(Washington, D.C.) - ’s President Rafael Correa should end the use of criminal defamation laws to target his critics, Human Rights Watch said today. The prosecution and convictions of the opposition legislator José Cléver Jiménez Cabrera and two union members for slandering the president violates their right to freedom of expression under international human rights law, Human Rights Watch said. “President Correa has long made it clear that he’s willing...

The imminent liberation of Alberto Patishtán through a presidential pardon is nothing more than the reflection of the severe crisis of the justice system in Mexico, incapable of recognizing its failures, agreed activists and Héctor Patishtán, son of the bilingual teacher. Lawyers, activists and Héctor Patishtán, son of the professor from Chiapas, displayed at a press conference feelings brought about by the presidential decision that, they pointed out,...

SANTIAGO, Dominican Republic. - Leaders of political parties, social activists, and community leaders said an awakening of the people and the democratic unification of the opposition forces will defeat former President Leonel Fernandez's intentions of keeping the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) in power for more than 40 consecutive years. It is for this reason that political scientist Peter Catrain has called on citizens to mobilize, in a joint action, to address what he described as the...

Tijuana has now become the first city in Baja California to have a mosque, which is located in Playas de Tijuana under the name of Masjid Omar. Here the followers of Allah have a safe place where they perform their prayers and scheduled prayers as established in the Koran, from Fajr (dawn) to Isha (night). The center offers various activities including the teachings of the Koran and Arabic classes. You do not need to be Muslim to take these classes or attend the mosque. Islam is probably...

Reporters Without Borders condemns the violence and other forms of intimidation and censorship being used against a campaign of peaceful demonstrations, called a Minga, that indigenous groups are currently waging in many parts of Colombia to defend their rights. In one of the latest instances, the home of Daniel Maestre Villazón, a community journalist and Minga coordinator in the northern department of César, was burgled on 21 October and his laptops and computer hard disks...

Mexico's government said Sunday it "categorically condemns" email spying, after a German news magazine reported that documents from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden say the U.S. gained access to the e-mail system of former Mexican President Felipe Calderon. A report posted by Der Spiegel said the documents describe an operation dubbed "Flat liquid" that claim to have accessed Mexico's "presidencia" domain, which was also purportedly used by members...

Mario Echevarría Driggs, David Águila Montero and William Cacer Díaz, arrested in Havana last week, were freed on 14 October 2013. Two correspondents for the Hablemos Press news center, Denis Noa Martinez and Pablo Morales Marchán, were arrested last Sunday. They were freed at the same time. “Reporters Without Borders is relieved that all five journalists have been released. Hopefully, news providers will be able to continue their work without fear of...

Salvadoran police say they have found a cache of more than 200 anti-tank grenades hidden in a rural carpenter's workshop, the BBC reported. Authorities believe the weapons may be connected with the Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas, which has been working to expand operations to El Salvador and other Central American countries. Police reportedly become suspicious in early August after residents of El Congo, a village 30 miles north of San Salvador, reported seeing a group of heavily armed men...

Colombian authorities blamed the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) for an attack with explosives on Wednesday against a Colombia-Venezuela gas pipeline, official sources reported. The attack took place near the Maicao municipality, in La Guajira department (northeast Colombia), a few kilometers away from the Venezuelan border, hitting a gas pipeline transporting gas from that area to Zulia state, west Venezuela, DPA reported. Cira Ortiz, leader of a Wayúu indigenous...

TIJUANA, Mexico - Harsh conditions and persecution confront migrants in Mexico, many of whom have been deported from the U.S., according to a Salesian priest who serves the population in the border town of Tijuana. “This results in them being people with so many dreams that end up becoming nightmares,” Father Ernesto Hernández Ruiz, a member of the order founded by St. John Bosco to assist the young poor, told CNA in early June. Father Ruiz operates the “Padre...