DAY 1 (August 12, Sunday, San Diego) California Dreaming as Friendship Park launch on Sunday was magical with Aztec Dancers and music in San Diego/ Tijuana, Enrique Morones of Border Angels, Congressman Bob Filner and Senator Juan Vargas and community welcome all to San Diego, then Javier Sicilia shares the importance of Caravan For Peace with Justice and Dignity with hundreds of supporters on both sides of wall and dozens of international media folks. (caravanforpeace.org) At USD's...

The Chilean authorities should carry out a prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation into the alleged unlawful use of force by police against members of the Mapuche indigenous community, Human Rights Watch said today. Officers found responsible for any unlawful use of force should be held to account and the injured civilians ensured an effective remedy. In two incidents on July 23, 2012, Caribineros police shot rubber bullets at members of the Ignacio Queipul community of Temucuicui, in...

The Mexican authorities announced Wednesday that captured members of a criminal cell had confessed to the killing of five journalists in the state of Veracruz this year. According to the state attorney, the criminals, one of whom was detained last week carrying identification cards belonging to Irasema Becerra, a recently slain newspaper employee, admitted to a total of 36 crimes. Press freedom activists expressed dissatisfaction with the announcement, saying that it was unacceptable for the...

Yale economics professor and former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo has become a legal headache for the United States. Zedillo has been accused of perpetrating the 1997 Acteal massacre when he was president by relatives of the victims. Plaintiffs are demanding $50 million in damages. The infamous Acteal massacre was a political and religious assassination of 47 Maya Indian women and children in the hamlet of Acteal, Chiapas. Even after the alleged culprits spent 10 years in prison, it is...

Caravan for Peace off to incredible start with Mexican Poet/activist Javier Sicilia as hundreds gather yesterday @ historic Friendship Park, thanks all ! After an incredible launch with Javier Sicilia at Friendship Park the Caravan headed to a beautiful Mass @ USD's Founders Chapel (music by Francisco Herrera and Ray Castillo). Next stop on same campus was David Shirk of the Trans-border Institute delivering a shocking report on the 65,000 people that have been killed in Mexico since 2006...

Dozens of people were murdered in the last week in a new surge of Mexican drug attacks. Fourteen bodies were found in the state of San Luis Potosi, 17 in the port of Acapulco, and 12 in Mexico City itself, a locale relatively shielded from drug violence, reports the . The wave of deaths comes not too long before the six-year anniversary of the federal government's declaration of war on the cartels. The violence also comes about a week after President Calderon boasted to the National Security...

Explosive material was seized at an address in San Roque where a Turkish man was arrested. Two other men were held near Almuradiel. They are thought to have been planning an attack in Spain or elsewhere in Europe, according to the Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz. The arrests are part of one the biggest international operations to date against al-Qaeda, Mr Diaz said. The material is currently being tested but is thought to be enough to "destroy a bus", he told...

Mexico City (CNN) -- Mexican authorities accused four top military officials of connections with organized crime in a high-profile case that has renewed debate over the role of government troops in the drug war. A former deputy defense secretary was among the officials in a maximum-security prison in central Mexico Wednesday, a day after prosecutors accused them of having cartel ties. One of Mexico's most notorious accused drug lords, Edgar "La Barbie" Valdez Villarreal, was also...

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) - The offices of a major Mexican newspaper came under attack Sunday for the third time this month. Several masked, armed men broke into a branch office of the El Norte newspaper near the northern city of Monterrey, poured out gasoline and ignited it. The newspaper's website said none of the 15 people working in the Sierra Madre office were injured. Firefighters in the municipality of San Pedro Garza Garcia quickly extinguished the blaze. Monterrey-based El Norte is...

QUITO: The Ecuadorian Finance Co., Inc. (COFIEC), a bank that was seized a decade ago by the former Deposit Guarantee Agency (AGD) would be the legal vehicle used by the Ecuadorian state to conduct financial transactions with Iran. The Central Bank of Ecuador (BCE) decided to conduct financial transactions through COFIEC as a part of financial cooperation agreements between Ecuador and Iran, as recorded in the minutes of the meeting that both countries held on January 12. The bilateral...