Protest corporate power
Nonviolent anarchists in Davao City, Philippines, protest corporate exploitation in Mindanao. Photo: “As A Whole” collective
Author: Bill Weinberg
Mexico
Mexico: paramilitaries assassinate indigenous activist in Guerrero
Lorenzo Fernández Ortega, a 38-year-old bricklayer and member of the Organization of the Indigenous Mepha’a People (OPIM), was stabbed to death Feb. 10 in Ayutla de los Libres, a village in the conflicted Mexican state of Guerrro. The group had… Read moreMexico: paramilitaries assassinate indigenous activist in Guerrero
Anti-draft protest, Medellín
Medellín’s anti-war Red Juvenil marches against military conscription in Colombia, Feb. 12 Photo: Red Juvenil
The Andes
Chávez, Exxon play oil-price brinkmanship
Just two weeks after saying he hoped oil prices would “stabilize” at under $100 a barrel, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez this week threatened to send them soaring to $200 a barrel in response to his growing dispute with Exxon. Chávez… Read moreChávez, Exxon play oil-price brinkmanship
Iraq
Iraq: terror greets Gates; “surge” looking permanent
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Iraq Feb. 10 just before the first anniversary of the troop “surge.” Gates said in Baghdad that he supports a pause in troop draw-downs from Iraq after about 30,000 soldiers have been sent… Read moreIraq: terror greets Gates; “surge” looking permanent
Southeast Asia
Emergency rule in East Timor
UN armored vehicles patrol East Timor’s capital Dili under a state of emergency following an attack that critically wounded the President José Ramos-Horta Feb. 11. Ramos-Horta, who shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize (with Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo), was… Read moreEmergency rule in East Timor
The Andes
Ralph DiGia
Genaro Ledesma, a campesino leader and later congressmember who was one of the most respected figures on Peru's political left, died April 1 at the age of 86. He was first elected to Congress in 1963 while imprisoned in connection with peasant protests in his home province of Cerro de Pasco. He was again imprisoned and exiled under later military dictatorships, but returned to Peru with the restoration of democracy in 1979 to help draft the country's new constitution. Ledesma served in the Senate from 1980 to 1990, and continued to work for unity of Peru's democratic left in the polarized years of the Sendero Luminoso insurgency and Alberto Fujimori dictatorship. (Photo via Facebook)
Mexico
Detentions, torture and violence in Chiapas
Local schoolteacher Felipe Hernández Yuena was detained Feb. 5 in the municipal government building at Venustiano Carranza, a conflicted town in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, accused of “sedition and riot.” Showing bruises on his face, arms and abdomen,… Read moreDetentions, torture and violence in Chiapas
Africa
Warplanes, Janjaweed attack Darfur towns
Jan Eliasson, UN special envoy for Darfur, warns that deployment of peacekeeping forces continues to be stalled and that rebel groups show little willingness to enter peace talks. (NYT, Feb. 9) Meanwhile, the ongoing carnage barely gets headlines anymore. This… Read moreWarplanes, Janjaweed attack Darfur towns
US Energy Department subsidizes Russian nuclear institutes linked to Iran reactor
Matthew Wald reported for the New York Times Feb. 6. that the US Energy Department is subsidizing two Russian nuclear institutes at Nizhny Novgorod that are building key parts of the Bushehr reactor in Iran that Washington has spent years… Read moreUS Energy Department subsidizes Russian nuclear institutes linked to Iran reactor