Ethnic cleansing by degrees. From Ha'aretz, May 11:

Justice Ministry admits it covertly canceled residency status of 140,000 Palestinians
Israel has used a covert procedure to cancel the residency status of 140,000 West Bank Palestinians between 1967 and 1994, the Justice Ministry admits in a new document obtained by Haaretz. The document was written by the ministry's Judea and Samaria office after the Center for the Defense of the Individual filed a request under the Freedom of Information Law.

From Amnesty International, May 10:

Israeli authorities should release or charge a Palestinian writer and academic held for almost three weeks in the occupied West Bank, Amnesty International said today. The Israel Security Agency (ISA) say they want to keep Ahmad Qatamesh in detention in connection with allegations of involvement with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which he denies.

This year many of the traditional International Workers Day marches on May 1 focused on demands for wage increases and for fighting the high cost of living following recent jumps in food and fuel prices.

Following up on earlier efforts to highlight human rights abuses in Puerto Rico, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) hosted a high-publicity fact-finding delegation in San Juan on May 2 and 3. The group, which included ACLU executive director Anthony D. Romero, political scientist Angelo Falcón, actress/choreographer Rosie Perez and recently retired baseball player Carlos Delgado, interviewed University of Puerto Rico (UPR) students, UPR rector Ana Guadalupe, union leaders, journalists, police chief José Figueroa Sancha and others.

Quetzalcóatl Leija Herrera, the president of the Center of Studies and Projects for Integral Human Development (Ceprodehi) in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, was found dead in the early morning of May 4 near the main plaza in Chilpancingo, the state capital. According to the Forensic Medical Service, he was been badly beaten, especially on the head, and died of the injuries.

Tens of thousands of people participated in a silent "March for Peace With Justice and Dignity" in Mexico City on May 8 to call for an end to the US-backed militarization of Mexico's fight against drug trafficking. Protesters, most of them dressed in white, carried signs reading: "No more blood," "Justice," "Peace," "Let's stop the bullets," "Life isn't trash" and, above all, "We've had it up to here" (estamos hasta la madre). More than 35,000 Mexicans have died in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa sent troops into the streets soon after taking office in December 2006.

On May 3 a panel of four experts presented United Nations (UN) secretary general Ban Ki-moon with their report on the origin of the cholera epidemic that broke out in Haiti last October. As of April 21 the disease had caused 4,575 deaths, according to the Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP). Almost 300,000 people have contracted cholera, and the number is expected to rise as the rainy season starts.

The Native Federation of the Río Madre de Dios and Tributaries (FENAMAD) issued a statement protesting that the state company PeruPetro has demarcated three new oil exploration blocs in Peru's southern Amazon region of Madre de Dios. The new blocs—numbered 187, 190 and 191—are located in the provinces of Tahuamanu and Tambopata, and bring to 22 the number of new exploration blocs instated nationally under President Alan García. FENAMAD charges that the new blocs threaten the Manú Biosphere Reserve and the Vilcabamba-Amboró biological corridor—already under threat by the operations of Hunt Oil and Repsol YPF in Lot 76, established in the ancestral territory of the Harakmbut, Yine and Matziguenka indigenous peoples. Hunt and Repsol have concluded seismic exploration in the bloc, over the protests of traditional indigenous leaders of the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve, which overlaps with the exploration bloc. The Hunt-Repsol consortium is now about to drill eight test wells in the bloc. (FENAMAD, May 6)