Year: 2010
El Salvador: Killings Bear Hallmarks of Death Squads
(IPS) – Human rights defenders and analysts in El Salvador suspect that death squads were responsible for two highly coordinated attacks in which 12 young men were killed this month. In one of the latest […]
Chile’s President-Elect Starts Cashing In
Chilean President-elect Sebastian Piñera offered a glimpse Tuesday of just how deep his pockets stretch, selling one of his relatively minor investments – a nearly 10 percent stake in a posh Santiago hospital – for a cool US$37 million. Piñera, the first conservative to win a presidential election here in more than 50 years, has long promised to cash out on his many investments before March 11, when he officially replaces outgoing President Michelle Bachelet. Critics say Piñera has already taken too long to sever his many business ties.
Mexican Reporters, Activists Demand State Protection
(IPS) – Journalists and human rights activists in Mexico are frantically seeking a mechanism to protect them from attacks related to their work, but the state has been slow to respond. The Colombian model might […]
Mexico: Celebrating Indigenous Culture, Zapotec Autonomy and Uncontaminated Corn
Santa Gertrudis, Sierra Juarez, Oaxaca – The 4th annual Zapotec Feria of the Cornfield – Globalization and the Natural Resources – was held in Santa Gertrudis, Sierra Juarez on February 7-8. Organized by the Union of Social Organizations of the Sierra Juarez of Oaxaca (UNOSJO), this year´s event was attended by representatives of UNOSJO´s 24 affiliated communities, participants from all over Mexico, along with a large international presence of activists from Uruguay to Wales, Turkey to the United States, as well as a 15-strong delegation of German Organic farmers.
Nicaragua Refuses to Discuss Therapeutic Abortion
(IPS) – Nicaragua slammed the door on any possible debate on the restitution of therapeutic abortion – performed to save the life of the pregnant woman – despite demands that it do so voiced during […]
Interview: Tortured, Exiled Honduran Journalist Recalls His Experiences
“It is impossible to separate being a journalist and being a human being. As a reporter I was interested in taking pictures, and I took the first ones because I thought that Isis Murillo Obed was dead. Then I approached him and saw that he was breathing and moving in the density of all the tear gas. People were shouting that he was dead, but when I took him in my arms he opened his eyes and tried to say something that molded into a moan of pain,” said Cesar Silva.
Colombia: Magazine Closure Deals Major Blow to Investigative Reporting
Last cover of Cambio news magazine. Credit:Revista Cambi (IPS) – What would have happened in Colombia if the financing of former president Ernesto Samper’s (1994-1998) election campaign by the Cali cartel had not been uncovered? […]
History Repeats: Committee of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared of Honduras
“A forced disappearance can be defined as: The illegal detention of a person by a State security agent or a force acquiesced by it, without the appropriate legal procedure, and in which the act is denied without any further information regarding the location or well-being of the detainee.”