Hundreds of thousands of Haitians have taken to the streets in mass mobilizations demanding accountability from Haiti’s political class accused of squandering billions of dollars in proceeds from Venezuela’s discounted PetroCaribe oil program.

Chanting “we are hungry, we can’t take it anymore,” protesters are demanding that the thoroughly corrupt and fraudulently elected president, Jovenel Moise, resign immediately.

Their demands have been met with vicious repression. It is an urgent moment for international solidarity to break the silence around Haiti.

View our  webinar – A People’s Uprising and Demand for Democracy in Haiti to hear from activists and experts on the frontlines of this struggle:

Maud Jean-Michel is prominent Haitian organizer in the Haitian Community. She is an analyst and powerful speaker who has hosted radio talk shows since 1992. She currently hosts a popular educational program, “Sewom Patriyotik”, heard every Sunday on “Radio Timoun (Youth Radio)” .

Kevin Pina is a country expert for Haiti with the Varieties of Democracy Project, a joint academic project of the Universities of Notre Dame and Gothenburg in Sweden. He is founding editor of the Haiti Information Project and the producer of two documentaries on Haiti.

Robert Roth is a longtime activist and co-founder of the Haiti Action Committee. He has been a history teacher in the San Francisco Unified School District for the past 30 years.

Pierre Labossiere is a community activist, member of the board of directors of Global Exchange and a co-founder of the Haiti Action Committee.

Moderated by Isabella Bellezza.

 

On July 1, Mexico holds pivotal nationwide elections. The elections come at a moment of both great internal distress and international pressure.

That is why for the first time in 12 years, Global Exchange is convening two election observationmissions – a pre-electoral mission (recently completed) and election week (June 28 – July 4th).

Join Ted Lewis, Global Exchange Human Rights Director (Wednesday June 6th at 5:30 PM pst) for a Facebook live interview with analysis on the coming election and report back from our pre-electoral observation. We’ll share our impressions from Tamaulipas last month, take your questions and discuss how the coming realignment of power may affect the future of US –Mexico relations.

Violence resulting from the drug war is at an all time high in Mexico, averaging 90 homicides a day so far in 2018. At the same time, the hostility and unpredictability of the Trump administration have put the critical relationship between the US and Mexico in toxic flux.

This is the atmosphere in which voters will choose a new president, 128 members of the Senate, and 500 members of the Chamber of Deputies. And with 30 of 32 states holding local electionssimultaneously they will be choosing more local officials — including eight governors– than in any previous Mexican election.

But what is riveting to the international community on these elections is that at a moment of both deep internal crisis and confrontation with the United States, Mexican voters appears poised to elect a left opposition president for the first time in history.

As the chart below shows, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the candidate of the Movement of National Regeneration (MORENA) has more than twice the support of his nearest rival. López Obrador, who is running for the third time, has consistently led preference polls and has extended his lead in the now final weeks of the campaign.

Global Exchange has organized ten observation missions in Mexico since 1994, including presidential, mid-term, state, and municipal elections. We have worked with hundreds of observersfrom Mexico, the US, and more than a dozen other countries.

Our observation work is not aligned with the interests of any political party. We do our utmost to uphold the principles of international democratic solidarity and unequivocally support self-determination.

Please join us tomorrow for the live update on Mexico’s elections.

P.S. We look forward to talking with you tomorrowPlease consider making a donation to help us do this dangerous, difficult, and very important work.

2012 certainly hasn’t been boring! Thanks to you and the hundreds of other people who are part of the Elect Democracy campaign, we’ve taken action to free our democracy from the moneyed grip of corporate interests… Thank you.

Here are some Elect Democracy campaign highlights:

“How Wall Street is Burning Democracy” Report and Legislative Scorecard: We made it easy to find out how much Wall Street gave to Congressional campaigns to check how often Congresspeople voted in line with Wall Street’s lobby position on free trade bills, Wall Street regulation, the bailout, and more. The Huffington Post, Yes! Magazine, Alternet, Nation of Change, Daily Kos, and dozens of other news outlets covering our shocking revelation that Wall Street spends over $1,331 per minute on political influence via lobbying and campaign money.

RNC/DNC: We brought our legislative scorecard and report to Tampa and Charlotte where we marched on both conventions with our call to get corporate money out of our democracy.

Stick It to Super PACs: Just days before the most expensive U.S. election of all time we used email, phone, and social media to clog the gears of the ominous Super PACs! GOOD magazine, Upworthy, and others helped us spread the message. Over 1,500 people Stuck It to Super PACs on October 25th! You can still take action here.

Election Day: do you remember that exact moment when the election was called and we learned that Barack Obama would remain President? I do. What has this election meant to you? Leave a comment on our blog.

#StopTPP: I joined social, labour and faith based groups on the US/Canada border earlier this month to stop the TransPacific Partnership. To learn more about this ominous, 13 country free trade deal (and our work to stop it), read my blog about the TPPxBorder rally we attended on the U.S.-Canada border.

All that and so much more! A great place to read all about it is our online Media Center which has a vast collection of articles about our work this year.

Next year, we have even more ways to take action. Elect Democracy is taking on the hired hands that call the shots in DC: big shot lobbyists. From challenging Super PAC millions to lobbyist billions, our work is going to be fun, tough, and more important than ever.

We’ll also need your help. Compared to the amount of money flowing from Wall Street to Washington, when you see all we have accomplished, we truly make the most of every penny.

Consider giving a Global Exchange membership to a friend this season and support Elect Democracy.

Again, thank you so much for your action. I look forward to starting 2013 with refreshed energy and refueled strategies.

Happy Holidays!