The Tamil Tiger rebels launched their first air strike March 26, hitting a Sri Lankan air base near Colombo. They Defense Ministry said three airmen were killed and 16 wounded, but the military's newly-purchased MIG fighter jets were not damaged. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said the raid, carried out with two planes, was aimed at interrupting the "indiscriminative bombing of the Tamil areas" by the Sri Lankan government. LTTE guerillas attacked the same base in 2001, destroying half of the Sri Lankan fleet. (Asia News, March 26) In India P. Nedumaran, leader of the Tamilar Desiya Iyakkam of Tamil Nadu, said the LTTE air attack has brought "endless joy and happiness to Tamils all over the world." (Asian Tribune) Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's pro-government LankaWeb cites claims on the Counterterrorism Blog that the LTTE sold stolen Norwegian passports to al-Qaeda operatives. Writes Counterterrorism Blog's self-appointed "expert" Aaron Mannes:

US and Iraqi officials are in contact with representatives of some Sunni insurgent groups to build an alliance against al-Qaeda in Iraq, outgoing US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad announced March 26, saying he is cautiously optimistic that "success is possible." Khalilzad admitted he had flown to Jordan for meetings with representatives of the Islamic Army of Iraq and the 1920 Revolution Brigades. (Reuters, NYT, March 26) In Ramadi, Col. John W. Charlton boasts that a new anti-Qaeda Sunni alliance, the Anbar Salvation Council led by Sheikh Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi, has cut attacks in the city by half in recent months. But the leader of the Association of Muslim Scholars, Sheikh Harith al-Dhari, describes the Anbar Salvation Council as "thieves and bandits." US forces in Anbar report growing gun battles between rival Sunni militias in Ramadi. They used to describe such skirmishes as "red on red" fighting—battles between enemies. Now they call it "red on green." (AP, March 26)

Venezuela has announced it is working on a number of new oil deals with China, as it aims to reduce its dependence upon crude exports to the US. The China National Petroleum Corporation is expected to sink new investments in Venezuela's oil facilities. The announcement comes as President Hugo Chavez is pushing a reorganization of Venezuela's oil industry which would strip major US companies such as Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron of their majority stakes in Venezuelan oil projects. "The United States as a power is on the way down, China is on the way up," said Chavez after the announcement. "China is the market of the future." (BBC, March 25)

The Los Angeles Times reported March 25 on new CIA intelligence indicating that the Colombia's army chief, Gen. Mario Montoya, collaborated extensively with right-wing paramilitaries that Washington considers terrorist organizations. The report circulated within the CIA and obtained by the LAT claims Montoya and a paramilitary group jointly planned and carried out a 2002 "Operation Orion" to eliminate guerrillas from poor areas around Medellin. Operation Orion sent 3,000 Colombian army troops and police, supported by helicopter gunships, into the vast guerilla-controlled shantytowns ringing Medellin. At least 14 people were killed in the operation, and rights observers say dozens more disappeared in its aftermath. The UN and Organization of American Stateshave investigated the reports, and Colombian Sen. Gustavo Petro, an opponent of Uribe, publicly charged that 46 disappeared during the operation.

Early on March 20 in Tirua, in Chile's Region VIII, police arrested Jose Huenchunao Marinan, a Mapuche community leader (werken) and activist who had been in hiding for nearly three years. Huenchunao, a member of the Arauco-Malleco Mapuche Coordinating Committee, was sentenced in August 2004 to 10 years in prison for a December 2001 arson attack against the Poluco Pidenco estate, property of Forestal Mininco, a subsidiary of the Compania Manufacturera de Papeles y Cartones (CMPC), in Ercilla, Region IX. A number of other activists, including Patricia Troncoso Robles, Juan Carlos Huenulao and brothers Juan and Jaime Marileo Sarabia, were also sentenced to 10 years in the same case. (Argenpress, March 23 via Resumen Latinoamericano; La Tercera, Santiago, March 22; UPI, March 20 via Terra Noticias; Santiago Times, March 21 via UNPO)

On March 24 Salvador Garcia Ledesma, general operations director of the Mexican mining company Luismin, offered to pay the community of Nuevo Carrizalillo, Eduardo Neri municipality, in the southern state of Guerrero, an annual rent of 8,000 pesos (about $726) for each of the 900 hectares of land the company is mining for gold. Community residents, who along with some miners have blockaded the Los Filos-El Bermejal mines at various times since Jan. 8, rejected the offer, although it was more than eight times the payment the company originally committed to. The community is now holding out for 50,000 pesos ($4,538) a year for each hectare; in January they demanded 92,000 for each of 700 hectares. Garcia Ledesma says that Luismin, the Mexican mining division of the Vancouver-based Goldcorp Inc., has lost about $180,000 so far in the dispute. (La Jornada, March 25)

Followers of the People's Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT) from the central Mexican village of San Salvador Atenco marched and blocked the Texcoco-Lecheria federal highway to demand the liberation of 31 of their comrades from Altiplano and Santiaguito prisons in the state of Mexico. The group of campesinos was led by Maria Antonia Trinidad Ramirez, wife of FPDT director Ignacio Del Valle, one of the prisoners at Altiplano. (La Jornada, March 24)

Amid a growing threat of paramilitary violence in Mexico's conflicted southern state of Chiapas, Subcomandante Marcos, leader of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), reappeared in the highland city of San Cristobal de Las Casas to announce the resumption of his nationwide civil political initiative known as the "Other Campaign." The new phase is to begin March 24 in San Cristobal, where a series of meetings will be held with a Zapatista delegation and national and international supporters. In a document presented to the press, Marcos said the delegation will be "made up of seven female commanders, seven male commanders and a subcomandante," a reference to himself. (El Universal, March 24)