May 31st, 2009 by bronxdoc
The weekend of May 16th-17th brought Dr. Mauricio Torres, Andean Coordinator for ALAMES (http://www.alames.org/) (the Latin American Social Medicine Association) to New York City. Dr. Torres is part of Colombia’s Movimiento Nacional por la Salud (National Movement for Health) and we found a few minutes to discuss the current state of health activism in Colombia. Recent developments in Colombia are not without relevance to the current US debate over the role of private insurance in assuring health coverage for all Americans.

[This article originally appeared in La Jornada on April 28, 2009: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2009/04/28/index.php?section=opinion&article=020a1pol]

The new swine flu epidemic that threatens to spread to more regions of the world is nothing new. It is part of an overall crisis, and it stems from industrial animal farming, which is dominated by transnational companies.