Downtown San Salvador was rocked by clashes between police and protesters May 12 after authorities tried to clear the stalls of street merchants who were peddling pirate CDs and other contraband. The elite riot squad, the Unit for the Maintenance… Read moreProtests in El Salvador: “acts of terrorism”?
At least 61 Haitian migrants drowned after their boat capsized as it was being towed by a police vessel near the Turks and Caicos Islands, a British overseas territory about 125 miles north of Haiti, in the early morning of… Read moreHaiti: scores of boat people drowned
A federal grand jury in Newark, NJ, has been investigating charges that Cuban-born Luis Posada Carriles masterminded the bombings of hotels in Cuba in 1997 that resulted in the death of one Italian-Canadian tourist. The Miami Herald revealed on May… Read moreJustice Department investigates Posada Carriles
According to government figures, nearly 2,000 current and former employees of two sugar mills in the Chichigalpa region of northwestern Nicaragua suffer from chronic renal insufficiency (CRI), a fatal kidney disease. While the cause remains a mystery, a workers group… Read moreNicaragua: mystery illness strikes sugar mill workers
Jo Tuckman in Mexico City writes for The Guardian, May 12: Man in the mask returns to change world with new coalition and his own sexy novel A bead of sweat is visible through the eyehole of his famous black… Read moreSubcommander Marcos writes erotica, predicts social upheaval
Two families who adhere to the indigenous organization Las Abejas have fled their homes in the hamlet of Tzanembolom, Chenalhó municipality, following threats from local followers of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in southern Mexico’s conflicted Chiapas state. The families,… Read moreChiapas: more threats at Acteal; rural violence escalates
Mexico’s federal government has expropriated more than 14,000 hectares of the Lacandon Selva, the lowland rainforest region of southern Chiapas state. The expropriation, approved by the Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat (SEMARNAT), came in response to a request by the… Read moreChiapas: government expropriates 14,000 hectares of Lacandon Selva
The administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderón May 11 authorized the dispatch of federal army and police to the Gulf coast state of Veracruz. “This morning, I spoke with [Veracruz] Gov. Fidel Herrera,” Interior Secretary Francisco Ramírez Acuña told a… Read moreMexico: army troops to Veracruz; narco gangs defiant
Iraq’s most powerful Shi’ite party, Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), has announced key changes to its platform, moving closer to Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani—and away from Iran, where the party was formed… Read moreIraq: SCIRI breaks with Tehran?
The People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (Mujahedeen Khalq Organization) has appealed to be taken off the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations, accusing the EU of stifling Iran’s legitimate opposition. The organization has also launched suit against EU governments for 1… Read moreMujahedeen Khalq: we’re not terrorists!
Iraqi MPs are gathering votes to force their government to set a deadline for US forces to withdraw from the country and think they have a majority, a leading Shiite politician announced May 11. Baha al-Aaraji, a supporter of radical… Read moreIraqi MPs call for US withdrawal
A draft report by the US Government Accountability Office reveals between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels of oil from Iraq are unaccounted for and may have been siphoned off through corruption of smuggling. Based on an average of $50 per barrel,… Read moreBillions in Iraq oil money missing: GAO
