On Feb. 4, US District Judge Kenneth Marra in West Palm Beach, Fla., ruled that a lawsuit against banana giant Chiquita Brands brought by the families of North American missionaries kidnapped and killed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) will not be dismissed.

On Feb. 1, the White House solicited Congress for the allocation of $410 million to Mexico and Central America for fiscal year 2011, starting Oct. 1. The money would be used to support counternarcotics efforts under the Merida Initiative. Deputy Secretary of State Jacob Lew said in a press conference that Mexico would receive $310 million dollars and Central America the rest. "We are working very closely with the Mexican government," he said, while also emphasizing efforts to strengthen the rule of law and human rights. The Merida Initiative's limited human rights conditions have been a controversial aspect of the program.

Sharp debate over the direction of Mexico's narco war has broken out in the wake of twin massacres in northern Mexico last weekend. As the death toll from the narco violence punctures past records, some political leaders propose drastic responses that could curb civil liberties.

On Feb. 1, Gregoria Crisanta, an opponent of the local Marlin gold mine, was detained by police in San Miguel Ixtahuacán, San Marcos department, Guatemala. She was presented before a local magistrate, and arrest orders related to vandalism at the mine were apparently issued retroactively, a legal irregularity. As she was being transfered to San Marcos town, the regional capital, the police vehicle was stopped by a roadblock erected by the local populace, and Crisanta was liberated. There was no violence.

The International Trade Union Confederation and its affiliates within Guatemala's Indigenous and Rural Movement (MSICG) issued a statement strongly condemning the murder of Pedro Antonio García, a member of the Malacatán Municipal Workers Union, which is affiliated to the Confederation of Trade Union Unity of Guatemala (CUSG). The murder took place Jan. 29 as García was on his way home in Malacatán, San Marcos department. The assassination comes after Malacatán municipal workers, led by García, organized actions on Jan. 5 and 6 to demand the payment of salaries and other benefits owed to them from 2009. (ITUC, Adital, Feb. 2)

A Jan. 21 account from the pan-Latin American Matriz del Sur agency claiming that Somalia's pirates are seeking to send booty as aid to Haiti's earthquake victims has made an Internet splash, picked up by Venezuela's Aporrea and translated into English on Metamute. The report only uses the word "pirates" in quotes (prefaced with "so-called" on first reference), but the pirate leader who is quoted is not identified by name or organization. No alternative term for the pirates is offered.

Iraq's Ministry for Human Rights will file a lawsuit against the US and UK over their use of depleted uranium bombs, an Iraqi minister says. Iraq's Minister of Human Rights, Wijdan Mikhail Salim, told Assabah newspaper that the suit will be based on reports from the Iraqi ministries of science and the environment finding an increase in the number of babies born with defects in the countries' southern provinces. The US and UK are said to have dropped nearly 2,000 tons of depleted uranium bombs following the 2003 invasion. (Tehran Times, Feb. 2)

A jury in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York Feb. 3 convicted Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman with alleged ties to al-Qaeda, on charges of attempting to murder US personnel at the Afghan facility where she was being held. Prosecutors claimed that while in US custody in Afghanistan, Siddiqui lunged for and grabbed an unsecured M-4 rifle and opened fire on her captors. US personnel returned fire, injuring Siddiqui—who denies both handling the weapon and attacking the personnel. In addition to two counts of attempted murder, the jury found Siddiqui guilty of armed assault against US officers, and using and carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence. The jury found that the attempted murders were not premeditated. Neither Siddiqui nor her lawyers have announced whether they will appeal the verdict. Sentencing is scheduled for May. (Jurist, Feb. 4)