Under the guise of the "War on Drugs" the Mexican Army has increased its presence around the Zapatistas autonomous municipalities in La Garrucha — the last place Subcomandante Marcos was seen. On June 4, a convoy of 200 army, state and local police tried to enter La Garrucha under the pretext of “looking for marijuana plants,” but were turned away by Zapatista men, women and children armed only with machetes and stones.

While the violence surrounding drug cartels in Mexico causes great alarm in Mexico and abroad, the targeting of the Zapatista communities in the "War on Drugs" is equally alarming.

Mary Anne Tenuto of the Chiapas Support Committee recently wrote, "President Bush has proposed a billion dollars in military assistance to Mexico for its war on drugs. A bill known as the Merida Initiative, more commonly labeled 'Plan Mexico,' after the failed Plan Colombia, is currently winding a twisted path through the two houses of Congress as H.R. 6028. Each house has approved a different version of the bill and lots of political influences are at play: defense contractors; Mexican politicians; and human rights groups to name a few. Much of the money would go to U.S. defense contractors to buy those helicopters that swoop down on protesting communities, like in Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guerrero, Atenco and many others."

The Chiapas Support Committee will host a discussion on the recent militarization in Mexico. They will also present a film about military repression of indigenous communities in the Mexican state of Guerrero at 7:30 p.m. on June 26 at the Unitarian Universalists Church in Berkeley (1924 Cedar St.). Their story is the story of Chiapas, Oaxaca, Atenco and organized indigenous communities throughout Mexico.

Mexican Army Incursions Threaten Zapatista Jungle Region | Plan Mexico threatens peaceful Mexican communities | Event Announcement: Chiapas Support Committee | Previous Coverage

Hector Antonio Ventura, one of 14 people arrested during an anti-water privatization protest last year in the town of Suchitoto, El Salvador, was assassinated in his home on May 3. The assailants apparently stabbed him to death, while another man was attacked but survived. Organizations such as the legal group FESPAD have called for a full investigation into the death of the 19-year old Ventura, while expressing concern that Salvadoran authorities will not address the likely political motivation for the murder.

Read more

More news from El Salvador: From U.S. to El Salvador, ‘gangs’ and the ‘global war on terror’ | Another SOA?: A Police Academy in El Salvador Worries Critics | El Salvador: FMLN Mayor Assassinated in Usulután | Funes Still Ahead in Salvadoran Race

On April 7, two indigenous Triqui women who worked at the community radio station La Voz que Rompe el Silencio (The Voice that Breaks the Silence), in the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala (Mixteca region), were shot and murdered while on their way to Oaxaca City to participate in the State Forum for the Defense of the Rights of the Peoples of Oaxaca. Three other people were injured.

According to the state attorney general, the victims are Teresa Bautista Merino (24 years old) and Felícitas Martínez Sánchez (20 years old). Francisco Vásquez Martínez (30 years old), his wife Cristina Martínez Flores (22 years old), and their son Jaciel Vásquez Martínez (three years old) were also injured in the attack.

According to prelimary reports, the women had left the station, which is part of the Network of Indigenous Community Radio Stations of the Southeast (Red de Radios Comunitarias Indígenas del Sureste), around 1 p.m. They were traveling in a truck on their way to Oaxaca City, but were ambushed on the outskirts of the community of Llano Juarez.

The two community radio activists were supposed to coordinate the working group for Community and Alternative Communication: Community Radio, Video, Press, and Internet, at the State Forum for the Defense of the Rights of the People of Oaxaca, which was to begin on April 9 in the auditorium of the teachers union in Oaxaca. The Center for Community Support Working Together (CACTUS) released a statement denouncing the murders and demanding that the state authorities investigate and punish those responsible for the crime.

The state attorney general said that twenty 7.62 caliber bullet shells were found at the site of the murders, along with other arms including an AK-47. International supporters have been asked to contact their local embassies and consulates and organize demonstrations condemning the paramilitary repression of indigenous women and community media projects.

Read more | Two Community Radio Announcers Killed in Copala, Oaxaca | Deep Dish TV blog

The international network demanding accountability for the murder of US journalist Brad Will released secret documents detailing proposed military support for Mexican security forces implicated in murder, torture and continuing arbitrary detentions.

“Finally we were able to obtain these documents, which even Members of Congress have yet to see. We hope that by releasing them to the public we will be able to better make our case for withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in military subsidies to the Mexican military. The murderers of Brad and many others in Oaxaca and Atenco and Chiapas must be brought to justice if U.S. support for human rights is to mean anything.” said Harry Bubbins, of Friends of Brad Will. Over 70% of the proposed $1.5 billion would entail lethal aid analysts revealed.

President Bush announced a $1.5 billion dollar “security cooperation initiative” proposal for Mexico that the President is trying to bury into the Iraq supplemental spending package submitted to Congress. The initiative allows sharing of U.S. military intelligence information with Mexican military counterparts and provides weaponry and training with the notoriously corrupt and brutal Mexican military and police. Read More

PDF of leaked documents: high resolution (33 MB) or low resolution (3 MB) | Indynewswire: Harry Bubbins on Plan Mexico and Brad Will | Stop "Plan Mexico" (Merida Initiative) | Friends of Brad Will | El Enemigo Común

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez sent ten battalions of 600 soldiers each to the border with Colombia and put his air force on alert after the Colombian military crossed the Ecuadorian border on March 1 and killed 18 members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Among those killed was Raúl Reyes, who was second-in-command and top negotiator for the FARC. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa also fortified his border with Colombia after the incident. Both Ecuador and Venezuela withdrew their ambassadors from Colombia on March 2.

Chávez is in the midst of negotiations with the FARC to release hostages, several of whom have already been freed. He warned that a Colombian operation against the FARC inside Venezuela would be a “causus belli,” or cause for war, and charged the Colombian government is acting at the behest of the U.S. He called Colombian President Álvaro Uribe a "criminal" and Colombia a "terrorist state."

Democracy Now: With U.S. Assistance, Colombian Troops Attack and Kill 20 FARC Rebels Inside Ecuador | Build-up of troops on Colombia's borders sparks fears of war | Colombia raid angers Chavez | Colombia Kills FARC Negotiator | Ecuador & Venezuela order troops to Colombia border | Colombia accuses Ecuador's Correa of FARC ties | en español: Indymedia Ecuador | Indymedia Colombia

In response to international pressure, US officials returned to members of Pastors for Peace 32 computers bound for Cuba. Federal agents seized the computers from the humanitarian group as they attempted to cross the Pharr International Bridge early on July 3 at the US-Mexico border. The confiscated computers were officially released by US authorities early this week and are now en route to Cuba.

With this successful challenge to the US blockade of shipments to Cuba, the 19th such challenge by IFCO/Pastors for Peace, it appears that every item of the nearly 100 tons of humanitarian aid collected by the caravan from all across the US will in fact make it to its ultimate destination. The donation to the people of Cuba includes wheelchairs, medicine, medical equipment, musical instruments, sports equipment, six brightly-painted school buses and a bookmobile.

The confiscated computers were donated by a Japanese-American group from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Challenge to US Blockade Against Cuba a Success | 19th US-Cuba Friendshipment Caravan Blog | Pastors for Peace

Previous Indybay coverage

In the morning of January 30th, Alejandro Barrita Ortiz, director of the Auxiliary, Industrial, Banking and Commercial Police, was assassinated in Oaxaca City at “El Tequio” sports park near the international airport. Two versions of the assassination have surfaced, one which claims the assassins used a 380 and 9mm handguns, and another which claims AK-47s were the weapons of choice. The second version further states that the assassins fled the scene in a red pickup and a black Dodge Stratus.

Unofficial reports have surfaced indicating that a phone call was made to the local emergency services hotline by someone claiming to represent the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), and that the caller clarified there were “two more left to go”. Barrita, director of the obscure police agency, had been identified as a key player in police operations during and immediately after the 2006 Oaxacan popular uprising. He was accused of illegal detentions of activists, as well as coordinating extra judicial operations against the popular social movement.

At the very least, his assassination represents serious ideological provocation against members of the peaceful popular social movement of the Oaxacan Peoples' Popular Assembly (APPO). Police operations are underway throughout the city, and the military has cordoned off the area of the assassination.

By a margin of 1.4 percent, the forces of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez lost a December 2 vote on a referendum of social programs that also would have lifted term limits for the presidency. Chávez called it a "photo finish." The United States reportedly spent $8 million dollars to sway the vote, and a CIA document uncovered by the Chavistas spelled out a thorough program of psy-ops and destabilization. Fidel Castro wrote on the Friday before the election, "The most sophisticated mass media technologically developed, designed to kill human beings and subjugate or exterminate whole peoples … is being used now against the Venezuelans, in an attempt to rip the ideas of Bolívar and Martí to shreds." The referendum would have helped the landless and small producers obtain land, given social security to laborers in the informal sector of the economy, reduced the work week from 40 to 36 hours a week with no reduction in pay, created open admissions for the universities, and sped up socialization of key industries. It would also have empowered the neighborhood councils so they could legislate and invest in their own communities. Wrote analyst James Petras, "The electorate supporting the constitutional amendments is voting in favor of their socio-economic and class interests; the issue of extended re-election of the President is not high on their priorities. And that is the issue that the Right has focused on in calling Chávez a 'dictator' and the referendum a 'coup'."

Fidel Castro on the Election | James Petras Article | CIA Revelations

Venezuelan Media on the Internet | Narco News on the Referendum 1 | 2 | Venezuelan Solidarity Network | Democracy Now

The referendum defeat in Venezuela: A warning to the working class | Chavez undeterred by vote defeat | The referendum defeat - What does it mean? | Oakland Solidarity with Venezuela on 12/2/07

While Barrick shareholders met to discuss third quarter earnings, over one thousand Chileans took to the streets in protest of Barrick’s multi-billion dollar Pascua Lama mining project. At the same time, in Tanzania, thousands of miners went on strike over salaries, healthcare and working conditions at Barrick's controversial Bulyanhulu mine.

In Chile, mine opponents include the Diaguita Huascoaltinos Indigenous group and local political leaders. They fear that the mine will disturb the area's sensitive ecosystem – already a UNESCO biosphere reserve – which provides water for the agriculture-rich Huasco Valley. Despite company assurances, Barrick's exploration activities have already been linked to a 56 to 70 percent depletion in three glaciers near the mine site.

In Tanzania, Barrick fired every worker on strike as they sought to improve pay, working conditions and benefits.

Read More: Protests and Strike Precede Barrick Gold’s 3rd quarter shareholders meeting | Barrick hides opposition from shareholders | Anti-Gold Mining Conflicts Spreading Throughout the Americas | INTERVIEW: Mining in Papua New Guinea | Barrick sues Greg Palast | The Occupation of Barrick in Australia | ProtestBarrick.net

en español: En Santiago de Chile y en Tanzania: Protestas y huelga preceden a reunión de Barrick Gold | Marcha contra la precarización de la vida en Argentina | Sentencia a Barrick Gold en Juicio popular en Chilecito La Rioja Argentina | Repudio ciudadano en III Reunión Bi-Nacional de Ecología | Observatorio Latinoamericano de Conflictos Ambientales | Mines and Communities (bilingüe)

On, October 24th, a benefit was held at Station 40 in San Francisco at 7pm to support the continuing resistance in Oaxaca, Mexico. The newly released documentary "Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad" (A Little Bit of So Much Truth) was screened, accompanied by dinner and refreshments. The proceeds of the evening went to Colectivo Mujer Nueva (Oaxaca autonomous women collective) and VOCAL (Oaxacan Voices Constructing Freedom and Autonomy), an anarchist radio project in Oaxaca. Event Announcement

Un Poquito De Tanta Verdad, the new documentary by Corrugated Films in collaboration with Mal De Ojo TV, has been described by Emir Sader, of the Latin American Council on Social Sciences, as "Powerful...impressive. An essential testimony. Without a doubt, A Little Bit of So Much Truth will leave it's mark on contemporary, independent documentary filmmaking."

During the 6-month active rebellion, Indybay provided coverage of the events thanks to volunteers on the ground. Indybay's Past Coverage on the Oaxaca Insurrection included (but was not limited to): The August Elections | The Attack on the Popular Guelaguetza | Coverage from the month of November when the Federal Police entered Oaxaca City

October 6–13 is an international week of solidarity to demand that "terrorism" charges against Salvadoran protesters be dropped. On July 2, fourteen people were arrested in Suchitoto, El Salvador for taking part in a protest against water privatization. Police brutality against the peaceful demonstration produced international outrage, and ultimately this pressure forced the Salvadoran government to temporarily release the detainees. Nevertheless, protesters continue to be charged under “anti-terrorism” law and could face up to 60 years in prison. This draconian law criminalizing public protest as acts of terrorism is being used to silence the social movement in El Salvador.

The trial of the Suchitoto protesters was scheduled for the first week of October but has been delayed for six months, allegedly while the prosecutors build their “terrorism” case. More likely, the trial was delayed for lack of evidence, since those arrested were in the streets to voice their opinion against water privatization.

The corporate takeover of the world's water has been called "the greatest theft of common resources facing humanity and the planet today." Global capitalists argue that water scarcity problems will be solved by turning water into an economic good – a commodity to be controlled by global corporations and sold to the highest bidder in international markets. Meanwhile, a broad-based social movement in El Salvador is struggling to keep water accessible and public, improve water conservation and ensure a supply of clean water for all who need it.

Video and photos from SF protest | CISPES | Food and Water Watch

On October 7th, Costa Ricans will go to the polls for a referendum on the Central America - Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA/TLC in spanish). The latest move in the U.S. neo-liberal agenda for Latin America has met widespread resistance in Costa Rica. Marches and protests have led to resignation of a vice president over CAFTA related controversies.
A solidarity event with the anti-CAFTA resistance in Costa Rica will be held at Station 40 on Sunday, September 30th, at 6pm. Event Announcement

A Brief Political History of DR-CAFTA in Costa Rica | Central America Free Trade Agreement Dividing Costa Rican Society | Interview with Fabian Pacheco Rodriguez from the Green Bloc against Cafta | On Going Coverage at UpsideDownWorld.org