Women’s rights organizations marked International Women’s Day with street protests demanding that Central American governments take measures to stop the killings of women.
Panama’s President Ricardo Martinelli said he will ask legislators to rescind a mining law opponents say would encourage open-pit mining by foreign companies and endanger the environment.
The right-wing National Democratic Alliance marched against violent crime in San Pedro Sula, while the leftist National Resistance Front met in Tegucigalpa, pledging to push for constitutional reform.
A US diplomatic cable released by the WikiLeaks group has raised new questions about possible corruption in the de facto regime that ruled Honduras after the June 2009 coup.
Some 5,000 members of Panama’s Ngöbe-Buglé indigenous group held a national protest day against changes to the Mining Code that they said would encourage open-pit mining by foreign companies.
Some 100 members of Mexican drug gang Los Zetas settled in the northwest Guatemalan city of Cobán by early 2009 under protection from “corrupt” police, a WikiLeaks cable states.
Campesino leaders report army abuses against local indigenous peasants in the Guatemalan department of Alta Verapaz since a “state of siege” was declared there.
The National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP) marched in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, in solidarity with the protest movement in Egypt, blocking traffic on a major thoroughfare.
Ngobe protesters streamed into Panama’s capital city and blocked the street in front of the Legislative Palace to protest their exclusion from an committee on the mineral code.
Honduran campesino leader Juan Ramón Chinchilla was safe and was staying in an undisclosed location on Jan. 11 after two days in captivity.
Honduras’ National Congress passed reforms the Constitution that would open the way to changing key elements of the document–including the ban on presidential reelection–by popular referendum.
Guatemala has declared a state of emergency along the jungle border with Mexico in response to threats from Los Zetas. The narco gang responded by declaring “war” on the Guatemalan state.
