On Dec. 10, some 150 people marched to the federal building in Hartford, CT, to demand an end to immigration raids. Activists were upset about the arrest of 21 Brazilian immigrants in early November in the city’s Parkville neighborhood in… Read moreHartford: marchers protest ICE raids
A Mexican citizen who is in the US legally has filed the first lawsuit challenging the aggressive immigration-enforcement efforts of Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona’s Maricopa County, charging unlawful detainment and racial profiling. The suit seeks a declaratory judgment that… Read moreArizona’s anti-immigrant Sheriff Arpaio in racial profiling suit
The Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) agreed Dec. 14 to postpone demolition of three public housing projects pending a hearing before City Council. Opponents of the demolition had filed a suit contending the Council’s consent was required by the… Read moreBlow against ethnic cleansing in New Orleans
A Dec. 12 Daily Kos piece resurrecting the old CIA-cocaine connection is rapidly making its way around the Internet conspirosphere. Below a YouTube video showing a private jet flying over a tropical landscape and footage of Mexican troops guarding seized… Read moreCIA torture jet in Yucatan coke crash?
Weekly News Update on the Americas is published nearly every Sunday (since 1990) by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012; phone 212-674-9499; fax 212-674-9139; e-mail weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. The Update is distributed via e-mail and regular mail, together with Immigration News Briefs, a weekly supplement. Free one-month trial subscriptions are available on request.
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Colombia's former FARC rebels, now organized as a political party, announced that they will suspend their campaign for the first elections since their demobilization last year. The FARC—their acronym now standing for the Alternative Revolutionary Force of the People—cited a lack of security for their candidates, campaign workers and followers. Campaign workers in several cities have received death threats, according to the FARC statement. Campaign rallies throughout Colombia were canceled after angry mobs threw bottles and rocks at former guerilla leaders and their supporters. (Photo: Colombia Reports)
Two UN rights experts expressed serious concern regarding the arrest and detention of Ahed Tamimi, a 17-year-old Palestinian girl who became famous for slapping an Israeli soldier during a physical confrontation. The statements came as Tamimi appeared before an Israeli military court for the first time. An Israel military judge, who prohibited the media from entering the courtroom and began the trial behind closed doors, ruled that Tamimi should remain in detention until the end of her trial and adjourned the hearing until early March. (Photo: Wikimedia)
Recent US raids in Afghanistan have targeted presumed forces of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, the supposed Uighur militant network active in China’s far-western Xinjiang region. News of the air-strikes in Badakhshan province comes amid reports that China is preparing to establish a military base in the same region of Afghanistan. Badakhshan forms a long panhandle between Tajikistan to the north and Pakistan to the south to reach a border with Chinese territory. (Photo: US troops on patrol in Zabul province; US Army via Flickr)
As Turkey and its Syrian rebel allies continue their advance on Kurdish-held Afrin, Russia and its Syrian regime allies continue their advance on rebel-held Iblib. Both offensives are taking a horrific toll in civilian casualties, but the parallels don't end there. Even as they ostensibly oppose each other, both Turkey and Assad are accused of conniving with ISIS forces to weaken the defenders of the respective enclaves. And the twin aggressions in Afrin and Idlib come amid a sudden and rapid internationalization of the Syrian war. (Photo: Kurdish militia figher at Afrin, via ANF)
Official figures reveal that narco-violence made 2017 the deadliest year in Mexico’s modern history. The grim total surpassed that of 2011, when the militarized drug war of then-President Felipe Calderón led to 22,409 homicides. A total of 23,101 homicide investigations were opened in the first 11 months of 2017, according to figures from the Governance Ministry, which has been tracking the yearly kill count back to 1997. (Map: CIA)
For the second year in a row, Brazil has witnessed a deadly prison riot on the first day of the year. A death toll of nine is reported from the central state of Goias. One inmate was decapitated. The violence began New Year's Day afternoon at the rural penitentiary in the outskirts of the state capital, Goiania. Rival criminal factions clashed, broke the barriers of the compound and escaped.
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