The mothers of three young women who were tortured, raped, and brutally murdered in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, in 2001 testified before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Santiago, Chile, this week. The families brought the case against Mexico on behalf of victims Claudia Ivette González, Esmeralda Herrera Monreal and Laura Berenice Ramos Monárrez, charging that the families of hundreds of murdered women and girls in Juárez have been denied their right to a trial. Mexico is also accused of violating the Inter-American Convention to Prevent, Sanction and Eradicate Violence Against Women (1994 Belem Convention). The case is known as "Campo Algodonero," for the outlying area where the three women were killed, along with several others. (El Diario, Juárez, April 30; Santiago Times, Chile, April 27)

Caracas has recalled its ambassador from Lima in response to Peru's decision to grant political asylum to wanted Venezuelan opposition leader Manuel Rosales. Rosales, who lost the 2006 Venezuelan presidential race to President Hugo Chávez, is accused of illegally enriching himself while governor of Zulia state. In an April 27 statement, Venezuela's foreign ministry charged that Peru's decision "constitutes a mockery of international law." (Press TV, Iran, April 28)

Bolivian authorities say the dismantling of a commando made up mainly of foreign mercenaries could lead to the people behind around a dozen different attacks carried out since 2006 in the city of Santa Cruz. Bolivian Vice President Álvaro García Linera said the attacks were aimed at destabilizing the government of Evo Morales and were to culminate in the assassination of the president. He said business leaders and landowners in the eastern province of Santa Cruz were financing the clandestine operations by the five alleged terrorists, three of whom were shot and killed by the police.

On April 14 Mexico's Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board (JFCA) declared illegal a strike that the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers and the Like of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMSRM) has led since July 30, 2007 over safety issues at Grupo México's giant copper mine at Cananea, in the northwestern state of Sonora. The JFCA ruling cleared the way for the company, owned by billionaire Germán Larrea, to proceed with plans to close the mine and fire all 1,200 workers; it announced the firings the next day.

In a ceremony in Managua on April 24, Nicaraguan National Police director Aminta Granera and US ambassador Robert Callahan signed an agreement making Nicaragua a member of the Mérida Initiative, a program the US government started in 2007 ostensibly to fight drug cartels and organized crime. Nicaragua is to receive $1.5 million in US aid to improve the sharing of fingerprint information among Central American countries, develop a special investigations unit and equip agents better, according to a statement from the US State Department.

Chilean judge formally charged three retired military officers in Santiago on April 20 with the murder of 14 prisoners in Antofagasta in northern Chile on Oct. 19, 1973, near the beginning of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's 1973-1990 military dictatorship. The deaths of the 14 prisoners, mostly members of the Socialist Party, occurred on the "Caravan of Death," in which a military group headed by Gen. Sergio Arellano Stark executed more than 90 political prisoners as it traveled through the country.

The planned diamond mine at the centre of an international controversy over the forced relocation of Botswana's Bushmen has been shelved due to the global recession. Demand for diamonds has collapsed in recent months, and all Botswana's diamond mines closed in February for two months. Survival International, the Bushmen and many others maintained that the reserve's diamonds were the principal cause of the Bushmen's eviction.

The federal trial of a former US soldier accused of raping and killing a 14-year-old Iraqi girl in 2006 began April 27. Former US Army Pfc. Steven Green is also charged with killing the girl's family in Mahmudiya, Iraq. During opening statements, prosecutors said that Green raped the girl, shot her several times, and then burned her body and that he later bragged about the events. Green's defense lawyer argued that Green was under extreme stress from combat conditions. Green could face the death penalty if convicted.