In a surprise decision, US District Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso, TX, threw out all charges against right-wing Cuban militant and former CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles May 8, allowing him to go free days before he was set to be tried for immigration fraud. He is wanted in Cuba and Venezuela, where is accused in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people.

Veracruz state prosecutors have concluded that 73-year-old grandmother Ernestina Ascencio* wasn't raped or beaten by Mexican federal army soldiers but died of natural causes, spokesmen said at a news conference in the state capital, Xalapa. Juan Alatriste Gómez, a special prosecutor assigned to review the case, said there were no witnesses to the alleged crime and that an anal tear originally cited as evidence of an assault could have come from any number of "diverse reasons." State prosecutor Emetrio López, who filed the original charges against the soldiers, said he agreed with Alatriste's findings. The original investigators in the case have been suspended temporarily.

Eleven anti-Bush protetsers in the Yucatan city of Merida were released on bail of up to 20,000 pesos ($2,000) May 8. They had been arrested on charges of damaging the Municipal Palace and other violations during protests against George Bush's visit to the city on his Latin America tour March 13. The "altermundalistas" (other-worldists), as they have been dubbed by the Mexican press, signed a document dropping charges that they were tortured and maltreated before the Yucatan State Human Rights Commission as a condition of their release. Eight remain behind bars. (Diario de Yucatan, May 9; La Jornada, May 8)

Letter from Ignacio del Valle, La Palma federal prison, Mexico state, via Narco News, May 7:

Introduction: Brief Synopsis of the Struggles in Atenco
One year after the brutal police attack against the town of San Salvador Atenco in Mexico, sentences of 67 years were handed down to three leaders of the People’s Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT), Ignacio Del Valle, Felipe Alvarez, and Hector Galindo in retaliation for the town’s effective resistance to the expropriation of its lands for the purpose of building a regional airport.

While it is always bad news when journalists are detained or harassed, we are extremely skeptical that there is "slavery" in the Polisario Front's refugee camps—and about this report generally. From South Africa's News24, May 7:

SYDNEY — Two Australian journalists who were making a documentary on slavery in refugee camps in northwest Africa were briefly detained in Algeria by separatists, an official said on Monday.

From Amnesty International, May 8:

Arms transfers to Sudan fuel serious human rights violations
Arms, ammunition and related equipment are still being transferred to Darfur in the west of Sudan for military operations. Extremely serious violations and abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law are being committed by the Sudanese government, the government-backed Janjawid militias and armed opposition groups in these operations.

Argentine President Néstor Kirchner made a telephone call over the weekend to his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chávez, asking him not to nationalize Sidor, Venezuela's biggest steel mill. The head of Argentina's Techint Group, which owns Sidor, is ex­pected to fly to Caracas next week for urgent talks with Chávez.

Major General Rick Lynch, who commands US forces south of Baghdad, told reporters May 7 recent history indicates that it takes an average of nine years to put down internal insurgencies, and there is "no instantaneous solution" in Iraq. "You can't just build a government overnight," said Gen. Lynch. "I can't see significant advances in that sphere in the same timeframe. Bringing stability to Iraq could take years."