From La Jornada, Jan. 10 via Chiapas95 (our translation): Hundreds of inhabitants of the Sierra de Chiapas blocked trucks and machinery transporting wood from the zone, and initiated a protest vigil in front of the municipal presidency in Motozintla in… Read moreChiapas: campesinos protest deforestation
From El Universal, Jan. 10 via Chiapas95: Soaring tortilla prices have touched off a budding crisis, threatening the traditional affordability of the nation’s most politically sensitive food product. Consumers are paying an average of 8 pesos per kilo – with… Read moreMexico: soaring tortilla prices hurt poor
Cindy Sheehan, mother of a US soldier killed in Iraq, was among several US citizens who arrived in Cuba on Jan. 6 in preparation for a series of actions Jan. 9-13 to protest the US military’s use of its Guantanamo… Read moreCuba: Cindy Sheehan arrives for Gitmo protest
On Dec. 29 Chilean judge Haroldo Brito sentenced 13 former security agents to prison terms ranging from five to 18 years for four revenge murders carried out after a September 1986 attempt to kill Gen. Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, dictator of… Read moreChile: Pinochet agents sentenced
Paraguayan general Alejandro Fretes Davalos, who led the imprisonment and torture of hundreds of people under the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989), died on Dec. 29 following a lengthy illness. Fretes had graduated from Chile’s Military School, where he served… Read moreParaguay: ex-military chief dies
On the night of Jan. 1, an armed group entered the village of El Cedro in Yarumal municipality, in the Colombian department of Antioquia, and shot to death four civilians, two men and two women. The victims included Yolanda Munoz… Read moreColombia: more community leaders murdered
A little more than a year ago, it was a mysterious sweet smell that mystified New Yorkers. This time a mysterious sinister smell. A psychological warfare experiment? From Reuters, Jan. 10: A powerful, mysterious smell of gas wafted through much… Read moreSmell of fear in NYC; dead birds in Austin
From the Middle East Newsline, Jan. 8: Morocco has reported another crackdown on Al Qaida. Officials said security forces have arrested Al Qaida operatives suspected of recruiting Muslims for the Sunni insurgency war in Iraq. They said the Al Qaida… Read moreMorocco claims al-Qaeda crackdown
Unknown Somali fighters opened fire with automatic weapons and launched rockets at Ethiopian and allied Somalian troops in Mogadishu Jan. 9. The attack came as the troops had established themselves in a building formerly used by the police force. No… Read moreSomalia: US airstrikes, anti-Ethiopia resistance
Another sign of Nigeria’s social breakdown—and similar tensions are reported from Ghana. From Xinhua, Jan. 9: Six persons were killed at the weekend in a bloody clash between herdsmen and farmers in Korenganuwa village in Nigeria’s northwestern state of Zamfara,… Read moreNigeria: Fulani herders in bloody clash with farmers
From the Arab American Community Coalition, Jan. 1: The Arab American Community Coalition has just learned of an entire Palestinian family – the Ibrahims – being held in jail in Texas while waiting an unjustified deportation. The Immigration and Customs… Read moreICE detains Palestinian family in Texas
On Jan. 2, a California National Guard helicopter assisting the Border Patrol crashed in the mountains about 20 miles southeast of downtown San Diego. Two National Guard soldiers and three Border Patrol agents were hospitalized with neck and back injuries;… Read moreBorder chopper crashes outside San Diego
