The Oromo Support Group reports that authorities in the de facto state of Somaliland are forcibly repatriating asylum-seekers from oppressed ethnic groups to Ethiopia, where they face persecution. Last week, Somaliland deported more than 20 Ethiopian nationals, handing them over to Ethiopian forces at the border town of Wachale—in violation of the international principle of "non-refoulement." Many more have been "refouled" in recent weeks—principally members of the Oromo and Ogadeni peoples. While political asylum applies only to those who can prove a well-grounded fear of persecution, non-refoulement is a generic ban on repatriation of refugees into war zones or disaster areas. (Press Enza, Dec. 29)

President Barack Obama, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey released an unclassified version of the defense strategic guidance Jan. 5 at a Pentagon press conference. The document, entitled "Sustaining US Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense" (PDF), calls for $487 billion in proposed defense budget cuts over the next 10 years, amounting to some 8% of the Pentagon's base budget. The defense budget planned for next year is $662 billion, $43 billion less than this year. If automatic "sequestration" cuts mandated by last year's budget deal take effect, the Pentagon could lose some $500 billion more. "The US joint force will be smaller and it will be leaner," Panetta said. "The Army and Marine Corps will no longer need to be sized to support the kind of large-scale, long-term stability operations that dominated military priorities...over the past decade." The army is slated to cut back to 520,000 active duty troops from 565,000 after 2014. The Marine Corps, which has swelled to 202,000, plans to drop to 186,000. This will place US troop strength essentially at the pre-9-11 level. US troop strength grew by some 100,000 after the attacks, and now stands at 1.4 million.

Mexican federal officials have mobilized thousands more military troops to violence-torn northeastern Tamaulipas state in an emergency move prompted by escalating violence—punctuated by a prison riot that left over 30 dead on Jan. 4. The move brings the total of army troops patrolling Tamaulipas to 13,000, plus thousands more navy troops and federal police agents. The deadly riot broke out at the Santa Amalia prison in the city of Altamira—a facility designed to hold 2,000 inmates but which has a population of more than 3,000. The fighting apparently pitted followers of the Gulf Cartel against adherents of the rival Zetas narco network. A similar incident left 20 dead at a prison in nearby Matamoros in October.

Hundreds of Libyan soldiers protested Jan. 5 in the eastern city of Benghazi, demanding payment of overdue wages and complaining that militia groups have taken over their bases and resist joining a new national army. "The revolutionaries don't want to join an organized military, they want to keep their current situation," Mabrouk Abdullah al-Oraibi, who formerly worked in the military's accounting department, told Reuters. While the Reuters account emphasized that the army had been "marginalized" by Moammar Qaddafi (presumably in favor of mercenaries in his direct pay), Algeria ISP reports that the protesting soldiers chanted "Yes, yes, yes, Moammar is alive!"

Amid growing tensions in the Persian Gulf, the US and Israel are preparing to hold the largest missile defense exercise in the history of the Jewish state. Last month, Lt.-Gen. Frank Gorenc, commander of the US Third Air Force, based in Germany, visited Israel to finalize plans for the upcoming exercise, expected to see the deployment of several thousand US soldiers in Israel. The drill will include establishment of US command posts in Israel and IDF command posts at European Command headquarters in Germany.

More than 950 relatives of inmates launched a protest occupation of a Venezuelan prison over the New Year holiday, saying they will refuse to leave the facility until authorities agree to their demand for faster trials for their loved ones. Prisons Minister Iris Varela sad the relatives decided to "kidnap themselves" at the Yare I and II prison about 70 kilometers southwest of Caracas. They include 800 women and 150 children and youth, as well as a few men. Varela said President Hugo Chávez has told authorities to negotiate peacefully. But, while Venezuela's prisons are dangerously overcrowded, Varela also alleged that human rights groups financed by the CIA are trying to use the occupation "to destabilize the country." (AP, Jan. 4)

Protests in Peru's north-central region of Cajamarca resumed on Jan. 2, with a thousand gathering in the city square to demonstrate against the Conga gold mining project. "We will mobilize in a peaceful protest in Cajamarca, in Hualgayoc, and in Celendín," said Wilfredo Saavedra, head of Cajamarca's Environmental Defense Front, referring to the municipalities to be impacted by the project. Canal N television reported that regional leaders are expected to decide whether to launch a new indefinite strike in the coming days. With negotiations with the administration of President Ollanta Humala at a stalemate, Cajamarca's regional council in the closing days of 2011 voted to declare the Conga project to be "unviable." The declaration stated the project "could cause irreversible damage to fragile ecosystems, in turn generating economic and social damage of incalculable magnitude, which clash directly with the fundamental rights of people living in these jurisdictions…" (Peru This Week, Jan. 3)

President Barack Obama on Dec. 31 signed the National Defense Authorization Act for 2012, with controversial provisions that codify into law indefinite detention of terror suspects. The act allows the president to use "all necessary and appropriate force" to detain any person, including US citizens, who "was part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces, under the law of war until the end of hostilities." In a signing statement, Obama wrote: "The fact that I support this bill as a whole does not mean I agree with everything in it. I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation and prosecution of suspected terrorists... My Administration will aggressively seek to mitigate those concerns through the design of implementation procedures and other authorities available to me as Chief Executive and Commander in Chief, will oppose any attempt to extend or expand them in the future, and will seek the repeal of any provisions that undermine the policies and values that have guided my Administration throughout my time in office."