China signed a free trade agreement with Costa Rica—a country that only established diplomatic ties with the Asian giant in 2007, and the third in Latin America to sign an FTA with Beijing.
Several thousand marched in Tegucigalpa to demand an end to the escalation of repression, and against the neoliberal policies of the new Honduran government.
Amnesty International urged authorities in El Salvador to repeal an amnesty law that protects those responsible for thousands of killings and disappearances in the country’s armed conflict.
Unidentified gunmen killed Honduran journalist Nahúm Palacios Arteaga in the city of Tocoa—the third deadly attack against the Honduran press in the last two weeks.
In Guatemala for a Drug War summit, Hillary Clinton called for recognition of the new Honduran government—and was accused by Hugo Chávez of “planting seeds of discord.”
Guatemalan union leaders and their families filed a lawsuit in New York, accusing the world’s biggest beverage company of complicity in violence against labor leaders.
Guatemalan troops and DEA agents destroyed 319 million opium plants and 250,000 marijuana plants in San Marcos department, considered a “sanctuary” of drug cultivation.
Guatemalan authorities arrested three top anti-narcotics officials on corruption charges, as other leading officials went public with the existence of resurgent death squads.
The new Honduran government brought fresh corruption charges against the exiled Manuel Zelaya, but also removed the military chief who ousted him in last year’s coup d’etat.
Days after the Catholic Church declared El Salvador's martyred Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero a saint, a judge in the Central American country issued an arrest order for a former military captain long suspected of ordering the killing of the religious leader. Judge Rigoberto Chicas issued the order for national and international authorities to apprehend Alvaro Rafael Saravia, 78. He remains at large and is believed to be in hiding. Saravia had been arrested for the crime in 1987, but the case against him was dropped when El Salvador passed its amnesty law in 1993. The case was re-opened after El Salvador's Supreme Court struck down the amnesty law in 2016. (Photo via Catholic News Agency)
Thousands of adherents of the National Popular Resistance Front marched in the Honduran capital to protest the slaying of civil resistance leaders under the new government.
Honduran President Porfirio Lobo is not invited to the second Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean, with organizers saying his government should first be recognized by the OAS.
