El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly approved a state of emergency March 27 at the request of President Nayib Bukele, in response to a sharp increase in the number of killings by criminal gangs. The emergency regimen seeks to dismantle criminal structures by prohibiting associations… Read moreEl Salvador: state of emergency over gang violence
Gunfire and explosions were reported from the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo in the early hours of March 14, following the arrest of a local gang leader by federal police and army troops. Juan Gerardo Treviño, also known as… Read moreMexico: gunfire, explosions rock Nuevo Laredo
Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Feb. 9 called for a “pause” in relations with Spain, in a speech that explicitly invoked the legacy of colonialism going back to the Conquest. But the speech was clearly aimed principally at… Read moreControl of oil behind Mexico-Spain tensions
The US Supreme Court this month heard oral arguments for two immigration cases that address the right of detained non-citizens to have a bond hearing after six months of detention. Both cases were brought by asylum-seekers who had been detained for… Read moreSCOTUS hears cases on indefinite migrant detention
A year-end report by Mexico’s government registered a figure of 95,000 missing persons nationwide, with an estimated 52,000 unidentified bodies buried in mass graves. The report by the Comisión Nacional de Búsqueda de Personas (National Missing Persons Search Commission) found that the great majority… Read moreMexico approaches 100,000 ‘disappeared’
Rural communities in Colombia’s northeastern Arauca department held anti-war protests amid inter-factional guerilla violence that has been terrorizing the region. Demanding attention from the government and international human rights organizations, some 1,200 marched in the hamlet of Puerto Jordan on Jan. 4, and… Read moreAnti-war protests in northeast Colombia
Amnesty International called on Tunisia to put an immediate end to racist and xenophobic attacks targeting Black African migrants. The wave of violence began in early February and was exacerbated by a racially-charged speech by President Kais Saied at a National Security Council meeting. President Saied's statements sparked street protests in Tunis, in defiance of an official ban on demonstrations. Activists also opposed a widening crackdown on dissent since Saied seized near-total powers in July 2021. The Tunisian National Salvation Front has vowed continued weekly protests. (Photo: Chahd Lina Belhadj/Meshkal)
Burma's ruling junta acknowledged that it withdrew its forces from a key city on the border with China after it was seized by an alliance of ethnic rebel armies. The fall of Laukkai is the most significant defeat the junta has suffered since the self-declared Three Brotherhood Alliance launched its offensive in northeastern Shan state in October. Days earlier, at least 150 junta soldiers fled across the border into India's Mizoram state, driven from their outposts in Burma's northwestern Chin state by the rebel Arakan Army. The soldiers turned themselves over to a detachment of India's paramilitary Assam Rifles, and had to be flown back to Burmese territory. (Map: PCL)
Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso on Nov. 18 extended the country’s state of emergency by a second 30 days. The decree is ostensibly an attempt to combat the insecurity generated by drug-related crime and re-establish public order. It provides for the mobilization of military forces… Read moreEcuador: president extends state of emergency
Colombia’s most wanted fugitive, the notorious paramilitary commander Dairo Antonio Úsuga AKA “Otoniel,” was arrested by security forces following a years-long manhunt, the government announced Oct. 23. The chief of the outlawed Gaitanista Self-defense Forces of Colombia (AGC) was apprehended in a joint operation… Read moreColombia’s most wanted para boss arrested
For the first time, the annual UN climate summit is focusing on the overlap between conflict and the climate crisis. This convergence is especially clear in rebel-controlled northwest Syria. A years-long drought is compounding the suffering caused by over 12 years of war, and devastating earthquakes that struck the region earlier this year. Water pumping infrastructure has been repeatedly hit by regime and Russian warplanes, leaving farmers without irrigation for parched fields. Since the start of October, the northwest has been experiencing the most intense military escalation by the regime and its Russian patron in nearly three years, with scores killed and over 120,000 displaced by air-strikes. (Photo: Mahmoud Abo Ras/TNH)
For weeks, East Jerusalem has seen nightly protests over the impending eviction of hundreds of Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah district—culminating in violent clashes with riot police at al-Aqsa Mosque. Compounding the anger is another grievance—Israel's denial of East Jerusalem Palestinians' right to participate in elections for the Palestinian Authority's Legislative Council. With the overwhelming majority of East Jerusalem Palestinians denied Israeli citizenship by an array of bureaucratic artifices, this means they are effectively disenfranchised of the vote in either sovereignty. (Photo: RJA1988 via Jurist)
