Mexico
Mexico: narcos escalate war on security apparatus
Gunmen assassinated the security chief at a Monterrey prison and the newly appointed police chief in Nuevo Laredo amid a new wave of violence in northern Mexico.
Author: CounterVortex
Central America
Guatemala: campesinos targeted in “state of siege”
Campesino leaders report army abuses against local indigenous peasants in the Guatemalan department of Alta Verapaz since a “state of siege” was declared there.
Central America
Hondurans march in solidarity with Egyptian uprising
The National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP) marched in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, in solidarity with the protest movement in Egypt, blocking traffic on a major thoroughfare.
Central America
Panama: indigenous protesters blockade capital
Ngobe protesters streamed into Panama’s capital city and blocked the street in front of the Legislative Palace to protest their exclusion from an committee on the mineral code.
The Andes
Colombia: indigenous reintegrate demobilized guerrillas
The North Cauca Association of Indigenous Councils in southeast Colombia’s Cauca department has implemented its own re-immersion program for demobilized guerillas.
The Andes
Bolivia: Cochabamba coca chew-in for legalization
Coca growers gathered in cities across Bolivia to hold peaceful demonstrations in support of their government’s proposed amendment to the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.
The Amazon
Peru: Camisea consortium in royalty dispute
The Hunt Oil-led consortium that operates Peru’s massive Camisea gas field is deadlocked in royalty talks with the government—raising questions about plans for massive expansion.
The Amazon
Is Amazon rainforest becoming net CO2 emitter?
A new study in the journal Science indicates the growing frequency of severe droughts in the Amazon could make the world’s biggest rainforest a net emitter of greenhouse gases.
The Amazon
New photos of “uncontacted” Amazon tribe released
Brazil’s National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI) has released new photographs of an isolated tribe living in a remote rainforest region near the Peruvian border.
The Amazon
Brazil: construction of Belo Monte dam (illegally) approved
Brazil’s environmental agency IBAMA issued a construction permit for the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River in the Amazon—in a move called illegal by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Palestine
Palestinian solidarity march for Egypt broken up in Ramallah —again
Palestinians demonstrating in support of Egyptian anti-government protesters were forcibly disbanded when a few dozen men in plainclothes disrupted the rally in Ramallah.
Europe
Thousands march in Milan, Belgrade
Thousands took to the streets in Milan and Belgrade to demand their respective governments step down—although the Italian protests played to the left and the Serbian to the populist right.