New Nicaraguan Gold Rush Sparks Local Opposition, State Repression

A recent police crackdown on protesting “guiriseros” (artisan miners) in the central Nicaraguan town of Santo Domingo has raised new questions about the government’s ‘come-on-down’ approach to foreign gold mining firms, which have been raking in riches of late thanks to increased production and soaring prices.

Chile: Breakthrough In Decades-Old Víctor Jara Murder Case

Protected for nearly four decades by a thick wall of military secrecy, a handful of former Chilean soldiers – including a retired army lieutenant currently living in the US – are finally being called to answer for the 1973 torture and murder of famed folk singer Víctor Jara.

Nicaragua’s ‘Femicide Law’ Slow To Produce Results

A gruesome murder case in Nicaragua’s Matagalpa department has brought new attention to what – despite the implementation last year of a much-heralded “femicide law” – remains a serious problem for the Central America nation: violence against women and girls.

Inter-American Human Rights Court Takes El Salvador To Task Over El Mozote Massacre

An international court ruling on the infamous “El Mozote massacre” of 1981 has put new pressure on Salvadoran authorities to stop turning a blind eye to widespread human rights violations committed during the country’s dozen-year civil war (1980-1992).

Is Piñera, Chile’s First Conservative Leader In Two Decades, Also Its Most Gay-Friendly?

President Sebastián Piñera has proven to be an unlikely ally for Chile’s LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community, most notably by overseeing passage last year of the “Ley Zamudio,” an equal rights law that had been promised – but never delivered – by his more left-wing predecessors. The conservative leader could cement his legacy as a gay rights pioneer by making good on a campaign pledge to legalize same-sex civil unions. With just a year remaining in his term, however, time is running out.

Gang Truce Cuts El Salvador’s Murder Rate By 40%

Nine months after agreeing to an historic truce, jailed leaders from El Salvador’s largest street gangs say they are ready to curb more than just killings – at least in a handful of strategic “peace zones.” Before moving ahead with the experimental plan, however, the notoriously violent maras, as the groups are known, want the government to do something in return: repeal its repressive “anti-gang law.”

US Judge To Sentence Salvadoran ‘Jesuit Massacre’ Suspect

Inocente Orlando Montano is by no means the only former Salvadoran military official implicated in the infamous 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter. But the 70-year-old retired colonel is the only one currently awaiting sentencing – albeit not for human rights abuses.

Ethnic Tensions Again Boil Over In Chile’s Araucanía Region

A flurry of arson attacks, land occupations and violent police raids have refocused public attention on Chile’s long-simmering “Mapuche conflict,” which is once again showing signs of boiling over.

What’s Next For El Salvador’s Life-Saving Gang Truce?

A tenuous truce between rival street gangs has held up for four months and counting, halving El Salvador’s horrific homicide rate and raising hopes among some daring optimists of a lasting “peace process.”

Nicaragua’s Tomás Borge, Famed FSLN-Cofounder, Dead At 81

FSLN Cofounder Tomas Borge (Wikipedia)

Nicaragua bid farewell this month to one of Latin America’s consummate 20th century revolutionaries: Tomás Borge Martinez. Poet, statesman and the last surviving founder of the left-wing Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN), a guerilla movement that overthrew Nicaragua’s Somoza family dictatorship in 1979, Borge was laid to rest May 2 in Managua’s Plaza de la Revolución.