justice, ensuring that communities living in constant danger can hold carbon majors to account."
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2025 Goldman Prize Winners 'Serve as Powerful Reminders of What Is Possible'
"There's so much that worries us, stresses us, outrages us, and keeps us divided," said one foundation leader. "However, for me, these environmental leaders and teachers... are the antidote."
Apr 21, 2025
Seven grassroots Earth defenders from around the world were announced on Monday as the 2025 Goldman Environmental Prize winners.
"It's been a tough year for both people and the planet," said Jennifer Goldman Wallis, vice president of the Goldman Environmental Foundation, in a statement. "There's so much that worries us, stresses us, outrages us, and keeps us divided. However, for me, these environmental leaders and teachers—and the global environmental community that supports them—are the antidote."
"If we apply the same passion and logic that we use in the protection of our own families to our broader communities and ecosystems, then we will win," she continued. "In these difficult times for environmental activists, these seven individuals serve as powerful reminders of what is possible through determination, resilience, and hope."
Since 1989, the foundation has awarded the annual prize to individuals from the world's six inhabited continental regions "for sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance the natural environment, often at great personal risk."
Africa: Semia Gharbi of Tunisia
Gharbi, a 57-year-old scientist and environmental educator, led a campaign against a corrupt waste trafficking scheme between Italy and Tunisia that led to the arrest of over 40 people from both countries and stronger European Union export rules.
Asia: Batmunkh Luvsandash of Mongolia
After being born to a nomadic herder family and working as an electrical engineer for construction and mining projects, 81-year-old Luvsandash used his expertise to fight to protect 66,000 acres of Dornogovi province from extractive activities.
Europe: Besjana "Besi" Guri and Olsi Nika of Albania
The efforts of Guri, a 37-year-old who trained as a social worker, and Nika, a 39-year-old biologist and aquatic ecologist, to safeguard the Vjosa River from a hydropower dam development led to Albania and Europe's first new national park protecting a wild river and its tributaries.
Islands: Carlos Mallo Molina of the Canary Islands
Mallo Molina, a 36-year-old born in mainland Spain, left his job as a civil engineer specializing in port construction to launch the conservation group Innoceana, which fought to protect the Canary Islands' marine ecosystem from the proposed Fonsalía Port.
North America: Laurene Allen of the United States
Allen, a 62-year-old clinical social worker, campaigned for the closure of the Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics plant in Merrimack, New Hampshire, and continues to fight for cleanup efforts and stricter regulations regarding per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly called "forever chemicals" because they persist in the environment and people's bodies for long periods.
South and Central America: Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari of Peru
Canaquiri Murayari is the 56-year-old president of the Kukama women's organization Asociación de Mujeres Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kanawon, which won a landmark Rights of Nature court ruling that granted legal personhood to the Marañón River.
This year's prize winners are set to be celebrated on Monday at an in-person and livestreamed ceremony in San Francisco, California, at 5:30 pm Pacific Daylight Time.
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'Chaos': Peru Declares Environmental Emergency Over Oil Spill
"So far, we have not had any response from the oil company," said one fisherman whose livelihood has been threatened by the accident.
Dec 27, 2024
At least seven beaches and the safety of local wildlife have been impacted by an oil spill in northern Peru, said the South American country's Environmental Assessment and Oversight Agency on Thursday as the government declared an environmental emergency.
The environmental watchdog, known as OEFA locally, said in a preliminary report that about 10,000 square meters of surface seawater have been contaminated by the crude oil, which spilled from a vessel at a terminal of the Talara refinery.
Petroperu, the state-owned oil company, was preparing to load the oil onto a tanker when the spill was detected at Las Capullanas beach.
The company has not disclosed exactly how much oil spilled, but OEFA said it has extended over an area of 116-566 acres. Petroperu has also not stated the cause of the accident.
Petroperu told Reuters it has coordinated with the fishermen's union, but fisherman Martin Pasos told the local radio station RPP that he has heard little from the company about when he will be able to resume his work.
"We have not been able to go out for six days now," Pasos said. "It is chaos, what happened in Lobitos. So far, we have not had any response from the oil company."
Petroperu said Wednesday it had deployed clean-up crews as soon as the spill was detected earlier this week and that the cleaning of six beaches in Talara province was almost done.
Authorities were directed under the environmental emergency to carry out recovery and remediation work over the next 90 days.
Infobae reported that Petroperu was "minimizing" the damage as local authorities expressed concern over the safety of "turtles, crabs, octopuses, and fish [that] have been seriously harmed by contact with the spilled oil."
On Sunday, shortly after the spill, the public prosecutor's office launched an investigation into Petroperu's alleged criminal environmental contamination.
Rocío Silva-Santisteban, a poet, activist, and former member of Peru's Congress, noted that "it is not the first time that Petroperu has polluted."
"Since 2014 in Cuninico, Loreto, oil spills have been occurring, affecting the health of animals and people," said Silva-Santisteban. "This has been an ecocide!"
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Sightings of Uncontacted Tribe Spur Calls to End Logging in Peruvian Amazon
"This is a humanitarian disaster in the making—it's absolutely vital that the loggers are thrown out, and the Mashco-Piro's territory is properly protected at last," said the director of Survival International.
Jul 16, 2024
A leading rights group on Tuesday called for loggers to be "thrown out" of a remote part of the Peruvian Amazon following recent sightings of people belonging to what is believed to be the world's largest uncontacted Indigenous tribe.
London-based Survival International published video and photos of dozens of Mashco-Piro people taken near the village of Monte Salvado in southeastern Peru near the Brazilian border. The group said that in recent days, more than 50 Mashco-Piro have appeared near the village, which is inhabited by the related Yine people. A group of 17 Mashco-Piro were also recently sighted near the neighboring village of Puerto Nuevo.
Several logging companies are operating within just a few miles of where the Mascho-Piro were spotted. One company operating inside Mashco-Piro territory, Canalaes Tahuamanu, has laid more than 120 miles of road there to facilitate timber extraction. The company is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as a sustainable and ethical operator, even though it is known to be felling trees inside Mashco-Piro territory. Survival International is calling on the FSC to withdraw its certification.
"This is a humanitarian disaster in the making—it's absolutely vital that the loggers are thrown out, and the Mashco-Piro's territory is properly protected at last," Survival International director Caroline Pearce said in a statement Tuesday. "The FSC must cancel its certification of Canales Tahuamanu immediately—failure to do so will make a mockery of the entire certification system."
Alfredo Vargas Pio, president of the local Indigenous group Native Federation of the Río Madre and its Tributaries, called the new photographs "irrefutable evidence that many Mashco-Piro live in this area, which the government has not only failed to protect, but sold off to logging companies."
"The logging workers could bring in new diseases which would wipe out the Mashco-Piro, and there's also a risk of violence on either side," he added, "so it's very important that the territorial rights of the Mashco-Piro are recognized and protected in law."
In 2014, Peruvian authorities evacuated residents from Monte Salvado by boat after around 200 Mashco-Piro armed with bows and arrows raided the village, killing livestock and pets and taking food and tools. In 2022, Mashco-Piro members killed 21-year-old Peruvian logger Gean del Aguila and wounded another man with arrows as they fished on the Tahuamanu River.
In the 1890s most Mashco-Piro were either enslaved or exterminated by private mercenaries hired by self-described Peruvian "Rubber King" Carlos Fitzcarrald—immortalized in the 1982 Werner Herzog film Fitzcarraldo. Surviving Mashco-Piro fled deeper into the Amazon and avoided contact with most outsiders. They fiercely defended their territory from intruders. However, in recent decades, loggers have penetrated and exploited Mascho-Piro lands.
There are believed to be more than 750 Mascho-Piro living in Peru. They sometimes cross the border into Brazil.
"They flee from loggers on the Peruvian side. At this time of the year they appear on the beaches to take tracajá eggs," Rosa Padilha of the Indigenous Missionary Council in the Brazilian state of Acre told The Guardian, referring to a species of Amazon turtle.
"That's when we find their footprints on the sand. They leave behind a lot of turtle shells," Padilha added. "They are a people with no peace, restless, because they are always on the run."
Around 15 other uncontacted Indigenous tribes with as many as 15,000 members are believed to remain in the Peruvian Amazon. It is illegal to make contact with such peoples for fear they would contract common human illnesses that could be fatal to unexposed populations without immunity.
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A River's Rights: Indigenous Kukama Women Lead the Way with Landmark Legal Victory
Defending the rights of nature represents a big step forward in the fight against climate change.
Jun 17, 2024
Here’s one of the most powerful pieces of good news you probably missed this year: a group of Indigenous women in Peru succeeded in asserting the legal right to integrity and protection of the Marañón River, a sacred waterway that flows from the Andes to the Amazon. This is a significant victory for the preservation of nature, water, forests, and biodiversity; in other words, life itself. It’s also a big step forward in the fight against climate change, and for the rights of nature, both topics that were debated last week at the 11th Pan Amazonian Social Forum in Rurrenabaque, Bolivia.
The women warriors behind this legal victory—the second of its kind in Latin America after the case of the Atrato River in Colombia—come from the Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana, a Kukama women’s federation in the lower Marañón Watershed.
108 oil spills in 40 years
The Federation began its fight in 2021, when Kukama women from 29 communities, led by Mari Luz Canaquiri, filed an injunction action against Petroperú (a Peruvian state-owned petroleum enterprise), the Ministry of Environment, and other government bodies. The women were outraged at how the ecosystems of their rivers, forests, and sacred plants were being poisoned and systematically destroyed by more than 40 years of oil spills. In fact, according to an article published by the Citizens' Movement against Climate Change (MOCICC, in Spanish), at least 108 oil spills have occurred along the path of the North Peruvian Oil Pipeline (ONP) since its inception in 1977, with little to no response or outrage from the national and international opinion. These spills are ecocidal, and yet, the Peruvian state has enjoyed near total impunity from any consequences so far.
The most outrageous aspect of this fact is that ONP did not respect the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) stipulated in ILO Convention 169, nor has it implemented environmental safeguards measures and proper maintenance of the pipeline. Only in 2014, as a consequence of a big rupture of one of the pipelines the Kukama became aware of the imminent danger of the oil spill flooding their forest ecosystems and water bodies. Since then, they, especially the inhabitants of the community of Cuninico, have been forced to consume this contaminated water, with serious consequences for women's reproductive health (with a rise in the number of miscarriages), and generalized immune, respiratory, and gastrointestinal diseases. Even now, owing to the permanent contamination of the Marañón, fish and other riverine species essential to the livelihoods of local communities are disappearing.
Meanwhile, the Peruvian State has not bothered to provide even basic amenities like drinking water or health care to these communities. The health problems amongst the Indigenous Peoples continue to remain unaddressed, while the staggering profits from the sale of crude oil are amassed by a few foreign companies. This includes Pluspetrol, with Argentine capital, in lot 8; the French Perenco, in lots 67 and 39; and Frontera Energy in lot 192 (ex1Ab) and PetroTal in lot 95 from Canadian capital.
“In our culture, the Marañón River is a living being”
After years of struggle, the Kukama women leaders succeeded in getting Judge Corely Armas Chapiama, of the Mixed Court of Nauta-Loreto, to rule in favor of their demands in March 2024. It was so evident that more than four decades of oil spills have destroyed the livelihoods of the Amazonian communities living along the tributaries of the Marañon River. In the words of one of the women leaders, Emilsen Flores: “When there are spills, our forests are contaminated, our plants, the space [territory] we live in is contaminated. The spills threaten to kill our fish, our fauna, our flora (...) Our health is at risk, our education, and everything related to food, because the food is contaminated.” In court, Emilsen was also the voice of her living and sacred river. As the words of leader Mariluz Canaquiri of the Shapajilla Native Community make clear: “in our culture, the Marañón River is a living being. The Kukama have a close relationship with the rivers, the Purahua lives there, the largest boa in the Amazon, which for us is the mother of the rivers. For the Kukama people, the river is the heart of life, which pumps blood to the whole body.”
The ‘voice’ of the River
Since the establishment of the colony in Peru until almost the 1970s, public spaces, such as courts, have privileged and listened primarily to the voices of men, generally white, with formal education. Women's voices were considered 'gossip', as they were seen as incapable of testifying rationally and coherently. Women were even barred from entering the realm of legal proceedings and litigation. If they were called to testify as witnesses, the testimony of three women together was considered equal to the testimony of a man (see Vera Delgado 2011, p. 54).
This makes the facts of the ruling of the Mixed Court of Nauta on November 12, 2023 nearly transcendent; a female judge of Indigenous descent, listening attentively not only to the testimony of the Kukama leaders, but also – through the leaders – to the ‘voice’ of a vital and animate entity, the Marañón River and its tributaries. Judge C. Armas Chapiama understood that not only are the rights to a healthy and fair livelihood of local communities being violated by the oil companies, but also the inherent right to life of the Marañon River. These rights include its right to flow freely and without contamination to ensure healthy ecosystems of forests, water sources, and biodiversity; the right to feed and be fed by its tributaries; the right to be protected, conserved and restored; and the right to the regeneration of its natural cycles.
No reparations or compensation
Although Judge Armas Chicama ordered ONP’s authorities to update their environmental management instruments and to respect FPIC, she did not issue a ruling to provide reparations to the 69 communities in total who have been affected by the oil spills for more than 40 years. Despite this, it is expected that the ONP authorities will comply with the court's ruling, since, in Amazonian countries, similar rulings and their subsequent implementations have followed not only the letter of the law, but also its spirit.
The victory of the Kukama sisters is of enormous significance for the country, since it provides monumental inspiration for the struggles of the Amazonian peoples against the many extractive activities that are destroying their territories. For instance, on April 22, 2024, the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampis Nation mobilized for the first time in rejection of illegal mining and logging that are invading their territories, activities that are endorsed by the current Peruvian government. In this context, the commodification of Indigenous Peoples’ forest territories has become a daily practice, with differentiated impacts on the local population, especially women in all their diversities and youth.
It is also important to note that years of abuse and violations of the rights of the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon by the oil industry, including murders of Indigenous leaders, have gone unpunished to date.
As this is not enough, in January 2024, the Peruvian government approved Law 31973, a modification of Forestry Law No. 29763 - the new law is a wolf in sheep's clothing, opening the door to intensive cattle ranching, monoculture plantations of oil palm and genetically modified soybeans, among others; which is promoted by large companies and conservative religious organizations such as the Mennonites.
The struggle for justice continues
Amazonian peoples’ organizations and environmental and human rights defenders have held massive national mobilizations against Law 31973. Under the slogan “La selva no se vende, se defiende”, (“The jungle is not for sale”, a famous slogan that emerged in one of the first Indigenous struggles against oil in 2009, known as Baguazo) Peruvians are continuing to fight for the repeal of this harmful law which threatens the ecosystems of the Amazon. However, the congressmen who promoted Law 31973 are not only turning a deaf ear to the people's demands, but are also trumpeting the benefits of the new law -supposedly- for small and medium illegal agricultural activities.
While the murders of Indigenous leaders and Amazon defenders remain unpunished and invisible, entire ecosystems of our forests are cut down and destroyed, water sources are polluted, and biodiversity is being preyed upon, the UN’s Green Climate Fund is shelling out nearly US$200 million for monocultures of oil palm, cocoa, and rubber, and unsustainable industrial cattle ranching in places like the Amazon. Agribusiness giants like the food processing company Marfrig of Brazil, which has been linked to illegal logging, “cattle laundering” and extensive deforestation for monoculture oil palm plantations, are the primary beneficiaries of these policies.
Legal victories like the Kukama women’s successful fight to defend the Marañón River are rare. This is because transnational corporations are empowered and protected by legislation like Peru’s “Anti-Forestry” Law 31973. In fact, powerful groups that wield influence in Peru’s current government are already trying to have the historic ruling overturned, arguing that an anthropocentric vision is a fundamental principle of the Peruvian Constitution, and that the rights of nature hold no value.
In light of these monumental challenges, the world’s ecofeminist, environmental, and climate justice movements must unite so that grassroots struggles like that of our Kukama sisters endure and do not fade away.
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After Years of Indigenous-Led Campaigning, Court Grants Rights to Peru's Marañón River
The decision "establishes a groundbreaking legal framework that acknowledges the inherent rights of natural entities," said one campaigner.
Mar 19, 2024
After years of campaigning, an organization of Indigenous women in Peru's Loreto province celebrated "a landmark decision" on Tuesday by a court in Nauta, which found that the Marañón River has "intrinsic value" and that its "inherent rights" must be recognized by the government.
The Mixed Court of Nauta ruled that specific rights of the river must be codified, including the right to exist, the right to ecological flow, the right of restoration, the right to be free of pollution, the right to exercise its essential functions with the ecosystem, and the right of representation.
Led by Kukama women, the Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana Federation in the Parinari district of Loreto began its legal fight on behalf of the Marañón River in 2021, demanding that the state and federal governments protect the waterway from "constant oil spills."
Petroperu's Oleoducto Norperuano, or Norperuvian oil pipeline, caused more than 60 oil spills between 1997-2019, and the 28 communities represented by the federation are still recovering from a 2010 oil spill that sent 350 barrels of oil into the river near Saramuro port.
Indigenous groups blocked the river in protest in September 2022 after another spill sent 2,500 barrels of crude oil into the Amazon, of which the Marañón is a main tributary.
The Marañón supplies drinking water directly to communities in Loreto, and is a vital habitat for fish that help sustain Indigenous communities.
"We do not live on money. We live from what we grow on our land and our fishing. We cannot live without fish," Isabel Murayari, a board member of the federation, told the Earth Law Center, when the group filed its lawsuit in 2021.
The Kukama women also aimed to halt infrastructure projects including hydroelectric dams and the Amazon Waterway—recognized as environmental risks by the International Union for Conservation of Nature—and warned that illegal gold mining has left the Marañón with mercury contamination that must be remedied.
Martiza Quispe Mamani, an attorney representing the Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana Federation, said the "historic ruling is an important achievement of the Kukama women."
"The fact that the judge of the Nauta Court has declared the Marañón River as a subject of rights represents a significant and transcendental milestone for the protection not only of the Marañón River but also of all rivers contaminated by extractive activities," said Mamani.
In addition to granting the river inherent rights, the court named the Indigenous group and the Peruvian government as "guardians, defenders, and representatives of the Marañón River and its tributaries."
Loreto's regional government was ordered to take necessary steps with the National Water Authority to establish a water resource basin organization for the river. The court also required Petroperu to present an updated environmental management plan within six months.
Mariluz Canaquiri Murayari, president of the federation, said the group's fight to protect the environment in the region "will continue."
"It encourages us to fight to defend our territories and rivers, which is fundamental," Murayari said of the ruling. "The recognition made in this decision has critical value. It is one more opportunity to keep fighting and claiming our rights. Our work is fundamental for Peru and the world: to protect our rivers, territories, our own lives, and all of humanity, and the living beings of Mother Nature."
The women who led the legal action noted that courts in recent years have recognized rights for other waterways, including Colombia's Atrato River, New Zealand's Whanganui River, and Canada's Magpie River.
Monti Aguirre, Latin America director of International Rivers, which supported the federation in its lawsuit, said the ruling "underscores the vital impact of community-led advocacy in safeguarding river ecosystems and sets a crucial precedent for river conservation efforts globally."
"By recognizing the Marañón River as a subject of rights, this decision is significant not only in terms of environmental protection but also in advancing the rights of nature and the rights of rivers," said Aguirre. "It establishes a groundbreaking legal framework that acknowledges the inherent rights of natural entities, paving the way for similar legal recognition and protection of rivers worldwide."
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How Can Workers Ensure the ‘Just Transition’ Is Truly Just?
The global economy is already undergoing its most fundamental transformation since the Industrial Revolution; if workers and trade unions are at the table negotiating the transition, the process has a greater chance of being equitable.
Jan 13, 2024
Making a transition away from fossil fuels is going to require a lot of work. But there’s a real concern that it will also require a lot fewer workers.
All of the workers in fossil fuel industries, for instance, are acutely aware that their jobs are at risk, if not immediately then at some point in the future. Along with automation, the energy transition also threatens to reduce the ranks of those in sectors dependent on fossil fuel, like plastics, steel, and petrochemicals. And unions are particularly concerned that unionized jobs in these sectors will be replaced with lower-paid non-union positions if they aren’t outsourced to lower-wage countries altogether.
In 2023, employment in the fossil fuel sector has rebounded from pandemic lows but hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels—even though oil and gas companies posted record revenues in 2022.
“The class warfare between workers and owners is not going to change with the energy transition because capital is always going to be there.”
New jobs, of course, beckon in the “clean energy” production of solar panels, wind turbines, and the batteries and other infrastructure necessary to remake the electricity sector. According to the International Energy Agency, this sector actually overtook the fossil fuel sector in 2021. More than half of the job growth in the energy sector in 2022 was in just five categories: photovoltaic, wind, electric vehicles and batteries, heat pumps, and critical minerals mining.
But according to one U.S. study looking at employment figures from 2005 to 2021, less than 1% of workers in dirty industries ended up with “green” jobs. The prospect of new, “clean energy” jobs shimmers in the distance, but for many workers it looks like a mirage.
That’s especially the case in the Global South. Jobs in the new sustainable energy sector are not distributed evenly across the world. China, the European Union, the United States, Brazil, and India have already emerged as employment hubs. But Germany alone has considerably more jobs in this sector than all of Africa.
“One of the issues that still worries a number of workers, especially the ones that are going to migrate from either coal or fossil fuel to clean energy is: Where are the alternative jobs?” says Everline Aketch, the Uganda-based sub-regional secretary for English-Speaking Africa for Public Services International. “They keep saying that the just transition will be able to provide a number of alternative jobs. But the jobs are still not there.”
One of the chief problems has been that the energy transition has largely been corporate-led rather than public-led, and companies prefer to keep labor costs low. “The class warfare between workers and owners is not going to change with the energy transition because capital is always going to be there,” points out Igor Díaz of Sintracarbón trade union in Colombia.
The energy transition also threatens to widen the gap between North and South, with the latter serving as a vast “sacrifice zone” that provides the inputs—extracted in environmentally damaging ways—that the former needs for its “clean energy” products. “Our countries cannot be forced simply to provide the resources of the North,” argues Ibis Fernández of the Confederación Intersectorial de Trabajadores Estatales del Perú. “This is all a new colonialism, right?”
Felipe Diaz, of the Colombian research institute Centro de Innovación e Investigación para el Desarrollo Justo del Sector Minero Energético, agrees. “Especially in Latin America, every government that emphasizes its own sovereignty is sabotaged either internally or externally,” he points out. “The cases have been very, very clear in Uruguay and Brazil. They tried to not depend on other countries, specifically the expansionist model of the United States, but they were literally squashed.”
The stakes could not be higher. The global economy is already undergoing its most fundamental transformation since the Industrial Revolution. If workers and trade unions are at the table negotiating the transition, the process has a greater chance of being equitable. But as the four abovementioned participants explained in the recent seminar Labor and Green Colonialism, sponsored by the Pacto Ecosocial y Intercultural del Sur and the Global Just Transition project of the Institute for Policy Studies, the current corporate-led transition will continue to disadvantage workers and widen the gap between North and South.
Fortunately, other alternatives are emerging.
Worker Participation
Some countries have a tradition of involving workers and trade unions in economic planning. The co-determination process in Germany, for instance, provides workers with a say in company policies and, though trade unions, in government policy as well.
The new government of Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez in Colombia, meanwhile, has established a new tradition of expanding the policymaking circle. “This is a progressive government,” Felipe Diaz points out. “For the first time they want a dialogue with the actors that have historically been displaced and ignored by previous administrations.”
More commonly, however, governments and corporations leave workers out of the decision-making process. “We have been talking about energy transitions that are fair and just and that’s not something that we’ve seen in Peru,” says Ibis Fernández. “The extractive sector is a very precarious sector. There’s a lot of exploitation, and the large multinational country companies are always trying to avoid respecting the rights of workers.”
“Part of justice in this transition process has to do with the involvement of unions, of workers and also the communities in the region.”
It’s ironic, Everline Aketch points out, that workers coined the phrase “just transition” only to have “this terminology hijacked by the multinational corporations. And active participation from workers in terms of defining how to move forward with the blueprint is absent. Currently there’s no clear blueprint in terms of how, for instance, Africa and particularly sub-Saharan Africa is going to be able to achieve this just transition.”
It’s not just corporations—governments, too, often pay little more than lip service to workers. “When it comes to the workers in South Africa, for instance, many of them don’t understand what the just transition is all about,” she continues. “The government comes in and says, ‘In the next five or six years, we’re going to actually close some of the mining sector.’ But they’re not explaining to the workers why they are closing the mining sector. And they’re not explaining the provisions they’ve put in place to absorb the workers who will lose their jobs.”
It comes down to a matter of equity and justice, explains Igor Diaz: “Part of justice in this transition process has to do with the involvement of unions, of workers and also the communities in the region.”
Prioritizing the Public Sector
According to the neoliberal model, an unfettered market spurs economic development and the public sector should step out of the way. International financial institutions and powerful governments have for decades urged countries in the Global South to cut government expenditures, reduce government regulations, and privatize government enterprises. Many countries are applying this model to the current energy transition.
“Currently just transitions are being led by multinational corporations whose major interest is actually profit maximization,” Everline Aketch points out. “This transition, which should be led by the government, is currently being overtaken by the multinational corporations, which developed countries and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development are also pushing. In terms of the tenets of justice, energy itself should not only be affordable but also accessible.”
Indeed, the corporate-led development strategy brought countries like Peru to its current economic crisis. “The mining boom is finished, and the precarity of the country is growing,” reports Ibis Fernández. “The state didn’t manage its resources, never redistributed wealth, and took most of the pie. The multinational countries did not address essential rights, did not invest in health and education, did not invest in people and workers so that they would actually have dignified work.”
One mechanism that enforces the divide between north and south are free trade treaties, including clauses that allow multinational companies to sue governments for regulatory practices that interfere with the corporate bottom line.
Everline Aketch agrees. “The same neoliberal policies are still driving the agenda of just transition, which is quite unfair to many developing countries,” she notes. “And the Green financing program is taking the model of structural adjustment programs from the 1980s and 1990s. Those same programs forced many of our countries, including Uganda, to privatize the energy sector and many workers lost their jobs. And there was an almost threefold increase in energy prices after privatization.”
She points out that 70% of Kenya’s energy now comes from clean energy. “But the IMF and World Bank are forcing Kenya to privatize this sector,” she reports. And to qualify for Green financing funds from the IMF, she says that “the Kenyan government is being told first of all to plant trees. This is not fair. To achieve a global just transition, there should be a level playing field. Africa should be provided the policy space to determine how it wants the trajectory of the just transition to take place. We have different levels and stages of development.”
She continues, “To achieve a just transition, Public Services International insists that governments be at the forefront of providing the policy framework and deciding how to generate the money to ensure a just transition and make clean energy accessible for all members of the community including workers.”
Moreover, she adds, “if this just transition is not publicly led, gender inequality will increase, especially in Africa where a majority of women—close to 900 million women—still have to use firewood biomass for cooking.”
Pushing Back Against Green Colonialism
In 2022, as a result of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the number of people without access to electricity increased for the first time in decades—by 6 million people to 760 million across the globe. Most of that increase was in sub-Saharan Africa, where four of five people lack access.
Nearly all of Uganda’s energy mix comes from clean energy like hydropower. “However, despite having the highest energy mix when it comes to clean energy,” Everline Aketch reports, “only 20% of our households are connected to the power grid. More than 600 million people across the continent do not have access to clean energy.”
Access to electricity is only one aspect of the huge disparity between the Global North and Global South when it comes to the energy transition. The latter is increasingly the locus of a scramble for resources similar to the colonial-era rush for riches. “We can add value to our natural resources,” Ibis Fernández says, “and stop what the Global North has condemned us to be, which is raw material exporters with no added value to our products.”
“We have seen the effects from free trade agreements that really favor international capital more than the nation itself.”
Everline Aketch agrees that the Global South, which is rich in minerals, needs these resources, or the revenues from their sale, for its own transition. “And then there’s the issue of intellectual property rights where most sub-Saharan Africans are not allowed to replicate some of these technologies to add value to their own material,” she adds.
Another issue is the disproportionate burden of dealing with the consequences of climate change that the Global South shoulders. “Africa contributes less than 4% towards the current global carbon emission,” Aketch continues. “We’re the least polluters on the planet. However, we pay the highest price.”
One mechanism that enforces the divide between north and south are free trade treaties, including clauses that allow multinational companies to sue governments for regulatory practices that interfere with the corporate bottom line.
“The worst thing is when these companies leave behind an environmental liability or social liability,” says Felipe Diaz, “and we have to pay them because the companies say that we’re going against their business.”
“We have seen the effects from free trade agreements that really favor international capital more than the nation itself,” Igor Diaz agrees. “And so it becomes necessary to really review those free trade agreements with the United States and with other countries that have caused so many social problems in Colombia.”
The Case of Colombia
The presidential ticket of progressive politician Gustavo Petro and environmental justice activist Francia Márquez won the Colombian elections in June 2022. Later that summer, the new administration stopped granting new licenses for hydrocarbon exploration and canceled fracking pilot projects, promising to wean the country from its dependency on carbon. In 2022, more than half of the country’s exports were oil and coal.
Although contracts to exploit existing reserves will last for another decade, the new government’s pledge potentially jeopardizes the livelihoods of workers in the oil, gas, and coal sectors. “In the middle of the pandemic, the government of Colombia tried to close mining for 18 months,” Igor Diaz reports. “Our union tried to stop this because more than 2,000 workers were given short notice, and they lost their jobs. This generated social chaos.”
He describes his experience representing coal miners. “In the mining company where I worked, there are 10,000 workers and more than the half of them are 35 years old,” he relates. “They’ve been working with us for 15 years. Any adjustment will be traumatic for them because in 10 years they probably won’t have any kind of retirement payment.”
“Large multinational countries don’t want an underdeveloped country like Colombia to make sovereign decisions around industry and technology transfer.”
At the same time, he argues that “this is a historic opportunity not only for Colombia but for the whole world. We definitely have to have an energy transition. In some regions there are other labor possibilities. People could work in agriculture rather than mining. We have to stop extractivism and petroleum drilling, but for that we have to look at other productive sectors in society, at the same time improving ecosystems and stopping contamination.”
But as Felipe Diaz explains, multinationals also dominate the renewable energy sector in Colombia. “Before the Petro government took office, the task of replacing fossil fuels was basically given to large multinational companies,” he says. “Today there are 19 different large-scale projects, and 80% belong to our multinational companies. Large multinational countries don’t want an underdeveloped country like Colombia to make sovereign decisions around industry and technology transfer.”
But the current Colombian government has embarked on a different path. In mid-December, the Petro administration announced the formation of Ecominerales, a new state-owned enterprise to produce and sell ore in a way to support the renewable energy industry in Colombia. “This same logic has also been proposed for the oil and gas sector,” Felipe Diaz continues. “The government wants the largest oil companies—Eco-Petrol, which is also state-owned—to have a new business unit when it comes to renewable energy.”
He continues: “That means that the public sector is going to start exercising governance and making demands of those profiting from the energy transition. The ministries that are leading the transition are calling us to help them with information and research to find out the needs of the workers. We’ve never seen this kind of communication before. The idea here is that a Green extractivism is not going to be in the hands of mining companies.”
A major challenge that Colombia still faces is the ongoing insurgency of the National Liberation Army (ELN), a communist guerrilla group, as well as some smaller paramilitaries and narcotraffickers. The stance of the ELN on the energy transition is still largely unknown.
“Do they agree to transition to a clean energy matrix or do they want to keep producing oil and gas as long as it’s a sovereign nation?” Felipe Diaz asks. “There’s been a new escalation of violence with the ELN, and it’s become really difficult to negotiate with them. When they end up taking over resources, it can complicate questions of equity in an energy transition.”
Forging a Path Forward
Colombia offers an intriguing example of a state determined to engage workers and prioritize the public sector in an energy transition. But this progressive administration also represents the culmination of many years of organizing by different sectors.
“When people come together–civil society, trade unions–that is where our power actually lies,” Everline Aketch points out. “Engagement with civil society and feminist organizations is very critical in terms of amplifying the voices not only of women but also showing the implication of neoliberal policies for issues of access.”
In Peru, too, such a mobilization is ongoing. “The unity has to be very wide, for example, with workers in the mining companies and Indigenous people,” she explains. “We are a very diverse country where conservative forces are trying to polarize opinion in many regions. We long ago realized that we had to make an alliance against these uncivilized actors.”
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Rainforest Watchdog Accuses Peru of 'Predatory' Attack on Amazon
New rules approved by the nation's lawmakers "will effectively make it 'open season' for organized crime, says Amazon Watch.
Dec 21, 2023
In what opponents called a rushed vote without adequate notification or debate, Peru's right-wing congressional majority on Wednesday effectively decriminalized illegal logging, a move Amazon defenders warned will empower criminal groups to destroy ecosystems critical to the survival of Indigenous peoples and biodiversity.
El Comercio reported that after less than 10 minutes of debate, Peru's Plenary Congress approved amendments to the country's Forest and Wildlife Law following a request for legislative reconsideration filed by Congresswoman Nilza Chacón Trujillo, a member of the right-wing Popular Force party. The vote was 69-35, with five abstentions.
"Most experts in Peru agree that the interest behind modifying the Forestry Law is to adapt to the new import restrictions of products that deforest the Amazon in the European and U.S. markets in an underhanded way," said Ricardo Pérez, Peru's communications adviser at Amazon Watch—which said the amendments "will effectively make it 'open season'" for Amazon exploitation, including by organized criminal groups.
"The authorities of these countries must make a firm statement that they will not 'fall for' the game," Pérez added. "Millions of hectares of forest and the very lives of Peruvian Indigenous defenders are at risk."
The Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP), an Indigenous advocacy group, said, "We point out the inconsistency of the Peruvian government which commits to reducing deforestation in international meetings and forums... but in practice promotes laws like this and other predatory actions against the Amazon."
"The modification of the Forestry Law directly affects Peru's climate commitments under the Paris agreement by reducing the necessary conditions to consider the zoning of properties that supposedly do not have 'forests,' thus freeing these spaces from a mechanism that protects areas still maintaining forest cover," AIDESEP added. "It is well-documented that individual properties are areas of high deforestation, and freeing them from forest zoning means encouraging deforestation, which is the main cause of greenhouse gas emissions in Peru."
Amazon defenders said the vote was especially alarming given that two Indigenous leaders— Quinto Inuma of the Kichwa people and Benjamín Flores Ríos of the Kakataibo—have been assassinated in recent weeks following the killings of multiple environmental defenders in Peru last year.
"In both cases, they had successfully exposed the 'crime of deforestation,' which now might no longer be legally sustainable in Peru," said Amazon Watch.
AIDESEP is demanding that the Peruvian government "effectively address the historical debt" owed to Indigenous peoples.
"Our lives and future generations depend on the Amazon, so we will defend it against the imposition of harmful laws," the group said.
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US and Israel Only 'No' Votes as UN Members Demand End to 61-Year Cuba Embargo
It was the 31st straight year that the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly condemned the crippling U.S. blockade on the socialist nation.
Nov 02, 2023
As they have done every year since 1992, United Nations member states voted near-unanimously on Thursday to demand an end to the U.S. economic blockade on Cuba.
By a vote of 187-2 with one abstention, the U.N. General Assembly approved a Cuban draft resolution affirming the "necessity of ending the economic, commercial, and financial, embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba."
The U.S. and Israel cast the only votes against the resolution, while Ukraine abstained.
Speaking at U.N. headquarters in New York, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla called the embargo an "illegal, cruel, and inhumane policy" and "an act of economic warfare in times of peace."
"Cuba is prevented from buying from U.S. companies and its subsidiaries in third countries, equipment, technologies, medical devices, and end-use pharmaceuticals, and is therefore forced to acquire them at exorbitant prices by way of intermediaries or to replace them with less-effective generic drugs," Rodríguez said, providing one example of how the blockade harms the Cuban people.
Nevertheless, Rodríguez vowed that Cuba would "continue to build bridges with the people of the U.S."
That includes by paying for economically disadvantaged medical students to study in Cuba, provided they serve underprivileged communities when they return home.
Rodríguez also expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people, who are enduring what numerous experts have called a "genocidal" assault by Israeli forces in which more than 9,000 people—including over 3,700 children—have been killed.
U.S. Deputy Ambassador Paul Folmsbee insisted that his country "stands resolutely" with the people of Cuba.
"We strongly support their pursuit of a future with respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms," he added.
Representatives of the world's nations voiced a chorus of condemnation of the U.S. blockade.
Peruvian U.N. Ambassador Luis Ugarelli said his country "shares the view of practically the entire international community" that the embargo is illegal and violates the principles of the U.N. Charter.
Noting Cuba's successful development of multiple Covid-19 vaccines, Bolivian Ambassador Diego Pary said, "Just think how many lives could have been saved if Cuba had the freedom and the opportunity to share the vaccine successfully developed in Cuban laboratories."
Ambassador Aurélie Flore Koumba Pambo of Gabon asserted that the embargo is "clearly a hostile act to region and continental cohesion" whose "impact is more and more harmful to the Cuban people."
U.S. peace activists agreed, with women-led CodePink accusing President Joe Biden of "not only turning a deaf ear to the international community," but also "ignoring the democratic voice of his own people" as "over a hundred resolutions condemning the blockade have been passed across the U.S."
CodePink continued:
The U.S. embargo has a negative impact on all sectors of Cuba's economy and has unquestionably worsened the quality of life of Cubans by limiting their access to basic necessities, including medicines, food, and fuel. According to the Cuban government, from March 2022 to February 2023, the blockade caused an estimated $4.8 billion in losses to Cuba, representing more than $555,000 for each hour of the blockade. The inclusion of Cuba in the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism... exacerbates the impact of the economic embargo. This has led to a massive increase in the number of Cubans migrating to the United States in search of economic opportunities.
The blockade began during the administration of President John F. Kennedy, who according to close confidant and historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., wanted to unleash "the terrors of the Earth" on Cuba following Fidel Castro's successful overthrow of a brutal U.S.-backed dictatorship.
Successive U.S. administrations subsequently supported a decadeslong campaign of exile terrorism against Cuba, which included failed assassination attempts, subversion efforts, economic warfare, and covert operations large and small in a fruitless policy of trying to overthrow Castro and reverse Cuba's revolution.
As Cuban officials relish in noting, a dozen U.S. administrations have come and gone since the revolution's triumph.
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Latin America Is Now Dominated by Progressive Governments, But Are They Losing Touch?
A united left in Latin America has the potential to do amazing things.Yet are too many turning away from boldness at just the moment we need it most?
Oct 08, 2023
Last Saturday night, I sat by a fountain outside the International Museum of the Baroque here in Puebla, Mexico, reflecting on how left-wing governments in Latin America have shifted over the past decade.
Inside the museum, the Puebla Group (Grupo de Puebla) was meeting. Self-identifying progressive leaders from the region, including numerous current and former presidents and vice presidents had gathered together to discuss further regional integration, combating climate change, a regional currency, and opposing sanctions.
The meeting was being held in the most elite part of Puebla city—an area called Angelopolis, where huge highways weave between modern residential towers and luxury shopping centers. There are no street stalls with people selling hot corn, basket tacos, cakes from shopping trolleys, or oily chalupas like in most other urban parts of Mexico. In this exclusive area, the drains actually work and the streets are clean and aren’t broken, and it’s hard to get anywhere without a car.
You could argue the conference venue was chosen for security reasons, but there were many other differences between the meeting and the first CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States)—also attended by left presidents and aimed at regional integration—that I covered in Caracas in 2010. There, alternative and community media, and movement representatives were welcomed and looked after, with access to the same computer, phone, and internet facilities as mainstream journalists. They were encouraged to attend by the extra public transport that was organized, complete with hundreds of signs pointing to the venue. It felt like a significant event and a coming together of activist forces, rather than the routine, formal procedures of this weekend’s Puebla Group meeting.
Dulled policies
Sitting by the fountain, it seemed to me that the evolution of these conferences is indicative of the shifting tendencies among left-wing governments in Latin America. I have noticed a new cautiousness, a softening of policies, less political participation of oppressed peoples, and increasing detachment from grassroots movements—though also big variations from country to country.
Latin America is now dominated by the left. A left-leaning, anti-corruption candidate will be the new president of Guatemala after winning elections in August (and he was at the weekend’s Puebla Group conference). Last year, Colombia also gained its first left-wing president in decades, and Lula defeated far-right president Bolsonaro in Brazil. The right-wing are in power in Ecuador, but a return to the Citizen Revolution party is viable in elections this month.
A united left in Latin America has the potential to do amazing things. Yet, the integrity, bravery, and boldness of 2000 to 2010, to launch groundbreaking projects in conjunction with thousands of grassroots activists attending the social forums and mobilizing around Venezuela, and other parts of the continent, seems to have waned.
Brazil’s Lula is playing a leadership role, where he is focusing on uniting, even with right-wing forces, and on avoiding conflict. He has proposed a single currency to counter the U.S. dollar, and his policies mark a shift towards pragmatic economics and activating markets, rather than popular empowerment. Activists have been appointed to the Indigenous and environment ministries.
Here in Mexico, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) shouted, “Long live migrants!” as part of his Independence Day speech a few weeks ago, then last week agreed with the U.S. to deport migrants in border cities back to their countries of origin. While the government has increased public retirement pensions and student scholarships, most of its policies have been fundamentally neoliberal. AMLO has made deals with multinationals in order to build the mega tourist development called the Maya Train, and the Santa Lucia airport, without consulting local communities and despite resistance from social movements.
Leftist student leader Gabriel Boric, elected president of Chile at the end of 2021, boldly attempted a new constitution that included important changes like social rights to food and housing, citizen consultations, Indigenous land rights, and a state duty to fight climate change. On the other hand, the Boric government has ordered repression of marches several times now, with 195 people arrested and 25,000 soldiers mobilized against marches marking the 2019 wave of protests, in October last year.
Each country is, of course, very different and complex. While Cuba stands firm and Petro in Colombia has implemented important tax reform (then held large marches after other reforms stalled in Congress), the Honduran left-wing president hasn’t kept most of her key promises, and in Venezuela, it is no secret that both external factors like the cruel U.S. sanctions as well as internal factors have led to an increasing disconnect between the Maduro government and the bases.
What is going on? Why is left-wing discourse (such as AMLO declaring an end to the “neoliberal economic model” in 2019) still so popular, but the implementation of its basic tenets (such as solidarity, Indigenous rights, environmental policy) often so far behind the discourse, these days?
Have progressive governments become intimidated by the U.S. sanctions in Venezuela, and the coups—supported by the U.S.—against left-wing governments in Peru (December 2022), Bolivia (2019), and other countries? Were many of those governments instead using left-wing discourse to get elected while being insincere in their intentions, or have many of the activists and leaders switched to career politics, where there is more fame and fortune?
At this weekend’s Pueba Group press conference, I asked about the waning connection between progressive governments and social movements and marginalized peoples.
“The transformation processes go hand in hand with the advancement of progressive governments in Latin America. That’s why we explicitly support progressive projects like Luisa (González, left-wing presidential candidate in Ecuador) and Claudia (Sheinbaum, candidate for Morena in Mexico’s presidential elections next year),” was the limited response from Chilean deputy, Karol Cariola Oliva.
“The neo rightwing (alluding to the extreme right and to neofaciscm) that is being created here, they are the ones that are truly scary, their behavior is anti-democratic,” said former Colombian president Ernesto Samper. While he may be right, I have noticed many progressive leaders concentrating on staying in power more than on the political processes of social change that extend beyond government. It seems the U.S. intervention and local capitalist interests have forced much of Latin America into survival mode—yet movements are essential to that survival.
The Puebla Group’s final statement focused on a “solidarity-based model of development to replace the neoliberal model, that is based on social inclusion, value generation, ecological transition … and a new democratic citizenry.”
The Puebla Group also called for a new “financial architecture adapted to the needs of the region” and condemned the “attempts to sabotage the transition of the newly elected government of Guatemala”—referring to the “lawfare” waged against Arévalo and his party. Former Ecuadorian president, Rafael Correa stated at the press conference that the sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela are an “act of war.”
“If we (progressive Latin American countries) don’t act in a united way, then we won’t deal with any of these problems,” said Cariola.
Little change without social movements
Social change, especially when you have the U.S. to your north, is a very hard and uneven process. There is no doubt that many progressive governments, afraid of the consequences of standing up to the deeper forces of imperialism and big business, prefer to dilute their policies.
But many so-called progressive leaders are also making the huge mistake (or using a deliberate strategy) of lumping social movements and alternative and community media in with attacks by right-wing forces. On numerous occasions, AMLO has labeled the huge feminist movements in Mexico as “conservative” and accused them of being “reactionary, against our transformation policy.”
There are now enough left-leaning governments in Latin America for them to unite and then lose any defensive complacency, fluffy discourse, and self justification, and instead embrace critical allies like social movements.
For months after the left-leaning president Pedro Castillo was removed in a coup in Peru last year, grassroots movements mobilized, blocked roads, and made unelected president Dina Boluarte’s rule difficult. In Venezuela, it was communities organized into councils and communes that finally began to defeat corruption, inequality, racism, sexism, and organized violence.
But most of Latin America’s current progressive governments are turning their backs on their biggest ally, to large or minor extents. The question is, is it due to fear, exhaustion and a tactical mistake, or because of various competing forces within the governing party, weaker social movements, a lack of resources due to the behaviors of previous governments, or a sincere reflection of their real political agenda—or some combination?
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