This June 2 account from the English-language Dominican Today was typical of what little media attention the recent US military exercises in the Dominican Republic accrued: SANTO DOMINGO.- The United States Army troops that participated in the joint operation New… Read moreDominican Republic: US military exercises end
Violent student protests in the historic town of Merida in Venezuela’s high Andes seem to have accrued little international coverage. This very opinionated account from the very pro-Chavez Venezuela News Bulletin, May 31: Riots and ‘guarimbas’ are running wild in… Read moreVenezuela: student protests rock Merida
Bush just has two years to go. Will he really get around to invading Venezuela? Chavez isn’t hedging his bets. From Reuters, June 3: CARACAS – Venezuela received a shipment of 30,000 new Russian rifles on Saturday, weeks after Washington… Read moreVenezuela: Chavez buys 30,000 Russian AKs
Evo Morales sticks it to the landed elite. He saves the announcement for a trip to Santa Cruz, the section of the country which had threatened to secede if he nationalized the gas (as he has now done). A none-too-subtle… Read moreBolivia: Evo launches “land revolution”
From La Jornada, June 6, via Chiapas95 (our translation). Amazingly, this seems to have made no international media. Now, how did this guy survive to go on a hunger strike after being nailed to a cross? Veracruz, June 5. An… Read moreEcologist crucifies self in Veracruz
On May 4 the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Georgia released documents on investigations by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into the US human rights group School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch). The… Read moreFBI probes SOA Watch
On June 1 in Chicago, immigration judge John Brahos granted a continuance of more than four months to Flor Crisostomo and five other workers arrested last April 19 in an ICE raid of the IFCO Systems pallet company in Chicago…. Read moreChicago: immigrant workers end hunger strike; vigil continues
On June 3, Mexican telenovela star Ofelia Medina, who has launched the group Mujeres Sin Miedo (Women Without Fear) to support those arrested in the protests at San Salvador Atenco, held a press conference to announce that 24 of the… Read moreMexico: Atenco prisoners 30 days on hunger strike; Marcos calls for national protests
Here is a pretty good indication that the US is losing control of the client state it has set up in Iraq—which, in turn, is afraid of losing control of Iraq. And, since Maliki and his gang are more loyal… Read moreMaliki challenges US on civilian killings
Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has decared a state of emergency in Basra, where battles are raging both between Shi’ite and Sunni militias, as well as among rival Shi’ite militias. Nearly 140, mostly Sunnis but also Shi’ites and members of… Read moreSectarian cleansing in Basra; Zarqawi wants more
Doug Ireland writes of an “anti-gay pogrom” underway in Iraq, for In These Times, May 31: Shiite death squads in Iraq are carrying out a campaign that targets gay men for murder. This so-called “sexual cleansing” is happening under the… Read more“Sexual cleansing” in Iraq
The ascendance of the center-left Romano Prodi as Italy’s new prime minister in the narrow (and contested) April elections will apparently mean at least a phased withdrawal of Italian troops from the US-led mission in Iraq, depriving Bush of one… Read moreItaly to expand Afghanistan role
