Mexico's Senate and lower-house Chamber of Deputies have been occupied by protesters, with a giant tarp strewn over the dais painted with the word "CLOSED," since followers of the Broad Progressive Front (FAP) took over the chambers on April 10. The FAP, led by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is blockading the entrances to the building, while hardhat-clad legislators from the FAP-aligned Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Labor Party (PT) and Convergence Party maintain a round-the-clock presence in the chamber. Only one door has been left open for reporters. Legislators from other parties have been turned back by protesters. The FAP says the blockade won't be lifted until law-makers agree to a four-month "national debate" on plans to reform the state oil monopoly Pemex.

From the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), April 18:

US Ambassador Uses Anti-Gang Summit to Intervene in Salvadoran Domestic Security Issues
During an April 8 "Anti-Gang Summit" in San Salvador, United States Ambassador Charles Glazer urged Salvadoran authorities to quickly approve certain laws and reforms to the penal code, stating that, "it is necessary to make several critical reforms to get criminals off of the streets."

The governments of Brazil and Venezuela are leading efforts to create a NATO-style South American Defense Council, which could be formed by the end of the year. The regional body would coordinate defense policies, deal with internal conflicts and presumably wane Washington's influence in its "backyard."

Terrance Nelson, chief of the Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation in Manitoba, has sent a letter to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez asking for a $1 million donation or loan to hire lawyers to force two energy companies to share revenues from new pipelines to be built through the band's traditional territory. In the three-page letter, dated April 14, Nelson calls Chávez a "beacon of hope for poor and oppressed people everywhere" and asks him to turn an "international spotlight upon human rights violations against indigenous peoples currently taking place in Canada."

First Nations activists could target the 2010 Vancouver Olympics for protests similar to the pro-Tibetan demonstrations surrounding the upcoming Games in Beijing, warned Phil Fontaine, chief of Canada's Assembly of First Nations. Speaking in Ottawa, Fontaine said Native leaders could follow the lead of pro-Tibet groups who have repeatedly disrupted the torch relay for the Summer Games. "We find the Tibetan situation compelling," he said.

South African dock workers are refusing to unload a Chinese cargo ship carrying 77 tons of small arms destined for Zimbabwe. The arms, including three million rounds of ammunition for AK-47s and 1,500 rocket-propelled grenades, were ordered by the Zimbabwean military at the time of the March 29 election—which the UK and other Western powers have accused Robert Mugabe of trying to rig. The arms arrived at Durban April 16 aboard the Chinese-owned An Yue Jiang and must be taken by road to landlocked Zimbabwe, where the government is accused of arming rural militias before a possible run-off vote for the presidency. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has accused Mugabe's Zanu-PF of preparing for a "war."

Alak Khasutsang, disappearedProtests against the Olympic torch continue to make global headlines. Some 100 protesters braved an overwhelming police presence of several hundred, as well as a large force of pro-Chinese counter-demonstrators, outside the local UN offices as the torch arrived in Bangkok April 19. (Bloomberg, April 19) Two days earlier, up to 180 Tibetan activists were arrested in protests as the torch arrived in New Delhi. Thousands of police and guards made the route virtually inaccessible to the public. Another 46 Tibetans were arrested in Mumbai as they tried to storm the Chinese consulate. (News.com.au, April 17) Ironically, as the torch spectacle grabs media attention, harsh repression continues in the Tibetan lands of the People's Republic, with over a hundred new arrests, monks beaten and disappeared—and the world paying little note...

A suicide attack in front of a mosque in Zaranj, capital of Nimroz province in southwest Afghanistan, killed 16 and wounded more than 30 others April 17. The attack took place as worshipers were preparing for evening prayers. At least two other suicide attacks have hit Nimroz this month, including an attack April 1 that left two police officers dead in Zaranj, and another on April 12 that killed two Indian road construction engineers and their Afghan driver in Khash Rod.