• The UN regional economic body, ECLAC, announced on Wednesday that poverty in Latin America is at its lowest level in 20 years. Among the countries that saw the largest drops in poverty are Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, Uruguay and Columbia, with poverty increasing only in Honduras and Mexico.
• On Wednesday, seventeen bodies were found burned in two pickup trucks in Sinaloa, Mexico, in what is suspected to be an attack by a drug cartel. On Thursday twenty-six bound and gagged bodies were found in abandoned vehicles in Guadalajara, in what is described as a similar attack. On Friday, a Mexican human rights lawyer filed the biggest civil lawsuit ever presented to the ICC demanding a probe for those responsible for systematic human rights abuses and crimes against humanity during the Mexican Drug War. The Mexican government threatened legal action against those who reported them to the ICC on Monday, calling the accusations “absurd”, “unfounded” and “slander”. On Tuesday, US police found one of the most sophisticated drug-smuggling tunnels to date linking warehouses in Tijuana and San Diego.
• Security forces in Trinidad and Tobago reportedly uncovered a plot to assassinate the Prime Minister, National Security Minister Brigadier, Attorney General and Foreign Affairs and Information Minister in response to the government’s call for a State of Emergency. More than ten people were detained in police custody.
• Police in Perufired tear gas to break up protests at Newmont Mining Corp’s proposed gold mine on Friday. Protesters fear the mine will hurt nearby water supplies. By Wednesday, Newmont announced it was halting construction, after days of protests that injured at least 10 people.
• President Santos of Colombia announced on Thursday that the country was nearing the final phase of nearly 50 years o

[continued at http://apeaceofconflict.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/this-week-in-confl...]