Facing an intractable economic crisis, Puerto Rico’s Gov. Ricardo Rosselló approved a law calling for a non-binding referendum on statehood for the US territory. (Map: Perry-Castañeda Map Library)
Guy Philippe, a former paramilitary boss and coup leader recently elected to Haiti’s senate, was arrested by the DEA days before he would have been sworn into office. (Map: Perry-Castañeda Map Library)
Oscar López Rivera, the longest-held Puerto Rican political prisoner in the US, was among 209 federal inmates granted clemency by outgoing President Barack Obama. (Photo via PM Press)
A spokesperson for the United Nations made the organization’s first-ever acknowledgment of responsibility for a cholera epidemic that has wracked Haiti since October 2010.
Obama's embrace of Cuban dissidents allows the Castro regime to to more easily paint any push for greater democracy on the island as part of an imperial agenda.
With Haiti's presidential elections repeatedly postponed amid widespread protests, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged political actors to reject all forms of violence.
Cuban street artist Danilo Maldonado AKA "El Sexto" was released after 10 months in prison for "disrespect toward government officials"—which holds a penalty of three years.
The US government formally removed Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism as a step toward restoring full diplomatic relations. Cuba had been listed since 1982.
Political and economic issues combined to generate an effective two-day general strike that was honored in the capital and some other parts of Haiti.
Police suggest a Haitian immigrant was killed to keep him from giving evidence on another murder, but the crime looked a lot like a racist lynching from the Jim Crow era.
Union organizers say three apparel companies have finally agreed to pay the legal minimum wage and even to provide some of the retroactive pay owed to workers.
A law passed last year was supposed to help Dominicans of Haitian descent regain citizenship, but rights advocates say "administrative hurdles" have sabotaged the process.
