The majority of Bolivian newspapers engaged in a joint protest Oct. 7 against a proposed anti-racism law that they claim would damage freedom of expression. The newspapers (e.g. Los Tiempos of Cochabamba) shared one message on their front page—"There is no democracy without freedom of expression"—in response to a decision by President Evo Morales to maintain certain provisions of the legislation. Article 16 of the bill currently being discussed by the Senate, and which was already passed by the Chamber of Deputies, would establish economic sanctions and allow for media outlets that publish information considered by the government to be racist or discriminatory to be closed. Bolivia's journalists and media outlets maintain that they support the struggle against racism but that they cannot accept provisions that would limit freedom of expression. They worry that the bill could be used for political ends to censor unfavorable opinions.

Former leader of the Inter-Ethnic Alliance for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP) Alberto Pizango held a press conference in Puno to announce his candidacy for president of Peru, with the Alliance for the Alternative for Humanity (APHU). The leader of the Regional Coordinator of Communities Affected by Mining (CORECAMI), Pablo Salas Charca, was on hand to pledge his support for Pizango. (Generaccion, Los Andes, Sept. 22)

On Oct. 1, seven Peruvian SOA graduates were convicted of aggravated murder, kidnapping, forced disappearance, and conspiracy for their roles in two massacres of civilians and the murder of a radio journalist who had been reporting on human rights violations. The crimes were all committed by Grupo Colina, an army unit led and largely staffed by SOA-trained soldiers.

A School of the Americas graduate has been charged for last week's unsuccessful coup attempt in Ecuador. Col. Manuel E. Rivadeneira Tello, a graduate of the SOA's combat arms training course, is one of three police officials being investigated for negligence, rebellion and attempted assassination of the president.

United Nations talks on climate change in China's port city of Tianjin are nearing a close with no clear consensus yet in sight. The meeting is aimed at laying the groundwork for progress at the UN's annual climate change summit that opens in Cancún, Mexico, on November 29. Chinese and Brazilian officials have blocked discussion of the legal framework for a further set of emissions reductions under the Kyoto Protocol after the first commitment period expires at the end of 2012.

On Oct. 4, Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez announced the expropriation of a subsidiary of the British Vestey Group, and of Agroisleña, a major agricultural firm founded by Spaniards half a century ago. In a nationally televised telephone interview, Chávez said Venezuela would take complete control of hundreds of thousands of hectares, and some 130,000 head of cattle, owned by La Compañía Inglesa, which is controlled by the Vestey Group. Vestey has owned property in the country since 1909. Chávez said compensation had been negotiated with the company. Since 2001, the government has expropriated (with compensation) some three million hectares of land, and has issued permits to tens of thousands of families to work a total of two million hectares.

A former Guantánamo Bay detainee filed a lawsuit Oct. 6 against the US military alleging that he was subjected to torture. Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al-Ginco, a Syrian national who prefers the surname Janko, filed suit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia—the same court that ordered his release last year—claiming that US military officials repeatedly tortured him during his nearly seven-and-a-half years at Gitmo. The suit names 26 current or former members of the military who are allegedly responsible for the tortuous acts, such as urinating on Janko, slapping him, threatening him with loss of fingernails, sleep deprivation, extreme cold and stress positions. Janko was released in June 2009 when Judge Richard Leon found that he could no longer be classified as an "enemy combatant" and that the government's argument against him defied common sense. Prior to being detained by the US military, Janko was imprisoned and tortured by al-Qaeda for 18 months over suspicions that he was an American spy.

On Earth Day this year, Bolivia hosted the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of the Mother Earth (CMPCC) in the central city of Cochabamba. Some 30,000 people from over 150 countries attended the CMPCC, which sought to bring governments and civil society groups together to work to address climate change. Ironically, the days around the Cochabamba summit saw a wave of campesino and indigenous protest over development projects and land rights throughout Bolivia, and the immediate aftermath of the CMPCC saw a nationwide general strike by workers who rejected the government's offer of a 5% wage increase. These conflicts bring home the contradictions that Morales and his ruling Movement to Socialism face as they try to balance the dictates of state power and economic reality with an indigenous and ecological sensitivity. Journalist Bill Weinberg, who covered the Cochabamba summit for NACLA Report on the Americas, reports back and leads a discussion on indigenous, peasant and ecological struggles in Bolivia and Peru, and the challenges of building solidarity.