Honduran police discovered an illegal shipment of arms from the US in Puerto Cortés, the country’s main port, in the violence-plagued north, torn by land conflicts as well increasing activity by drug smugglers and criminal networks.
Nicaraguan newspaper El Nuevo Diario said one of its reporters, Silvia González, has fled to the US following threats from ruling Sandinista party supporters over her coverage of the death of an ex-contra commander who took up arms again.
Managers at two factories in northern Honduras owned by the US clothing firm Delta Apparel, Inc. are continuing to threaten women employees suffering from work-related injuries, according to the Honduran Women’s Collective (CODEMUH).
Between 200 and 600 soldiers and national police agents reportedly raided the campesino community of Rigores in Honduras’ conflicted Lower Aguán Valley, breaking into homes, destroying belongings and hitting both adults and children.
Honduras armed forces chief Gen. René Osorio Canales claims police and soldiers were ambushed by “people with high-caliber weapons, people who have dedicated themselves to guerrilla activities” in the conflicted Lower Aguán Valley.
President Barack Obama has included El Salvador and Belize on the list of 22 countries ranked as “Major Illicit Drug Transit or Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries,” for the first time placing all seven Central American nations on the annual list.
El Salvador’s President Mauricio Funes won praise from leftist supporters of his FMLN government with his decision to recognize Palestinian statehood—but also won protest with his move to send troops to Afghanistan to back up NATO’s mission.
Members of the Colombian National Police began training Salvadoran, Mexican, Honduran and Guatemalan police and attorneys general at the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in El Salvador—raising sharp criticisms from rights activists.
Activist Mahadeo (“Emo”) Sadloo was shot dead at his automobile tire shop in eastern Tegucigalpa; just one day later, activist journalist Medardo Flores was gunned down near his farm in the north.
US diplomats suspected in 2004 that the business owner at the center of land disputes in the Lower Aguán Valley may have been involved in three drug-related incidents at one of his properties.
Dole Food Company has settled with some 5,000 former banana workers in Nicaragua who said their health had been damaged by prolonged and unprotected exposure to the pesticides Nemagon and Fumazone.
Honduran campesino leader Pedro Salgado and his wife, Reina Mejía, are the latest victims in a decade-old struggle for land in the Central American nation’s conflicted Lower Aguán Valley.
