Alliance for Responsible Trade

On February 3, Vanessa Zepeda, a 29 year old nurse and SITRAIHASS union leader (Honduran Social Security Institute) left her home at 2pm. At approximately 6:30 pm, her lifeless body was dumped out of a vehicle in Loarque, a neighborhood well known for resistance movement activities.  Vanessa had received repeated death threats linked to her activism in the resistance movement which had been registered by human rights organizations. She was the mother of three children; the youngest is 4 months old.

Feb. 5, 2010 COFADEH

February 3, 2010 Fr. Joe Mulligan, a Nicaraguan-based priest is hoping that letters to President Obama and members of Congress can lead to more information being revealed about the fate of a fellow Irish-American Jesuit who disappeared in Honduras in1983.  Read his most recent article.

A well-done article about the necessity of rebuilding Haiti in the wake of the tragedy.  Fritz Gutwein of the Quixote Center is quoted.

January 13, 2010 - At 1:30pm, a military and police patrol captured three members of the Unified Peasant Movement of Aguan along the Aguan river. The men are members of the Buenos Amigos Cooperative in the municipality of Trujillo. According to farmers in the zone, there are approximately 1000 armed men, military and paramilitary, under the command of Coronel Dagoberto Melgar occupying the area. He is suspected of selling protection services to large African palm plantation owners in the region.

Movimiento Unificado Campesino del Aguan

The Boston Globe tells day one of the terrible story of the Haitian Earthquake through pictures.

We are continung to get updates on the extensive damage in Haiti and specifically Port au Prince.

A powerful 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti Tuesday afternoon around 5:00 p.m. The epicenter was just 10 miles west of Port au Prince, Haiti's most densely populated city. Initial reports indicate major damage to infrastructure including collapse of hospitals, schools and government buildings. Phone service is out in much of the country making communication, damage assessment and response efforts difficult.

Hundreds of small farmers from the "Agrarian Platform" blocked the border between Guatemala and Honduras since yesterday in protest of the elections in Honduras which they consider to be illegal. The farmers blocked all transport from crossing the border, creating long lines of vehicles waiting to cross and resulting in economic losses.  The blockade was lifted today.