Bolivia's new constitution, which is being attacked by the lowland oligarchs as centralizing too much power in the hands of President Evo Morales, actually devolves many powers to "indigenous nations and peoples," recognizing their right to "free determination and territoriality." It states that indigenous institutions will be "part of the general structure of the State." It officially identifies 36 indigenous peoples, stating that "their traditional knowledge and wisdom, their traditional medicines, their languages, their rituals and their symbols and dress will be valued, respected and promoted." These 36 ethnicities are also guaranteed "collective title to their territories." The document recognizes Bolivia as a "Unitary Social State of Plurethnic Communitarian Legal Character [Derecho], free, autonomous and decentralized; independent, sovereign, democratic and multicultural [intercultural]." It calls for "political, economic, juridical, cultural and linguistic pluralism." (EFE, Nov. 27)

Survivors and their supporters gathered in the mountain hamlet of Acteal in southern Mexico's conflicted Chiapas state Dec. 22 to mark the tenth anniversary of the massacre of 45 unarmed Tzotzil Maya peasants by a paramilitary group linked to the ruling political machine. Las Abejas (The Bees), the Maya Catholic pacifist group targeted in the attack, said in a statement: "The massacre plan was designed by ex-president Ernesto Zedillo; by the ex-general Enrique Cervantes, ex-secretary of National Defense; [and] by Julio César Ruiz Ferro, ex-governor of Chiapas." The statement charged that "the Mexican state" was responsible for the massacre through both "action and omission."

Workers march in Baghdad
Striking teachers rally
Iraq's teachers and healthcare workers are uniting with other public-sector employees to demand the government take action on improving working conditions, and pledge to begin a campaign of public sit-ins in Baghdad Dec. 26. The teachers union representing education workers in 15 provinces marched in Baghdad Dec. 16 in a one-day strike, pledging to escalate actions if the government doesn't deal next month. The teachers are demanding the same pay as colleagues in the safer Kurdistan region, and for greater investment in deteriorating schools. Security is also a key demand, following the slaying of a Baghdad school director last month. Speaking to the Baghdad newspaper al-Mada, the deputy head of the Teachers' Syndicate, Burhan Nema, said "Iraqi teachers will stage a sit-in as part of a protest campaign that calls for improving the living standards of 500,000 families living in poverty."

The empire strikes back—against California. From the Christian Science Monitor, Dec. 21:

The Environmental Protection Agency's decision to refuse California's request to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from automobiles is all but certain to provoke lawsuits that could tie the matter up in court, potentially delaying action to curb those emissions for years.

Pakistan's security forces have been waging a "secret war" in the Baluchistan region since the death of tribal leader Mir Balaach Marri in combat last month. Peter Tatchell writes in The Guardian, Dec. 21: "The often indiscriminate attacks on civilian settlements are taking place mostly in the Kahan and Dera Bugti regions, and involve the deployment of heavy artillery, fighter aircraft and helicopter gunships. Pakistan's attacks have reportedly, so far, resulted in deaths of at least 100 men, women and children. More than 200 houses and other buildings, including schools and clinics, have been bombed and burned to the ground. Many farm animals were also killed in the attacks, depriving already poor people of their livelihood."

"Al-Qaeda right now seems to have turned its face toward Pakistan and attacks on the Pakistani government and Pakistani people," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Dec. 21. "There is no question that some of the areas in the frontier area have become areas where al-Qaeda has re-established itself." (LAT, Dec. 21) He spoke one day after Congress slapped restrictions on military aid to Pakistan, withholding $50 million of the administration's $300 million request until Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice certifies Islamabad is restoring democratic rights. (WP, Dec. 21)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he agreed with the idea of an international force for the Occupied Territories, proposed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Paris donors' conference Dec. 18. The an-Nasser Salah Addin Brigades, military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, vocally rejected the idea, spokesman Abu Abeer saying: "We will not receive any international forces with flowers; instead we will be ready to blow [up] our bodies in these forces as we will consider them a new occupation which we must get rid of by any means." Later, the an-Nasser Brigades called on Abbas to resume dialogue with Hamas "before it is too late." (Ma'an News Agency, Dec. 18)

Another development in the ongoing church-vs.-state conflict over the Orthodox patriarchate in the Holy Land, with (as ever) the struggle over West Bank lands and the future of Jerusalem in the background. From the Jerusalem Post, Dec. 19, emphasis and interjections added: