Southern Cone

Brazil’s top fugitive drug lord gets popped

Brazilian authorities announced the apprehension of Rogerio Avelino da Silva AKA “Rogerio 157″—the fugitive gang leader said be behind a wave of paramilitary-style violence that prompted the national government to flood  Rio de Janiero’s favelas with army troops earlier this year. Nearly 3,000 officers from the Federal Police as well as army troops took part in the “mega-operation” that led to his arrest. (Photo: O Globo)

East Asia

China: dissident blogger gets eight years in prison

A court in China convicted a prominent cyber-activist on subversion charges, after holding him for two years. Wu Gan, AKA "Super Vulgar Butcher," was arrested during the "709 Crackdown" on rights campaigners in 2015. Following the verdict, Wu was sentenced to eight years—the harshest term yet for anyone targeted in the crackdown. There's a particular irony to Wu's draconian sentence, as he made protesting transgressions of justice in China's court system his special cause. For instance, he took up the case of a rape victim who had killed her assailant, a Communist Party official. He also followed the example of online activists in the West by posting videos of police abuses. Photo: YouTube

The Andes

Fujimori walks: soft coup in Peru?

Protests are breaking out across Peru following the Christmas eve "humanitarian pardon" of imprisoned ex-dictator Alberto Fujimori by President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (PPK). The pardon came three days after PPK survived a congressional vote on removing him from office over his embroilment in the Odebrecht scandal. A right-wing bloc led by the dictator's son Kenji Fujimori abstained from the vote, allowing PPK to survive in office—and raising obvious accusations of a quid pro quo. (Photo: Tomate Colectivo)

Year-end fund drive reaches $200. Who’s next?

Can we raise $500 by year's end? If we do, CounterVortex will have succeeded in meeting a large chunk of our annual operating expenses for 2017. That's all we ask. If you have appreciated our rigorous reportage and ultra-dissident analysis over the past year, please give what you can. Donations of $50 each from six more readers would do it. If you can afford to help us and appreciate our work, please do it now while you are thinking about it…

Afghanistan

Afghanistan opium production hits new record

The latest stats from the UN's annual Afghanistan Opium Survey are in, and the news is grim. Opium production in the war-torn country jumped nearly 87% in 2017, to record levels—an estimated 9,000 metric tons. Areas under poppy cultivation rose by 63%, reaching a record 328,000 hectares and boosting the number of Afghanistan's 34 provinces now cultivating opium from 21 to 24. Since overthrowing the Taliban in 2001, the US has spent nearly $7 billion to combat opium—to spectacularly counter-productive results. (Photo: VOA)

Syria

Assad bashes Rojava Kurds as ‘traitors’

The Rojava Kurds, repeatedly accused of collaborating with Bashar Assad, have now been dissed by the dictator as “traitors” for accepting aid from the United States. But the White House says this aid is coming to an end now that ISIS is largely defeated in northern Syria. And the rebel opposition, including the Free Syrian Army, remain intransigent in refusing to recognize Kurdish autonomy—seeming to share in the Arab nationalist assumptions of the dictatorship they oppose. Having outlived their usefulness in the fight against ISIS, the Kurds could find themselves once again isolated and without allies. (Photo: Redspark)

Planet Watch

Arctic oil scramble in offing after GOP tax bill

As a part of the Republican tax overhaul bill, Congress voted  to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and natural gas drilling, after more than four decades of contestation on the matter. Drilling is still years away at best, due to depressed oil prices, a lengthy review process, and likely legal challenges. But oil companies are already arguing over who will have rights to the reserve—while Native Alaskan communities that depend on its critical caribou habitat see impending cultural extermination. (Photo: FWS)

Iraq

Popular protests rock Iraqi Kurdistan

Thousands took to the streets across Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region  to protest budget cuts and the lack of basic services. At least six were killed as security forces fired on protesting civil servants in Raniya, who have gone without pay for weeks. Demonstrators are demanding the resignation of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) administration. Protesters armed with assault rifles attacked the local office of the KRG's ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Raniya, where a curfew has now been imposed. (Photo: Rudaw)

Southeast Asia

Aung San Suu Kyi to face genocide charges?

UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein raised the possibility that Burma's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi could face international genocide charges over the military campaign targeting the Rohingya Muslim people. "For obvious reasons, if you're planning to commit genocide you don't commit it to paper and you don't provide instructions," he told BBC News. "The thresholds for proof are high. But it wouldn't surprise me in the future if a court were to make such a finding on the basis of what we see." (Photo: IRIN)

Watching the Shadows

UN expert: torture continues at Gitmo

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer issued a statement calling on the US to end impunity for "perpetrators and policymakers responsible for years of gruesome abuse" at Guantánamo Bay and other detention facilities. He added that that he has information that Guantánamo detainee Ammar al-Baluchi, awaiting trial in the 9-11 case before a military tribunal, is still being tortured despite the banning of so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques."

Central America

Nicaragua: women march against army ‘massacre’

The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women march in Nicaragua's capital was shut down by the riot police, who blocked the streets off shortly after demonstrators gathered. The Managua march was emotionally charged, as it was led by Elea Valle—a campesina woman whose husband, son and daughter were killed two weeks earlier in a raid by army troops on their home in the country's eastern rainforest.