Our July issue featured the stories "No Green Zone for Ethnic Minorities in Iraq" by Bill Weinberg, arguing that the ethnic and sectarian warfare is approaching a "genocidal threshold"; "Israel & Palestine: One State or Two?," excerpts from the debate between Israeli peace activists Ilan Pappé and Uri Avnery; and "Free Speech in Venezuela: Whither the RCTV Shut-Down?," an analysis of the controversy by the Caracas anarchist group El Libertario. Our July Exit Poll was: "Is it genocide in Iraq yet? Who is responsible? What can help?" Extra Credit: "Israel and Palestine: One state or two?" Extra Extra Credit: "The RCTV shut-down in Venezuela: righteous blow against the empire or draconian crackdown on free speech?" We received the following response:

Colombia has offered to host US military operations currently run out of Ecuador, once the lease for the base there expires in two years, according to a senior Pentagon official who spoke to reporters in July. Such a change would consolidate Colombia's position as the Latin American country most militarized by the United States.

Human bones, organs and tissues will be considered commodities if the pending Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is ratified, Costa Rica's Foreign Trade Ministry has acknowledged. The admission came in a statement released from Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz to Dr. Rodrigo Cabezas, a Costa Rican surgeon, who had inquired about Item 30019010 of Appendix 3.3 of the treaty. Ruiz said that under the agreement, human organs would be marketed just like any other product in international trade. "For this given product, Costa Rica agreed to remove the import tariff under the free trade agreement," Ruiz stated. (Prensa Latina, July 13)

The Wayuu indigenous people of Venezuela sent a message saluting the "Encuentro of the Pueblos Zapatistas with the Peoples of the World," which has just opened at the village of Oventic in Chiapas, Mexico. The message was harshly critical of the Hugo Chávez government, which it accused of "continuing the neoliberal policies" under the guise of a "double discourse," indicating a "lack of respect for the [indigenous] communities, a manipulation, and in the final accounting, a genocide." It said the Venezuelan state "has blocked with the transnational imperialists to enter indigenous territories throughout the country to exploit mineral, hydrocarbon, gas and petroleum resources, against the wishes and the decisions of the indigenous communities of Venezuela." (La Jornada, July 20)

Labor unrest, infrastructure problems and charges of corruption at Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA have reached the point of a "significant operational emergency," PDVSA vice president for exploration and production Luis Vierma told the National Assembly's comptroller committee July 18. The warnings of crisis come just as PDVSA is embarking on an ambitious course of taking greater control over Venezuela's oil industry from foreign companies.

Italian anti-terrorism police arrested three Moroccans—an imam and two of his aides—at a mosque in Perugia, capital of Umbria region, July 22, saying it served as a base for an extremist cell that ran courses in hand-to-hand combat, making bombs and flying aircraft. A police statement said the cell had contacts with members of the Moroccan Islamic Combat group arrested in Belgium two years ago. The group, known by its French acronym GICM, is said to have ties to al-Qaeda and to the 2004 Madrid bombings and 2003 Casablanca attacks. (SMH, July 23) Meanwhile, the Algerian army killed 20 alleged al-Qaeda militants in gun-battles in the Kabylie region July 24. The killings followed more days of fighting that began July 14 when the army claimed to have foiled an al-Qaeda attack on two police stations in Yakourene village, Tizi Ouzou province. (Reuters, July 24)

On July 10, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 25 current or former employees of the Swift & Company meat processing firm. Twenty of those arrested were sought on federal and state warrants; most were picked up on the job, while others were detained in their homes. ICE arrested 18 workers on criminal charges relating to identity theft and administrative immigration violations in six locations where Swift plants are located: Marshalltown, Iowa; Grand Island, Nebraska; Worthington, Minnesota; Greeley, Colorado; Hyrum, Utah; and Cactus, Texas. In Marshalltown, ICE also arrested Braulio Pereyra-Gabino, an official of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) who represents Swift employees, on criminal charges for "harboring illegal aliens"; and Christopher Todd Lamb, assistant director of human resources at the Marshalltown plant and a 17-year Swift employee, on a harboring charge as well as misprision of a felony. (ICE news release, July 11; DesMoines Register, July 13, 22; The Militant, Aug. 6)

Some 5,000 campesinos, students and activists marched in the eastern Salvadoran port city of La Union on July 15 to protest plans to build two electric plants near the Conchagua Volcano. The Virginia-based AES Corporation, which controls most of the electric power distribution in El Salvador, plans to build a coal-burning plant, while Houston-based Cutuco Energy Central America wants to build a plant using natural gas.