Customs employees at Adabiya Seaport in the Suez Canal Zone refused to allow a seven-ton shipment of tear gas to pass, and were detained for questioning by security officials. Two more such shipments are en route from Wilmington, Del.
On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, women’s organizations throughout Latin America said regional governments have failed to take measures to reduce “femicides” and end impunity in such crimes.
Tens of thousands of students marched in more than a dozen Latin American cities in a coordinated regional demonstration to support free and high-quality public education.
Private contractors are now bidding for US-funded “drug war” operations, including training for Mexican soldiers and police.
Some 400 protesters clashed with police as they attempted to occupy the site of the planned Conga gold mine in Peru’s highland region of Cajamarca. Protesters say they will keep up their regional strike until the project is cancelled.
Mexican human rights activists filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court calling for an investigation into possible crimes against humanity by the security forces under President Felipe Calderón’s campaign against the drug cartels.
Monica Chuji, Ecuador’s former communications minister under President Rafael Correa and a leading indigenous activist, was sentenced to a year in prison for “defamation”—stemming from her resignation over repression of protests.
One man was killed by an arrow shot by an “isolated” or “uncontacted” indigenous band in Peru’s Madre de Dios region, according to the indigenous alliance FENAMAD—which has long refuted claims that the isolated bands don’t exist.
Venezuela announced the first air shipment of overseas gold holdings as part of a move to repatriate the country’s foreign reserves from Europe and North America. Hugo Chávez said the gold “should have never left” government coffers.
The government of Belize quietly granted US Capital Energy drilling rights to protected Maya lands in Sarstoon Temash National Park. The move comes in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling that recognized indigenous territorial rights.
Guerilla fighters of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) executed four captive members of the security forces as the army raided the camp where they were being held in a rescue attempt, the Defense Ministry charges.
Molajula Koteswar Rao AKA “Kishenji,” most-wanted leader of India’s Naxalite guerillas, was killed in a gun battle with security forces, authorities said. Sympathizers of the Maoist rebel movement charged that Kishenji had been illegally executed.
