More than 100 people claiming to be former members of the disbanded Armed Forces of Haiti (Fad'H) marched to Port-au-Prince from Carrefour, on the capital's southwestern outskirts, on May 18 to mark Haiti's Flag Day. They were wearing combat fatigues and some were armed. A few admitted to a reporter that they were too young to have been in the military in 1995 when it was disbanded by then-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1991-1996, 2001-2004); others were women, even though the Fad'H had been all male. The marchers were calling on the government of President Michel Martelly ("Sweet Micky") to restore the old military.

The body of Honduran journalist Angel Alfredo Villatoro Rivera, a reporter and news coordinator for the HRN radio chain, was found in Tegucigalpa on the evening of May 15, six days after he was kidnapped while driving to work. He had been shot twice in the head, according to Security Ministry spokesperson Héctor Iván Mejía; local media reported that the body was dressed in a police uniform. (EFE, May 15 via Univision)

Private and public university students sponsored a massive march in Mexico City on May 19 to protest media coverage of the July 1 presidential and legislative elections and the widely expected victory of former México state governor Enrique Peña Nieto, the presidential candidate of the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The marchers also rejected the candidate of the center-right National Action Party (PAN), Josefina Vázquez Mota, who shares second place in most polls with center-left candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Tens of thousands of Chilean students demanding education reform held their second large national demonstration of the 2012 school year on May 16, continuing a movement that shut down many of the country's secondary schools and universities with a strike last year. Protesters marched in Santiago, Valparaíso, Concepción, Copiapó and other cities; student leaders estimated the total turnout nationwide at about 100,000.

Petitioned by local leaders, Guatemala's President Otto Perez Molina lifted the state of siege May 18 on the remote Maya village of Santa Cruz Barillas, Huehuetenango, imposed there after disturbances that left one person dead on May 1. Residents are still demanding the release of 17 arrested in connection with the unrest. Authorities say a gang of some 200, armed with machetes and guns, overran a local army outpost—and charged that they were led by members of the notorious Mexican narco-paramilitary network, Los Zetas. Local residents, represented by the Maya Waqib Kej National Coordination and Convergence, say the group was protesting the killing of a local community leader that day, Andrés Francisco Miguel, a leading opponent of a hydroelectric dam planned for the area. Villagers believe he was killed by security guards working for Hidro Santa Cruz, the Spanish-backed company building the local hydro-dam, and that the killers were being protected in the army outpost. Perez Molina visited Santa Cruz Barillas in the aftermath of the confrontation, and said human rights would be respected but that he would not tolerate residents taking the law into their own hands. Hundreds of army and National Police troops have been mobilized to the village.

On May 24, the Federation of Ayllus of North Potosí announced that they will march on La Paz to demand the release of Cancio Rojas, the mallku (traditional chieftain) of Sacaca village (Ibañez province, Potosí department), who was arrested on charges related to angry protests over the local operations of the Mallku Khota Mining Company (CMMK), owned by Canada-based South American Silver. Village authorities say several residents were injured in a clash with National Police and private security personnel the previous day in the nearby municipality of Acasio (Bilbao province), where protesters attempted to occupy the mining camp. (See map.) CMMK—which hopes to exploit deposits of the rare element indium, used in semiconductors—says its own personnel were held against their will by the protesters. Rojas is being held in Santo Domingo de Cantumarca prison in Potosí, the regional capital. In a statement from his prison cell, Rojas charged, "They want to decapitate the indigenous movement to appropriate the water of the territory of Mallku Khota, this is the clear intention of the company, and they are extending strong influences" on the local officials.

The struggle against the planned Conga gold mine in Peru's northern region of Cajamarca continues to gain ground, with formation of a "Unitary Struggle Command for the Northern Macroregion and Oriente," coordinating popular movements in adjoining regions. A general strike throughout the Northern Macroregion (comprising the regions of Cajamarca, La Libertad, Lambayeque, Piura, Tumbes and Amazonas) and possibly beyond has been called for May 31. Local struggles are joining their demands to those of the mine opponents in Cajamarca. Farmers in the irrigation district (Usuarios de Riego) of the Valle Chancay in Lambayeque who oppose water-diversion projects that would benefit agribusiness have pledged their support for the strike, as have the rondas campesinas (peasant self-defense patrols) in Ayavaca, Piura region, who oppose the local operations of Río Blanco Copper.

A state of emergency has been declared in Espinar province of Peru's Cuzco region after a confrontation with National Police on May 29 left two campesinos dead amid an indefinite paro (civil strike), called to protest pollution caused by the mining operations of Xstrata Tintaya, local subsidiary of the Anglo-Swiss company Xstrata PLC. After protesters blocked roads with tree-trunks, police opened fire, killing two. Authorities say several police were also hurt. The state of emergency declared by Prime Minister Oscar Valdés suspends civil liberties for at least 30 days.