Haiti: some unions back down on minimum wage

Maquiladora workers in Haiti agreed to accept a lower minimum wage increase in order avoid lay-offs. The sector has been hit hard by the world recession

Dominican Republic: judge blocks cement factory in victory for peasant ecologists

In a win for peasant protesters who blockaded the construction site, a judge in the Dominican Republic ordered a halt to a cement plant slated for lands near Los Haitises National Park.

Haiti: two klled in protest, electoral clash

Two have been killed n Haiti in ongoing street clashes over President René Préval’s failure to pass a new minimum wage law and contested senate elections.

US Supreme Court turns down Cuban Five case

The Supreme Court declined to review the case of the “Cuban Five,” despite appeals by Günter Grass, Rigoberta Menchú and eight other Nobel Prize winners.

Dominican Republic: campesinos protest cement factory

Campesinos in a protest encampment at Los Haitises National Park in the Dominican Republic are surrounded by the military. The camp was established to prevent construction of a cement factory.

Haiti: students protest for minimum wage

Students have repeatedly clashed with security forces in Haiti this month in protests over the failure of President René Préval to raise the minimum wage.

Puerto Rico: thousands protest layoffs

In one of the largest demonstrations in recent Puerto Rican history, tens of thousands marched to protest plans by Gov. Luis Fortuño to lay off government workers and privatize public services.

Haiti: protests over lynching in Dominican Republic

Dozens of Haitian activists held a sit-in at the Dominican embassy in Port-au-Prince to protest the lynching of a Haitian national in Santo Domingo days earlier.

Curaçao: Hezbollah connection in narco bust?

Seventeen people were arrested on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao for involvement in a drug-trafficking ring with connections to Hezbollah, the police there said.

Haiti: violence, abstention mar election

Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council suspended voting for senators in the Central Plateau department after violence disrupted the process there in at least three cities.

Dominican Republic: police attack medical workers

Six striking doctors were lightly injured when Dominican police suppressed a peaceful march by doctors and nurses near the Darío Contreras hospital in eastern Santo Domingo.

Latin leftists bash Obama at Caribbean confab

At the Trinidad summit, Evo Morales accused the US of a “policy of conspiracy” against Bolivia, while Nicaragua’s Danial Ortega reiterated more than a century of imperialist outrages.