Articles by Chris Arsenault

We found 11 results.


Cuba to Open Tax Free Special Economic Zone
Chris Arsenault – Al Jazeera, 28 Oct 2013

First development of its kind on the island take effect in November [2013].Communist Cuba is the latest country to plan a “Special Economic Zone”, part of an economic model blasted by critics for creating a “race to the bottom” on wages and corporate taxes.

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Report: Canada Could See Indigenous Uprising
Chris Arsenault – Al Jazeera, 20 May 2013

Living standards for indigenous people on par with “third world” countries, buttressed by a large population of unemployed young men in a “warrior cohort”, and easy-to-target economic infrastructure, all mean Canada has conditions for a potential indigenous “insurgency”.

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Mexican Official: CIA ‘Manages’ Drug Trade
Chris Arsenault – Al Jazeera, 30 Jul 2012

The CIA and other international security forces “don’t fight drug traffickers”, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state said. Instead, “they try to manage the drug trade”. Allegations about official complicity in the drug business are nothing new when they come from activists, professors, campaigners or even former officials. However, an official spokesman for the authorities in one of Mexico’s most violent states – one which directly borders Texas – going on the record with such accusations is unique.

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Exxon ‘Loses’ Venezuela Nationalisation Case
Chris Arsenault – Al Jazeera, 9 Jan 2012

Hugo Chavez must be smiling. In the latest showdown between western oil companies and Venezuela’s populist president, Exxon Mobil is widely seen as the loser, after the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) ruled that the world’s biggest oil company would not be entitled to most of the damages it demanded after its fields were nationalised. “The ICC only awarded Exxon ten per cent of what they wanted,” Chavez said recently. “You can make your own conclusions.”

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Narco Elite vs Oligarchy: Guatemala Votes
Chris Arsenault – Al Jazeera, 19 Sep 2011

Drug cartels allegedly finance political parties during an election in one of Latin America’s most violent countries. As candidates square-off in Guatemala’s presidential election, a broader political battle is transpiring away from the campaign signs and populist rhetoric: the old oligarchy is fighting to maintain its privileged position against an increasingly powerful “narco elite”.

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Organ Trafficking: ‘Her Heart Was Missing’
Chris Arsenault – Al Jazeera, 23 May 2011

The stories are grim and often impossible to confirm: illicit clinics, corrupt doctors and global networks dealing in human flesh. International organ trafficking is a big business, with an estimated value of $50m in 2008. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated in 2007 that organ trafficking accounts for between five and 10 per cent of kidney transplants performed annually across the globe.

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Glencore: Profiteering From Hunger and Chaos
Chris Arsenault – Al Jazeera, 16 May 2011

The world’s largest commodities trader is issuing a stock sale, and critics say the firm causes spikes in food price.Valued at about $60 billion, Glencore controls 50 per cent of the global copper market, 60 per cent of zinc, 38 per cent in alumina, 28 per cent of thermal coal, 45 per cent of lead, almost 10 per cent of the world’s wheat and about one quarter of the world market in barley, sunflower and rape seed. The firm employs about 57,000 people, generated a turnover of $145 billion in the past year and has assets worth more than $79 billion. Based in Baar, Switzerland, where regulation is minimal, the company’s sprawling interests span Bolivian tin mines, Angolan oil, zinc producers in Kazakhstan, Zambian copper mines and Russian wheat operations.

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Brazil’s ‘Lessons’ For Arab Rebels
Chris Arsenault – Al Jazeera, 7 Mar 2011

Countries transitioning to democracy need to reduce economic inequality, says Brazil’s former foreign minister. During Brazil’s two decades of military dictatorship, it would have been unthinkable that a female former revolutionary would lead the country in the 21st century. And, while he refused to directly give advice to Egyptians, Bahrainis, Tunisians or Libyans, Brazil’s experiences appear to have some parallels with the developments underway in the region today.

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CIA-Trained ‘Terrorist’ in US Court
Chris Arsenault – Al Jazeera, 24 Jan 2011

Accused of killing 73 in an airline bombing, Luis Posada Carriles charged with immigration violations, not terrorism.

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Zapatistas: The War with no Breath?
Chris Arsenault – Al Jazeera, 3 Jan 2011

The poverty-stricken people of Chiapas are still marginalised and experiencing great hardship, 17 years after rebellion.

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FBI Targets US Palestine Activists
Chris Arsenault – Al Jazeera, 4 Oct 2010

Searches, subpoenas, but no charges for anti-war activists ‘providing support to terrorists’ in Colombia and Palestine.

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