Police arrested more than 100 protesters in San Francisco and New York City March 19 as the US marked the fourth anniversary of the Iraq invasion. “Stop the money, stop the war,” protesters chanted outside New York’s Stock Exchange as… Read moreOver 100 arrested in Iraq war protests
Saddam Hussein’s former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan was hanged for crimes against humanity on March 20. Ramadan was sentenced in November to life in jail for his role in the 1982 killing of 148 Shi’ites in the town of… Read moreIraq: Ramadan executed for mass murder of Shi’ites —amid mass murder of Shi’ites
At least 10 people were wounded March 19 in fighting between Pakistani tribesmen and Uzbek militants said to be linked to al-Qaeda in the South Waziristan region near the Afghan border. The clash took place in Shin Warsak, a village… Read morePakistan: Uzbek militants rock Waziristan
The Somali capital Mogadishu came under mortar bombardment March 19, leaving at least two dead and several wounded. A mother and daughter died in one neighborhood as more than 20 rounds hit areas including the Bakara Market, the police transport… Read moreSomalia: insurgents attack Mogadishu
Some 130 inmates awaiting federal immigration hearings staged a protest to complain about conditions at the Monmouth County jail in Freehold, NJ. The inmates refused to eat or participate in activities to press their demands for more food, more Spanish-speaking… Read moreICE inmates protest in New Jersey
In a move reminiscent of the struggle over Liberation Theology in the 1980s, the Vatican has issued a stern warning to Jon Sobrino, a dissident Jesuit priest in El Salvador, sending a formal notification claiming two of his books “may… Read moreVatican censures Liberation Theology —again
Fired opposition lawmakers in Ecuador vow to break a police cordon around the Congress building and reclaim their seats, keeping up the pressure on populist President Rafael Correa. The 57 lawmakers were fired for trying to block a referendum on… Read moreEcuador: stand-off at Congress
Colombian officials announced they will consider seeking the extradition of senior executives of Chiquita Brands International after the company pleaded guilty in US federal court to making payments to paramilitary groups. Chiquita, one of the world’s top banana producers, agreed… Read moreColombia: Chiquita to pay in para scandal
The annual US State Department report on global human rights, released March 6, notes improvements in the rghts climate in Mexico but says a “culture of impunity and corruption” persists. (La Jornada, March 7) Source archived at Chiapas95. See our… Read moreState Department rights report blasts Mexico
On March 14, Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) handed a report to the Senate demanding that killings and other rights abuses in the conflicted southern state of Oaxaca over the past months be punished. “There were threats, persecution, physical… Read moreOaxaca: rights commission blasts government
Chiapas state authorities have declared a “Huitepec-Alcanfores Natural Protected Area” in exactly the location where a “Zapatista Communitarian Ecological Reserve” had been declared weeks earlier. The Zapatistas say the Huitepec area, just outside the highland city of San Cristobal de… Read moreZapatista peace camps threatened
The leader of the Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Campesino Rights (OPDDIC), Pedro Chulin Jimenez, and at least 25 of his militants were arrested by state authorities in Chiapas, Mexico, March 8 following reports of attacks on three… Read moreChiapas: paramilitaries threaten journalists
