On May 15 Chilean judge Juan Eduardo Fuentes Belmar found retired army colonel Mario Manriquez Bravo guilty in the Sept. 16, 1973 murder of the internationally renowned singer Victor Jara; the judge then closed the case, despite testimony that other… Read moreChile: conviction in Victor Jara murder
On May 21 Jose Leopoldo Gonzalez, secretary general of the Conference of Mexican Bishops (CEM), said the Catholic bishops had voted unanimously to call for the government to make former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-1994) testify again about the… Read moreMexico: bishops push Posadas probe
Families are desperate a year after five workers and three pensioners from the Mexican state oil company Pemex disappeared, with federal authorities claiming no progress in the case. Mexico’s opposition is pointing at the security forces. “No one seems to… Read more“Disappeared” Mexican oil workers —one year later
More than 1,000 people, mostly peasants, marched through the streets of Savanette, near the Dominican border in Haiti’s Central Plateau region, on May 19 to protest the local government’s failure to issue proper identity papers. The march also commemorated the… Read moreHaiti: 1,000 peasants protest
A statement from Hassan Juma’a Awad, president of Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, via US Labor Against the War (USLAW), May 28: Statement by Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions to 2008 Chevron and ExxonMobil Shareholder meetings On May 28, 2008,… Read moreIraqi oil workers appeal to Exxon shareholders
From Witness Against Torture, May 20: Guantánamo Detainess To Get Their Day in Court Witness Against Torture Activists to “Represent” Detainees in Trial, May 27 WASHINGTON, DC – Detainees at the U.S. Military Prison in Guantánamo will finally get their… Read moreWitness Against Torture defendants “represent” Gitmo detainees
A masked group of some 20 men armed with sticks went on the rampage in Rome’s multi-ethnic Pigneto district May 24, smashing the windows of shops owned by Indian and Bangladeshi immigrants while hurling verbal abuse. The mob disappeared before… Read moreRacist attacks shake Italy
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said in a statement May 26 its fighters had sabotaged Shell Oil’s “major trunk pipeline” at Awoba flow station, and killed 11 soldiers in an ensuing gun battle. Sagir Musa,… Read moreNiger Delta militants hit Shell pipeline
The US Marine Corps announced it will not bring criminal charges against two officers in command of a unit involved in the shooting deaths of up to 19 civilians near Jalalabad, Afghanistan, last year after a car bomb struck the… Read moreUncertain justice (or none) in Afghanistan, Iraq atrocities
Japanese media report that Tokyo may end its supply support mission for US-led forces in Iraq next year, under pressure from the powerful opposition. Japan has some 210 Air Self-Defense Force personnel in Kuwait, from where they airlift supplies to… Read moreJapan to end Iraq mission in 2009?
From the Iraq Freedom Congress and the Opening for Peace, Equality and Nexus (OPEN), Japan, May 19: Joint Statement to Stop ‘Gender Cleansing’ in Iraq under the name of ‘honor killing’ and other gender-based violence against women, and to Demand… Read moreStop “gender cleansing” in Iraq
The founder and chief commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Manuel “Tirofijo” (Sureshot) Marulanda, has died, the Colombian government announced May 24.”Through military intelligence, we learned Pedro Antonio Marin, alias Manuel Marulanda or Sureshot, the principal chief… Read moreFARC commander Mario Marulanda dead: Colombia
