Mexico
Mexico: immigration activists take case to US
Mexican and Central American activists tour the US to increase awareness about immigration and to build ties with US-based activists.
Author: Weekly News Update on the Americas
Southern Cone
Argentina: ex-dictator Videla dies in prison
The leader of Argentina’s 1976 coup and the 1976-1983 “dirty war” has died in prison—the former US officials who covered up his atrocities are still free.
Southern Cone
Latin America: 7 ex-rulers remain jailed or on trial
Five former South American dictators are in prison for crimes committed under their regimes; Peru's Morales Bermúdez and Haiti's Jean-Claude Duvalier also face charges.
Southern Cone
Brazil: 30,000 people displaced for sports events
Rio relocates thousands for the World Cup and the Olympics; activists and social scientists say the city’s just trying to push poorer residents off valuable real estate.
Mexico
Mexico: activists protest GMO corn with giant banner
Greenpeace activists scaled a 104-meter monument to bring attention to plans by Monsanto and other companies for drastically expanding the use of transgenic corn in Mexico.
Central America
Guatemala: RÃos Montt is convicted —who’s next?
Survivors and rights advocates hugged each other when the ex-dictator was convicted of genocide, but the current president must be thinking about his own role in the civil war.
Central America
Guatemala: state of siege against protesters lifted
President Pérez Molina was forced to give up his effort to contain indigenous protests against a Canadian-owned silver mine by suspending constitutional rights.
The Amazon
Brazil: protesters suspend Belo Monte occupation
Activists have ended their most recent occupation of what is to be the world’s third-largest dam, while the center-left government tries to downplay the protests.
The Caribbean
Haiti: Aristide to reenter politics as a ‘coach’
Nine years after he lost power, former president Aristide may be trying to make a comeback, but this time as an adviser and a dealmaker, not as a candidate.
Mexico
Mexico: Malcolm X grandson murdered in DF bar
Mexican authorities believe that the grandson of renowned African American leader Malcolm X was killed by barroom enforcers who were just after money.
The Amazon
Protesters again block construction at Belo Monte
Police removed journalists from a construction site at a giant dam as they tried to cover the site’s latest occupation by indigenous people opposing the project.
Central America
Guatemala: will the RÃos Montt trial continue?
Confusing court decisions and legal maneuvers seem designed to delay a verdict in the trial of a former military dictator accused in the deaths of indigenous civilians.