Havana, April 26th, 2010. “The Union of Free Journalists of Cuba, confirms that the -mothers, wives, aunts and other relatives of the 75 Cuban political prisoners arrested, tried and imprisoned during Cuba’s - were again the victims of the Cuban regime’s repression that for the third time forbade them to peacefully march, as they do every Sunday, after attending mass at Saint Rita’s Catholic Church. Laura Pollán Toledo, Berta Soler Fernández, Julia...

Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe rejected on Thursday the installation of a bust of Manuel Marulanda, the late founder of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in a Venezuelan border town and asked people "to defeat terrorists wherever they are." "Colombians consider that rather than a tribute, this bust is a sign that our country has to defeat crime, terrorism and drug trafficking," Uribe told journalists. "I would say that people who try to pay...

Venezuela's President, Hugo Chávez, said on Monday that the statements made by the Colombian presidential candidate and former Minister of Defense, Juan Manuel Santos, were a "threat." The Venezuelan leader is concerned about further military actions in the region such as the Colombian military raid into Ecuador when Raúl Reyes, a leader of the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was killed by the Colombian Army. Chávez made this statement...

Iran is increasing its paramilitary Qods force operatives in Venezuela while covertly continuing supplies of weapons and explosives to Taliban and other insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the Pentagon's first report to Congress on Tehran's military. The report on Iranian military power provides new details on the group known formally as the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), the Islamist shock troops deployed around the world to advance Iranian interests....

In 2002, in separate incidents, two indigenous women, Inés Fernández Ortega and Valentina Rosendo Cantú, were reportedly raped by soldiers. More than five years later, no one has been brought to justice. Both women have shown great courage in reporting their ordeals to the authorities: cultural, economic and social barriers deter many indigenous women in Mexico from seeking justice. Lorenzo Fernández Ortega, a leading member of the Me Phaa Indigenous People’s...

As usual at this time since 2002, President Hugo Chávez devoted four hours, fifteen minutes of his TV and radio show "Aló, Presidente" on Sunday 11 to relate his version of the events of April 11-13. There, he remembered "the martyrs of Llaguno Bridge, unarmed people who exposed their chests to a rain of bullets." Lavish in details and anecdotes which made himself and the audience laugh at the courtyard of Miraflores presidential palace, Chávez did...

Washington, DC Political Coordination Committee Mexican Chamber of Deputies Deputy Francisco Rojas Gutiérrez Deputy Josefina Vásquez Mota Deputy Alejandro Encinas Rodríguez Deputy Juan José Guerra Abud Deputy Pedro Vásquez González Deputy Reyes Tamez Guerra Deputy Pedro Jiménez León To the members of the Political Coordination Committee: On behalf of Human Rights Watch, I am writing to urge you to approve the human rights...

Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies should swiftly approve the human rights reforms to the constitution passed by the Senate on April 8, 2010, Human Rights Watch said today in a to the Chamber’s Political Coordination Committee. The proposed changes to the constitution include measures to protect basic rights. In particular, the legislation passed by the Senate affirms the relevance of international law; clearly lays out the circumstances under which a state of emergency may be declared...

An explosive device was detonated in the garden and patio area of the U.S. General Consulate in Nuevo Laredo late Friday. Consul General Donald L. Heflin said nobody was injured. “We will take security measures for the personnel. Until we have that security level up, we will (not) open for the public,” Heflin said. According to a department news release, the device was thrown over the fence about 11 p.m. Friday. “It did go off,” said a consulate official who chose to...

Caracas.- Jaime Bermúdez, Colombia's Foreign Affairs Minister, said on Tuesday that the goal of his official visit to Russia has nothing to do with the purchase of weapons in order to have a military capability similar to that of Venezuela, which plans to buy new Russian weapons worth over USD 5 billion.‎ "Colombia will never buy military equipment that could be considered an offensive weapon against third countries. Our purpose is to destroy drug trafficking and...