Followers of Bolivian Aymara organization CONAMAQ blocked the highway between La Paz and Oruro for four hours Dec. 19, demanding that their office in La Paz be returned to them—and not be turned over to rivals within the organization that they say are being manipulated by the ruling party. The dispute began nine days earlier, when CONAMAQ's national gathering in La Paz, dubbed the Jach'a Tantachawi (Grand Assembly), broke down into a physical confrontation for control of the office. The following day, Dec. 11, National Police riot troops sealed off the office, barring access to the dissident faction that had been in control of it, "organic CONAMAQ." Adherents of this faction, led by Félix Becerra, began a round-the-clock vigil outside the office, camping on the sidewalk opposite a phalanx of police. On Dec. 13, a fight erupted when the vigilers were set upon by followers of the rival faction, led by Hilarión Mamani. That night, five "organic" leaders began a hunger strike to demand the office be restored to them. On Dec. 18, they lifted their fast, and decided to take direct action. One of the strikers, Walberto Barahona of Qhara Qhara Suyu, Chuquisaca department, said: "It is better to mobilize, because if we wait sitting we will die of hunger."

Colombia's oldest rebel group FARC has undergone significant changes concerning military strategy since entering the ongoing peace talks with the government, according to a new report. The report by think tank Fundación Paz y Reconciliación which was partly released in national newspaper El Espectador on Dec. 17 revealed how the rebel organization changed their military strategies, adapting to the rhythm of this year's peace talks. "In September and October when the negotiations were in a crisis due to a lack of progress concerning the point of political participation, [the FARC] launched a minor offensive, attacking the oil and energy infrastructure that left Tumaco 20 days without power. This shows that the operational capacity of the FARC is not that decimated," the report was quoted in El Espectador.

Fighting over four days in South Sudan's capital, Juba, following what the government has termed a "failed coup attempt," has left dozens dead and many more injured, forcing thousands of others to flee their homes, say officials. Close to 20,000 people have sought refuge at the two UN compounds in Juba over the past three days, up from a previous estimate of 10,000, according to Toby Lanzer, the UN Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) and Resident and Humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan.  The fighting erupted on Dec. 15, when soldiers loyal to former vice president Riek Machar allegedly attacked the Al Giada army headquarters on the outskirts of Juba, President Salva Kiir told the nation in an address on Dec. 16. 

In the most dramatic demonstration ever staged by African refugees in Israel, some 150 Sudanese men who have been detained for months at the sprawling Saharonim prison camp in the desert south marched cross-country on Jerusalem, and on Dec. 18 protested outside the government compound there. In the three-day march through snow-covered country, the migrants took shelter in bus stations at night. They had last week been transfered from Saharonim to an "open" facility at Holot—which authorities maintain is not a prison, despite the fact that the migrants must report back there each night or be in violaiton of the law. Upon the transfer, they quickly abandoned the facilty and began their cross-country trek. At the Jerusalem rally, which was itself an act of civil disobedience against their legal detention, the migrants chanted: "No more prison!" and "Refugees' rights right now!"

Isn't it utterly absurd that there are some aghast at the suffering of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and utterly unconcerned with that in Yarmouk, the Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus now besieged by forces loyal to Syrian dictator Bashar Assad... and vice versa...? A brutal winter storm in the region has exacerbated the suffering in both blockaded enclaves, and most Palestinians assuredly grasp the obvious symmetry. In some quarters, however, a sort of ideological blindness seems to prevail: Assad's apologists are of course outraged at the agony in Gaza, but find that in Yarmouk invisible. The US State Department, in turn, exploits Yarmouk for propaganda against Assad, while displaying no such concern for Gaza...

Two Chilean anarchists, Gabriel and Pablo, are touring the US and will speak in New York City Jan. 25, on "Struggling to Win: Anarchists Building Popular Power in Chile." Gabriel is a militant of the Libertarian Students Front (FEL) and a veteran of the student protests that have rocked Chile in recent years; Pablo is a founding member of Librería Proyección, a social center and bookstore in downtown Santiago. In their talk at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS), 155 Ave. C on Manhattan's Lower East Side, they will discuss anarchist spaces, murals and street art in Santiago, and the role of such projects in Chile's larger social struggle. The presentation will be followed by a reception.

Haitian garment workers walked off their jobs in Port-au-Prince on the morning of Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, starting off three days of strikes and marches for a higher minimum wage. The protests were in response to the Nov. 29 recommendation by the newly formed Higher Council on Wages (CSS) setting a minimum wage of 225 gourdes (US$5.44) a day for the country's 24 apparel factories—tax-exempt plants, known in Latin America as maquiladoras, which assemble products for export to North America. With hundreds of participants—or thousands, according to some sources—the actions were the largest demonstrations by assembly workers since August 2009.

Some 60 families left homeless by the earthquake that devastated southern Haiti in January 2010 were evicted from their improvised shelters in the vast Canaan camp a few kilometers north of Port-au-Prince on Dec. 7. According to residents, the removal was carried out—without an eviction order—by a justice of the peace and 17 police agents. The authorities were accompanied by a group of men armed with machetes and clubs who tore down homes, stole residents' belongings and assaulted more than a dozen people. Another 100 families were told they would be evicted later.