From American Friends Service Committee, Feb. 7: PHILADELPHIA – The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker humanitarian service organization, has nominated two Colombian groups for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for their extraordinary commitment to nonviolence in the midst… Read moreColombian peasant, indigenous groups nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
Earlier this month, a delegation from the Bush adminisation met with President Alvaro Uribe in Bogota to evaluate what Uribe is calling “Plan Colombia II.” The delegation was led by assistant secretary of state for hemispheric affairs Tom Shannon and… Read moreUribe boasts “Plan Colombia II”; Bush policy unchanged
Some long-belated progress in the struggle of another stateless ethnicity left off the map in the colonial and post-colonial carve-ups. From Reuters, Feb. 21: ALGIERS – The Malian government and Tuareg rebels agreed on Tuesday to start implementing an Algerian-brokered… Read moreMali: Tuareg rebels agree to disarm
From IRIN via Electronic Iraq, Feb. 20: BAGHDAD – Umm Muhammad Jalal, 39, starts every day walking to a river 7km away from her temporary home in a displacement camp on the outskirts of Fallujah, 70km west of the capital,… Read moreIraq: critical water shortage in Fallujah
Friends and advocates from the Paraguayan Union of Journalists (SPP) will mark the one year anniversary of Paraguayan radio journalist Enrique (Kike) Galeano’s disappearance with a protest in his home town of Yby Yaú. Galeano was reporting on drug trafficking… Read moreParaguay: journalist still missing
Almost two months after Ecuador’s Ministry of Energy and Mines rejected Ascendant Copper’s Environmental Impact Study for the controversial and locally unpopular Junin copper mine project, the company’s shares plummeted to a measly $0.47 per share on Monday. In addition… Read moreEcuador: copper cartel in trouble
The 15-member United Nations Security Council voted unanimously in New York on Feb. 15 to approve Resolution 1743, which extends the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) until Oct. 15. The eight-month period was a compromise. A number of… Read moreHaiti: UN extends mission
A UN working group recently investigated abuses by private security firms recruiting and training hundreds of Peruvians to work as mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan. (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Feb. 5) Mercenaries are currently the second largest military… Read moreUN uncovers mercenary recruitment in Peru
The Human Rights Defense Commission (CODDEHUM) of the southern Mexican state of Guerrero is investigating a Jan. 25 police operation that removed 60 workers and campesinos who were blocking the Los Filos gold mine near the community of Carrizalillo in… Read moreMexico: probe police action at Guerrero mine
In a new communique, the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) denounces Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s escalated campiagn against narco-trafficking as a “farce” and a “mere pretext to augment the already disproportionate militarization of rural Chiapas.” The communique, signed by Subcommander… Read moreChiapas: Zapatistas protest narco-militarization
From Iranian Workers’ Solidarity Network, Jan. 30: Workers shut off Iran Sadra’s Bushehr shipyard’s gate “We’ll stay on strike until we achieve our goal” Following the sacking of 38 workers at Iran Sadra’s Bushehr shipyard on 30 January, 150 workers… Read moreWildcat strike at Iran’s Bushehr shipyards
The House passes a non-binding resolution against the “surge”; the Senate fails to. Opponents invoke the need to “support the troops.” Is anybody listening to the troops and their families? From Military Families Speak Out, Feb. 5: Military Families Urge… Read moreMilitary families to Congress: cut the funds
