IRC - On the eve of International Women’s Day 2006, a delegation of Latin American women made a historic journey to Washington, DC. Rather than celebrating the gains women have made through their many struggles, the group arrived at the headquarters of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States with an alarming message: femicide, the murder of women, is spreading.
“(Femicide) is not only present in Ciudad Juarez and most of Mexico, it’s a (…)
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Latin America and the Caribbean
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LATIN AMERICA - Femicide on the Rise (by Kent Paterson, IRC)
3 April 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
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MEXICO - Controversial Law Approved by the Senate to Benefit Media Giants (by Diego Cevallos, IPS)
31 March 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
IPS - The Mexican Senate gave in to the pressure of media giants Televisa and TV Azteca, approving reforms to the country’s broadcasting laws that will strengthen the broadcasters’ influence.
That is the view shared by a number of legislators, observers and representatives of community and cultural TV and radio stations, who along with government officials and even the United Nations called for the reform bill, which made it through Congress unusually fast, to be voted down or modified. (…) -
LATIN AMERICA - Suez Packs its Bags and Won’t be Back (by Maria Amparo Lasso, IPS)
27 March 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
IPS - The French water company Suez, the favorite villain of anti-privatisation activists, has entered the final stretch of its withdrawal from Argentina and Bolivia, where it has been packing for quite a while. And it could be a long time before it returns to Latin America.
The Néstor Kirchner government in Argentina rescinded on Mar. 21 its 30-year contract with Aguas Argentinas, a subsidiary of Suez, accused of "repeated non-compliance".
The measure escalated tensions in the tortured (…) -
MEXICO - Strong Discrepancies between the official "Fourth World Water Forum" and the activists-run "International Forum in Defence of Water" (por Diego Cevallos, IPS)
20 March 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
IPS - Mutual distrust and even suspicions of a "conspiracy" separate the organisers of the Fourth World Water Forum, taking place in the Mexican capital, and the activists holding their own simultaneous alternative gathering.
"It’s true, there is a lack of connection and communication between the two forums," said José Ángel Gurría, secretary-general-elect of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), who is participating in the Mar. 16-22 World Water Forum.
"It’s (…) -
COLOMBIA - Paramilitaries Aggressively Campaign for Votes (por Constanza Vieira, IPS)
13 March 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
IPS - A group of sons and daughters of victims of the "dirty war" in Colombia urged voters not to vote in Sunday’s legislative elections for candidates on lists that include alleged members of paramilitary militias, their accomplices or their front men.
When parliamentary Deputy Muriel Benito-Revollo was a candidate in the 2002 elections in the province of Sucre on the country’s Caribbean coast, local paramilitary chief ‘Rodrigo Cadena’ took an active approach in supporting her campaign. (…) -
PUERTO RICO - FBI Commits Domestic Terrorism on Independence Movement (by Jan Susler, ZNet)
6 March 2006, posted by Dial
February 12, 2006 - ZNet - "The only domestic terrorist attack here is the U.S. government’s attack on the people of Puerto Rico." - New York State Assemblyman José Rivera. In a move reminiscent of a U.S. Marine invasion of a foreign country, the FBI descended in droves on Puerto Rico on February 10. Without breathing a word of the invasion to either the colonial governor or the chief of police, heavily armed, militarized units of the FBI, including the Special Weapons and Tactics Unit (…)
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MEXICO - Writer Who Exposed Major Child Sex Ring Fears the Worst is Yet to Come (by Diego Cevallos, IPS)
25 February 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
IPS - When Mexican freelance journalist and human rights activist Lydia Cacho published a book last year exposing a paedophile ring, she was warned by friends and colleagues that she would run into trouble.
It did not take long for their warnings to come true. She was arrested by the police, driven 900 kms to the state of Puebla, held for 30 hours, mistreated and threatened. Now that she is the target of the wrath of powerful Mexican businessmen and politicians, she is worried that the (…) -
PERU - Dirty War Allegations Cast Shadow on Nationalist Candidate (Ángel Páez, IPS)
22 February 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
IPS - After unexpectedly shooting to the top of the polls in Peru, anti-establishment presidential candidate Ollanta Humala has seen his popularity drop due to questions about his possible involvement in the "dirty war" against dissidents.
The families of victims of military abuses committed in the 1980s and early 1990s have accused Humala of human rights violations that took place when he was commander of the counterinsurgency base in Madre Mía, a town in the Alto Huallaga valley in (…) -
MEXICO - Activists Lash Out at Government Report on the Dead Women of Ciudad Juárez (Diego Cevallos, IPS)
19 February 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
– IPS - Activists in Mexico are upset over a report by a special prosecutor’s office on the killings of hundreds of women in Ciudad Juárez, which they say buries many of the key facts and arguments relating to the murders.
"The report is humiliating and disgraceful, because it falsifies and plays down the facts," Esther Chávez, president of Casa Amiga, a non-governmental organisation that provides support to the victims’ families, told IPS.
Ciudad Juárez, a city of 1.3 million people (…) -
MEXICO - Reporters Targeted by Drug Related Violence in Nuevo Laredo (Diego Cevallos, IPS)
8 February 2006, posted by Aurora Scott
07/02/06- IPS - The most dangerous place in Latin America to work as a journalist is northern Mexico, along the U.S. border, where drug traffickers threaten, kidnap and even murder reporters with impunity, according to the Inter American Press Association (IAPA).
The latest incident occurred Monday evening, when several masked gunmen stormed the offices of the El Mañana newspaper in the city of Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas, firing assault rifles and tossing a grenade. (…)