On Dec. 23 Italian authorities arrested former Uruguayan navy captain Nestor Jorge Fernandez Troccoli in Salerno. Fernandez Troccoli, who headed Uruguay’s secret services for the 1973-1985 military dictatorship, had been ordered arrested on Dec. 17 by an Uruguayan judge investigating… Read moreItaly seeks 140 in “Operation Condor” crimes
On Jan. 4 Argentine federal judge Sandra Arroyo charged two coast guard officers, Angel Volpi and Ruben Iglesias, with homicide in connection with the death of former navy officer Hector Febres. Febres, who was 66, was found dead on Dec…. Read moreArgentina: charges in death of ex-officer linked to “dity war” case
Chilean agronomy student Matias Catrileo Quezada, an indigenous Mapuche, was shot dead early on the morning of Jan. 3 at the Fundo Santa Margarita estate, in Vilcun in the southern region of Araucania, presumably by police agents. He and other… Read moreChile: Mapuche student killed in land conflict
Oromo activists in Ethiopia launched a "fuel blockade," occupying roadways to halt shipment of oil through the country. The action was called following a massacre at the village of Moyale, near the Kenyan border. Troops gunned down nine unarmed residents, apparently mistaking them for militants of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). Nearly 5,000 have fled across the border to Kenya—some having directly run from gunfire. Ethiopia last year imposed a state of emergency in response to mounting Oromo protests. Roadblocks are reported from several points around the country, so far without violence. (Photo via UNPO)
A petition from the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), Jan. 5: The southern cities of Iraq which are totally under the grip of Islamist parties have turned into no-woman zones. Female physical appearance is not acceptable in the… Read moreEnd the genocide of women in Iraq
Zapatista women at La Garrucha To celebrate the 14th anniversary of their New Years Day uprising, Mexico’s Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) hosted a Women’s Encuentro (“encounter” or “meeting”) at the jungle settlement of La Garrucha, Chiapas state. Officially dubbed… Read moreChiapas: Zapatistas host Women’s Encuentro —amid ongoing violence
Hundreds of thousands of mourners have gathered at the holy city of Touba to pay last respects to Senegal’s late spiritual leader, Serigne Saliou Mbacke, who died at the age of 92 on Dec. 28. Saliou was the last surviving… Read moreMarabout wars in West Africa?
Kenyan police sealed Nairobi and broke up protests with water cannons and baton charges Jan. 3, barring supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga from holding a planned rally in Nairobi’s Uhuru Park. Odinga made his own accusations of “genocide” against… Read moreMungiki vs. “Taliban” in Kenya’s “Kosovo”
Two suicide attacks in Iraq killed at least 56 and wounded at least 42 this week—days after the US military delivered an upbeat report on security in the country, boasting that levels of violence had dropped over the past year…. Read moreIraq: al-Qaeda strikes back?
An explosion in the center of Diyarbakır in Turkish Kurdistan—timed to the very second a military vehicle was driving by—killed five and wounded at least 52 Jan. 3. Many of the wounded were soldiers, but the five dead were civilians,… Read moreTerror in Diyarbakır
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has claimed responsibility for the Jan. 2 suicide bombing in Algeria that killed five and injured 20. At 6:45 AM, a small truck laden with explosives drove at high speed towards a police station in… Read moreAl-Qaeda claims Algeria blast
The Turkish assault on Afrin has forced the enclave's Kurdish defenders into an alliance with the same Assad regime that is committing war crimes in Eastern Ghouta. This tragically poses an obstacle to any solidarity between the respective defenders of the besieged enclaves. But we in the West are faced with no such grim choices, and should be capable of a consistent position. Yet Noam Chomsky, who signed a statement in support of Afrin, has shamefully abetted Putin's propaganda portraying the repeated chemical attacks on Ghouta as "fake news." (Photo of Aleppo ruins from UNHCR)
