There were at least eight killings last year in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo León "that evidence indicates were the result of unlawful use of lethal force by army and navy officers," according to a Feb. 3 press release from the New York-based nonprofit Human Rights Watch (HRW). A recent fact-finding mission by the group to Nuevo León also "documented more than a dozen enforced disappearances in which the evidence points to the involvement of the army, navy, and police," HRW said.

Students protesting an $800 tuition surcharge imposed this year at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) marked the beginning of the spring semester on Feb. 7 with a two-hour march and rally at the school's Río Piedras campus in San Juan. Adriana Mulero, a spokesperson for the protesters' Student Representative Committee (CRE), called the demonstration a success, since "they didn't use brute force," referring to the large police presence at the campus.

Jean-Michel François, the son of exiled former Haitian police chief Joseph Michel François, was killed the night of Feb. 3 in the northern Honduran city of San Pedro Sula. The younger François, a law student, was thrown from a moving vehicle in front of his father's electronic appliance store in the Medina neighborhood; he died hours later at a nearby hospital. According to some sources he died of bullet wounds, while others say he was badly beaten and died from his injuries. No motive had been given as of Feb. 5.

A Haitian national with symptoms of cholera died in Haiti just two days after his Jan. 20 deportation from Florida by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. Wildrick Guerrier was one of 27 Haitians repatriated in ICE's first deportation of Haitian immigrants since an earthquake devastated southern Haiti in January 2010. Immigrant rights advocates had warned about the dangers of resuming deportations, especially after a cholera epidemic struck Haiti in mid-October. "This is death by deportation," Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (FIAC) executive director Cheryl Little said in a Jan. 31 press release.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez threatened to throw Coca-Cola out of the country if the company does not settle a pay dispute with striking workers. In comments broadcast on state TV Feb. 4, Chávez said his government would support the strikers in their "fight against capitalism." He added: "If Coca-Cola doesn't abide by the constitution and laws then we can live without Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola is not indispensable. Who said you need Coca-Cola to live? Sugar cane juice is really good, or guava juice—I just had one."

Since early December, hundreds of private contractors of multinational banana corporation Banacol have illegally invaded and occupied the lands of Afro-Colombian "peace communities" in the Curvaradó river basin of Chocó department, in order to clear the area for banana cultivation. The lands are part of a "humanitarian zone" declared by the local communities, where all armed actors in Colombia's civil conflict are unwelcome. Since the new wave of land invasions began, there has been a visible presence within this zone of right-wing paramilitary groups.

Egyptian security forces in Rafah, the Sinai peninsula town bordering the Gaza Strip, came under attack Feb. 7 by gunmen believed to be from the radical Islamist group Takfir Wal-Hijra. An officer and a civilian were injured in the two-hour clash, which began when militants fired rocket-propelled grenades at a military patrol. The Rmeilat Bedouin tribe reportedly joined with with the security forces to push back the militants.

Adherents of the Ecuadoran indigenous federation CONAIE rallied outside a Quito courthouse Feb. 7 to demand the release of three leaders of the Shuar people from the Amazonian province of Morona Santiago who were arrested last week in the September 2009 slaying of a local teacher in the region, Bosco Wizuma. One of the three, José Acacho, is charged with "terrorism" for inciting protests over La Voz de Arutam radio station which allegedly resulted in the killing. CONAIE leader Marlon Santi threatened protests that would "shake the country" if the men are not freed. The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadoran Amazon (CONFENAIE), a regional CONAIE affiliate, accused President Rafael Correa's government of "criminalizing protest," and called for the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to intercede in the case. (El Telégrafo, Quito, AFP, Feb. 7; AFP, Feb. 4)