CUBA: 11 Prisoners And Families Depart For Spain; How Many Remain?

NYTIMES/    The first of 11 newly released dissident prisoners and their families leave Cuba tonight for Spain. It is expected that the number of relatives traveling with the prisoners will number 65. They will depart on two planes. A Spanish refugee organization will help the immigrants to find housing. "As free citizens, they will enjoy all their rights," said Spain's Foreign Minister Angel Moratinos.
    Meanwhile, many are asking about the release of the OTHER prisoners. There's no agreement about how many remain after the completed release of the reported 52. A low number is 115. Human Rights Watch doesn't have an exact number, but believes scores of people who arrested for the vague crime of “dangerousness” must be included. That number may be in the thousands.

COLOMBIA: Paramiltaries Run The Drug Trade.

NYTIMES/ Human Rights Watch reports that paramilitaries now control the drug trade despite more than $5 billion from the U.S. for security and antinarcotics help and that they engage in widespread human rights abuses, including massacres, rapes and forced displacement.

BRASIL: Questions Raised About 11,000+ Police Killings.

NYTIMES/
Human Rights Watch raises troubling questions about the more than 11,000 people Rio and Sao Paulo police have killed since 2003 in the fight against drug-trafficking gangs. Most are reported as “resistance” killings that occur when police officers return fire in self-defense. But a two-year investigation of 51 killings found evidence that police officers often took steps to cover up the nature of the deaths.