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[Translation of an article from the website Nicaragua y Más for May 7. See original here.]

by Giorgio Trucchi

Yesterday, May 6, marked the end of the business event “Honduras Is Open for Business,” in which some 1,500 businessmen from 55 countries met in the northern city of San Pedro Sula to examine 147 projects proposed by the Honduan regime. An investment surpassing 14 billion dollars is foreseen, too appetizing a dish to be distracted by the blood running in the streets and the plantations of the country.

During the two days of the entrepeneurial mega-event, which returned Honduras to the eyes of the world, the country experienced schizophrenia.

On one side, thousands of domestic and international entrepeneurs enclosed in an invisible bubble, working eagerly to divide up the country, listening attentively to the discourses of skilled communicators, and on the other, the people in resistance. (more…)

Poet Sicilia demands resignation of public security minister

[Translation of an article from La Jornada of Mexico City for May 8. See original here.]

By Alonso Urrutia

Mexico City – The March for Peace with Justice and Dignity ended in the Zócalo in the capital city with a call for a national agreement to, among other things: put an end to Felipe Calderón’s military strategy against organized crime; to do away with impunity in the justice system by means of a thorough reform in the administration of justice; to clarify the cases that have most troubled society; to fight against the institutional corruption fostered by the violence the country is faced with. (more…)

[Translation of an article from La Jornada of Mexico City for May 3. See original here, and related articles here and here. See an article on the UN resolution on extrajudicial executions here.]

By Gerardo Arreola

Havana, May 2 – Journalist Francisco Rodríguez Cruz, writer of a blog about his life as a homosexual in Cuba, believes that “in professional and ruling circles it is no longer politically correct to be homophobic.”

Within those red circles “homophobia has come to be incorrect, to be frowned upon,” Rodríguez tells La Jornada, describing a new phenomenon on the island.

But he points out that in the average population and in public institutions “there is still much resistance,” which keeps the government from moving forward in its policy of respect for sexual diversity, which it has promoted in recent years. “It is not a question they want to cause annoyance over.”

Just last October, Rodríguez stirred up an intense debate on Facebook by defending legal unions between persons of the same gender and by refuting the postion of the Catholic church.
(more…)

[Translation of an article from Diario Tiempo of San Pedro Sula for May 3. See original here and related articles here, here and here.]

Tegucigalpa – The ruling by the appeals court on charges against former President Manuel Zelaya yesterday provoked varying opinions in different sectors of society, some considering it disappointing and contradictory, others seeing it as a means of smoothing the way for the return of the former president, who was ousted in a coup d’état.

Groups that supported the overthrow of Zelaya on June 28, 2009, like the Unión Cívica Democrática (UCD), declared they never expected the court to “disappoint them so much” and claimed that the ruling favors impunity.
(more…)

[Translation of an article from ContraPunto for April 29. See original here.]

By Luis Armando González

San Salvador – The Right, represented by ARENA [Alianza Republicana Nacionalista], dominated the political life of El Salvador for 20 years. To break this domination — a domination constructed of interwoven economic, political and media components — the FMLN [Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional] had to be innovative in a political formula that allowed it to broaden its electoral base. (more…)

Former Tupamaro leader interviewd shortly after repeal of the Ley de Caducidad

[Translation of an article from El País of Madrid, Spain, for April 23. See original here and related article here.]

by Soledad Gallego-Díaz

The president of Uruguay, José “Pepe” Mujica, 76 years old, hosts El País at one of the most delicate points in his 13 months in office. The Senate, thanks to a vote by his coalition, the Frente Amplio, will repeal the Ley de Caducidad [“Expiry Law” or, to detractors, “Impunity Law”], on the books since 1986, which had allowed members of the military accused of committing atrocities during the dictatorship of 1973 to 1985 to avoid prosecution. It is known that Mujica, a former Tupamaro leader who was brutally tortured and who spent almost 15 years in prison, has not wanted to back the initiative personally and intends to keep his presidency outside the controversy. (more…)