Nine years after the Dec. 22, 1997 massacre of 45 unarmed Maya Indians at the Chiapas highland hamlet of Acteal, Chiapas, the confessed intellectual author of the attack, Antonio Vazquez Secum, remains free and was never called to testify in… Read moreActeal nine years later: still no justice
Subcommander Marcos of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) is back on the rebels’ home turf of southern Chiapas state after a months-long tour of Mexico, known as the “Other Campaign” in reference to this year’s presidential campaigns. Marcos arrived… Read moreMarcos back in Chiapas; Zapatistas prepare global “encuentro”
Even as the Mexican federal government is starting to release some of the hundreds detained during the Oaxaca protests, new harassment and repression is reported from the conflicted state. On Dec. 18, Florentino Lopez Marti’nez, spokesman of the Popular Assembly… Read moreOaxaca: repression continues as rights report released
Salvatore Mancuso, top chieftan of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) began testimony Dec. 19 before a special tribunal about the paramilitary newtwork’s role in massacres and assassinations. Under a peace deal with the government, the AUC leaders will… Read moreColombia: para leader testifies at tribunal; dialogue stalled
Ecologists warn that current rates of tapping frankincense are endangering the fragrant resin’s sustained production. Writing in the December issue of the Journal of Applied Ecology, Professor Frans Bongers of the Netherlands’ Wageningen University says that over-tapping Ethiopia’s Boswellia trees… Read moreChristmas rush threatens Ethiopian frankincense source
New Ethiopian troops movements are reported in Somalia, as a deadline set by the Islamic Courts Union for a Somali jihad against Ethiopia expired Dec. 19. Witnesses and local officials said a new detachment of Ethiopian troops in a column… Read moreSomalia: Ethiopian troop build-up as jihad deadline expires
Assadullah Wafa, the new governor of Afghanistan’s restive Helmand province, vowed upon taking office Dec. 19 not to allow further peace deals like the one struck earlier this year between British NATO forces and tribal elders in Musa Qala district…. Read moreAfghanistan: new hardline gov for war-torn Helmand
From El Universal, Dec. 18: Over 2,000 women marched through Oaxaca City on Sunday calling for Gov. Ulises Ruiz’s ouster and the immediate release of the more than 200 members of the Oaxaca People’s Assembly (APPO) detained since the street… Read moreOaxaca: women march as prisoner release begins
From Nunatsiaq News, principal newspaper of Nunavut, the autonomous territory of the Inuit people in Canada’s far north (links added): The effort to link climate change with human rights has suffered a setback. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights won’t… Read moreInuit petition on climate change rejected
Mexico’s new (and still-contested) President Felipe Calderon, touring Chiapas on Dec. 14, announced new steps to beef up border control and fight organized crime, drug trafficking and illegal immigration. Accompanied by Public Security Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna and Chiapas Gov…. Read moreMexico: Calderon targets Chiapas
John Mohawk, a leading scholar and spokesman for the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee), died at his home in Buffalo, NY, on Dec. 12. Mohawk was an international voice for the soveriegn and territorial rights of the Iroquois Confederacy, a… Read moreJohn Mohawk, Iroquois leader and scholar, dead at 61
The Mexican federal government has announced some moves to de-escalate the situation in Oaxaca, including the “gradual” withdrawal of Federal Preventative Police from the state capital’s central plaza, which they have occupied since Oct. 29. Some 140 arrested protesters who… Read moreMexican government tries to defuse Oaxaca crisis
