WHY WE FIGHT
From the New York Daily News, Jan. 4: Delaware woman in wheelchair is hit by three cars and left to die A Delaware woman trying to cross a roadway in her wheelchair was killed Tuesday night after three cars struck… Read moreWHY WE FIGHT
The Andes
Inmates’ families occupy Venezuela prison
More than 950 relatives of inmates launched a protest occupation of a Venezuelan prison over the New year holiday, saying they will refuse to leave the facility until authorities agree to their demand for faster trials for their loved ones.
The Andes
Peru: Cajamarca anti-mining protests resume
Protests in Peru’s north-central region of Cajamarca resumed with a thousand gathering in the city square to protest against the Conga gold mining project. The regional council voted to declare the project “unviable.”
The Amazon
Ecuador court upholds multi-billion dollar fine against Chevron
The Provincial Court of Justice of Sucumbios in Ecuador upheld a multi-billion dollar fine against Chevron for polluting large areas of the Amazon rainforest in the 1980s. Chevron protested the ruling as illegitimate and unenforceable.
North America
Philip Weiss shills for fascistic demagogue Ron Paul —again
The headlong rush by so-called “leftists” and “progressives” to abandon principle by jumping on the racist, xenophobic, anti-woman, laissez-faire capitalist Ron Paul bandwagon is dealt another disgraceful advance by MondoWeiss.
The Caribbean
Puerto Rico: status vote set as crime, unemployment rise
Puerto Rico will hold a plebiscite on the island’s status in November—but the questions put before voters appear to benefit Gov. Luis Fortuño’s pro-statehood New Progressive Party.
Central America
Honduras: government looks to Venezuela for aid
Center-right Honduran president Pepe Lobo intends to have the country return to Petrocaribe, a program through which Venezuela provides oil to other Caribbean countries at favorable terms.
Central America
Honduras: anti-drug adviser killed, Peace Corps withdraws
Alfredo Landaverde, a former adviser to the Honduran government on security and drug trafficking, was shot dead by unknown gunmen on a motorcycle as he was driving in Tegucigalpa.
Mexico
Mexico: police commander arrested in ecologists’ kidnapping
The government of the southwestern Mexican state of Guerrero has arrested a police commander in connection with the Dec. 7 kidnapping of two campesino environmental activists.
Watching the Shadows
Obama signs NDAA with indefinite detention provisions —despite “reservations”
Despite expressing “reservations” in a signing statement, President Obama approved the National Defense Authorization Act for 2012, with controversial provisions that codify into law the indefinite detention of terror suspects.
Ron Paul poses w/white supremacist don black of stormfront
Canadian opposition parties are crying foul after an investigation into the corruption scandal rocking the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was shut down by a parliamentary committee dominated by his ruling Liberals. The affair concerns Quebec-based construction giant SNC-Lavalin's apparent attempts to secure leniency from the Trudeau government in various criminal investigations it faces. Obstruction of justice charges were stayed earlier this year against Lavalin executive Sami Bebawi, on the ostensible basis that too much time had elapsed since the offense under investigation—which involved alleged bribes to the Moammar Qaddafi regime to secure construction contracts in Libya in 2011. The company is best known within Canada for controversial mega-projects under contruction from British Columbia to Labrador. (Photo: BC Hydro via Journal of Commerice)
North America
Glenn Greenwald, Robert Scheer shill for arch-reactionary Ron Paul
Glenn Greenwald and Robert Scheer join the ranks of supposed progressives to sing the praises of Ron Paul—minimizing his radical deregulationist, xenophobic, Christian-conservative and generally anti-freedom agenda.