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
One of 15 immigrants arrested in March 2002 in connection with a supposed plot to attack the US Embassy in Rome with chemical agents has been awarded $133,000 for wrongful detention. Tunisian-born Abdelmoname Ben Khalifa Mansour, initially charged with being… Read moreItaly pays in bogus terror bust
Iran’s representative to UNESCO, Mohammad-Reza Dehshiri, issued a protest in a letter to the UN cultural organizaiton’s director general against the Warner Brothers blockbuster 300, calling it an insult to Iranian culture. Dehshiri called on UNESCO to bring the issue… Read moreIran protests to UN over “300”
On March 17, Trokavec village in the Czech Republic voted its opposition to a US radar base slated to be built in a nearby military zone as part of Washington’s proposed “missile shield.” Seventy-two out of 90 eligible voters in… Read moreCzech villagers vote against US radar base
Three suicide bombers exploded trucks loaded with explosives and tanks of chlorine gas in Iraq’s Anbar province March 16, killing at least two Iraqi police and sickening more than 350 people. In the first attack, a pick-up truck carrying chlorine… Read moreIraq: who is behind chlorine attacks?
