Meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Jan. 24-29 for the 10th annual World Social Forum, 24 Latin American social organizations issued a statement denouncing what they called a "new, aggressive escalation of imperialism." The groups charged that there is an "expansion of the US military presence in the region" that "seeks, in addition to intimidating the political transformation processes in the region, to position [US] military force in strategic areas of great natural wealth."

On Feb. 3 several hundred Haitians marched in Pétionville, a generally well-to-do suburb southeast of Port-au-Prince, to protest what they said was corruption in the distribution of food to survivors of a Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated the capital and surrounding cities. The demonstrators said Pétionville mayor Claire Lydie Parent was illegally charging 150 gourdes (about $3.77) each for the coupons now being used to organize distribution of food. The protest began in front of the military academy on the Route de Frères and then moved to an encampment outside the mayor's office.

On Feb. 5 Puerto Rican independence activist Avelino González Claudio, a suspected leader of the rebel Popular Boricua Army (EPB)-Macheteros, pleaded guilty in US District Court in Hartford, Conn., to charges in the 1983 armed robbery of $7.1 million from a Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, one of the largest robberies in US history. González Claudio, arrested in Puerto Rico in 2008 after 22 years in hiding, was charged with conspiracy to commit robbery and transportation of stolen money out of the country, allegedly to finance Machetero activities. According to US intelligence, most of the money ended up in Cuba.

There continues to be a "systematic policy of violation of human rights, of violation of union rights" in Colombia, Alberto Vanegas, head of the Human Rights and Solidarity Department of the country's main labor federation, the Unitary Workers Central (CUT), charged on Feb. 4 at the start of a two-day conference in the northwestern city of Medellín in Antioquia department. According to the union movement, 40 union leaders and activists were killed in Colombia during 2009, a slight improvement over the 49 killed the year before. Vanegas told the Spanish wire service EFE that "60% of the trade unionists killed worldwide are Colombians."

A Colombian prosecutor called on the country's Vice President Francisco Santos to testify about allegations by an ex-paramilitary boss that he had collaborated with the now-demobilized United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). Santos was invited to voluntarily respond to accusations by demobilized warlord Salvatore Mancuso that Santos had known of the planning of a paramilitary group in the Colombian capital of Bogotá. The Prosecutor General's Office is currently investigating the accusations.

Colombian authorities say that three of 21 drug trafficking suspects arrested Feb. 8 are closely linked to Joaquin Guzmán AKA "El Chapo" (Sinaloa Cartel), Mexico's most wanted drug lord. The alleged drug traffickers—all wanted for extradition by the US—were arrested following "Operation Frontiers," a joint US-Colombian operation. The suspects allegedly oversaw air trafficking of Colombian cocaine, and some are professional pilots. They are believed to belong to trafficking organizations "Loco Barrera," "Los Mellizos" and "Los Rastrojos."

Iranian authorities have arrested seven for planning to provoke riots on Feb. 11, the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, including several in the employ of the US Central Intelligence Agency, according to a statement released Feb. 7 by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security. The seven detained were said to be linked to the US-funded Radio Farda, a Prague-based Persian language radio station that has been blocked by the Iranian government, and was described in the statement as a counter-revolutionary and Zionist satellite channel. According to Iranian authorities, the seven were trained in Dubai and Istanbul and played a key role in the anti-government protests held in Tehran last December, during the Shi'ite holy day of Ashura. According to authorities, they were to flee the country after Feb. 11. (Jurist, Feb. 7)

Russia's foreign ministry voiced its "concern" Feb. 5 at Romania's plans to host part of a new US "missile shield" system for Europe. "This is a serious matter," the ministry said in a statement, adding that Moscow will seek explanations from Washington and Europe. The statement came the day after Romania's President Traian Basescu announced his country has agreed to host medium-range ballistic missile interceptors as part of the US system, expected to be operational by 2015. The US State Department confirmed his announcement, saying the planned missile shield is intended to protect against the "emergent threat" from Iran.