Guatemalan judge Carol Patricia Flores ruled on Jan. 26 that there was sufficient evidence to try former military dictator Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt (1982-83) for genocide and other crimes against humanity. Some of the worst atrocities in a 36-year counterinsurgent war occurred during the time that Ríos Montt headed the government, including killings in the Ixil Mayan region that amounted to genocide according to a 1999 report by a United Nations-backed truth commission. The specific charges against Ríos Montt are based on 72 incidents that caused 1,771 deaths under his military command. (Jurist, Jan. 27)

A dispute over a water pipeline in San José del Progreso, a municipality in the Ocotlán district of the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, turned deadly on Jan. 18 when supporters of Mayor Alberto Mauro Sánchez Muñoz reportedly opened fire on demonstrators. Protesters Bernardo Méndez Vásquez and Abigail Vásquez Sánchez were wounded; Méndez Vásquez died the next day in a hospital in Oaxaca city, the state capital. Both were members of the United Peoples of the Ocotlán Valley Coordinating Committee (COPUVO), which has been engaged in a three-year struggle against the Trinidad silver mine owned by Compañia Minera Cuzcatlan S.A. de C.V., a subsidiary of Vancouver-based Fortuna Silver Mines Inc.

Chile and Mexico have the highest level of income inequality among the 34 countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the group announced on Jan. 23. The other OECD members with the widest gap between rich and poor are Israel, Turkey and the US, according to the OECD's new report, Reducing Income Inequality While Boosting Economic Growth: Can It Be Done? (PDF), Chile and Mexico are the only Latin American countries in the organization, which is mostly composed of higher-income nations. The US is the high-income nation with the worst record on income inequality.

In the sixth YouTube edition of the Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade, World War 4 Report editor Bill Weinberg calls out Ron Paul as a neo-Confederate crank and pseudo-libertarian reactionary—and particularly defends the memory and honor of the great homegrown American anarchist and abolitionist Lysander Spooner against Paul's slimy revisionist attempt to appropriate his legacy. Share this with all your friends who are rooting for Ron Paul!

Brazil's government is facing an outcry from rights groups and social movements following a violent Jan. 22 eviction of a favela (informal settlement) that the media have dubbed the "Massacre do Pinheirinho." Some 2,000 troops from the Military Police of São Paulo (PMSP) and the Metropolitan Civil Guard (GCM) of the city of São José dos Campos, in the São Paulo state, invaded the settlement known as Pinheirinho following an order for repossession of the land issued by the state court. Backed up by armored cars and helicopters, the troops evicted an estimated 6,000 from the community on the outskirts of São Paulo city. The troops descended on the site without warning, using tear gas, rubber bullets, and truncheons to disperse frightened residents. But apparently well-drilled to resist eviction, some residents quickly donned improvised weapons and homemade body armor and attempted to block the police advance. The images widely circulated on Brazilian social media, leading to widespread protests in support of the evicted residents.

Brazilian prosecutors plan to file criminal charges against Chevron officials for November's oil spill off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state. Brazilian officials charge that Chevron acted irresponsibly at the Frade oil field in the Campos Basin formation. Up to 12 Chevron officials are expected to be indicted. The filing in federal court in Campos, Brazil, will likely include a request for criminal indictment of George Buck, chief executive of Chevron's Brazil unit, as well as other staff, officials told Reuters. Chevron also faces a $11 billion civil suit over the spill.

The Sudanese military said Jan. 30 that it had "liberated" 14 of the 29 Chinese road workers abducted by guerillas in in an attack on an encampment in the oil-rich border state of South Kordofan. But Chinese state news agency Xinhua quoted embassy officials in Khartoum as saying all the workers were still missing. There is also dispute as to the nature of the attack in which the workers were taken. A spokesman from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) rebels told the AFP news agency that the workers were captured together with nine Sudanese soldiers when fighters attacked a military convoy. Wang Zhiping, a senior executive of the Power Construction Corporation that employed the workers, told Xinhua the rebels had attacked the workers at their camp. Together, more than 70 road workers, Chinese and Sudanese, were taken. The Chinese firm is building a road into a remote area of the state, despite charges by human rights groups that the Sudanese government is using such infrastructure to rush in troops to crush a growing insurrection.

From AP, Jan. 29:

Florida highway pileup kills at least 10 people
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A long line of cars and trucks collided one after another early Sunday on a dark Florida highway so shrouded in haze and smoke that drivers were instantly blinded. At least 10 people were killed.