Street clashes broke out in the departmental capital of Santa Cruz and towns in the surrounding countryside May 4 as regional authorities declared victory in the autonomy vote. Dozens were injured, including one protester hit by a dynamite blast in… Read moreViolence mars autonomy vote in Bolivia
Nine are dead—five agents of the Federal Preventative Police, two municipal police, and two civilians—following three shoot-outs May 2 and 3 in the Mexican city of Culiacán, Sinaloa. Four police agents were also wounded. The confrontations began when police patrols… Read moreMexico: deadly attacks on police in Sinaloa
Some 60 men riding in luxury vehicles and wearing uniforms of the Federal Investigation Agency (AFI) and armed with AK-47s shot nine people dead at the ranch of Rogaciano Alba Álvarez in Petatlán May 4. Two of Alba’s sons were… Read moreMexico: deadly attacks on Guerrero cattle barons
America’s own Tibet in the Pacific? From the New York Times, May 3, links added: Occupation of Palace Area Invigorates Native Hawaiian Movement HONOLULU — A Native Hawaiian independence group laid claim this week to the nation’s only royal palace… Read moreHawaiian kingdom reclaims Iolani Palace
From Amazon Watch, May 2: LOS ANGELES — Leaders of the indigenous Achuar people of Peru accompanied by 40 demonstrators wearing hazmat suits today brought Occidental Petroleum’s Amazon disaster to the company’s doorstep as they marched inside the hotel hosting… Read morePeruvian indigenous protest at Oxy Petroleum
Venezuela‘s President Hugo Chávez convened an extraordinary meeting of member nations of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) in Caracas April 23 to discuss the world food crisis. At the meeting, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, Bolivian President Evo Morales,… Read moreFood crisis: summit in Venezuela, protests in Peru
On the eve of the May 4 autonomy referendum in the lowland department of Santa Cruz, Bolivia is increasingly polarized—with the central government of President Evo Morales refusing to accept the legitimacy of the Santa Cruz vote, and the Santa… Read moreBolivia polarized on eve of autonomy vote
Colombia’s Caño-Limon oil pipeline was paralyzed for a third day after it was blown up by FARC guerillas on April 29. Military-escorted engineers are working to repair the pipeline, which carries 100,000 barrels of oil a day from a field… Read moreColombia: FARC blow up oil pipeline
With international eyes on the crisis facing the Rohingya in Burma's Rakhine State, the UN human rights rapporteur for the Southeast Asian country expressed grave concern over a sharp escalation in hostilities in northern Kachin State—where peace talks with ethnic rebels have broken down. Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee said she had received reports that the military had carried out aerial bombings, and used heavy weapons and artillery fire against civilian areas, forcing thousands to flee their homes. "What we are seeing in Kachin State over the past few weeks is wholly unacceptable, and must stop immediately,” Lee said. (Photo of Kachin Independence Army fighters via WikiMedia Commons)
A new report released by the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) demonstrates that intensive aerial herbicide spraying of coca crops in Colombia has backfired badly, contributing to the spread of coca cultivation and cocaine production to new areas of… Read moreColombian herbicide spraying grows —so does coca crop!
A group of Cuban anarchists announced "a new phase in the process of self-emancipation," with the opening of ABRA Social Center and Libertarian Library in Havana's Vedado district. This endeavor of the Alfredo López Libertarian Workshop (an anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist initiative launched in 2012, which forms part of the Anarchist Federation of the Caribbean and Central America), with the collaboration of allied collectives such as the Cuban Critical Observatory, seeks "to build an autonomous and sustainable space in today's Cuba."
Jesús Caballero is one of the latest trade union leaders to be assassinated in Colombia. A labor unionist with the State Training Institute in the Caribbean town of Sabanalarga, Caballero disappeared on April 16 and his body was found two… Read moreColombian government continues attack on rights defenders
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