In December, we noted the World Court ruling on the long-standing dispute over the San Andrés Islands in the Caribbean—held by Colombia but claimed by Nicaragua. The New York Times reports Feb. 1 on the emergence of an independence movement on San Andrés, in repudiation of both Colombian and Nicaraguan claims. Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe recently inaugurated a new hospital on the island unsubtly named "Amor de Patria" (Love of Fatherland), and sent 12,000 troops to march through the streets in last July's Colombian independence celebrations. But many Raizals, the English-speaking African descendants of the archipelago, are coming to support what the Times calls a "nonviolent separatist movement."

From the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Feb. 1:

On January 7, employees of Radio Cadena Mi Gente, a progressive radio station based in San Salvador, received death threats via telephone calls made to the station. Despite the assurance of Rodrigo Ávila, then-Director of the National Civilian Police (PNC), that he had “all intentions” of investigating the threats, no investigation has yet moved forward. Ávila made a similar commitment last year in response to the murder of Radio Cadena Mi Gente employee Salvador Sánchez. However, Sánchez’s murder remains unresolved.

Guatemalan human rights activist Amilcar Mendez and his wife, Miriam Dardon, began an open-ended hunger strike on Jan. 12 in Guatemala City to protest impunity for the 21,509 homicides that took place in the four-year administration of outgoing president Oscar Berger. One of the victims was the couple's son, José Emanuel "Pepe" Mendez Dardon, who was murdered on Aug. 17, 2007, on his way home from work in Guatemala City.

Wilber Funes

From the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Jan. 11:

FMLN mayor assassinated in Usulután
Wilber Moises Funes, mayor of Alegria, Usulután, was assassinated on January 9 while visiting community projects in the Las Casistas area of his municipality. A member of the FMLN opposition party, Funes was shot along with municipal staff member Zulma Rivera. Rivera was killed immediately, while Funes died in transit to a hospital in Santiago de Maria.

On Dec. 20 El Salvador's Legislative Assembly approved a request by President Antonio Saca to extend the presence of Salvadoran troops in Iraq until Dec. 31, 2008. This will give Saca the authority to send two more six-month rotations; Salvadoran soldiers have been part of the US-led occupation force in Iraq since August 2003. El Salvador, which has lost five soldiers, is the only Latin American country with troops in Iraq. The leftist Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN) opposed the extension, which was supported by Saca's Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA); 46 of the Assembly's 84 deputies voted for keeping troops in Iraq. (El Diario-La Prensa, NY, Dec. 22 from AP)

As part of a new partnership with Nicaragua's Sandinista President Daniel Ortega, Iran and Venezuela have announced a plan to help finance a $350 million deep-water port at Monkey Point on the country's remote Miskito Coast—envisioned as the first step towards a "Dry Canal" corridor of pipelines, rails and highways across the country to the Pacific port of Corinto. Iran recently established an embassy in Managua, and is boasting new cultural exchange programs in Nicaragua to encourage trade and investment. A Dec. 17 account from Iran's official news agency IRNA noted a visit to Managua by Ezzatollah Zarghami, president of Iranian state radio and television, who pledged to make programming available for local broadcast. However, the Iranian presence is being met with suspicion by the indigenous inhabitants of the Miskito Coast, who have always jealously guarded their local autonomy. From a Dec. 18 San Antonio Express-News account of a recent visit by an Iranian team to Monkey Point, arriving in Nicaraguan army helicopters:

Honduras officially joined Petrocaribe on Dec. 21 during the group's Fourth Summit, held in Cienfuegos, Cuba. The 16-member Petrocaribe is a mechanism for providing Venezuelan oil to other Caribbean countries at full price but on easy terms which include payment in goods and services rather than hard currency. Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who initiated Petrocaribe in June 2005, told the meeting that he hoped to broaden the group to become a "new Caribbean economic space, respecting those that already exist," a reference to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Most Petrocaribe nations are also part of CARICOM, which is seeking to become a common market for the region. The summit concluded with the opening of a refinery at Cienfuegos. (EFE, Dec. 21; La Jornada, Mexico, Dec. 23)

Panama's National Assembly Dec. 20 voted unanimously to declare the anniversary of the 1989 US invasion a day of "national mourning," and established a commission to determine how many people were killed in the episode. "This is a recognition of those who fell on Dec. 20 as a result of the cruel and unjust invasion by the most powerful army in the world," said Rep. Cesar Pardo of the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party. The measure, likely to be signed by President Martin Torrijos, also calls for a monument to honor the dead, most likely in El Chorrillo neighborhood, which was destroyed aerial bombardment.