Pope Francis received relatives of missing persons and victims of Operation Condor, a program started in Chile under former dictator Augusto Pinochet to repress political opposition throughout South America in the 1970s and 1980s. 

The Guatemalan legislature has resolved: in Guatemala there was no genocide. 

The levels of homicidal violence in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador are higher than in some countries experiencing armed conflict. 

Mexicans proclaim their rights to defend themselves amid chronic government inaction in the face of violence by organized crime. 

In Brazil, Guatemala, and El Salvador past dirty wars continue to reverberate, while in Colombia and Mexico they never actually ended.  Current practices of political violence (or the threat of its use) and torture show clear continuities with the past. 

Paramilitary groups and so-called “self-defense” groups are active in Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador (as well as other counties).  Some are community-based while others have clear ties to organized crime and regional elites. 

Many observers in Brazil and Argentina are pointing to the futility of the “war on drugs.” 

Many Colombians oppose the process with the FARC in Havana, and the candidate of former President Uribe’s Democratic Center (UDC) summarized their arguments very well; what are the reasons and how valid are they? 

In Central America the “criminal and terrorism nexuses are maturing.” 

Venezuela’s attorney general said Friday that prosecutors have received 145 complaints for human-rights violations by members of security forces during the last two months of anti-government protests.