The Caribbean
Haiti: students protest killing by police agent
Students paralyzed much of downtown Port-au-Prince with a week of protests after a police agent shot a student dead during a university function.
Day: November 20, 2012
The Caribbean
Dominican austerity protests spread abroad
Dominicans continue to protest at home and abroad against a package of tax increases supposedly intended to fight a $4.7 billion fiscal deficit.
Southern Cone
Chile: Pascua Lama mine suspended over safety
Barrick Gold Corporation had to suspend some operations at its troubled Pascua Lama mine after inspectors found unsafe levels of fine particles in the air.
Mexico
Mexico: ‘labor reform’ passes; economists ‘upbeat’
The Mexican Senate passed a controversial “labor reform” after stripping out articles to promote union democracy; pro-business economists promise new growth for Mexico.
The descent of the Colombian army
A new and long-awaited report on civilian killings by the Colombian military from 2002 to 2010 argues convincingly that the spike of state violence during those years grew directly from the policies of “Democratic Security” that attempted to militarize all… Read moreThe descent of the Colombian army
THE DESCENT OF THE COLOMBIAN ARMY
“Take No Prisoners” in Practice
by John Lindsay-Poland, Fellowship of Reconciliation
A new and long-awaited report on civilian killings by the Colombian military from 2002 to 2010 argues convincingly that the spike of state violence during those years grew directly from the policies of “Democratic Security” that attempted to militarize all Colombian society.
The study was produced by the Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Observatory of the Colombia-Europe-United States Coordination (known by its acronym in Spanish, CCEEU), a coalition of more than 200 Colombian human rights organizations and their counterparts in Europe and the US. Twenty of these organizations have come together to document, analyze and carry out judicial strategies on extrajudicial executions. The coalition has painstakingly compiled records of 3,512 reported extrajudicial killings from 2002 to 2010, during the presidency of Álvaro Uribe.
Continue ReadingTHE DESCENT OF THE COLOMBIAN ARMY