The trial of former Guatemalan dictator, Efraín Ríos Montt, for genocide faces further delays after the Court of Appeals ruled to temporarily suspend the process.

Today, members of the Bolivian Workers’ Centre (COB) set up road blocks in the Department of Cochabamba and in La Paz in response to President Evo Morales’ refusal to raise the pension. The COB, the country’s main worker’s union, is demanding a rise from the current monthly rate of 70% of the last received salary [...]

Yesterday, the Colombian military killed seven members of the 23rd division of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and captured one in the province of Nariño in the south-east of Colombia. The clashes started on Saturday in the municipality of Leive close to the Ecuadorian border. Colombian army officials stated that they also seized [...]

Uruguayan judges and prosecutors are beginning to defy the Supreme Court of Justice’s closure of human rights investigations. Francesca Lessa and Pierre-Louis Le Goff analyse the situation.

The indigenous organisations of the Defensa de Alto Amazonas have barricaded the Tarapoto-Yurimaguas highway for the second day running in protests against the destruction of the rainforest within their territories. The road is located in the region of Loreto, North Peru. The protests are being made in a bid to raise awareness of the problems [...]

María Ángela Holguín, Colombia’s Foreign Minister, reported on Thursday that the country is to propose a bi-national commission with Venezuela in order to fight illegal mining on the borders between the two countries. The plans come after several Colombian citizens were caught carrying out illegal mining practices in Venezuelan territory. The Bolivarian National Guard of [...]

Venezuela is set to increase oil production capacity by 2014, according to the government. The world’s largest crude oil reserves are found in the country, estimated at around 297,700million barrels. The Venezuelan minister of petroleum and mining, Rafael Ramírez, said that US$25 billion is to be invested in the oil sector in a bid to [...]

Chilean trade unions took to the streets of Santiago yesterday to campaign for an improvement in workers’ tax reforms and wages, and used the event to announce a nationwide workers strike on 11th July. Fifty thousand people, led by Chile’s Central Workers’ (CUT) Union, turned out to march for Chile’s May Day demonstration yesterday. During [...]

In a statement, two organisations, Mexico Infórmate and the Transparency Collective, expressed concern about the proposed constitutional amendment on transparency, which they say would undermine the Federal Institute of Access to the Information and Data Protection (IFAI). The organisations also claim that the reform has not been a priority for discussion in the Chamber of [...]

Bolivian President Evo Morales demanded the expulsion of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on Wednesday.