More than 1,000 people, including Latin American immigrants, Catholic clergy members, rabbis and activists, marched through Postville, Iowa, on July 27 and rallied at the entrance to the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant, where ICE arrested 389 workers on May 12…. Read moreIowa: march protests Postville ICE raid
On July 31, ABM Janitorial Services Inc. lured 42 of its employees to its office in King of Prussia, Penn., in the suburbs just northwest of Philadelphia, where US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were waiting to arrest them… Read morePennsylvania: union protests ICE arrests
The Mexican Government Secretary (Segob) announced that the Prosecutor General of the Republic (PGR) is pursuing an investigation “without any limits” into the “forced disappearance” of Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Alberto Cruz, presumed militants of the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR)…. Read moreMexico: feds probe “forced disappearance” of leftist militants
Drug-related murders in Mexico have already exceeded last year’s total despite the deployment of 30,000 troops to tackle the issue. The Mexican newspaper El Universal said (Aug. 16) 2,682 people across Mexico had been killed since the start of this… Read moreMexico: narco-killings surpass last year’s total
Five opposition governors are declaring a strike next week in Bolivia, vowing to “radicalize” tactics after talks with President Evo Morales broke down. The governors are asking Morales to refund state shares of oil and natural gas income that his… Read moreBolivia: opposition calls civil strike in wake of recall vote
Colombia’s decades-long civil war, US-backed anti-drug measures and resource-hungry multinational corporations are pushing the country’s indigenous peoples towards “extinction,” local leaders warn. War alone uproots 20,000 Indians from their ancestral homes each year, according to the UN High Commissioner for… Read moreColombia: indigenous groups face “extinction”
Seven people were killed and nearly 50 wounded, including several children, in the most serious Colombian terror attack this year, when a bomb hidden in a trash can exploded at Ituango, a small town in Antioquia department, as residents celebrated… Read moreFARC’s international supporters targeted after Colombia terror blast
Indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon are demanding the presence of Prime Minister Jorge del Castillo in peace talks the government has brokered following days of angry protests. Marcial Mudarra, subdirector of the Regional Coordinator of Indigenous Peoples (CORPI), is… Read morePeru: indigenous protesters occupy gas fields
We’ve already noted that Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez says he is seeking a “strategic alliance” with Russia. Now he weighs in decisively for Moscow in the Georgian crisis. VenezuelAnalysis reports Aug. 15, that upon his arrival in Paraguay the previous night… Read moreChávez charges US intervention in Georgia
Georgia’s Foreign Ministry said Aug. 16 that Russian-backed separatists in Abkhazia have seized 13 villages in Georgia and the Inguri hydropower plant. Russian army units and separatist forces shifted the border of breakaway Abkhazia toward the Inguri River, setting up… Read moreGeorgia: Abkhaz separatists seize villages
A double suicide attack killed at least 19 Shi’ite pilgrims and wounded 75 in a town outside Iskandariya Aug. 14. Two female suicide bombers detonated their explosives vests amid the group of pilgrims headed for Karbala to commemorate the birth… Read moreIraq: more Shi’ite pilgrims killed
The Polish government signed a deal Aug. 14 to host a 10 interceptor missiles at a site along Poland‘s Baltic Sea coast as a part of the US “missile shield” plan. The site, staffed by US forces, would complement a… Read morePoland signs US “missile shield” deal; Russia pledges “punishment”
