Central America

Reporters Without Borders condemns yesterday’s murder of TV presenter José Agustín Silvestre de los Santos, who was kidnapped in the eastern city of La Romana and was later found dead in El Peñon, on the road from La Romana to San Pedro de Macorís. He had been shot three times.

Cuban President Raul Castro announced at the 7th period of sessions of the seventh legislature of the National Assembly of People’s Power that Cuba is working on updating the current immigration policy, by reformulating and drawing up a group of regulatory measures in that sector based on the current and foreseeable future conditions.

Academics and activists in Bolivia and Mexico in July took steps to preserve indigenous languages whose survival is threatened of dying out with more use of Spanish. The Autonomous University of Mexico has launched an audio library of the 300 indigenous languages and dialects spoken in Mexico. The library has 800 audio language samples so far.

Nery Jeremías Orellana, 26, the manager of Radio Joconguera in the town of Candelaria, in the western department of Lempira, was gunned down yesterday morning, bringing the number of Honduran journalists killed since the start of the year to three. A total of 12 journalists have been killed in the past 18 months in Honduras without any of their murders being solved.

Reporters Without Borders condemns local TV reporter Adan Benítez’s murder in the northern port city of La Ceiba (the capital of Atlántida department) on 4 July. Employed by two local stations, 45TV and Teleceiba Canal 7, he was the second journalist to be murdered in Honduras in the past two months.

Throughout the year devoted by the UN to African descendants in the world, the Latin American region takes on the historic duty of tackling surviving open or veiled discrimination. Some 150 million African descendants, 30 percent of the Latin American and Caribbean population, suffer the consequences of disproportionate poverty and exclusion.

Reporters Without Borders calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Ernst Joseph and Wolf “Duralph” François, hosts of the programme “They said it” on Radio Prévention in the southwestern town of Petit-Goâve, who have been detained ever since their arrest during an appearance at the public prosecutor’s office on 22 June.

Did Honduras’ readmission to the Organization of American States mark the end of the sinister interlude that began with the coup d’état exactly two years ago, on 28 June 2009, and its disastrous impact on civil liberties and human rights?
That was the question that the Latin America and Caribbean division of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC-ALC)

Exclusive Report on Ousted Honduran President Zelaya’s Return Home 23 Months After U.S.-Backed Coup.

In a Democracy Now! global broadcast exclusive, we take you on the plane of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya as he and his family return home after almost two years in exile. We speak with Zelaya and some of the many who accompanied Zelaya home.

A climate of tensions and charges of fraud increase today in Haiti after the release Monday of the preliminary results in the elections that gave victory to singer Michel Martelly.

The PEC announced that the representative of Peasant Answer Party achieved 67.57 % of the valid votes against 31.74 for Miriande Marigat of Regrouping of the National Progressive Democratic Party.