Mexico City
Protests continue: Tens of thousands marched in Mexico City this week in the second mass protest since the July 1 election of Enrique Peña Nieto as president. Supporters of leftist challenger Andrés Manuel López Obrador say Peña Nieto won by bribing media and giving out nearly 2 million gift cards to voters. Peña Nieto’s PRI party says López Obrador is just a sore loser. After narrowly losing to Felipe Calderón in the 2006 election, López Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor, brought that city to near paralysis by leading continuous protests for more than a month. But he says he won’t do that this year and will work through the legal system. “Our adversaries would like us to fall into the trap of provocation and violence, but they are not going to get their wish,” he said.
La Gavina, Cuba
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Activist dies: Prominent Cuban activist Oswaldo Payá died this week in a car crash, and his family suspects foul play. Payá, 60, was the founder of the Varela Project, a nonviolent organization that has sought a referendum on granting freedom of speech and assembly. He and another dissident were killed when their rental car veered off the road and smashed into a tree. Payá’s son said two survivors in the car, a Swede and a Spaniard, told him the car was repeatedly rammed by a truck, which forced it off the road. At Payá’s funeral, dozens of leading dissidents were arrested as they emerged from Mass chanting anti-government slogans.
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Flap over abortion: The illness of a pregnant teenager has reignited controversy over the Dominican Republic’s total ban on abortion. The 16-year-old, identified only as “Esperanza,” suffers from acute, aggressive leukemia and needs immediate chemotherapy, but because the treatment could injure or kill her 9-week-old fetus, doctors have delayed for more than a week while they seek government permission. The Dominican constitution, adopted in 2010, does not allow abortion even to save a mother’s life. “Esperanza’s case will be repeated time after time until the laws that allow this kind of situation to arise are changed,” said the Dominican women’s-rights group Foro Feminista.
