Several hundred Guatemalan campesinos took 30 police officers hostage [Feb. 21] in response to the jailing of a local farm leader and to demand that land they had been occupying for the last 10 years be legalized by the Guatemalan… Read moreGuatemalan land dispute ends peacefully —for now
From the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Feb. 21: On Tuesday, February 19, 13 political activists arrested last July in the town of Suchitoto were set free, and all charges against them were dismissed. This… Read moreAll charges dropped against “Suchitoto 13”
From the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Feb. 21: In a recent visit to the United States, Salvadoran president Antonio Saca expressed concern about the findings of a recent US intelligence report, which predicts that… Read moreNational Intelligence Director: Venezuela to intervene in Salvadoran elections
On Feb. 11, the Nicaraguan navy captured the Honduran-flagged fishing boat Seas Star just east of the 82nd meridian in the Caribbean Sea. The 82nd meridian is claimed by Colombia as the border between its territorial waters and those of… Read moreNicaragua’s maritime dispute with Colombia heats up
Airomi Smith, a university student and a leader in Panama’s largest union, the Only Union of Construction and Similar Workers (SUNTRACS), was killed in ColĂłn on Feb. 12 by a gunshot to the abdomen from a police weapon. Smith’s death… Read morePanama: uprising after unionist killed
From the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Feb. 13: El Salvador’s Attorney General last Friday [Feb. 8] requested that charges of “acts of terrorism” be dropped against 13 peaceful protesters arrested at a demonstration against… Read moreEl Salvador: terrorism charges dropped against “Suchitoto 13”
The Nueva Vida Women’s Cooperative Maquiladora (COMAMNUVI), a Nicaraguan women’s sewing cooperative in Ciudad Sandino, just outside Managua, says that it is about to lose its land. According to the cooperative, a certain Yelba Carvajal is suing in court to… Read moreNicaragua: women’s coop may lose its land
In December, we noted the World Court ruling on the long-standing dispute over the San AndrĂ©s Islands in the Caribbean—held by Colombia but claimed by Nicaragua. The New York Times reports Feb. 1 on the emergence of an independence movement… Read moreIndependence movement emerges on island claimed by Nicaragua, Colombia
From the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Feb. 1: On January 7, employees of Radio Cadena Mi Gente, a progressive radio station based in San Salvador, received death threats via telephone calls made to the… Read moreEl Salvador: repression escalates; national police director runs for prez
Guatemalan human rights activist Amilcar Mendez and his wife, Miriam Dardon, began an open-ended hunger strike on Jan. 12 in Guatemala City to protest impunity for the 21,509 homicides that took place in the four-year administration of outgoing president Oscar… Read moreGuatemala: rights activists on hunger strike
From the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Jan. 11: FMLN mayor assassinated in Usulután Wilber Moises Funes, mayor of Alegria, Usulután, was assassinated on January 9 while visiting community projects in the Las Casistas area… Read moreEl Salvador: FMLN mayor assassinated
On Dec. 20 El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly approved a request by President Antonio Saca to extend the presence of Salvadoran troops in Iraq until Dec. 31, 2008. This will give Saca the authority to send two more six-month rotations; Salvadoran… Read moreEl Salvador: troops to stay in Iraq
