Recent decisions by El Salvador's President Mauricio Funes both both pleased and upset many in the Central American nation. The recognition of the Palestinian state in late August won support from many members of the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) and social movements who supported Funes in his 2009 campaign. The FMLN has maintained a long-time position of solidarity with the Palestinian people against Israeli occupation but this is the first time that the government of El Salvador will have diplomatic relations with the Palestinian government. While the Israeli embassy expressed “regret” over the decision, Funes emphasized that many countries in the world enjoy friendly relations with both Palestine and Israel and reiterated El Salvador’s support for Israel’s existence within internationally recognized and secure borders. The UN vote on Palestinian statehood is expected to happen later this month, and several Latin American nations have already formally recognized Palestine.

On Sept. 12, members of the Colombian National Police began training Salvadoran, Mexican, Honduran and Guatemalan police and attorneys general at the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in El Salvador. According to the Colombian embassy in El Salvador, this week-long course specializing in anti-kidnapping and anti-extortion is meant to "share experiences among experts in the region." While extortion is recognized as a one of the principal crimes affecting the population in El Salvador and throughout Central America, critics have raised concern about the increasing role of Colombian police and military in Mexican and Central American policing, pointing to the abysmal human rights record of Colombian law enforcement, as well as the active role of the US State Department in facilitating and funding this collaboration through such institutions as the ILEA.

We recently noted China's aggressive embrace of the pathological, dystopian car culture first pioneered by the West. Now comes another sign of this cultural retrogression. From RTTNews, Sept. 16:

China Detains General's Teenage Son Over Road Rage Incident
The teenage son of a famous Chinese army general has been detained and sent to a government correctional facility for one year in connection with a road rage incident which sparked outrage across the country, state media reported Friday.

Two half-naked mutilated bodies left hanging from a bridge in the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, were accompanied by "narco-messages" scrawled on cardboard saying the killings were an example of what will happen to "Internet snitches" (relajes del internet). The message was signed "Z," an apparent reference to Los Zetas. The threat was evidently directed against Blog del Narco, which runs graphic accounts and video clips of cartel war casualties, and Frontera al Rojo Vivo, a forum set up by Monterrey newspaper El Norte. Websites have taken up the slack as Mexico's "official" media have stopped aggressive coverage of the cartel wars in response to relentless threats and attacks against journalists. (NPR's The Two-Way blog, Houston Chronicle, Sept. 15; AFP, SDPnoticias, Sept. 14)

As fighting continues in Sirte, David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy toured Tripoli to cheering crowds and triumphalist headlines ("David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy given heroes' welcomes in Libya"—UK Metro). They pledged to continue NATO bombardment, even as Cameron assured: "This was your revolution, not our revolution." (Read: "This is our revolution." We're reminded of similar British assurances not quite 10 years ago when Afghanistan was invaded—which remains NATO-occupied today.) The New York Times acknowledged some "awkward" contradictions in the junket:

Tunisia announced its intention Sept. 14 to plead for the return of its remaining citizens being held at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility. A Justice Ministry representative, speaking at a conference in Tunis, called for the repatriation of the five Tunisian detainees still being held at the prison and indicated the nation's intention to send a mission to the US to achieve their release. The conference was organized by Reprieve, a British humanitarian and legal action group that seeks to enforce human rights and due process for prisoners worldwide.

In two separate trials, courts in Xinjiang province sentenced to death four members of China's Uighur minority in connection with violent incidents in Hotan and Kashgar in July that left around 40 dead. Two others were ordered imprisoned for 19 years, with a five year suspension of their political rights. The Chinese-language Xinjiang Legal Daily said in a report on the Tianshan.net news portal that the defendants were convicted of "forming and participating in a terrorist organization, the illegal manufacture of explosives, premeditated homicide, arson, and several other related crimes." (Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey, RTTNews, WUC, Sept. 15)

On Sept. 14, Yves Cabannes, UN advisor on forced evictions, visited the contested Dale Farm site at Basildon in England's Essex county, where a community of "Travellers" and Roma face imminent removal. Cabannes charged that the Basildon council and British government are "violating international human rights law on three points. These are the right to adequate housing, the right to be defended from forced eviction and discrimination." To howls of protest from Britain's conservative press (notably the Daily Mail), he drew a comparison to recent forced evictions in Nigeria, in Zimbabwe, and in China. The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Gypsies, Roma and Travellers has also issued an urgent appeal to local authorities and Prime Minister David Cameron to put off the evictions, saying a postponement would allow for "the brokerage of a solution which we believe is achievable."