Extradited paramilitary warlord Diego Fernando "Don Berna" Murillo appealed for a commission of Colombian congressmen to visit him in his US prison so he can continue his collaboration with Bogotá on bringing justice. Don Berna—sentenced to 31 years for drug trafficking April 22—appealed in a letter to Colombian lawmakers to visit him to "guarantee transparency, accuracy and efficiency" in his cooperation with the special Justice and Peace tribunal that seeks to clarify the crimes committed by paramilitaries before the "demobilization" of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).

The local Good Government Junta (JBG) of the Zapatista rebels at Morelia, in Mexico's southern state of Chiapas, issued a statement April 23 charging that Gov. Juan Sabines Guerrero "is determined to be a humiliating repressor who does not respect human rights, following in the footsteps and example of past governors." The statement came in response to the arrest of six members of the Zapatista base community of San José en Rebeldía, Autonomous Municipality Comandanta Ramona, near the Cascadas de Agua Azul ecological reserve, where they ran an auto transport service for tourists and local residents. One, Miguel Vázquez Moreno, was held incommunicado for 80 hours before state police announced he had been arrested as a narco-trafficker. The JBG said two members of the community remain "disappeared."

Two new reports charge Mexican and other Latino migrants continue facing a host of human rights violations and labor abuses in Canada and the United States. In Mexico, an assessment prepared by the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) group in the Mexican Chamber of Deputies reconfirmed previous reports of bad conditions experienced by thousands of Mexican agricultural workers enrolled in a temporary labor program in Canada.

Disaffected members of the Piedras Negras police force in the Mexican border state of Coahuila returned to work April 22, after staging an overnight work stoppage. Some 50 officers assigned to the graveyard shift conducted the protest to express opposition to the new policies of a retired colonel, Arturo Navarro López, who assumed command of the police department two weeks ago.

A large number of Kichua and Arabela indigenous people have for two weeks blockaded one of the Amazon's main tributaries, the Río Napo, in response to the violation of their rights by oil companies and Peru's government. The protesters have blocked the Napo with canoes and a cable to stop oil company vessels getting upriver at Santa Clotilde, Napo district, Maynas province, Loreto region. According to Survival International, two boats, including one from the Anglo-French company Perenco, have managed to break through the blockade. Three shots were allegedly fired at the Indians who chased after them.

The co-educational schools that the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) runs for Afghan refugees in Pakistan are under attack from Pakistan's new Taliban movement. This statement from RAWA was forwarded to us by the Support Association for the Women of Afghanistan (SAWA-Australia), April 21:

A Sudanese court sentenced 11 members of Darfur's Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) to death by hanging April 22 in relation to last year's attack on Khartoum. As the sentence was read, the defendants yelled slogans, decrying what they said was an injustice and expressing support for JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim. Five other defendants were acquitted. (AlJazeera, April 24)

The trial opened this week for respected Tibetan lama who faces 15 years in prison on a weapons possession charge. Phurbu Tsering Rinpoche, who headed the Pangri nunnery in Ganzi Prefecture of Sichuan Province, was arrested on May 18 after over 80 nuns from his and another nunnery staged a peaceful protest march to the town. Police claim to have found a pistol and more than 100 bullets and cartridges under a bed in Rinpoche's room—a charge the lama denies.