Press freedom groups are demanding that Mexico investigate the shooting death of a freelance journalist just after he reportedly witnessed a confrontation at a highway checkpoint. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says reporter Adrian Silva was found dead in his car Wednesday. Silva had been covering a story on gasoline thefts from Mexico's state-owned oil company. He worked for several publications in the central state of Puebla. The committee said Thursday that Silva was...

The discussions, which had been set to begin on Thursday, are the latest attempt to resolve a five-decade war that has left thousands dead and millions more displaced since the founding of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Negotiations promise to be complicated, with items on the agenda that will almost certainly cause roadblocks and heated discussion. The five-point agenda kicks off with an analysis of rural development. "Delegates of the national government and the...

The United Nations (UN) General Assembly passed on Monday Venezuela's inclusion in the UN Commission on Human Rights. Argentina and Brazil, for the Latin America region, were also voted as successors of Cuba, Mexico and Uruguay. In direct and secret voting, and by absolute majority, Venezuela was elected together with 17 countries: Argentina, Brazil, Estonia, Ethiopia, Gabon, Germany, Ireland, Ivory Coast, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Korea, Montenegro, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, UAE and the...

HAVANA - Cuban authorities released noted blogger Yoani Sanchez more than a day after she was taken into custody near the eastern city of Bayamo, where she traveled for a Spanish man’s trial over a car crash that killed another prominent dissident. Sanchez said via Twitter that authorities “deported” her and her husband back to their Havana home late Friday night, and that she had been held for 30 hours. “We were released! Thanks to all those who raised their voices...

November 8, 2012 Dear LADDO, The surge in drug trafficking and violent crime in Central America has highlighted the perennial problem of lawlessness along the borders of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Governments in these countries historically have neglected their borders, particularly the jungle-covered region along the Caribbean coast, across the Petén and Yucatán high plains that border Mexico, and within the central mountain chain. And while they regularly...

A series of attacks in Colombia’s southern region by insurgent group FARC has left two policemen and five civilians injured, reported local media Sunday. Authorities have blamed Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, FARC, for three separate attacks in the southern departments of Cauca and Caqueta over the weekend. Guerrillas from FARC's 6th Front reportedly launched an assault with guns and explosives against a group of government soldiers in the municipality of Corinto, Cauca...

Reporters Without Borders takes note of the progress apparently being made in the investigation into a shocking arson attack two days ago on a local radio station near Bolivia’s southern border with Argentina, in which station manager, Fernando Vidal, 70, and one of his technicians, Karen Arce, 25, were almost killed. Yesterday the police said they have arrested three men on suspicion of carrying out the attack on Radio Popular FM in the border city of Yacuiba (in Tarija department)....

After learning that local TV presenter Adela Jazmín Alcaraz López has been missing for the past five days in Rioverde, in the north-central state of San Luis Potosí, Reporters Without Borders reiterates its appeal to President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto to pledge to combat impunity in crimes of violence against journalists, With a total of 85 journalists killed and 16 missing in the past decade - including five murdered and three disappeared in 2012 - Mexico...

Colombians were petitioning to retrieve more than 800,000 hectares of land allegedly seized by leftist rebels, a key issue of the ongoing peace talks to end the five-decade-long armed conflict in the Southern American country. On the other hand, the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was pressing the government to tackle uneven land distribution between the rich and the poor, a key demand of the movement since its inception, El Tiempo daily reported Sunday. The issue was...

Iran said Wednesday it has completed a first round of talks with Argentina on the 1994 bombing of a Jewish aid organization in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and wounded 300. “On Monday and Tuesday, Iranian and Argentine legal experts held their negotiations about AMIA (the Israeli-Argentine Mutual Aid Association) and agreed to continue negotiations in the future,” foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said. “The time and the venue of the next round of...