On Aug. 5 Mexico's Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) upheld a law enacted in the Federal District (DF, Mexico City) last December recognizing same-sex marriages. Eight of the 11 justices voted with the majority; two opposed the marriage equality law and one was absent for reasons of health.

Local police detained a national Honduran campesino leader, Juan Ramón Chinchilla, on Aug. 4 in Copán Ruinas in the western department of Copán and held him almost 21 hours without offering a legal justification. Police stopped Chinchilla at around 11:30 AM as he was returning with friends from a wake for a relative in a nearby community; the charge was apparently riding without a seatbelt. Chinchilla's friends paid a fine for the traffic violation, but police continued to hold the campesino leader on various pretexts, such as a supposed need to wait for a deputy commissioner. They finally released him at 8 AM on Aug. 5.

The Venezuelan Attorney General's Office announced on Aug. 2 that the Fourth Trial Court of the eastern state of Anzoátegui had handed down prison sentences to 15 police agents for the Jan. 29, 2009 shooting deaths of two unionists at the Mitsubishi Motors Corp (MMC) Automotriz auto factory in the Los Montones de Barcelona industrial park, located outside the city of Barcelona. Five agents were sentenced to 12 years and nine months for voluntary homicide in the killing of Pedro Jesús Suárez Poito, a plant employee, and Javier Marcano, who worked at the Macusa auto parts factory, and for injuries to Alexander García, a worker at the Barcelona plant. Ten agents received three-year prison terms for their involvement, and six were acquitted.

An Iranian court on Aug. 8 sentenced seven Baha'i leaders to 20-year prison terms on charges of espionage, propaganda activities against the Islamic order, and cooperation with Israel. All seven have denied the charges and have appealed the decision. The seven, all members of a national coordination committee for the Baha'i community in Iran, were arrested in 2008. Their arrest and subsequent trial prompted international criticism and calls for their release from the US government, UN rights bodies and governments worldwide. There are 300,000 Baha'i living in Iran, comprising Iran's largest non-Muslim minority. There are an estimated seven million members worldwide. The religion is considered heretical by the Iranian government, and the Baha'i have also faced legal restrictions on their activities in Egypt since the 1960s.

For the past two weeks, 17 political prisoners in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison have been on hunger strike to protest constant abuse; solitary confinement; lack of phone call rights and family visits; and lack of access to medical care, books and newspapers. One hunger striker, photojournalist Babak Bordbar, has been released. The remaining strikers include student activist Majid Tavakoli and human rights activist Koohyar Goodarzi. In addition to protests by the families of these prisoners, a group of political prisoners including Mansour Ossanloo of the Tehran Bus Workers Union and journalist Issa Saharkhiz have issued an open letter to urge an end their hunger strike. The letter states that "the democracy-seeking Green Movement needs capable forces and prolific youth like you to build a free Iran."

In two raids week, personnel of the Israel Lands Administration, backed up by a large police contingent, demolished the homes of some 300 residents in the "unrecognized" Bedouin village of al-Arakib in the Negev. Most of them—Israeli citizens, including many children—were left homeless. No assistance or compensation was offered by Israeli authorities. In the second police action Aug. 3, the entire village was bulldozed, with many of the residents' cattle, trees and belongings lost. Al-Arakib, which had about 40 homes, was one of 45 Bedouin villages not recognized by Israeli authorities.

On July 30, hundreds students from the University of El Salvador took to the streets, accompanied by professors, staff and other sectors of the social movement. The march, filled with street theater, papier-mâché tanks and a 20-foot gorilla, was a commemoration of the the military regime's massacre of student protesters that occurred on July 30, 1975.

In a decision with implications for the national sovereignty of member states under US trade pacts, a World Bank tribunal has approved a Canadian mining company's controversial lawsuit against the government of El Salvador. In 2009, Pacific Rim Mining filed the suit under the rules of the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), demanding hundreds of millions of dollars from the Salvadoran government, which rejected the Vancouver-based company's application for mining permits.