The Amazon
Protesters again block construction at Belo Monte
Police removed journalists from a construction site at a giant dam as they tried to cover the site’s latest occupation by indigenous people opposing the project.
Central America
Guatemala: will the Ríos Montt trial continue?
Confusing court decisions and legal maneuvers seem designed to delay a verdict in the trial of a former military dictator accused in the deaths of indigenous civilians.
The Caribbean
Haiti: labor groups unite for May 1 march
Haiti saw unusually large May 1 marches this year as unions joined together in the capital and assembly and agricultural workers protested in other cities.
The Caribbean
US lets ‘spy’ serve probation in Cuba
The US gave contradictory signals as it let one of the Cuban Five stay in Cuba and let Mariela Castro visit the Liberty Bell—but continued to pin a “terrorist” label on Cuba.
The Andes
World War 4 Report goes to Peru…
World War 4 Report editor Bill Weinberg will be in Peru on assignment for the next weeks. The Daily Report will be updated as time and logistics allow, with on-the-scene reports.
Central America
Salvador May Day march rejects privatization push
Some 80,000 Salvadorans took to the streets on May Day to oppose privatization initiatives mandated by the US State Department’s Partnership for Growth program.
Lakota elders march on UN
On April 9, Lakota elders, activists and non-indigenous supporters marched through the streets of Manhattan to the United Nations, where they attempted to present a petition to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. Entitled the “Official Lakota Oyate Complaint of Genocide… Read moreLakota elders march on UN
Greater Middle East
Israeli air-strikes near Damascus
Israeli missiles struck a research center near Damascus, as massacres of Sunni families by pro-government militias are reported from Syria’s coastal Alawite stronghold.
Afghanistan
Chief prosecutor in Musharraf case killed
Chaudhry Zulfikar, chief prosecutor in the criminal case against Pakistan's former president Pervez Musharraf, was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting on his way to a hearing.
Watching the Shadows
Harrowing Gitmo memoir published
Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritanian detained at Guantánamo since August 2002, has had portions of his handwritten prison-camp memoir published in Slate magazine.
North America
Assata Shakur: don’t believe the ‘terrorist’ hype
Veteran Black Panther Assata Shakur's addition to the FBI's "Most Wanted Terrorists" list is a propagandistic abuse of the English language in the service of historical revisionism.
Iraq
Ba’ath-Sufi convergence in Iraq insurgency?
The most senior member of Saddam Hussein’s inner circle still on the run, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, is said to be leading a band of insurgents from the Naqshbandi Sufi order.