The National Refugee Commission of Argentina (Conare) granted political asylum to Sergio Galvarino Apablaza Guerra, a former leader of Chile’s rebel Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR).
The Colombian inspector general removed Senator Piedad Córdoba from her position and barred her from public office for 18 years because of what he said were her links to the rebel FARC.
“But what’s the problem with that?” Honduran president Porfirio Lobo said when a reporter asked about calls from unions and grassroots organizations to rewrite the country’s 1982 Constitution.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman prompted the Palestinian mission to walk out of the UN General Assembly by calling for an “exchange of populated territory” on the West Bank.
Israeli commandos intercepted a boat carrying Jewish activists who hoped to breach the blockade of the Gaza Strip, using a Taser gun against well-known refusenik Yonatan Shapira.
Human Rights Watch called on Israel to make permanent and total the partial “freeze” on construction in West Bank settlements, asserting that continued construction would have severe consequences.
Ecuador's military staged a rescue to free President Correa, who was holed up in a hospital for more than 12 hours by a police uprising, putting an end to what Correa characterized as a coup attempt.
A state of emergency has been declared in Ecuador as the National Police launched a rebellion over cuts to their benefits. President Rafael Correa, who was assaulted by police, warned of a coup attempt.
Indigenous organizations from Peru, Bolivia and Brazil met in Puerto Maldonado, Peru, and issued a statement declaring a “state of emergency” throughout the Amazon due to industrial mega-projects.
In the village of Ascensión, in northern Mexico’s Chihuahua state, some 300 residents beat to death two 17-year-old boys who reportedly had kidnapped a 17-year-old girl.
Granma, the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, described policy changes intended to expand Cuba’s small private sector, part of a plan to lay off some half million public employees.
The Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, located in the Urabá region of northwestern Colombia, charged that right-wing paramilitaries are continuing to attack and threaten its members.
