Blog, Latin America: Week in Review
Honduran Police Beat Journalists During Protest
December 14, 2011 By Staff
Today in Latin America
Top Story — Police fired tear gas and hit demonstrators during a protest in Tegucigalpa on Tuesday that was intended to draw attention to the spate of violence against Honduran journalists and news workers. Since January 2010, 17 Honduran journalists have been murdered, out of a total of 24 killed in the last eight years. Last week, journalist Luz Marina Paz and her driver were shot by armed assailants who rode by on a motorcycle, prompting the Honduran government to ban motorcycle passengers to prevent more drive-by shootings. Tuesday’s protest was organized by a group of female journalists from independent media outlets and government agencies who marched from eastern Tegucigalpa to the presidential palace. Demonstrators were beaten by police when they tried to get over a security barrier. According to the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, Honduras had the highest murder rate in the world in 2010, with 82 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. Citing the U.S. demand for drugs as a factor in the violence, Honduran President Porfirio Lobo said in an interview Tuesday that his government is “taking the same measures other countries are taking” to combat violent crime.
Read more from EFE.
Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- Two advocacy groups in the Midwest said that illegal immigrants being held in Illinois and Kentucky detention centers face inhumane conditions and are denied basic human rights.
- Mexican prosecutors said that they found grenades and an AK-47 at a site where two students were killed during clashes with police in the state of Guerrero last week.
- Mexican authorities said the recently-captured leader of the Zetas drug cartel, Raul Lucio Hernandez Lechuga, may have been involved in the abduction of nine Mexican marines in Veracruz this year.
Caribbean
- The Cuban government reportedly arrested top executives from the Cuban military-run Tecnotex trading company as part of an anti-corruption probe on the island.
- Haitian immigrants are seeking new homes in the Brazilian Amazon, where they are met with serious hardships, according to aid groups.
- A seven year-old Puerto Rican girl who was abducted and murdered in Georgia was buried in her home town of Penuelas, Puerto Rico.
Central America
- Prosecutors in Guatemala ordered the exhumation of nine victims of the Zetas cartel who were found in a mass grave containing 27 people in northern Guatemala in May. So far, 12 victims have been identified.
- Eighteen Cubans bound for the United States landed in Honduras after drifting at sea for ten days.
Andes
- A Colombian child was killed and 15 others are missing after a mudslide buried three homes in La Cruz, Colombia.
- Remnants of Peru’s Shining Path guerrillas reportedly ambushed soldiers in Peru’s Ayacucho region, killing one soldier and injuring twelve others.
- Venezuelan judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni was placed under an extended house arrest sentence on Tuesday for defying Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez by freeing a banker from prison.
- A replica of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez appeared in a nativity scene in Caracas.
Southern Cone
- A mysterious explosion on the first floor of Uruguay’s Labor Ministry injured ten and caused a fire.
- U.S. prosecutors have charged eight former executives for Siemens AG for bribing Argentine officials for over a decade to win a lucrative $1 billion contract.
- Chilean doctors worked to separate two conjoined twins late Tuesday while broadcasting the operation on TV and the Internet.
- The Chilean Energy Ministry urged businessmen to forgo the use of ties during the hot summer months in an effort to save on energy costs for air conditioning.
Image: davidNallah @ Flickr.
Subscribe to Today in Latin America by Email
