Anti-war marchers took to the streets in London and Glasgow Feb. 24 to demand the return of all troops from Iraq, and an end to plans to replace the UK’s Trident nuclear missile system. Organizers from the Stop the War… Read moreMuslim alliance in UK peace marches
US military officials displayed another cache of “explosively formed penetrators” (EFPs) to reporters at a base outside Baghdad Feb. 26, saying the weaponry was clearly made in Iran. They admitted, however, there was no way to know if the Iranian… Read moreIran, al-Qaeda roles disputed in confused Iraq conflict
Religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq are facing unprecedented levels of violence, and in some cases risk being eradicated entirely, according to a new report from the London-based Minority Rights Group International. In a major survey of the plight of… Read moreReport: Iraq minorities face extinction
Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon visited a small village outside the Rosario monarch butterly reserve in Michoacan state to announce a “zero tolerance” policy against illegal logging, and pledged to mobilize army troops to protected areas. (Scientific American, Feb. 26) The… Read moreMexico: Calderon sends army against illegal logging
Women from the National Front of Struggle for Socialism (FNLS) blocked roads at various locations across Mexico's southern state of Chiapas, in protest of the "anti-national and pro-imperialist" government of President Felipe Calderon. They also demanded lower electricity rates. Traffic… Read moreWomen block roads in Chiapas
A Feb. 22 press release from Narco News, via New Zealand’s Scoop: Zapatistas to Raise Two Peace Encampments on Indigenous Territory Subcomandante Marcos, spokesman of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), recently announced that the Sixth Commission and the… Read moreMexico: Zapatistas call for “peace camp” in Baja California
In recognition of International Mother Language Day, lawmakers in southern Mexico’s Chiapas state proposed Feb. 21 a reform to the state constitution recognizing the existence of the indigenous tongues of Jacalteco, Chuj and Kanjobal, which are threatened with extinction. Articel… Read moreMexico: call to save threatened indigenous languages
Nancy Flores writes for Mexico’s El Universal, Feb. 24 (links added): NAIROBI – Native Maya seeds from Zapatista cornfields reached the hands of small farmers in Africa last month as a symbol of solidarity and hope. Mexican labor advocates delivered… Read moreAfrican peasants receive Zapatista maize at Nairobi WSF
On Feb. 15, Raúl Lucas Lucía of the Independent Organization of the Mixtec People was wounded in an ambush by unknown gunmen on a mountain road near his village of Coapinola, Ayutla municipality, in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero…. Read moreZapatista supporters attacked in Guerrero, Jalisco
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with her Canadian and Mexican counterparts Peter MacKay and Patricia Espinosa in Ottawa Feb. 23 for a summit of the North American Security and Prosperity Initiative (NASPI, or ASPAN by its Spanish acronym),… Read moreNAFTA security summit held in Ottawa
Thousands of Mexican miners held a one-day strike Feb. 19, marking the one-year anniversary of the underground blast that killed 65 at the Pasta de Conchos coal mine in northern Coahuila state. Relatives of the victims celebrated a Mass and… Read moreMexico: strike and scandal on anniversary of mine disaster
Jorge Noguera, former head of Colombia’s Department of Administrative Security (DAS) under President Alvaro Uribe, was arrested Feb. 22. He is accused of handing over a hit list of human rights workers and trade union activists to the right-wing paramilitaries…. Read moreColombia: ex-spy chief arrested
