The 82-year-old Gregorio Alvarez, former Uruguayan army commander and president (1981-1985) of the military junta that ruled the country after a 1973 coup, was imprisoned on Dec. 17 in Montevideo after Judge Luis Charles ordered his arrest for participation in the disappearance of at least 21 people in 1977 and 1978. The judge is in charge of an investigation into the disappearances of Uruguayan dissidents who had taken refuge in Argentina but were brought back to Uruguay secretly and illegally, with the cooperation of the Argentine military government under Operation Condor, a clandestine program of coordination between Latin American military regimes in the 1970s and 1980s. The judge also ordered the arrest of retired army officer Juan Carlos Larcebeau and retired navy officer Jorge Troccoli. (La Jornada, Mexico, Dec. 18 from wire services)

On Dec. 14 US president George W. Bush signed legislation approving the Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA, or TLC for its initials in Spanish), which will eventually eliminate tariffs between the two countries. The signing took place at a ceremony in the White House in Washington, DC, which Peruvian president Alan Garcia attended along with diplomats and members of the US Congress. According to an opinion poll by the Apoyo firm published in the daily Comercio on Dec. 16, 66% of Peruvians favor the accord and only 25% oppose it. Apoyo says the poll was carried out among 1,017 Peruvians between Dec. 12 and 14 and has a 3.1% margin of error. (El Diario-La Prensa, Dec. 17 from AP)

Colombia's main opposition party, the Polo Democratico, has issued a strong statement against Plan Colombia. The communique is also a grim assessment of Alvaro Uribe's Democratic Security policy, heavily influenced by Washington. The Polo cites the increase of human rights violations and forced displacement among communities targeted for crop eradication. Furthermore, the Polo asserts that under Plan Colombia, paramilitary groups have strengthened, achieving greater political, economic and social control throughout several regions.

Rodrigo Lara Restrepo, chief of the Colombian presidency's anti-corruption program, resigned Dec. 12—days after Miami's El Nuevo Herald reported documents showing his father, Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, had warned before his 1984 assassination that relatives of current President Alvaro Uribe might try to kill him.

On Dec. 13, an observer who works for an international body set up to monitor Colombia's demobilization process received a death threat while visiting a poor neighborhood in Medellín. Since 2004, the Mission to Support the Peace Process (MAPP), under the auspices of the Organization of American States, has had teams of observers in different parts of Colombia and produces periodic reports. The member who was threatened in Colombia was in a meeting when a man on a motorcycle drove up to her car and told her driver that his boss would be killed if she failed to abandon her work.

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."