Dublin - Latin America Week, an annual solidarity festival which opens today, will feature a speaker from the Zapatista movement in Mexico, Ecuador's first ever indigenous MP, and a Guatemalan human rights lawyer who is investigating former dictators, writes David Shanks
The festival, with the theme "Cultures Against Oppression", also includes a programme of Latin American films, including Honduras, a documentary on Trocaire's work in that country, two documentaries on the Chilean dictatorship, and The Nicaraguan Hen, a short computer animation based on a Colombian fable about a hen that does want to lay any more eggs. Events will take place in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, and Derry.
The festival, organised by the Latin America Solidarity Centre (LASC) and the Pavee Point Travellers Centre, champions resistance to marginalisation of some 40 million indigenous peoples in Latin America. Mr Aidan Cahill of LASC said these people confront many of the same issues facing Ireland's under-classes. For information on Latin America Week phone LASC at 01.6760435 or email lasc@iol.ie