Abigail Poe
Every year, the State Department and the Defense Department are required by Congress to submit various reports on issues of relevance to specific committees in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Many of these reports are published as unclassified and available to the public via the Freedom of Information Act. Just the Facts' staff have spent over a year trying to collect all of the reports due in 2008.
Last Wednesday, the Organization of American States led a delegation of top officials to Honduras to commence a dialogue between the de facto Micheletti government and ousted President Manuel Zelaya. One day later, the OAS top officials, including U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon, left Honduras.
This was originally posted on the Latin America Working Group's website Challenges and Opportunities to Strengthen Law Enforcement at the State and Local Level in Mexico
The high-level mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) arrived in Honduras today to begin a dialogue, dubbed the "Guaymuras Talks," between ousted President Manuel Zelaya and the de facto government led by Roberto Micheletti.
In early September, the number of people killed by drug-related violence in Mexico surpassed 5,000, prompting us to write on this blog that "it looks like 2009 is assured to be more violent than 2008 - which ended with 5,600 narcoviolence-related murders." Unfortunately, it took less than one month for the number of such murders in Mexico to surpass 2008 levels, reaching 5,874 murders by the end of September.
The advance mission for the upcoming Organization of American States (OAS) delegation of ten foreign ministers and Secretary General José Miguel Insulza arrived in Honduras last week to begin pushing for a dialogue between both de facto President Roberto Micheletti and ousted President Manuel Zelaya, and preliminary reports show that both parties have expressed a desire to talk. Meanwhile, two different delegations of U.S. members of Congress traveled to Honduras on "fact-finding trips." Here's is today's update on the situation in Honduras:
Today Honduras entered the fifth day of restrictions on fundamental human rights, despite national and international condemnations of the decree issued by de facto President Roberto Micheletti on Sunday. Here is today's update on the situation in Honduras:
On Sunday, Ecuador's largest indigenous organization, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), mobilized its bases to protest new water, mining and oil laws. The new water law would give the state control over the country's water supply, including those resources found on indigenous territory.
Fundamental human rights remain suspended in Honduras, despite de facto President Roberto Micheletti's announcement on Monday that he would consider revoking the decree that suspends such rights.