The stabbing of a municipal secretary of the PRD in Villahermosa, the ambush and execution of a former mayor of Ahuacuotzingo, Guerrero, and journalists shot in Concepción and Amambay are just a few of the violent stories coming out of Mexico and Paraguay recently.

The director of the National Human Rights Institute (NHRI), Lorena Fries, presented the 2013 Annual Report on Human Rights detailing the progress and shortcomings in the use of force against the public and pointed to the main inadequacies of police in Chile. 

Almost 30 years ago, national attention was focused as nine heads of the last military dictatorship were put on the stand and judged for aberrant crimes.  Supreme Court Justice Ricardo Lorenzetti affirmed that the trials against the criminals of the dictatorship were not going to end when President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner steps down in

The Colombian government and the ELN guerrilla group announced the beginning of formal peace talks, while Colombia’s ombudsman praised the FARC’s acknowledgment of victims in peace talks. 

According to Salvadoran Attorney General Luis Martínez, prosecutors are investigating the Minister of National Defense, David Munguia Payes and other senior officials of the army for the smuggling of weapons and other arbitrary acts.  

Venezuelans are using tear gas canisters fired by the thousands on the streets of Caracas to create sculptures in a competition seeking an artistic outlet in this year’s anti-government unrest in Venezuela. 

The Salvadoran Ministry of Defense cannot find a key document, while the new government says it will make combating extortion a high priority. 

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.