Campesino leader Secundino Ruiz was shot dead as he was leaving a bank in Tocoa in the northern Honduran department of Colón on Aug. 20. Ruiz was president of the San Isidro Cooperative, part of the Authentic Claimant Movement of Aguán Campesinos (MARCA), and he had just withdrawn 195,000 lempiras (about $10,260) to pay MARCA workers; because of the money, police attributed the killing to common criminals. Eliseo Pavón, the treasurer of the cooperative, was wounded, according to Julio Espinal, the commander of a police contingent sent to the area earlier in the week. (FoodFirst Information and Action Network, FIAN, Aug. 20, via Vos el Soberano, Honduras; Prensa Latina, Aug. 21)

About a thousand Honduran secondary students, along with parents and teachers, protested in and around Tegucigalpa on Aug. 15 against a proposed law that they said would lead to the privatization of much of the school system. In the village of Germania, south of the capital, the protesters blocked cars trying to use a major highway leading to El Salvador and Nicaragua. There was a confrontation with the police at another site, the Avenida de las Fuerzas Armada in the east of the city; agents hurled tear gas grenades and arrested some 20 students, although the students were apparently released later. Police blocked a protest near the presidential palace, where President Porfirio ("Pepe") Lobo Sosa was meeting with teachers' representatives about the proposed law.

On Aug. 7, nine former Salvadoran military officials accused in the 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests, including ex-defense minister Rafael Humberto Larios and air force Gen. Rafael Bustillo, were handed over to a criminal court in El Salvador after a Spanish court issued international arrest warrants. The Salvadoran government said in a statement that the men, among 20 ex-soldiers indicted by a Spanish judge in May, were in the custody of a civilian court that handles extradition cases. The suspects turned themselves in at a military installation, as Salvadoran police were preparing to arrest them on an extradition order from Interpol. A tenth suspect, former army chief of staff Rene Emilio Ponce, died in May, before the indictments were issued.

On Aug. 2 Honduran president Porfirio ("Pepe") Lobo Sosa announced that Honduras plans to support an effort by the Palestinian Authority to win recognition for Palestine as a state during the United Nations General Assembly meeting in September. Israeli officials reacted immediately. On Aug. 3 the ambassador to Honduras, Eliahu López, called the statement "a dagger wound in the heart of Israel." In Jerusalem the Foreign Ministry called in Honduran ambassador José Isaías Barahona to express "surprise" and "disappointment." According to the Jerusalem Post, Deputy Director General for Latin America Dorit Shavit "reminded the ambassador that Israel stood by Honduras two years ago when it went through a constitutional crisis that led to widespread worldwide condemnation"—apparently a reference to the June 2009 military coup that overthrew former president José Manuel ("Mel") Zelaya Rosales (2006-2009). [Israel was apparently one of the few countries to recognize the de facto regime after the coup.]

A Guatemalan court on Aug. 2 convicted and sentenced four former soldiers to 6,060 years in prison each on war crimes charges related to the 1982 Dos Erres massacre. Carlos Antonio Carias, Manuel Pop, Reyes Collin and Daniel Martínez were convicted of crimes against humanity for being members of a military force that killed more than 250 people in the village of Dos Erres during the 36-year Guatemalan civil war, though the men were ultimately held accountable for only 201 deaths. Three of the men were members of a special forces unit known as the Kaibiles, which is alleged to have played a role in the massacre. The military force was attempting to put down insurgents during Guatemala's military rule under Gen. Efrain Rios Montt. The men pleaded not guilty to the war crimes charges at the start of the trial last week, arguing that they were not stationed with the group that carried out the atrocities at Dos Erres. Twenty-three witnesses, including former military officials and survivors, testified at trial.

The US Coast Guard announced the interception of a so-called "narco submarine," while in a joint patrol of Caribbean waters with the Honduran armed forces. On July 13, the crew of the Coast Guard cutter Seneca interdicted the craft, called a self-propelled semi-submersible or SPSS, off the coast of Honduras near the Nicaraguan border. The Coast Guard says the vessel sank during the interdiction, but that nearly 7.5 tons of cocaine was later recovered. Four crew members—three Colombians and a Honduran—were detained and brought by the Coast Guard to Miami to face federal charges. (La Tribuna, El Heraldo, Tegucigalpa, Aug. 2; CBS Miami, Aug. 1; Notimex, July 30)

The labor and human rights of women workers are being violated at two factories in northern Honduras owned by the US clothing firm Delta Apparel, Inc., according to a July 25 statement by the Honduran Women's Collective (CODEMUH). Workers at Delta Apparel Honduras and Delta Apparel Cortés, maquiladoras (tax-exempt assembly plants producing for export) in Cortés department, say management uses harassment, reprisals and threats of firing to get employees to meet excessively high production quotas. Some workers reportedly suffer muscle or bone injuries because of long hours in uncomfortable positions; they say that when they are reassigned due to the injuries, they are called "the sick ones" and "the Barbies."

Four former Guatemalan soldiers pleaded not guilty July 26 as the first war crimes trial over the 1982 Dos Erres massacre opened in the Central American nation's capital. Carlos Antonio Carias, Manuel Pop, Reyes Collin and Daniel Martínez are accused of being members of a military force that allegedly killed more than 250 people in the village of Dos Erres in 1982 during the country's 36-year civil war. Three of the men were members of a special forces unit known as the Kaibiles, at least part of which is alleged to have played a role in the massacre. The military force was attempting to rout out insurgents during Guatemala's military rule under Gen. Efrain Rios Montt. The four men pleaded not guilty arguing that they were not stationed with the group that carried out the atrocities at Dos Erres. They are accused of killing 201 farmers. There are also allegations that many women and girls in Dos Erres were raped and killed during the massacre. The Guatemalan civil war resulted in more than 200,000 deaths, mostly among Guatemala's large indigenous Mayan population. According to a UN report released in 1999, the military was responsible for 95 percent of those deaths.