Retired Dominican general Pedro Julio ("Pepe") Goico Guerrero has been heading a plot to destabilize the administration of Haitian president Michel Martelly ("Sweet Micky"), Dominican president Leonel Fernández's information secretary, Rafael Núñez, announced at a Santo Domingo press conference late on April 12. The alleged plot also involves a Haitian citizen, Pierre Kanzki, according to Núñez, who was accompanied by Dominican foreign affairs minister Carlos Morales Troncoso, Haitian justice minister Michel Brunache, Dominican attorney general Radhamés Jiménez, and ambassadors Fritz Cineas (Haiti) and Rubén Silie (Dominican Republic). Returning to Haiti on April 13, Justice Minister Brunache announced that his department was investigating Kanzki; he didn't mention any criminal charges against either of the two men named in the alleged plot. (AlterPresse, AlterPresse, AlterPresse, Haiti, April 13)

Imprisoned former Argentine dictator Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla has admitted for the first time that the military disappeared—detained and killed—thousands of people and sometimes abducted the victims' children during its 1976-1983 "dirty war" against leftists and dissidents. The killings "were the price that regrettably Argentina had to pay to go on being a republic," Videla said in one of several interviews journalist Ceferino Reato held with him from October 2011 to March 2012 in the Campo de Mayo prison. Now 86, the former dictator was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2010 for crimes against humanity. Human rights groups estimate that the military disappeared some 30,000 people in the violence and turned over several hundred of their children to foster parents.

The Taliban launched coordinated attacks in the Afghan capital and three other provinces on April 15. In Kabul, the Taliban targeted seven different locations in the Wazir Akbar Khan diplomatic enclave, seizing control of several buildings under construction and opening fire on the US, German, Russian, and British embassies, the Afghan parliament, the Kabul Military Training Center, and other sites. Gunfire and at least 10 explosions were heard in locations throughout the capital. Two people were reported killed and fighting is said to be ongoing. In Jalalabad, Nangarhar province, a suicide assault on the airstrip left several wounded. Attacks were also reported in the provincial capitals of Paktia and Logar. (Long War Journal, AFP, April 15) Hours earlier, Pakistani Taliban militants launched a nighttime assault on the prison at Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, freeing nearly 400—including what the Taliban Movement of Pakistan called "special members" in a statement. (Long War Journal, April 15)

Six days after they were abducted by apparent Shining Path guerillas, hostage Camisea Consortium workers were freed in the rainforest of Peru's Cuzco region April 14, allowing President Ollanta Humala to boast of a "flawless victory" upon his arrival that day at the Sixth Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia—but accounts were typically sketchy and contradictory on exactly how the captives were released. The Defense Ministry said the guerillas let the workers go before dawn after they were encircled by some 1,500 police and army troops, and tried to flee. The Ministry's account said there had been a clash, in which one National Police officer was killed. But press reports said the kidnapped workers walked seven hours through the jungle to the village of Chuanquiri, where they were transferred by bus to Kiteni, another village which was being used as a staging area by security forces. There, some freed hostages disputed the official story, with one telling Peru's Canal N TV: "We were freed voluntarily. Be careful with the press and armed forces saying that we have been rescued."

Much of Peru's northern Andean region of Cajamarca was shut down in a 24-hour civil strike or paro April 11, the latest action in the campaign against the US-owned Conga gold-mining project. Organizers claimed participation in all 13 of Cajamarca's provinces. Public transport and most commercial activity came to a halt in Cajamarca city as protesters held a mass meeting in the Plaza de Armas, or central square. Hundreds of campesinos from the outlying provinces of Celendín and Bambamarca marched on the city, and students occupied the campus of the National University of Cajamarca. Campesinos in Jaén province, organized by a local ronda (peasant self-defense patrol), erected barricades of rocks and tree-trunks on the road through their territory, blocking traffic for hours. No violence was reported, despite a huge presence of National Police and army troops in the region, and threats from authorities in Lima. "What we aren’t going to allow are acts of violence that threaten the freedom of transit for other Peruvians who are not participating in the demonstration," cabinet chief Oscar Valdés told RPP radio network on the eve of the strike.

The Supreme Court of the Netherlands ruled April 13 that the relatives of Bosnian men killed by Serb forces in 1995 cannot sue the UN for failing to protect them during the massacres. The ruling essentially held that the UN is immune from prosecution in Dutch courts. The group bringing the lawsuit, known as the Mothers of Srebrenica, are claiming that the UN is liable for their failure to protect civilians during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. The UN is claiming that it is immune, citing Article 2 Section 2 of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the UN, which says that the UN "shall enjoy immunity from every form of legal process except it has expressly waived its immunity." Both a District Court at The Hague and the Supreme Court agreed with the UN, but the Mothers of Srebrenica have said they plan to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

A group of 40 women of the Innu indigenous nation in northern Quebec have launched a 900-kilometer cross-country march on Montreal to protest the provincial government's Plan Nord, a multibillion-dollar mega-project that would open the north to mining and energy companies. The group, originally made up 14 women, left Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam near Sept-Îles nearly two weeks ago. They plan to reach Montreal on April 22, Earth Day, to join planned protests against the Plan Nord. The march was launched after a protest blockade of a road running through the Uashaunnuat Innu reserve was broken up after five days by provincial police on March 9.

A civilian transition president—Dioncounda Traore, leader of the national assembly—was sworn in April 13 in Mali, under a deal brokered by West African powers with leaders of the last month's coup d'etat. At his inauguration, he told cheering crowds he he would "never negotiate about the partition of Mali." Refering to the rebels that have seized power in the north, he said: "We won't hesitate to wage a total, relentless war to regain our territorial integrity and also to kick out of our country all these invaders who bring despair and misery." (AP, April 13) Ironically, his accusations of an "invasion" came just as a foreign military intervention is being organized to beat back the northern rebels. In Paris, President Nicolas Sarkozy talked as if France were in charge of the operation: "We have to work with the Tuaregs to see how they can have a minimum of autonomy and we must do everything to prevent the establishment of a terrorist or Islamic state in the heart of the Sahel," he said on TV. Asked if France will be involved in the intervention, he said: "I don't think it’s up to France to do it. France is ready to help, but we cannot be the leader..." (Reuters, April 14)