by Julia Conley | May 20, 2026 | Article, Bolivia, Central America, labor, Politics and Movements: International, Reprint
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on May 19, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
A leader of Bolivia’s main labor federation, the Bolivian Workers’ Union, said late Monday that the country’s public prosecutor is “trying to silence” mass protests that have included Indigenous communities, miners, peasants, and teachers in recent days, as the government issued arrest warrants for labor and grassroots organizers.
TeleSUR reported that State Attorney General Roger Mariaca confirmed his office was charging Mario Argollo, executive secretary of the union, known in Spanish as Central Obrera Boliviana (COB), with public instigation to commit crimes and terrorism.
“They will not subdue us in the struggle we have undertaken,” Argollo said in a statement. “They are trying to silence us as leaders with popular actions and criminal charges.”
Drop Site News also reported that the public prosecutor issued an arrest order targeting Justino Apaza Callisaya, a leader of the Federation of Neighborhood Councils of La Paz (FEJUVE), “an influential grassroots organization tied to urban protest movements and labor mobilizations.”
BREAKING: New documents purport to show arrest and detention orders issued by Bolivia’s Public Prosecutor’s Office in La Paz against protest leaders and labor organizers connected to recent nationwide strikes and road blockades.It says prosecutors are investigating several… https://t.co/9lVZV3IL1R— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) May 19, 2026
The office is also reportedly investigating “several individuals” following COB’s declaration of a general strike on May 1.
“The accused are being investigated for extremely serious offenses including: public incitement to commit crimes, criminal association, terrorism, financing terrorism, attacks on transportation security, [and] attacks on public services,” reported Drop Site.
The mass mobilization has included dozens of road blockades across the country as the union and other groups have demanded
by Jon Queally | Apr 27, 2026 | Article, Central America, Latin America, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Prisons and Policing, Reprint, Trump, war on drugs
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on April 27, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
The murder spree being conducted by the US government under the direction of President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth climbed to an estimated 185 people on Sunday after the Pentagon announced another bombing of a boat it claims was trafficking illegal narcotics.
“On April 26, at the direction of SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations,” the US military stated in a social media post. “Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations. Three male narco-terrorists were killed during this action. No US military forces were harmed.”
While no specific evidence was provided publicly to back up the claims made by SOUTHCOM about Sunday’s strike, human rights experts and legal scholars have made clear for months that such lethal operations at sea—whether or not those targeted are in fact trafficking drugs—have no justification under international maritime law and that the extrajudicial killings should be seen for what they are: cold-blooded murder.
Footage released by SOUTHCOM showed the moment the vessel was attacked, and those aboard were killed:
On April 26, at the direction of #SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known… pic.twitter.com/br2znnUM1x— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) April 27, 2026
In a separate attack on April 24, also carried out by SOUTHCOM, two other individuals were murdered when their boat, filmed stationary in the
by Jonathan Ng | Mar 16, 2026 | Augusto Pinochet, Authoritarianism, cartels, Central America, chile, Cold War, disappearances, Dissent, Donald Trump, El Salvador, history, Honduras, Human Rights, ICE, immigration jails, Latin America, mexico, NAFTA, Nayib Bukele, News Analysis, Repression, Ronald Reagan
Josué Aguilar Valle, a Honduran national, recalls the “terrible” conditions at the migrant jails where U.S. immigration authorities imprisoned him last year. In La Salle County, Texas, Aguilar shared a frigid cell with 50 men, sleeping on the concrete floor. “I thought I was going to experience hypothermia,” he explained. Aguilar’s wife struggled to locate him…
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