Frontline Club bloggers
Is this the end of the FARC?
Bogotá based Frontline blogger Anastassia picks up the story of the recent escape of French/Colombian kidnap victim Ingrid Betancourt and 14 others, There are still political hostages being held by the Farc (including 27 policemen and 3 politicians). Some families fear that the guerrillas will carry out reprisals against their family members held in jungle […]
24th Marine Expeditionary Unit in Afghanistan
If you want to follow the efforts of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit against the Taliban in Garmsir, Helmand province, there’s various places you can do it. There are a couple of embedded journalists reporting on the activities of the 24th MEU: Michael Phillips for the Wall Street Journal and Daily News Reporter, Jennifer Hlad. […]
Death in Mogadishu
The standard intro to stories about Somalia recently has involved a lot of looking into the abyss, standing on the brink and generally teetering close to catastrophe. Today there’s no way of looking at things without concluding that the crampons of survival – or whatever it was that was going to keep Somalia together – […]
Lucha Libre comes to London
For those of my readers in London, this is for you. If you’ve enjoyed the coverage you’ve seen here on the Lucha Libre over the last year, now’s your chance to see the real thing in the flesh because the Lucha Libre is coming to London this weekend, and this weekend only! Lucha Libre London […]
John McCain’s great timing
John McCain, the presumptive U.S Republican presidential candidate, couldn’t have timed his trip to Latin America better. Not only does he fly into Colombia a day before 6-year hostage of the FARC Ingrid Betancourt is liberated, he then rides into Mexico City this morning days after the Merida Initiative gets approved in El Norte. Some […]
Justice or Peace in Darfur?
A UN-AU hybrid patrol sets off for Siliea in West Darfur. The helmets have been painted blue but no-one has got around to removing the old Amis logo The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, set the cat among the pigeons last month by accusing the entire Khartoum government of committing war crimes in […]
Those left behind in the jungle
The rescue of 15 hostages from the clutches of Farc guerrillas is probably the most important event in years in Colombia. It’s also probably the biggest political triumph of President Uribe’s six years in power. Colombia is rejoicing and enjoying a rare respite from its ugly and unrelenting conflict. The next couple of weeks will […]
Sun City Rockers Whinge All the Way to the Bank
At the risk of getting boring… Queen guitarist Brian May has hit out a British TV network for not broadcasting the group’s performance at Nelson Mandela’s recent 90th birthday concert in London. The band, along with vocalist Paul Rodgers, were the final act to take the stage at the gig in Hyde Park on Friday, […]
An update on former milblogger LT G of Kaboom
The news of this milblogger’s demise has now reached the virtual pages of Wired.com, and seems to have sparked further debate about the role of military bloggers in the US. (If you want the back story read my post on it or follow the Wired link above.) Before this blog was shut down a number […]
Mexican police in “torture” class?
A story emerged here in Mexico today surrounding the emergence of a couple of videos which apparently depict the Mexican police, in the city of Leon, being instructed in the art of “torture” by an unidentified, English-speaking foreigner. The videos are linked below – some viewers might find them offensive.
War Reporting Links (WRL): War coverage
Here are some War Reporting Links, a ‘new’ ‘feature’ for the blog (hardly ‘new’, and ‘feature’ rather oversells it). I think I’m going to shorten it to WRL because we all know that anything connected to war or the military needs to be shortened to an acronym that nobody else can understand. 1. In fact, […]
Road trips down south
Another timely reminder of the dangers on Afghanistan’s southern ringroad. 35 police officers were suspended a couple of days ago following protests by truck drivers about police corruption and kidnappings on the road from Herat to Kandahar. Incredibly, 12 drivers were kidnapped last week on the road (and I think that that’s probably a conservative […]
School exams in Iraq
Iraqi blogs (Last of Iraqis and Healing Iraq) and interestingly a US-funded Arab radio station are reporting news of a shooting at an Iraqi school. They say at least four students were wounded when the guards of Iraq’s Education Minister, Khudhair al-Khuzai, started shooting at them. The incident occurred last Thursday during a routine visit […]
Balmy Chad Siesta
It’s hot here. So hot that by 11:00 in the morning it’s getting hard to move. I lie in my cot in my tent, snoozing in brief spurts – and, between naps, pouring bottled water on my head. It’s the temperature of half-hour-old coffee, but it’s cool as it evaporates, which it does in seconds. […]
Mexico welcomes Merida, without human rights restrictions
President Calderon on Friday welcomed the U.S. Congress’ approval of the Merida Initiative a day earlier, an aid injection from the United States which is aimed at helping Mexico in its fight against powerful drug cartels. The bill has dropped a controversial requirement that Mexico meet certain human rights standards in order to receive the […]
Changes at MexicoReporter.com
There is good news and, well, good news here at MexicoReporter.com which I wanted to tell you, my readers, for the sake of transparency. Next week, I will be start in a new job as staff blogger, investigator and video journalist for the Los Angeles Times and their Latin America blog La Plaza here in […]
Milblogger bites the dust for writing ‘too much unfiltered truth’
LT G, author of Kaboom: A Soldier’s War Journal, says he will have to stop updating his milblog with immediate effect. In a post entitled ‘Tactical Pause‘, LT G explains that although he ‘committed no OPSEC violations’, ‘extenuating circumstances’ meant a post he wrote on 28 May did not go through the ‘normal vetting channels’. […]
Mexico City police official to be charged in bar deaths
The police commander who led a botched raid on a Mexico City nightclub will be charged with 12 counts of homicide, one for each person who died in the crush at the bar’s entrance, prosecutors said Wednesday. The Associated Press reports this morning City Atty. Gen. Rodolfo Felix Cardenas said his office was bringing the […]
It’s What Jesus Would Have Wanted
Dungu Bridge, one of the structures left behind by Belgian rule in the Congo OK, I give in. The Church – and the Catholic Church in particular – has its uses. I’d prefer the poor of Africa to spend their money on themselves rather than giving it to their priests. But that’s an argument I’m […]
Many journalists are now ‘war’ reporters
“Meanwhile, for journalists in many countries, any distinction between peace and wartime reporting has become meaningless. If they’re investigating corruption or powerful vested interests, drug dealing or organised crime, they’re always on the frontline.” Kate Allen, The Director of Amnesty International UK, on the perils of human rights journalism.
David Axe on Radio 5 Live
Chris Vallance, presenter of BBC Radio 5 Live’s Pods and Blogs show, interviews David Axe in Chad. You can hear the report here and you can follow David’s trip on the border of Sudan on his Frontline blog. To listen direct click here – I think this link is good for one week or so […]
Runaway Tent!
Fair access to water and firewood are big motivators in rebellions in Chad, Central African Republic and the Darfur region of Sudan, according to Alain Lapierre, a manager with aid group CARE International. Indeed, these two things are never far from the minds of the 18,000 North Darfuri refugees in Iridima and the original residents […]
Mogadishu Redux
Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, is the focus of the country’s downward spiral. The constant threat from all sides means that travel around the city is always to run a gauntlet, everyone’s senses heightened from the fear and adrenaline as one watches for ambushes or Iraq-style IEDs. Very few journalists have visited Somalia in recent months on […]
Mexico nightclub tragedy caused by inept police and an ignored youth, says youth advocate
This was written for La Plaza, the Los Angeles Times blog dedicated to Latin America. A tragedy in Mexico City last weekend, in which 12 people were suffocated or trampled to death in a bungled police raid at the News Divine night club, was due to an inept police force and a lack of public […]
Calderon should accept Merida’s human right conditions?
In anticipation of the scheduled debate around the controversial Merida Initiative aid package in the US Senate this week, the Financial Times newspaper from the UK urges President Felipe Calderon to accept the human rights conditions attached to the US$400 billion injection aimed at helping Mexico fights its drugs barons. But should he?
Trouble in Abeche
Frontline blogger David Axe and photographer Anne Holmes think they’re onto a story when they hear gunfire in the Chadian city Abeche. The story appears to have been little more than a misunderstanding that finds David in the wrong place at the wrong time, We’d seen plenty of shooting and lots of soldiers, but no […]
Too Many 4x4s By Far
UN carpark in Khartoum Couldn’t resist using this picture again to highlight Sukuma Kenya’s admirable attempt to expose hypocrisy at the United Nations as it campaigns to reduce carbon emissions. Pics of UN registered gas guzzlers can be posted on a flikr page. This is an issue close to my heart. But I have to […]
AP vs. Bloggers
As freelance word rates go, $2.50 per word isn’t bad. It’s what you might expect from some of the higher end magazines in the US. However, it might not be what you expect the Associated Press (AP) to charge bloggers for quoting AP material.In June the newswire filed a lawsuit against Rogers Cadenhead, publisher of […]
Deserters
It started with singing. I was in my sweltering hovel – I mean, typical Chadian room – at a guest house in Abeche in eastern Chad on Friday evening when I heard the women’s voice harmonizing. My photographer Anne bustled over. “Do you hear it? I think it’s a wedding.†We hopped the fence, audio […]
