Human rights defenders across the Americas are facing escalating levels of intimidation, harassment and attacks at the hands of state security forces, paramilitary groups and organized crime, Amnesty International said in a new report today. The report Transforming pain into hope: Human rights defenders in the Americas, is based on around 300 cases of intimidation, harassment, attacks and killings of human rights defenders in more than a dozen countries primarily between January 2010 and...

Fourteen indigenous organizations issued a statement where they communicate that since 2009 they have been reporting to the Venezuelan authorities the presence of illegal Brazilian gold miners in the Alto Ocamo area (Amazonas state, Alto Orinoco municipality, on the southern Venezuelan border with Brazil), and that these illegal gold miners allegedly massacred a Yanomami community in July 2012. According to the statement, unauthorized Brazilian gold miners had committed "physical...

Iranian Regime President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for a new world order today during remarks at the G20 meetings in Brazil. Fars News reported: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed out at the world powers for their wrong policies, and reiterated his call for the establishment of a new world order based on justice and friendship. “The widening North-South divide and various crises and worries, including crises of family and identity, wars, occupations and revenge-seeking,...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad embarked a tour of Latin America on Monday night which includes stops in Bolivia, Brazil for the Rio+20 summit and Venezuela, reported. Iran's Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi, Vice-President in Executive Affairs Hamid Baghaei and Vice-President for International Affairs Ali Sa'eidlou accompany President Ahmadinejad during the trip. Ahmadinejad is scheduled to arrive in Bolivia on June 19 to meet with his Bolivian counterpart Evo Morales before...

Hundreds of Jews, gays and rights activists jointly marched along Rio's famed Ipanema beach Sunday to protest Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's attendance at the UN summit on sustainable development. "We want the world to know that religious hatred harms the environment and Ahmadinejad represents hatred. Sustainable development encompasses human rights," said Ivanir dos Santos, of the commission against religious intolerance. Unlike previous demonstrations organized by the...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday expressed concern about allegations that some Latin American drug trafficking organizations are linked with Hezbollah and Iran. "We are concerned about the activities of Iran and Hezbollah in the Western Hemisphere," the top U.S. envoy told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs at a hearing. Washington brands Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group in Lebanon, as a terrorist organization, while Iran's disputed nuclear program is...

Iran's president on Tuesday lauded his country's newly launched Spanish-language satellite TV channel, saying it would deal a blow to "dominance seekers" - remarks that were an apparent jab at the U.S. and the West. The launch is Tehran's latest effort to reach out to friendly governments in Latin America and follows Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's four-nation tour of the region earlier in January, which included stops in Cuba and visits to Venezuela, Nicaragua and Ecuador. It also comes...

“During the tour that begins the second week of January, president Ahmadinejad will first visit Caracas to meet with President Hugo Chavez and later to Nicaragua for the taking office ceremony of President Daniel Ortega, who was recently re-elected for a second term”, said Mohamad Reza Forghani, foreign affairs director from the presidential office. In Cuba and Ecuador the Iranian president will holds talks with the leaders of both countries, adds the report. Iran in recent years...

Univision, the largest TV broadcaster in Spanish of the United States, recently presented a report showing that Iran is actively preparing an attack against the US to be carried out from bases in Latin America. The documentary, "La Amenaza Irani" (" "), illustrated, though undercover footage, how the growing economic, political and military ties Iran has developed in South American countries are rapidly evolving into a tangible threat for the security of the US. The...

“It appears that Iranian organizations provide support to other terrorist organizations" in South America, Peruvian ex-chief of staff says. The world needs to act to counter the growing presence of Iranian-supported terrorist organizations throughout South America, former chief of staff of the Peruvian Armed Forces, Gen. Francisco Contreras, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. Contreras served as the head of the Peruvian Military until about half a year ago, when he retired...