By: Rebecca L. Stein, MERIP, March 20, 2013
In the West Bank today, cameras are
ubiquitous, as is the usage of social media as a means of online
witnessing. Both are deemed nothing less than political necessities,
the sine qua non of political claims in the networked court of public
opinion. According to one Israeli soldier, "A commander or an officer
sees a camera and becomes a diplomat, calculating every rubber bullet,
every step. It's intolerable; we're left utterly exposed. The cameras
are our kryptonite."
By: Emily Achtenberg, North American Congress on Latin America, March 22, 2013
The Academy Award-nominated film "NO"
re-opens a window on a moment when Chileans used the ballot box to bring
down the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in a 1988 plebiscite.
Genaro Arriagada, the Christian Democratic Party tactician who directed
the "NO" campaign, says the movie ignores the reality of extensive
organizing work by Chilean popular movements, unions, and political
parties, over several years. Pinochet planned to foster violence, annul
the plebiscite, and reassert dictatorial powers if he lost (which was
only hinted at in the film. The self-coup plan was thwarted when the
other members of the military junta refused to back Pinochet. 
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