US Trade Representative Ron Kirk announced that the US will file a case against Guatemala for labor rights violations under terms of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).
A new report by the interfaith peace group Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) details how US funding to the Colombian military supports army units whose members have killed hundreds of civilians.
With banners reading “Defend the Rainforest” and “No Dams on Our Rivers,” indigenous followers of the Native Federation of the Rio Madre de Dios (FENAMAD) marched on the Peruvian jungle city of Puerto Maldonada July 28. As Peru celebrated its Independence Day, much of the southern regions of Cusco, Puno, Madre de Dios and Apurímac were paralyzed by a general strike to call a halt to the export of natural gas from the Camisea field in the rainforest of Cusco region, as well as construction of the Inambari hydro-electric plant. It is the second general strike in as many months to halt traffic and business in Peru’s Southern Macro-Region—and this time the strike has been declared open-ended.
Photo: FENAMAD
In a move protested by rights groups, French President Nicolas Sarkozy will evict some 300 squatter camps in a sweeping crackdown on Roma immigrants and “travellers.”
Amid the US military documents released by WikiLeaks are nearly 200 involving Task Force 373, a unit charged with killing combatants in Afghanistan, but also responsible for numerous civilian deaths.
A federal judge issued a premilinary injunction against several provisions of the controversial Arizona immigration law, which is set to take effect this week—but failed to halt the law entirely.
Indigenous rainforest dwellers are occupying the site of the Dardanelos hydro-dam in the Brazilian Amazon, demanding that they be compensated for the damage caused to their lands.
Regional states of emergency have been declared across much of Peru in response to extreme weather and a devastating toxic spill that sparked campesino protests in Puno region.
Nuevo León state police uncovered a total of 51 bodies from a clandestine narcofosa (“narco-grave”) in a garbage dump outside Monterrey—the biggest such find among numerous in recent months.
Colombian authorities deny reports of a mass grave found in Meta department on the eastern plains, charging the allegation is a strategy to derail the Andean nation’s trade pact with the EU.
A researcher cites the confession of a School of the Americas graduate that the remains of martyred Bolivian socialist leader Marcelo Quiroga are buried at the armed forces high command headquarters.
Father Paul McAuley, founder of the Red Ambiental Loretana (RAL), is facing expulsion from Peru following efforts to ensure accountability for the massive PlusPetrol oil spill.
