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 Iraq's minorities, the report finds that these groups—some of whom have lived in Iraq for over two millennia—are being targeted by Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish militias as the battle for power and territory in Iraq intensifies.

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 policy is part of Calderon's new Conservation for Development Strategy, 2007-2012. He also announced the creation of several new protected areas, including at Manglares de Nichupté coastal wetlands near Cancún, and measures to protect the threatened El Hundido aquifer at Cuatro Ciénegas, Coahuila. (La Jornada, Feb. 25 via Chiapas95)

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 was halted for several hours on major roads through the Highlands, Selva, Northern Zone and Central Valley. (La Jornada, Feb. 25 via Chiapas95) In a Feb. 14 communique, the FNLS protested the massive federal immigration raids in Chiapas, saying they revealed the "fascist and ultra-right" nature of the Calderon government. (FNLS, Feb. 14 via APIA)

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 EZLN will be supporting two peace encampments, one in Baja California and the other in Chiapas, on Zapatista and Cucapá territory.

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 13 of the Chiapas constitution recognizes nine indgenous langauges: Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Chol, Zoque, Tojolabal, Mam, Kakchiquel, Lacandon and Mochó. The three now being considered are spoken by only a few thousand residents, mostly Guatemalan refugees who settled in Chiapas to escape genocide in the 1980s.

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.

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. Lucas, president of the communal lands committee at Coapinola, is a local organizer for the Zapatistas' "Other Campaign." He has been harassed and detained by the authorities on several occasions. After the massacre at El Charco, where 10 Mixtecs were killed by the army June 7, 1998, he was held and tortured by soldiers supposedly searching the mountains for guerillas. (Organización Independiente de Pueblos Mixtecos, Feb. 16 via Enlace Zapatista)

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), which was launched at a March 2006 conference in Cancun. Coordinated response to narco-trafficking, organized crime and terrorism topped the agenda, under the catch-phrase "secure and intelligent borders." Presidents Bush and Felipe Calderón are to meet to discuss the program with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Canada this August. (Notimex, Feb. 24)