On Feb. 7 Henry Ruben and other US activists were forcefully removed from a public hearing held by the US House Subcommittee on Western Hemispheric Affairs in Washington, DC on “Plan Mexico,” a secretive $1.5 billion package of military aid… Read moreUS activists protest “Plan Mexico”
A group of five men armed with AK-47 and AR-15 rifles and 9mm pistols shot and killed Alejandro Barrita Ortiz, director of the Auxiliary, Industrial, Bank and Commercial Police for the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, on Jan. 30 as… Read moreMexico: Oaxaca top cop shot
The Nueva Vida Women’s Cooperative Maquiladora (COMAMNUVI), a Nicaraguan women’s sewing cooperative in Ciudad Sandino, just outside Managua, says that it is about to lose its land. According to the cooperative, a certain Yelba Carvajal is suing in court to… Read moreNicaragua: women’s coop may lose its land
While at a Feb. 5 Havana screening of a documentary on his youth, popular Cuban singer Silvio Rodriguez criticized regulations that keep Cubans from staying in Cuban hotels reserved for tourists. “I belong to a generation that when we had… Read moreCuba: growing criticism of the rules
On Feb. 7 the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Puerto Rican independence activist Avelino Gonzalez Claudio, a suspected leader of the rebel Popular Boricua Army (EPB)-Macheteros. According to Luis Fraticelli, who heads the FBI in Puerto Rico, the… Read moreFBI arrests Machetero suspect
Local residents burned tires and blocked roads around Cuzco, Peru, Feb. 7 to protest government proposals to expand private development at Machu Picchu and other tourism sites. Tourist access to Machu Picchu was cut off by the protests, with visitors… Read morePeru: Cuzco residents protest tourism development
Local schoolteacher Felipe Hernández Yuena was detained Feb. 5 in the municipal government building at Venustiano Carranza, a conflicted town in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, accused of “sedition and riot.” Showing bruises on his face, arms and abdomen,… Read moreDetentions, torture and violence in Chiapas
After meeting with UN Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour, Mexican President Felipe Calderón announced Feb. 6 that he would gradually remove army troops from drug enforcement duty, replacing them with newly-trained police units. Use of the military in Mexico’s war… Read moreCalderón to demilitarize Mexican drug war?
Jan Eliasson, UN special envoy for Darfur, warns that deployment of peacekeeping forces continues to be stalled and that rebel groups show little willingness to enter peace talks. (NYT, Feb. 9) Meanwhile, the ongoing carnage barely gets headlines anymore. This… Read moreWarplanes, Janjaweed attack Darfur towns
The New York Times reports Feb. 9 that military prosecutors are in the final phases of preparing a “sweeping” case against suspected conspirators in the 9-11 plot. The charges, to be filed in the military commission system at Guantánamo Bay,… Read moreSix at Gitmo to face trial in 9-11
Matthew Wald reported for the New York Times Feb. 6. that the US Energy Department is subsidizing two Russian nuclear institutes at Nizhny Novgorod that are building key parts of the Bushehr reactor in Iran that Washington has spent years… Read moreUS Energy Department subsidizes Russian nuclear institutes linked to Iran reactor
Clearing vast tracts of land for biofuels production would hinder—not help—the effort to slow global warming, according to two new studies published in the journal Science. Although such fuels emit less greenhouse gases than fossil fuels, clearing forests and other… Read more“Biofuels” could worsen climate crisis
