Thirty years ago, today, on March 23, 1982, Guatemalan general Efraín Ríos Montt overthrew President Romeo Lucas García. The new military junta suspended the Constitution, closed the legislature, and installed one of the bloodiest military regimes in Guatemalan history. Three decades later, for the first issue of our 45th anniversary volume, we look to the legacies of war in Central America.
On November 17, the two-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, occupiers and supporters took to the streets of New York City for a day of action. 30,000 marched from Foley Square over the Brooklyn Bridge. Among those in the crowd were unions, teachers, students, immigrants, youth, and older activists—united in support for Occupy Wall Street.
On Tuesday, the UN General Assembly again voted overwhelming to condemn the U.S. embargo of Cuba. As international relations scholar Arturo López-Levy points out in the latest NACLA Report, the embargo itself violates basic principles of the human rights model established by the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
On July 20, a caravan of over 100 people crossed the U.S.-Mexican border, carrying 100 tons of humanitarian aid on its way to Cuba. This is the 22nd aid caravan to Cuba organized by the interreligious organization Pastors for Peace, which brings humanitarian aid to Cuba each year in defiance of the U.S. economic embargo and travel ban.