Latin America: Week in Review, United States
U.S. Judge Puts On Hold Parts Of Georgia’s Immigration Law
June 28, 2011 By Staff
Today in Latin America
Top Story — A U.S. federal judge on Monday put the brakes on parts of Georgia’s controversial anti-immigration law. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Thrash preliminarily enjoined Georgia from enforcing two provisions in the law. One of the blocked provisions allows police to investigate the immigration status of certain suspects and the other punishes people who knowingly transport or harbor undocumented immigrants or encourage them to come to the U.S. In the 45-page ruling, Thrash said that civil and immigrant rights groups have made clear they can win their arguments that the provisions are preempted by federal law. Georgia state officials said last week that if a preliminary injunction was granted the state would appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. Thrash’s ruling did not totally favor those opposed to the law as he threw out arguments by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which said the new law violates people’s rights to travel and their protection against unlawful search and seizure. Georgia’s immigration law was supposed to have been enacted over the next few years.
Read More From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Just Published at the Latin America News Dispatch
- Former General Héctor López Fuentes made his first court appearance on June 20 on charges of orchestrating genocide against Guatemala’s Ixil Mayan people in 1982 and 1983. Photojournalist James Rodríguez attended the proceedings and shot these photos.
Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- The hacker group Lulz Security released documents claiming that Arizona authorities knew the location of drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán two years ago, but did not tell Mexican officials.
- Gunmen in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz kidnapped a group of migrants riding on a freight train from Ixtepec to Veracruz over the weekend.
- Hundreds of people in Mexico City painted themselves blue, donned a white Smurf hat, white pants and shoes and a blue T-shirt to set a world record for most smurfs in one place
Caribbean
- A career Chilean diplomat has taken up his post as head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti.
- Authorities in the Dominican Republic say a former Peruvian police colonel has been charged with drug trafficking in a trendy beach town.
Central America
- A leaked U.S. diplomatic cable suggests that pro-Manuel Zelaya supporters sought weapons from Nicaragua after the 2009 coup.
- Costa Rican Foreign Minister René Castro is being questioned over his appointment of party members to foreign ministry posts.
Andes
- Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez, holed up in secrecy in a Cuban hospital, reportedly telephoned a meeting of his ruling party’s leadership on Monday.
- The Colombian government will invest $14.5 billion to prevent future weather-related damage similar to that being experienced this year, officials said.
- Ecuador’s government on Monday signed a loan for $2 billion with the China Development Bank, Ecuador’s Finance Ministry said.
- There was a sharp selloff in Peru-focused mining stocks on Monday after the government cancelled one of Bear Creek Mining Corp.’s silver projects in the mineral-rich South American country.
- Police say a bus has run off a foggy mountain road in Bolivia, killing at least 28 people.
- Bolivian President Evo Morales, signed a new law which aims to ensure food security for his country.
Southern Cone
- Uruguayan President José Mujica announced that the country will remove obstacles to human rights prosecutions against a number of officials of the past military dictatorship.
- Brazilian oil-field company OSX received approval to start construction on a shipyard at the Acu Port complex in the Rio de Janeiro state.
- The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will not impose sanctions on Argentina for failing to comply with international standards to fight money laundering.
- Chile’s LAN Airlines canceled 39 flights in Argentina and Chile due to an ash cloud from the Cordon Caulle volcano.
Image: Teamperks @ Flickr.
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