The Andes

Venezuela withdraws from OAS rights body

Venezuela’s withdrawal from the American Convention of Human Rights went into effect this month, drawing the condemnation of rights groups across the hemisphere.

Europe

Romania: protest wave against mega-mine

Thousands of Romanians have been occupying Bucharest to protest plans by Canadian firm Gabriel Resources to establish Europe's biggest open-pit gold mine at Rosia Montana.

Inner Asia

New deadly Xinjiang raid comes to light

Security forces in China’s far western Xinjiang region shot and killed at least 12 men and wounded 20 others during a raid on what authorities described as a “terrorist facility.”

North Africa

Mali: Tuareg youth stage mini-intifada

A visit by a delegation of cabinet ministers from Mali’s central government to Kidal, the northern town held by Tuareg rebels of the MNLA, sparked a mini-intifada.

The Andes

Colombia: gains seen as peasants end strike

Colombian campesinos ended their national strike and lifted road blockades after the government agreed to suspend a law barring seed-saving to protect corporate GMOs.

The Andes

Colombia pays Ecuador for fumigation damages

Colombia paid Ecuador $15 million after anti-narcotics fumigation planes dropped herbicides along the border, harming crops and communities in Ecuadoran territory.

Central America

Guatemala: mineral interests behind massacre?

Indigenous authorities in the Guatemalan pueblo of Nacahuil reject government claims that a massacre there was the work of drug gangs, pointing to violence against mining opponents.

Central America

Honduras grants title to Miskito territory

After 40 years of conflicts, protests and negotiations, the government of Honduras formally granted indigenous communities title to nearly all of the country’s remote Miskito Coast.