El grupo de pacifistas que se encuentran en Cuba para exigir el cierre de la cárcel de Guantánamo, protagonizarán este jueves una marcha frente al centro de detención, protesta que coincide con el quinto aniversario de la llegada a Guantánamo del primer grupo de presos musulmanes sospechosos de terrorismo. (more…)

A defeat for President Bush in the US Supreme Court is being regarded as welcome news for the Caribbean.

The Court ruled that non-American citizens who are legal residents in the United States cannot face mandatory deportation orders, if they’re found guilty of a single case of drugs possession.

More than 5,000 Caribbean nationals were deported from the US over the past year alone.

Jayashri Srikantiah the Director of the Immigration Rights Clinic at Stanford University in California says that the Bush Administration had taken an unduly punitive stance on the drugs issue:

Harsh

“Each of the people who are facing immigration consequences have already served their time or whatever punishment for their crime.

We have to recognise that drug possession convictions happen in a wide range of circumstances.”

She told BBC Caribbean that, “because of the nature of drug possession and the nature of drug use, and the fact in many cases it’s a disease, the immigration consequences seem particularly harsh.”

The basis of the US Supreme Court ruling was that while drug possession may be a felony in the State it’s committed in, it’s only a misdemeanour - a lesser offence - in most cases under Federal law.

Many Caribbean countries have challenged US, and other countries’ policies of deporting convicted criminals with ties to the region, back to the Caribbean, especially in cases where they’ve spent most of their lives abroad.

Some countries say they are struggling to put in place programs to assimilate them into Caribbean society and divert them away from criminal activities.

TeleSur conversó en exclusiva con el presidente electo de Ecuador, Rafael Correa, quien se encuentra de visita en Venezuela para estrechar las relaciones bilaterales entre ambos países y buscar apoyo del gobierno venezolano en el reciente conflicto generado con Colombia por la reanudación de las fumigaciones con glifosato en la frontera. (more…)

El controvertido paquete económico para el próximo año 2007, presentado por el Gobierno de Calderón y que prevé fuertes restricciones para la educación, la cultura y salud, será sometido este miércoles a la evaluación de la Cámara de Senadores, luego de ser aprobado por los diputados. (more…)

About 50 Salvadoran union members, campesinos and environmental activists blocked the Juan Pablo II avenue near the Legislative Assembly in San Salvador for about two hours to protest a proposed new General Water Law that they say will in effect privatize the country’s water supply. Protesters held large banners across six lanes and handed out fliers to passersby. Police agents eventually removed the protesters from the street with no serious incidents; the activists continued to hold banners on the sidewalk afterwards. Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters shut down bridges and highways in coordinated actions at seven points across the country, including Santa Ana, Ahuachapan, Chalatenango and the Puente de Oro. (more…)

On Dec. 13, some 5,000 people from across Argentina (or as many as 10,000, according to some press reports) took part in a colorful march in scorching weather to the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires to defend the environment and natural resources. Marchers carried banners and puppets (including a giant toilet, flushing polluted waters into the environment), performed street theater and danced to regional traditional carnaval music. (more…)

Felipe Calderon Hinojosa started his six-year term as president of Mexico with a chaotic five-minute inauguration on Dec. 1, heavily guarded by members of the Presidential General Staff. Legislators from the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and two allied parties chanted: “Illegitimate!” as Calderon and outgoing president Vicente Fox Quesada, both of the center-right National Action Party (PAN), slipped into the hall through a back door and rushed through the ceremony before fleeing the scene. The podium had been the site of fistfights between PAN and PRD legislators since Nov. 28, when the PAN deputies had seized it to keep the PRD from blocking Calderon’s swearing in. (more…)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez cruised to an easy re-election victory in yesterday’s Presidential elections. He has earned another six year term which will take his presidency into the year 2013. Preliminary results from Venezuela’s Electoral Council show that Chavez triumphed by 61.4% of the votes to his opponent’s 38.4%. (more…)

While politicians from across the political spectrum and editorial pages throughout the United States have been taking their shots at Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez since his now infamous ‘’devil'’ comment at the United Nations, no one is asking what made him so mad. Seats are getting crowded on the anti-Chávez bandwagon as retailer 7-Eleven announced it will drop Venezuelan-owned Citgo gasoline from its 2,100 service stations in the United States in protest and Florida lawmaker Rep. Adam Hasner has called for Citgo to be kicked off of the state’s turnpike. (more…)