Around Latin America

-Former Uruguayan president Juan Manuel Bordaberry was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role as president during Uruguay's dictatorship.

-Honduras's Congress may finally be ready to get rid of the gag order that Roberto Micheletti placed on the media last year. Meanwhile, the National Autonomous University of Honduras is under fire for hiring two members of Manuel Zelaya's administration.

-Jose Roberto Arruda, a member of Brazil's right-wing Democratic Party and governor of Brasilia, was arrested this week on charges of corruption and accepting kickbacks on public works. Both that article and this one reasonably point out that the arrest could hurt the right-wing Democrats and PSDB in their efforts to paint the Lula administration as corrupt.

-Brazilian left-wing politician and educator Cristovam Buarque makes a compelling case of how economic slavery continues in Brazil.

-Finally, in Chile, a new commission is being launched to listen to the testimony of victims and families of victims of the Pinochet dictatorship. The commission will hold hearings in order to determine if those who still have not received reparations for their suffering should be rewarded or not. This new commission will be the third, following the Rettig commission of 1991 and the Valech Commission of 2004; the former certified over 3000 victims murdered during Pinochet's 17 years of rule, while the latter certified over 28,000 cases of torture and political imprisonment.