Conflict Over Proposed Dam Flares Up in Guatemala

October 10, 2013 Kelsey Alford-Jones 0

On September 28, community leader Mynor López was walking by the church in Santa Cruz Barillas, Huehuetenango, when he was suddenly seized by men dressed in civilian clothing, taken in a pickup to a waiting military helicopter, and flown to Guatemala City. The response of the population was both immediate and massive. In communities across the region residents took to the streets in peaceful protest, blockading highways and demanding Mynor’s release.

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At the UN, a Latin American Rebellion

October 9, 2013 Laura Carlsen 0

Latin American leaders are reclaiming a right to differentiate their views from Washington’s—and refusing to render it diplomatic tribute. Source: Foreign Policy in Focus Without a doubt, the 68th UN General Assembly will be remembered […]

Ecuador: Correa Pushes Mining, Targets International Human Rights Observers in Intag

October 9, 2013 Glen David Kuecker 0

The government of Ecuadorian President Rafeal Correa sent the national mining company, ENAMI, into the Intag region last month in order to begin work necessary for a legally required environmental impact study for the proposed large-scale, open-pit copper mine near the agrarian community of Junín. Community members successfully prevented ENAMI from entering their community by using an age-old peasant community tactic, the road blockade.

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Re-militarizing the Police: Turning the Clock Back in Honduras

The new military police are better armed than the civilian police they will replace in this mission. For example, they will be armed with Israeli Galil ACE 21 assault rifles carrying 35-round magazines, capable of firing 700 rounds per minute. The prospect of these boots on the ground treating neighborhoods in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula as battlefields should be troubling, even to those who applaud this latest move in the name of increasing security, including the US State Department, which Liberal party congress member Jose Azcona said in July had encouraged the formation of such a force during the previous presidential administration.

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