Haiti: A devastating 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti on 1/12/10 – the first large earthquake in 240 years. On Day 3 Cuba had 30 medical doctors there (plus 400 who already were working there) and had opened a field hospital at the site of the one destroyed in Port au Prince (David Lindorff, 1/5 Common Dreams). On 1/15 Janet Napolitano, Director of Homeland Security, announced Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian refugees.

Venezuela: (a) On 1/9 the Cuban newspaper “GRANMA” reported that the National Institute of Statistics finds poverty down 3/3% this year. Daily lunches are provided to 4 million children. (b) The Counsel General, Jorge Velos, announced the donation of 4,000 energy-efficient light bulbs to the people of Jackson, Mississippi. (c) President Chavez has announced that 225,000 barrels of oil have been sent to devastated Haiti; anad that all the gasoline and diesel fuel that they need will be sent.

El Salvador: After years of struggle, the Oscar Romero University in El Salvador is going through a rebirth. The new government of Mauricio Funes has taken a courageous stand to support a new, independent university administration - one committed to Romero's vision of the preferential option for the poor (1/23, Peace International, peace.int@verizon.net).

United States: On 1/25 federal trials begin for four human rights advocates arrested for nonviolent civil disobedience in carrying the 11/19-21 protest against the School of the Americas/ Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation onto the Fort Benning military base in Georgia. Each defendant faces up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine. Their demand:  A change in U.S.-Latin America foreign policy and the closure of the School of the Americas (SOA/WHINSEC).

Mexico: (a) Ciudad Juarez, city of femicides, documented 2700 killings in 2009 and is called the world’s most violent city. (b) The Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras” (CJM) is 20 years old.

Bolivia: The Obama administration cancelled Bolivia’s trade preferences after Bolivia expelled our Drug Enforcement Administration and some USAID staff for “spying and plotting with the oligarchy.” Growth in GDP will be the highest in Latin America.

El Salvador: (a) Recently declassified US intelligence documents, handed over to the Spanish courts, show that the US State Department, the CIA and Spanish intelligence knew in advance of the 1989 assassination of the Jesuit priests (Cuba News GRANMA). (b) CRISPAZ (Christians for Peace in El Salvador) is 25 years old.

Colombia: Congratulations to Peace Brigades International for 15 years of courageous accompaniment. .