News

Liberia: Militarization of fight against Ebola

The following report, published in the September-October 2014 NewsNotes, was written by Ezekiel Pajibo, who was an active member of the resistance movement against then-dictator Samuel Doe in Liberia in the 1980s; Pajibo was imprisoned for his work, landing him on the list of Amnesty International’s prisoners of conscience. He now lives in South Africa.

Assessing U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit

The first ever U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit, held August 4-6, has come and gone. Assessments of the Summit’s impact are now underway both in the United States and in Africa.

Japan: Fukushima clean-up challenges

Three years after the Fukushima disaster, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seeks to have his country’s decommissioned nuclear power plants restarted and made active again.

Migration: Where are Nicaraguan children?

A central cause of the recent dramatic increase in the number of unaccompanied children immigrating into the U.S. through its border with Mexico is the high level of crime and violence in the principal "sending countries" – Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador (collectively referred to as the Northern Triangle) and Mexico.

Migration crisis in U.S.

The following article was written by Eben Levey, who worked with the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns from September 2013 through August 2014.

Guatemala: Communities attempt to block dam

In mid-August, the Guatemalan government deployed over 1,500 police to Monte Olivo to evict 160 families of the community 9 de Febrero in order to allow the construction of the Santa Rita dam to go forward.

Brazil: Deforestation decreases

While unable to win the World Cup this year, Brazil has become the champion in another, more important area, becoming the country with the largest reductions in the rates of deforestation and carbon emissions.

Latin America united against Israeli attacks on Gaza

Latin American nations have had strong negative reactions to Israel’s Operation Protective Edge, the term used for its recent military operation against Hamas, threatening to set back Israeli-Latin America relations that had been growing in recent years.