We recently noted a violent struggle in Colombia’s Sierra San Lucas, where army and paramilitary troops, apparently in league with major gold-mining interests, are terrorizing small-scale independent campesino miners from their lands. A similar struggle now appears underway in Bolivia’s… Read moreMiners’ strife in Bolivia leaves nine dead
Especially given the contested presidential elections and the seizure of popular power in Oaxaca—both potential threats to Mexico’s ruling elites—it is ominous indeed to see the evident emergence of Colombia-style death squads linked to the drug trade and (we can… Read moreMore severed heads in Michoacan
Freedom’s on the march. From the Rocky Mountain News, Oct. 3: Arrest over Cheney barb triggers lawsuit A Denver-area man filed a lawsuit today against a member of the Secret Service for causing him to be arrested after he approached… Read moreFree-speech arrest at Cheney appearance sparks lawsuit
A new Pentagon study group called the Iran Directorate has surfaced in recent media reports, drawing analogies to now disbanded (and discredited) Office of Special Plans which pushed for war on Iraq. An Oct. 6 analysis by Daniel Schulman in… Read morePentagon “Iran Directorate” stumps for war
It seems that hubristic neocons, with their ambitions to dismantle Iraq (and, eventually, the rest of the Arab world) are moving in for the kill, posing it as a solution to the sectarian and ethnic strife their own policies unleashed…. Read moreIraq Study Group poses “partition”
Amid the internecine Palestinian violence now rocking Gaza comes a distrubing report from Israel’s YNet Oct. 8 that an entity calling itself the Islamic Swords of Justice, said to be the Palestinian wing of al-Qaeda, shot up and set fire… Read moreAl-Qaeda in Gaza?
Sarah Ferguson writes for the Village Voice, Oct. 5: Rallies Today: World Can’t Wait—for What? Call them the popular front to MoveOn.org‘s dogged efforts to defeat Republicans at the ballot box this November. Today the anti-Bush campaign World Can’t Wait… Read moreMaoists go mainstream
Some 100 Yucatan state riot police attacked a group of peasants at the ejido (collective farm) of Oxcum Oct. 6, lands which the state government is seeking to buy for a new ariport servicing Merida, the capital and major tourist… Read moreRepression in Yucatan
From El Universal, Oct. 4 via Chiapas95, Oct. 4 (our translation): SAN JOSE, Costa Rica.- The president-elect of Mexico, Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, and that of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias, agreed on the need to re-evaluate and re-analyze the Plan Puebla-Panama… Read moreCalderon pledges to relaunch Puebla-Panama Plan
It seems Oaxaca’s revolutionary model may be spreading to neighboring states. From Notimex Oct. 1, via Chiapas95: CHILPANCINGO, GUERRERO: This weekend, at least 30 trade unions and social organizations formed the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Guerrero (APPG in… Read more“Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Guerrero” proclaimed
Tensions are remain high in Oaxaca following the killing of pro-government teacher, which protest leaders fear will be usd to justify a crackdown. Math teacher Jaime Rene Calvo Aragon was amember of the Central Council of Struggle (CCL), which is… Read moreMixed signals on Oaxaca crackdown
This is one solution that the perennially annoying Thomas Friedman didn’t advocate in his recent rant against the “petro-authoritiarians” who have got the USA by the balls. But we certainly do. From the web page of California’s Buddhist Deer Park… Read moreOctober 7: Global No Car Day
