On June 23 the Guatemalan government agreed to suspend operations at the Marlin gold mine in the western department of San Marcos, which is owned by Montana Exploradora de Guatemala, SA, a subsidiary of the Canadian mining company Goldcorp Inc. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR, or CIDH in Spanish), a Washington, DC-based agency of the Organization of American States (OAS), had ordered Guatemala on May 21 to carry out the suspension within 20 days; the IACHR was responding to a complaint filed by indigenous inhabitants of the communities of Sipacapa and San Miguel Ixtahuacán who say the mine has caused significant damage to residents' health and the local environment.

On June 20 the Unified Campesino Movement of the Aguán (MUCA) reported that Honduran soldiers from the Cobra Battalion, agents of the Preventive Police and private security guards from the Orión company had entered the Aurora estate in northern Honduras that morning and attacked campesinos who were encamped there. A teenage campesino whose name was given as Oscar Yovani Ramírez or Oscar Geovanny Ramírez died in the operation, and five other campesinos were detained, according to MUCA.

Some 85% of the gross profits from trafficking cocaine from South America to the US remain with US distribution networks, Antonio Luigi Mazzitelli, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) representative for Mexico and Central America, told the Spanish wire service EFE on June 26.

Mexican singer Sergio Vega AKA "El Shaka" was shot dead June 27—only hours after he had issued a statement denying reports that he had been murdered. Vega was on his way to a concert in Alhuey, Sinaloa, when gunmen opened fire on his red Cadillac as it passed through the pueblo of Barobampo. "It's happened to me for years now, someone tells a radio station or a newspaper I've been killed, or suffered an accident," Vega told entertainment website La Oreja hours before his death. (El Debate, Mazatlán, June 27; BBC News, CBS News, June 28)

A federal judge on June 26 ordered the release of Guantánamo Bay detainee Mohammed Odaini, who will now be transferred to his homeland of Yemen, despite the Obama administration's ban on repatriation to the Arab nation. In January, the administration suspended all transfers of Guantánamo detainees to Yemen citing security concerns. Judge Henry Kennedy Jr. of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the US government has illegally detained Odaini for the past eights years and ordered his release, forcing the administration to make an exception to the ban.

Two people were killed June 28 as Indian security forces fired on protesters at various places around the Kashmir Valley. Eight Kashmiri civilians have now been killed in incidents involving Indian security forces in less than three weeks. Local Muslim leaders have called a campaign of civil disobedience to demand repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which permits India's security forces in Kashmir to use force with wide latitude. (World Bulletin, Hindustan Times, NYT, June 28)

Somalia marked its 50th anniversary of independence from colonial rule June 26 with bullets on one end of the country and ballots on the other. In Mogadishu, the official capital in the south, the president of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, gave a hopeful but solemn address—even as violence continued in the city. On June 27, a Mogadishu market came under mortar bombardment as Shabab insurgents attacked TFG troops and African Union peacekeepers, leaving three dead and nine injured. Since the beginning of the year, 200,000 Somalis have fled Mogadishu. Many have sought refuge in the camps that ring the city, such as the Afgooye Corridor, home to the world's largest concentration of displaced people—more than 360,000.

A US drone fired two missiles at a guesthouse next to a home in Khushali Torikhel village in Mir Ali sub-division of North Waziristan, killing four suspected militants, including foreigners, Pakistani sources said. According to a count by Iran's Press TV, the US has launched 36 drone strikes in Pakistan since January, killing at least 390. (Hindustan Times, Press TV, June 26)