The brothers Antonio and Mariano Pucuj were sentenced to 26 years in prison late last month for their participation in the December 1997 massacre of 45 Tzotzil indigenous people at Acteal hamlet in Mexico's southern Chiapas state. They were also ordered to pay more than $70,000 in compensation to the victims' families. The Pucuj brothers are said to be appealing the decision. Officials say the killings were motivated by a land dispute between two Tzotzil communities. But victims' families say the perpetrators were provided weapons and paramilitary training from the government. Last year, courts sentenced 34 men to 26 years each for the killings. (AP, Feb. 27)

Fourteen Toztzil and Tzeltal Maya prisoners at Social Readaption Center Number 14, known as El Amate, in Cintalapa, Chiapas, went on hunger strike Feb. 28, in protest of harsh conditions and to demand recognition as political prisoners. Eight are followers of the Zapatista rebels' "Other Campaign" political initiative. Most have been imprisoned five years, in connection with the Tres Cruces case involving land conflicts in the highland village of San Juan Chamula, which is ruled by notorious political bosses known as the caciques. The Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center has issued an urgent statement expressing concern for the men's health. (La Jornada, Feb. 29) On March 3, nine indigenous prisoners being held in the highland city of San Cristóbal de las Casas announced they were joining in a solidarity hunger strike with the Cintalapa 14. (La Jornada, March 4)

With $100-a-barrel here for now, Goldman Sachs says $200 a barrel could be a near-term reality in the case of a "major disruption." Goldman on March 7 also boosted by $10 the low end of its 2008-2012 projected range for crude to $60 a barrel—in the event that "normalized" trends return to the market. With the dollar's fall continuing and financial markets squeezed by the credit crunch, commodities like oil have been drawing the increasing numbers of investors, and Wall Street firms have been eager to adjust forecasts. Goldman analysts Arjun Murti, Kevin Koh and Michele della Vigna said prices have advanced more quickly than Goldman had forecast back in 2005, when it predicted a range of $50 to $105 a barrel as part of its "super-spike" oil theory.

Josette Sheeran, head of the UN World Food Program, warned that the global rise in basic food costs could continue until 2010, blaming soaring energy and grain prices—the effects of climate change and demand for biofuels. Some food prices rose 40% last year, and the WFP fears the world's poorest will buy less food, or be forced to rely on aid. Speaking after briefing the European Parliament, Sheeran said the agency needed an extra $375 million for food projects this year plus $125 million to transport the food aid. She said she saw no quick solution to high food and fuel costs. "The assessment is that we are facing high food prices at least for the next couple of years," she said. Sheeran said global food reserves are at their lowest level in 30 years—with enough to cover the need for emergency deliveries for 53 days, compared with 169 days in 2007. Sheeran has already warned that the WFP is considering plans to ration food aid due to a shortage of funds.

From the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), March 3:

On February 20 more than three thousand Salvadoran bakers participated in a march to protest the high cost of flour and other commodities used by their sector. The marchers demanded that the government step in to alleviate the crisis by means of a subsidy. Thousands of Salvadoran families remain unable to put bread on the table, in part due to the rising cost of flour, which bakers are then forced to pass along to their customers.

From the Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC), March 8:

On the 8th of March This Year...
"No to Women Killing... No to the Gangs Who Promote Sexual Cleansing...
Yes to an Iraq that is Free of Women Haters"
The 8th of March is the International Women's Day, on which the voices are lauding and protests against sexual discrimination are widening every day even in the most developed countries. In Iraq however, the discrimination against women has reached to a degree of sexual cleansing carried out by sectarian militias linked to the regime of mullahs in Iran and groups of Al Qaeda. These groups have committed the most heinous crimes against humanity, and women in particular to the extent of sexual genocide in the cities of Basra, Baghdad, Mosul and Diyala.

Iraq's President Jalal Talabani said March 8 he seeks a "strategic" partnership with Turkey as he wrapped up a visit to Ankara aimed at easing tension sparked by the Turkish military's eight-day incursion into Iraq last month. Speaking to members of a Turkish-Iraqi joint business group, Talabani also called on Turkish interests to invest in Iraq's oil sector. "We want to forge strategic relations in all fields including oil, the economy, trade, culture and politics," Talabani said. Addressing Turkish fears, Talabani stressed that Kurdish rebels would not be tolerated inside Iraq's borders, and said Iraq was continuing to put pressure on the PKK to lay down arms. (AP, March 8)

A double bombing in a crowded Baghdad shopping district killed at least 53 people and wounded 130 March 6. The blasts took place in the primarily Shi'ite, middle-class Baghdad neighborhood of Karradah. The tactic was to draw in the people with the first blast—especially security and medical workers—before a second bomb detonates. (AP, March 8) Iraqi security forces uncovered a mass grave containing about 100 bodies in the Diyala province March 8. (Xinhua, March 8)