Spanish judge Baltazar Garzón announced April 29 he has decided to initiate an investigation into torture allegations at Guantánamo Bay made by four former prisoners held at the facility. Garzón said he based his decision on statements from Hamed Abderrahman Ahmed, Lahcen Ikassrien, Jamiel Abdul Latiff Al Banna, and Omar Deghayes, who claim they were subject to various forms of physical and mental abuse during their imprisonment.

President Barack Obama reaffirmed April 29 his position that the controversial interrogation technique known as waterboarding amounts to torture and defended his decision to ban use of the technique. Speaking at a press conference marking his first 100 days in office, Obama again said that the US has "rejected the false choice between our security and our ideals by closing the detention center at Guantánamo Bay and banning torture without exception," affirming a statement from his inaugural address.

The Mexican military is failing to hold its members accountable for human rights abuses, according to a report released April 29 by Human Rights Watch (HRW). According to the report, the use of the military by President Felipe Calderón to combat drug cartels has resulted in human rights violations by soldiers, including killings, torture, rapes, and arbitrary detentions. The report states that these abuses have gone unpunished, with no convictions resulting from any investigations.

The mothers of three young women who were tortured, raped, and brutally murdered in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, in 2001 testified before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Santiago, Chile, this week. The families brought the case against Mexico on behalf of victims Claudia Ivette González, Esmeralda Herrera Monreal and Laura Berenice Ramos Monárrez, charging that the families of hundreds of murdered women and girls in Juárez have been denied their right to a trial. Mexico is also accused of violating the Inter-American Convention to Prevent, Sanction and Eradicate Violence Against Women (1994 Belem Convention). The case is known as "Campo Algodonero," for the outlying area where the three women were killed, along with several others. (El Diario, Juárez, April 30; Santiago Times, Chile, April 27)

Caracas has recalled its ambassador from Lima in response to Peru's decision to grant political asylum to wanted Venezuelan opposition leader Manuel Rosales. Rosales, who lost the 2006 Venezuelan presidential race to President Hugo Chávez, is accused of illegally enriching himself while governor of Zulia state. In an April 27 statement, Venezuela's foreign ministry charged that Peru's decision "constitutes a mockery of international law." (Press TV, Iran, April 28)

Bolivian authorities say the dismantling of a commando made up mainly of foreign mercenaries could lead to the people behind around a dozen different attacks carried out since 2006 in the city of Santa Cruz. Bolivian Vice President Álvaro García Linera said the attacks were aimed at destabilizing the government of Evo Morales and were to culminate in the assassination of the president. He said business leaders and landowners in the eastern province of Santa Cruz were financing the clandestine operations by the five alleged terrorists, three of whom were shot and killed by the police.

On April 14 Mexico's Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board (JFCA) declared illegal a strike that the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers and the Like of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMSRM) has led since July 30, 2007 over safety issues at Grupo México's giant copper mine at Cananea, in the northwestern state of Sonora. The JFCA ruling cleared the way for the company, owned by billionaire Germán Larrea, to proceed with plans to close the mine and fire all 1,200 workers; it announced the firings the next day.

In a ceremony in Managua on April 24, Nicaraguan National Police director Aminta Granera and US ambassador Robert Callahan signed an agreement making Nicaragua a member of the Mérida Initiative, a program the US government started in 2007 ostensibly to fight drug cartels and organized crime. Nicaragua is to receive $1.5 million in US aid to improve the sharing of fingerprint information among Central American countries, develop a special investigations unit and equip agents better, according to a statement from the US State Department.