In December, we noted the World Court ruling on the long-standing dispute over the San Andrés 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
As part of a new partnership with Nicaragua’s Sandinista President Daniel Ortega, Iran and Venezuela have announced a plan to help finance a $350 million deep-water port at Monkey Point on the country’s remote Miskito Coast—envisioned as the first step… Read moreIranian Revolutionary Guards in Nicaragua to scout “Dry Canal” project?
Honduras officially joined Petrocaribe on Dec. 21 during the group’s Fourth Summit, held in Cienfuegos, Cuba. The 16-member Petrocaribe is a mechanism for providing Venezuelan oil to other Caribbean countries at full price but on easy terms which include payment… Read moreHonduras joins Petrocaribe
Panama’s National Assembly Dec. 20 voted unanimously to declare the anniversary of the 1989 US invasion a day of “national mourning,” and established a commission to determine how many people were killed in the episode. “This is a recognition of… Read morePanama declares “national mourning” on invasion anniversary
Rights activists in Guatemala are denouncing the Dec. 17 decision by the country’s Constitutional Court finding that the government of Spain has no standing to bring charges against five Guatemalan generals and two civilians accused of genocide. The court also… Read moreGuatemalan court: no extradition for war criminals
Felipe Alvarez, a member of a local Community Development Council (COCODES), was shot dead on his way to work in the early morning of Dec. 8 near his home in Microparcelamiento El Naranjo in the southern Guatemalan department of Escuintla…. Read moreGuatemala: community leader murdered
Eight people were killed in a four-hour gun battle between police and thieves in the Villa Hermosa suburb of Guatemala City. An armed gang had robbed a jeweller in a shopping center, killing a security guard. Hundreds of Special Forces… Read moreCrime wars rock Guatemala
Ruling in a case brought by Nicaragua, the International Court of Justice found Dec. 13 that three Caribbean islands in the disputed San Andrés Archipelago belong to Colombia under a 1928 treaty. But the ICJ said the treaty did not… Read moreWorld Court rules for Colombia in round one of Nicaraguan maritime dispute
