The Andes
Peru: narco-mineral integration
The US Justice Department has frozen the assets of mineral companies owned by Peru’s Sánchez-Paredes family, finding that they are fronts for cocaine trafficking.
Author: CounterVortex
The Amazon
High court rejects Chevron appeal in Ecuador case
The US Supreme Court declined to Chevron’s bid to block global enforcement of a $19 billion judgment by a court in Ecuador, in a victory for 30,000 rainforest dwellers.
The Andes
Colombia: riot police attack student protesters
The Colombian National Police elite anti-riot squad, ESMAD, stormed the campus of the the Technological University of Chocó, which had been successfully occupied for 40 days.
The Amazon
Colombia apologizes for Amazon genocide
Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos on Día de La Raza issued an official apology to indigenous communities in the Amazon for devastation caused by the rubber boom.
Central America
Guatemala: arrests in peasant massacre
Guatemalan authorities arrested a colonel and eight soldiers over the extrajudicial killings of eight indigenous protestors in the department of Totonicapan last week.
Central America
Guatemala claims arrest of local Zetas boss
Guatemalan authorities arrested the presumed leader of a Zetas cell in the region along the Mexican border, where the group's incursion has forced the displacement of local residents.
North America
MS-13 gang makes US ‘criminal organization’ list
Mara Salvatrucha, the Salvadoran street gang that got its start in Los Angeles' Koreatown, has been officially designated by US authorities as an "transnational criminal organization."
East Asia
China: Amnesty protests forced evictions
Violent forced evictions in China are on the rise as local authorities seek to offset debts by seizing and selling off land in suspect deals with developers, Amnesty International charges.
Southeast Asia
Vietnam: peasant protests over land-grab
Residents of Van Giang outside Hanoi marched to oppose the seizure of their lands for an “EcoPark” development project hailed by the government as a model of sustainability.
Malala Yousafzai: revolutionary heroine
Young Pakistani rights activist Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head Oct. 9 at her school in the Swat Valley, is fighting for her life in a Peshawar hospital and will be sent abroad for urgent medical treatment following… Read moreMalala Yousafzai: revolutionary heroine
Mexico
Mexico: Zetas kingpin in cadaver caper?
Mexico announced the death of Heriberto Lazcano, maximum leader of Los Zetas—but the body was seized by an armed commando before identification could be confirmed.
Mexico
Friendly fire blamed for Border Patrol death
Friendly fire caused the death of a Border Patrol agent near the Arizona-Mexico border, the FBI now says—ending days of speculation that Mexican smugglers shot the agent.