In an interview this month with the left-leaning Mexican daily La Jornada, Cuban National Assembly president Ricardo Alarcón said that Cuba isn’t counting on a major shift in US policy towards Cuba when Barack Obama becomes US president on Jan…. Read moreCuba: no “turning point” with US
Mexican President Felipe Calderón said Dec. 19 his government “does not and will never negotiate” with the drug lords, and vowed to press ahead with his military crackdown on the cartels. Drug-related deaths have doubled this year, to more than… Read moreMexico: Calderón pledges “no negotiation” with cartels
A Canadian mining company intends to sue El Salvador’s government for several hundred million dollars if it is not granted permission to open a widely unpopular gold and silver mine that scientists warn would pollute local water supplies. Pacific Rim… Read moreCanadian mining company threatens El Salvador with CAFTA suit
At 4 AM on Dec. 16, indigenous leader Edwin Legarda Vázquez was killed by the Colombian army as he was driving a pickup truck belonging to the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC), in which his partner, Aida Quilcué often… Read moreColombia: army kills indigenous leader
Indigenous leaders from the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) ended a three-day meeting in La Paz Dec. 19 with a call for international unity in the struggle against neoliberalism. Delegates from Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia denounced the privatization of… Read moreBolivia hosts Andean indigenous summit
A dynamite charge was set off in the early hours of Dec. 18 in front of Radio Atlántica, a station owned by Guido Guardia, an opposition senator in the eastern Bolivian city of Santa Cruz, leaving a sizeable crater and… Read moreBolivia: opposition radio station attacked
Researchers meeting at the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco said liquefied coal could ultimately have a greater impact on global climate than oil, as it starts to come on line in response to shrinking petrol reserves. “Oil and gas…don’t… Read moreClimate scientists warn of coal threat —is Obama listening?
Sweden joined the Netherlands this week in suspending new aid payments to Rwanda after a UN report accused the central African country of supporting guerillas in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. President Paul Kagame responded: “The people of Rwanda… Read moreRwanda aid suspended over Congo war
A Jordan-based Iraqi rights group announced this week it has filed 200 lawsuits against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and US security firms for their roles in torturing Iraqis. Ali Qeisi, head of the Society of Victims of the US… Read moreIraqis sue Rumsfeld over torture
Japanese and South Korean forces both ended their missions in Iraq this week. The approximately 200 Japanese troops in Kuwait for an air support mission in Iraq are to return home by the end of the year. Japan withdrew its… Read moreJapan, South Korea end Iraq mission
Activists called for protests across Europe on Dec. 18 in solidarity with the uprising in Greece, unfurling banners at the base of Athens’ landmark Acropolis urging international demonstrations and declaring “Resistance” in several languages. In the northwestern Greek city of… Read moreYouth protests, strikes keep rocking Greece, spread to France
A lone protester at El Paso’s Rio Bosque Wetlands Park temporarily halted construction of the US government’s border fence Dec. 17, before being arrested by the Texas Rangers. Judy Ackerman, a local Sierra Club activist and founding member of Friends… Read moreProtester halts border wall construction in El Paso
