Maria Antonieta Trinidad Ramirez del Valle, popularly known as La Trini, returned to the conflicted central Mexican village of San Salvador Atenco Nov. 25 after more than six months in clandestinity at an unknown location. She was accompanied by Don Samuel Ruiz, bishop emeritus of Chiapas who won national acclaim for brokering the dialogue with the Zapatista rebels. Her sons América and Alejandro del Valle remain in hiding. Another son, César del Valle, is incarcerated in the high-security prison at La Palma, as is her husband Ignacio del Valle. La Trini is director of the People's Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT), the group which has led protests against the confiscation of Atenco's farming lands for a new international airport. Her lawyer said judicial orders had been issued barring her arrest. Del Valle said that during her time in hiding, the family's home had been left "in ruins" when it was ransacked by the Federal Preventative Police. (La Jornada, Nov. 26 via Chiapas95 and Nov. 23 via El Porvenir)

From Human Rights Watch, Dec. 11:

The Iranian Judiciary should prosecute officials responsible for the arbitrary detention and alleged torture of several bloggers in 2004, instead of prosecuting the bloggers for expressing their opinions, Human Rights Watch said today.

On December 3, branch 1059 of Tehran's Judiciary commenced a trial against four men, Roozbeh Mirebrahimi, Shahram Rafizadeh, Omid Memarian, and Javad Gholam Tamimi, on charges of "participation in formation of groups to disturb national security," "propaganda against the state," "dissemination of disinformation to disturb public opinion by writing articles for newspapers and illegal internet sites," and "interviews with foreign radio broadcasts." The court has held one closed-door session, and the trial is scheduled to resume on December 17.

From The Scostman, Dec. 12:

A conference of the world's most prominent Holocaust deniers opened in Iran yesterday amid international condemnation and protests by dozens of Iranian students, who burned pictures of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and chanted "death to the dictator".

From the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), Dec. 7:

Darkest Scenario for Women of Iraq:
Public executions of women by Islamist militias in Baghdad

Shia Militias: A new wave of public executions against women is undertaken by Al Mahdi army. Dragging, flogging, hanging and shootings fall within the routine procedure of these executions which are taking place in growing numbers.

Former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (1973-1990) died of heart failure at the age of 91 in the Santiago Military Hospital the afternoon of Dec. 10. Dozens of his right-wing supporters gathered outside the hospital as soon as they heard he had died. Heavily guarded by the police, they sang the national anthem, waved flags and photographs of the dictator and tried to assault reporters and photographers. Dozens of Pinochet's opponents gathered in the nearby Plaza Italia, embracing each other and carrying signs celebrating the general's death.

A sneak preview of our upcoming film review by cultural critic Shlomo Svesnik...

MEL GIBSON'S HEART OF DARKNESS
Apocalypto Reveals More About Mel than the Maya

Here we go again.

Mel Gibson's 2004 surprise mega-hit The Passion of the Christ was all the more unlikely a success because the dialogue was entirely in Latin and Aramaic, a pretension intended to portray an air of exacting historical authenticity. Astute critics, however, pointed out that the film deviated sharply from both history and scripture. And the linguistic affectation was not even accurate: the Roman troops and administrators in Judea more often spoke Greek than Latin, and the dialect of Aramaic was wrong.

From the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) General Command, Dec. 2:

To the people of Mexico:
To the people of the world:

Brothers and Sisters:

The attack that our brothers, the people of Oaxaca suffered and suffer cannot be ignored by those who fight for freedom, justice and democracy in all corners of the planet.

Thousands of Somalis chanted anti-US slogans at an Islamist protest against a Washington-backed plan to send foreign peacekeepers to prop up the country's weak interim government Dec. 4. In a decrepit Mogadishu football stadium, Somalis shouted "Down with the USA!" as speakers accused the US and Ethiopia of planning to invade Somalia. (Reuters, Dec. 4) Meanwhile, an overview of reports from the region's press picked up by BBC Monitoring indicates this intervention may already be in the works.