Dawson Creek, British Columbia
Pipeline bombings: The mayor of a Canadian town is appealing for information about a string of bombings of natural gas pipelines. “You hate to say it’s just a matter of time before someone gets hurt, but truly it is,” said Dawson Creek Mayor Mike Bernier. Since last October, there have been six bomb attacks on pipelines owned by EnCana, and the gas company received an anonymous letter warning it to stop the “crazy expansion of deadly gas wells in our homeland.” Bernier said the police have no idea who is responsible. “We need anybody who has heard anything to come forward,” he said.
Mexico City
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Opposition surges: The opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party made huge gains in Mexico’s midterm elections this week. The leftist PRI, which ruled Mexico for 70 years until 2000, took five of the six governorships at stake as well as large pluralities in both houses of Congress. The results came as a blow to President Felipe Calderón, whose conservative National Action Party is now in the minority. If the PRI forms an alliance with smaller parties, it could block Calderón’s efforts at economic reform even as Mexico faces its worst financial crisis in decades as well as mounting carnage from the war on drug cartels.
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Deposed president turned away: Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is appealing to the U.S. to help restore him to power after he was prevented from re-entering his country. Zelaya, who was deposed in a nonviolent coup last week and hustled off to Costa Rica, tried to return this week only to be turned away by military troops at the airport. President Obama said that Zelaya, a leftist allied with Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, was an elected leader and should serve out his term. “We respect the universal principle that people should choose their own leaders, whether they are leaders we agree with or not,” Obama said. Zelaya flew to Washington to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. U.S. officials said they are trying to negotiate a deal so that Zelaya could serve his remaining six months in office with limited powers and would drop his attempt to change the constitution to allow him a second term.
Bogota, Colombia
Generals stand accused: Dozens of high-ranking Colombian officers, including generals close to the president, are closely tied to far-right death squads, a former militia leader has charged. A Colombian radio station made public a leaked government document of the testimony of Salvatore Mancuso, a former top leader of the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, who is now in jail in the U.S. awaiting trial for drug trafficking. Mancuso identified 31 officers who worked with his group and, he said, condoned or directly participated in massacres of peasants suspected of leftist sympathies. Two of those named are former close aides of President Álvaro Uribe, who had no immediate comment.
