LIMA, Peru - Her parole restored, political activist Lori Berenson slipped out a prison's side door and back to freedom after serving three-quarters of a 20-year sentence for collaborating with leftist rebels in Peru. The 40 year-old New York woman's legal troubles are not over, however, as Peru's top anti-terrorism prosecutor is trying to revoke her parole. Berenson and her lawyer and husband, Anibal Apari, arrived by taxi at her apartment just after dark Monday. "I will not be making...

Bolivia's new Constitution [1] which came into effect a year ago, recognizes upfront that women's rights are human rights, and it has led to real progress in both legislation and policies granting women equal rights. The changes relating to gender equality include the establishment of an electoral body that guarantees equal participation for men and women, changes in terminology recognizing the female identity and gender differences, the recognition and value of household work, the right of...

Testimony by Colombian statistical expert Daniel Guzmán provided key evidence in the conviction of two former police officers found guilty in the 1984 forced disappearance of Guatemalan student and union leader Edgar Fernando García. In a historical ruling, two former officers of the Guatemalan National Police - disbanded in 1996 as part of the peace accords ending the internal armed conflict - were each sentenced to the maximum term of 40 years in prison for their role in...

San Juan Copala, traditional centre of the indigenous Triqui people, lies in Oaxaca State, Mexico, and is one of the poorest and strife-torn areas in Mexico. In an attempt to break the cycle of poverty, inequality, exclusion, and persistent human rights violations, and to unite the Triqui people and preserve their culture and traditions - as well as to distance themselves from the rampant corruption and violence of local political parties - the community declared itself an autonomous...

A complaint brought against Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez at the International Criminal Court and another complaint against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has legal effects, as opposed to what some experts purport. This is what Asdrúbal Aguiar, former judge at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, thinks. Everything depends on the contents of the materials submitted to the Commission and the Court. "I reckon...

Her comments at odds with the court measures recently taken in Venezuela against journalists and media owners have made Venezuelan authorities accuse her of protecting the interests of the "media dictatorship" and "taking active part against governments dissenting of the imperial power." But the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Organization of American States (IACHR), Colombian Catalina Botero, refused the charges...

I had the privilege of covering Senator Kennedy's trip to Argentina and Chile in 1986 for Newsweek. It was one of the most memorable experiences in six years of reporting from the region.In Buenos Aires, the government of President Raul R. Alfonsin had just successfully prosecuted in civilian court the military architects of the Argentine "dirty war," and Kennedy's coming to Argentina in the aftermath of that singular and momentous event was in itself an important symbol of...

Nearly three months after the Mexican army kicked off Operation Chihuahua Together against drug trafficking organizations in Ciudad Juarez and the state of Chihuahua, multiple accusations of human rights violations committed by soldiers are surfacing in the press. A hot point of contention is in the Juarez Valley just outside the border city of the same name. Long the stomping ground of drug traffickers and other criminal bands, the rural area bordering the Rio Grande has been the target of...

Figures contradict U.S. numbers; complaints rise as drug war rages.The Mexican military has convicted just one soldier of a serious human rights violation during a bloody, three-year campaign against drug traffickers, according to Interior Ministry figures that are significantly lower than those reported by the U.S. government. The Mexican military has come under scrutiny because of a surge in complaints against soldiers, including allegations of torture, beatings and illegal raids and...

As the tense political stalemate in Honduras continues, there are troubling signs that the current crisis has given rise to anti-Semitism and disturbing anti-Zionist conspiracy theories. The stalemate has led to charges from political leaders, media pundits and other key figures in the country that Israel and Jews were behind the ouster and intimidation of President Manuel Zelaya and that they are in cahoots with the de facto president, Robert Micheletti. These charges have emerged despite...