Bill Weinberg
Oaxaca: more labor unrest, political violence
Oaxaca City saw another massive mobilization in support of striking teachers yesterday, with an estimated 100,000 marching from the Juarez monument to the Plaza de la Danza, where a political tribunal was held to hear charges against Gov. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. (La Jornada, June 8)
Mexico: new death in Atenco case
State of Mexico authorities have confirmed the death of Olin Alexis Benhumea Hernandez, one of those detained in the state police incursion into the village of San Salvador Atenco May 4. Authorities cited "cardio-respiratory failure" as the cause of death, likely related to injuries suffered at the hands of the police. (APRO, June 7)
Dominican Republic: US military exercises end
This June 2 account from the English-language Dominican Today was typical of what little media attention the recent US military exercises in the Dominican Republic accrued:
SANTO DOMINGO.- The United States Army troops that participated in the joint operation New Horizon 2006 will complete their departure from Dominican Republic today, when the equipment and personnel who are still is in Barahona province (southwest) ship out.
Venezuela: student protests rock Merida
Violent student protests in the historic town of Merida in Venezuela's high Andes seem to have accrued little international coverage. This very opinionated account from the very pro-Chavez Venezuela News Bulletin, May 31:
Riots and 'guarimbas' are running wild in southwestern Merida State, led by the delinquent student leader, United States CIA and "opposition" stooge Nixon Moreno.
Venezuela: Chavez buys 30,000 Russian AKs
Bush just has two years to go. Will he really get around to invading Venezuela? Chavez isn't hedging his bets. From Reuters, June 3:
CARACAS - Venezuela received a shipment of 30,000 new Russian rifles on Saturday, weeks after Washington restricted U.S. arms sales to Caracas over concerns about President Hugo Chavez's ties to Cuba and Iran.
Bolivia: Evo launches "land revolution"
Evo Morales sticks it to the landed elite. He saves the announcement for a trip to Santa Cruz, the section of the country which had threatened to secede if he nationalized the gas (as he has now done). A none-too-subtle message. And the land barons immediately talk of forming paramilitaries. This should be interesting... From Reuters, June 4:
SANTA CRUZ - Bolivia's leftist president, Evo Morales, took a first step on Saturday toward handing over a fifth of the country's territory to poor farmers, a day after angry landowners vowed to form self-defense groups.
Ecologist crucifies self in Veracruz
From La Jornada, June 6, via Chiapas95 (our translation). Amazingly, this seems to have made no international media. Now, how did this guy survive to go on a hunger strike after being nailed to a cross?
Veracruz, June 5. An eldrely sympathizer of the ecologist organization Greenpeace crucified himself in the historic center of this city to protest the "silent complicity" of the three levels of government before the destruction of the forests and mangroves in Veracruz [state] and the contamination of the rivers and lagoon systems.
FBI probes SOA Watch
On May 4 the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Georgia released documents on investigations by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into the US human rights group School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch). The group organizes massive demonstrations each year outside Fort Benning, Georgia, to call for the closing of the US military's Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC, formerly the US Army School of the Americas), a training school for Latin American soldiers whose graduates include many of the worst human rights violators in Latin America.

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