“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...

CULIACÁN, SINALOA - The 25-year-old son of the editor of a newspaper in the western Mexican city of Culiacan was murdered, sources in the Sinaloa state Attorney General’s Office told Efe on Thursday. Fermin Rosas Quezada was found dead inside his car Wednesday night. Sinaloa state police made the discovery after residents of a neighborhood in the southwestern part of Culiacan alerted authorities to the presence of a vehicle with its engine running. The victim was shot at...

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Mahmoud Abbas reiterated Spain’s commitment to Palestine and support the efforts of the Palestinian Aurora (ANP) at the time of making progress in the peace process as well as institution building. Mahmoud Abbas briefed the Prime Minister of the options that arise in the face early in September the new session of the UN General Assembly. Rodriguez Zapatero has called for continuing efforts towards a consensual solution for recovering the...

(Washington, DC) - The conviction of Oswaldo Álvarez Paz for disseminating "false information" - on the basis of his criticism of the Chávez government - is a move against free speech in Venezuela, Human Rights Watch said today. Venezuela should revoke its law that criminalizes disseminating "false information," Human Rights Watch said. On July 13, 2011, Álvarez Paz, a former governor of the state of Zulia and member of an opposition political party,...

Nery Jeremías Orellana, 26, the manager of Radio Joconguera in the town of Candelaria, in the western department of Lempira, was gunned down yesterday morning, bringing the number of Honduran journalists killed since the start of the year to three. A total of 12 journalists have been killed in the past 18 months in Honduras without any of their murders being solved. “Orellana headed a commercial radio station that works with civil society organizations and belongs to an...

MEXICO CITY In a decision hailed by human rights advocates, the Mexican Supreme Court Tuesday ordered military officers and personnel be tried in civilian courts, not military tribunals, when accused of torture, extra-judicial killing and other abuses. The court's unanimous ruling marks a radical change in the way human rights cases involving the military should be prosecuted. As the number of alleged violations has soared in the recent years of the Mexican drug war, advocates have...

A ruling on July 6, 2011, by Mexico's Supreme Court should bring reform of Mexico's flawed military justice system and accountability for soldiers accused of human rights violations closer, Human Rights Watch said today. The court ruled that Mexico's courts are obligated to comply with an Inter-American Court judgment in an enforced disappearance case and that its jurisprudence should be taken into account by Mexico's judges. In a binding November 2009 judgment, Radilla Pacheco v. Mexico, the...

Brazil will start manufacturing unmanned aircrafts with the help from Israel, thus allowing the South American country to control drug trafficking on its border areas. However, the Brazilian authorities may not sell them neither to Bolivia nor to Venezuela, as instructed by the Israeli government. Miki Bar, a representative of state-run company IAI, which manufactures the unmanned aerial vehicles Vants, said that Tel Aviv authorized the manufacturing and export of the aircrafts to Brazil,...

Read the full story in spanish,

Arbitrarily releasing former President Alberto Fujimori from serving his full prison sentence for human rights crimes would be incompatible with Peru's obligations under international law, Human Rights Watch said today. Fujimori recently received medical treatment, and there have been some calls for a "humanitarian pardon." Although early release of a seriously ill prisoner on humanitarian grounds is a legitimate practice, it should only be granted on the basis of an independent,...