News Update
Honduran journalist Alfredo Villatoro has been found dead on the outskirts of the capital, Tegucigalpa, a week after he was abducted. Mr Villatoro, a radio reporter, was dressed in a police uniform, Security Minister Pompeyo Bonilla said. He had been kidnapped by a gang of young men on his way to work on 9 May.
The violence and repression continue unabated in Honduras since the June 2009 military coup that ousted the democratically elected government. This time, the violence was committed by the D.E.A. (Drug Enforcement Agency) of the U.S. government.
- Link to May 10, 2012, radio interview, CBC "The Current", about Canadian nickel mining in Guatemala, and about how then Canadian ambassador to Guatemala slandered the "El Estor Evictions" documentary film
- Links to "El Estor Evictions" and "All That Glitters Isn't Gold" films by Steven Schnoor
- Media release by Klippensteins law firm, June 2010, Concerning slander ruling against Canadian government and ambassador to Guatemala
- Toronto Star story, June 17, 2010, "Former Canadian ambassador guilty of slander"
- New Internationalist story, September 2010, "Cook feels the heat. Canadian ambassador to Guatemala guilty of slander"
News article about the Chixoy Dam forced evictions and related massacres in Guatemala. The Chixoy Dam was a business investment and project of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and World Bank (WB), in partnership with successive military regimes, 1975-1985.
Along the Chixoy river, where the dam was built, some 32 remote, poor Mayan villages were devastated by this project (1975-1985). Most harmed villages were in the flood basin up river from the 125 meter high dam wall. Many were illegally forced to leave; others lost much of their lands and/or were cut off from and isolated by the existence of the flood basin.
Canadian mining company Radius Gold Inc., accompanied by over 300 Guatemala anti-riot troops, tried to illegally enter rural Guatemalan communities, threatening the local villagers. Tensions are high.
"It's hard to imagine how a former intelligence chief who preceded over one of the bloodiest regions in Guatemala during a period later described as genocide by the United Nations could so completely transform his image in a matter of months. But since Pérez Molina first mentioned legalization on February 11th, that's just what's happened on the international stage." (Dawn Paley)
5,000 Villagers Take Control of Military Base After Hydroelectric Dam Opponent Was Shot Dead
Protest the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute (CHLI) giving Honduran regime leader Pepe Lobo a "leadership award"
The Summits of the Americas began in 1994 as forums to promote free trade. In 2009 the Summit's focus shifted to demands for the inclusion of Cuba in regional political bodies and the end of the U.S. economic embargo, a debate which continued in this month's Sixth Summit in Cartagena.
