Daily Report
UN rights chief condemns Yemen violence, urges investigation
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Dec. 6 urged all sides in Yemen to cease ongoing deadly attacks and live up to previous commitments to investigate the serious human rights violations of its former government. Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), meanwhile condemned all Yemeni factions after claiming that as many as 22 people have been killed in the city of Taiz by shootings and shellings since Dec. 1, including two children. Despite tanks withdrawing from the city under a ceasefire pact to end violence that has consumed the country for nearly 10 months, witnesses and activists have claimed that forces loyal to former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh shot and killed a woman protester in Taiz just this week. Shamdasani added that the ongoing severity of the clashes between armed rebels and the Yemeni army warrant an immediate intervention by the OHCHR. She called on Yemeni government officials to allow a UN investigation as soon as possible. The Yemeni government has yet to issue a response.
Ciudad Juárez: femicide opponent wounded in assassination attempt
Norma Andrade, a leader of the organization Our Daughters Return Home and a critical voice demanding justice in the long string of "femicides" in Ciudad Juárez is stable condition after being shot twice Dec. 2, as she drove home from her job as a teacher in the violent Mexican border city. Five shots were fired altogether. Chihuahua state police said she was the apparent victim of a carjacking or robbery. But the Mexico office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement calling for authorities to take actions to protect human rights defenders in the country. (UN News Centre, Nov. 6; CNN, Dec. 6; El Paso Times, Dec. 3)
Honduras: another journalist assassinated
Honduran radio journalist Luz Marina Paz Villalobos and a driver identified as her cousin were killed Dec. 6 in a hail of bullets fired by men on two motorbikes as they sat in their car preparing to leave for work from her home in the San Francisco de Comayagüela district of Tegucigalpa. Paz, 38, hosted a morning program, "Three In The News," broadcast on the Honduran News Channel, where she often discussed politics and drug trafficking, and had been an outspoken critic of the 2009 coup d'etat.
Latin America: poverty down except in Mexico and Honduras
The UN Economic Comission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC, CEPAL in Spanish) released a report on Nov. 29 showing that the poverty rate in Latin America had dropped from 48.4% to 31.4% between 1990 and 2010, while the indigence rate fell from 22.6% to 12.3%. Despite the progress, 174 million people continue to live in poverty, and their situation is likely to worsen because of rising food costs, according to the UN commission, which is based in Chile.
Mexico: murdered activist blamed for own murder
Unknown assailants gunned down Mexican activist Nepomuceno Moreno Núñez on a street in Hermosillo, the capital of the northern state of Sonora, on Nov. 28. Moreno Núñez had been working with the Movement for Peace With Justice and Dignity (MPJD), which was founded by the poet Javier Sicilia this year to oppose the militarized "war on drugs" that has killed as many as 50,000 Mexican since late 2006.
Chile: judge indicts US officer in 1973 killings
Chilean judge Jorge Zepeda issued an indictment on Nov. 29 charging former US Navy Capt. Ray E. Davis with involvement in the murders of two US citizens, journalist Charles Horman and graduate student Frank Teruggi, in the days after the Sept. 11, 1973 military coup that overthrew President Salvador Allende Gossens. Judge Zepeda asked the Chilean Supreme Court to authorize a request for Davis' extradition from the US. The judge also indicted retired Chilean army Brigadier Pedro Espinoza Bravo, who is already in prison for several other crimes.
Haiti: pressure grows for reinstating fired unionists
The Montreal-based apparel firm Gildan Activewear Inc. has asked its Haitian subcontractor, Genesis S.A., to reinstate four unionized workers that the plant's managers fired in the last week of September, Gildan senior vice president Peter Iliopoulos told the Montreal Gazette on Nov. 29. The company has "requested the reinstatement of the employees with full back pay dating back to the date of dismissal and also recognition of full seniority for these individuals as though they had never left the company or factory," Iliopoulos said. Another major North American apparel firm, North Carolina-based Hanesbrands Inc., has taken similar action with its subcontractor in Haiti, Multiwear SA, which fired Hilaire Jean-Jacques, a member of the same union, on Sept. 30.
Costa Rica: Supreme Court rules against gold mine
In a major victory for Costa Rica's environmental movement, on Nov. 30 the First Chamber of the country's Supreme Court upheld a lower court's November 2010 decision canceling a concession for an open-pit gold mine in Crucitas de San Carlos near the Nicaraguan border. The Supreme Court's ruling also nullified Environment and Energy Ministry executive decree 34801, with which former president Oscar Arias Sánchez (1986-1990 and 2006-2010) had declared the mine, owned by the Canadian company Infinito Gold Ltd., a matter of "national interest." The court told the Public Ministry to "start an investigation to determine whether it is proper to pursue a criminal case against" Arias, former vice president Roberto Dobles Mora and six other former officials.

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