North Africa
Mali: regime, rebels both divided
As Mali’s prime minister is removed by the junta, Ansar Dine rebels are embraced in peace talks—while the MUJAO rebels are sanctioned by the UN as an al-Qaeda front.
Tag: narco wars
Mexico
Mexico: peasant ecologist killed in Guerrero
Juventina Villa Mojica, an environmental activist in Mexico's southern state of Guerrero, was killed along with her 10-year-old son in a mountaintop attack by 30 gunmen.
Mexico
Mexico: more mass graves in Chihuahua, Guerrero
A total of 19 bodies were found in clandestine graves in northern Mexico’s Chihuahua state, after local police were tipped off by the US consulate in Ciudad Juárez.
Mexico
Mexico: torture and disappearances on the rise
Complaints about abuses by Mexican police and soldiers have risen dramatically over the past seven years, according to the president of the government’s own human rights office.
Mexico
Mexico: pressure mounts for drug legalization
Mexican think-tanks say that state measures for cannabis legalization in the US will undercut cartel profits, and note that personal users bear the brunt of enforcement.
Southern Cone
Brazil: crime wars rock Sao Paulo
Brazilian police launched "Operation Saturation" to crush the Sao Paolo criminal network known as the First Capital Command (PCC), flooding the favelas with paramilitary troops.
Afghanistan
Treasury Department sanctions Taliban ‘kingpin’
The US Treasury Department sanctioned a senior Taliban official for his alleged role in the Afghan opium trade, saying the traffic is used to finance violence.
Mexico
Mexico: 14 police charged in attack on CIA agents
Mexico’s federal Attorney General’s Office confirmed that it was finally charging 14 federal police agents for an attack on a US embassy van more than two months earlier.
Mexico
Mexico: torture and abuse cases continue to increase
Complaints of torture and other abuse by the police and the military have tripled since 2008, as the government steps up its militarized “war on drugs.”
Central America
Criminal gangs threaten Maya Biosphere Reserve
Mexican drug cartels that use cattle ranching to launder narco-profits as well as Chinese-backed illegal timber gangs are eating into Guatemala's vast Maya Biosphere Reserve.
FARC factionalizing amid peace talks?
With peace talks underway in Oslo, Colombian politicians warn that the FARC’s Southern Bloc is continuing to recruit with an eye towards continuing the insurgency.
Mexico
Indigenous communities rise up in Michoacán
For the second time in less than two years, an indigenous community in the Mexican state of Michoacán has erected barricades and seized control of security matters.