The Andes

Colombia: gains seen as peasants end strike

Colombian campesinos ended their national strike and lifted road blockades after the government agreed to suspend a law barring seed-saving to protect corporate GMOs.

The Andes

Colombia pays Ecuador for fumigation damages

Colombia paid Ecuador $15 million after anti-narcotics fumigation planes dropped herbicides along the border, harming crops and communities in Ecuadoran territory.

Central America

Guatemala: mineral interests behind massacre?

Indigenous authorities in the Guatemalan pueblo of Nacahuil reject government claims that a massacre there was the work of drug gangs, pointing to violence against mining opponents.

Central America

Honduras grants title to Miskito territory

After 40 years of conflicts, protests and negotiations, the government of Honduras formally granted indigenous communities title to nearly all of the country’s remote Miskito Coast. 

Watching the Shadows

Judge: US does not have to release Gitmo videos

A US judge ruled that the government does not have to release photographs and videotapes taken during the interrogation of Guantánamo Bay detainee Mohammed al-Qahtani.

New York City

WHY WE FIGHT

From Gothamist, Sept. 13: No Charges For Running Over Schoolkids On Queens Sidewalk The SUV driver who plowed into five teenagers on a Queens sidewalk yesterday morning has not been charged with any crime nor issued any summonses. This stands in stark… Read moreWHY WE FIGHT

Greater Middle East

Syria’s Christians become propaganda pawns

Syria’s Christians are becoming propaganda fodder in an international war of perceptions, with atrocities carried out by the jihadist Nusra Front being attributed to the FSA.

Africa

Somalia: protest forced evictions in Mogadishu

Thousands of displaced people who have taken refuge in Somalia’s capital are being forcibly evicted from makeshift camps by government forces, Amnesty International protests.