After 90 days of negotiations with unions and other social organizations, on Oct. 10 the government of right-wing Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli approved an agreement to rescind a controversial law and replace it with a package of six separate laws. The original Law 30—which was passed in June and quickly became known as the "sausage law" because so many different measures were stuffed into it—ignited strikes and protests by unions and environmental groups that resulted in at least two deaths in July and forced the Martinelli government to negotiate.

After almost 20 years, a former Colombian army officer was sentenced Oct. 14 to 44 years in prison for his role in the deaths of over 245 civilians in the Trujillo Massacres between 1986 and 1994. Retired major Alirio Antonio Urena, a School of the Americas graduate, was a commander of an army brigade that evidently collaborated with paramilitaries in Valle del Cauca department at the time of the killings. The dead included Tiberio Fernández, a popular Catholic priest and political organizer whose body was found castrated and decapitated in the Río Cauca. The verdict was the first by the Colombian justice system in the notorious case, which was reopened in 1991 after justice officials had initially absolved the Urena and his co-defendants.

The severed head of Rolando Flores, a Mexican investigator looking into the disappearance of Texas reporter David Hartley, was delivered to authorities in northern Mexico's Tamaulipas state, according to Sheriff Sigifredo González of Zapata County, who is leading the investigation on the US side. Hartley was attacked by gunmen in speedboats while using Jet Skis on Sept. 30 with his wife on Falcon Lake, which stretches into Mexico. His body has still not been found. Flores, commander of state investigators in Ciudad Miguel Aleman, was part of a group assigned to the Hartley case. A spokesman for the Tamaulipas prosecutor's office confirmed that Flores had been killed, but said the death was unrelated to the Hartley investigation. (AP, Oct. 14; MSNBC, Oct. 13)

Unknown assailants on a motorcycle assassinated Colombian indigenous leader Rodolfo Maya Aricape as he left a community meeting in the hamlet of López Adentro, Caloto village, the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC) announced Oct. 15. The statement said Maya Aricape had received death threats last month from armed groups operating in the region. It said the slaying was "not an isolated incident but is part of a strategy of intimidation" by armed groups to involve indigenous communities in the war and seize their lands. (Notimex, ACIN, Oct. 15)

Survival International is warning the United Nations of massive oil operations in the northern Peruvian Amazon that could decimate uncontacted tribal people. "By permitting companies to operate in this region Peru's government is flagrantly violating international law. Survival believes it very important to investigate this situation as soon as possible and for Peru's government to prohibit the companies from working there. If that is not done, some of the world's most vulnerable citizens could be wiped out," said a letter from Survival to the UN's Special Rapporteur on indigenous peoples, Prof. James Anaya.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced Oct. 11 that police have arrested Mal Rt [Reuters backgrounder] CEO Zoltan Bakonyi on criminal negligence charges for the company's role in last week's Akja chemical spill. Orban also announced an emergency law that was easily passed allowing the government to take control of Mal Rt, which owned the plant from which the spill originated. The spill occurred Oct. 4 when one of the plant's reservoirs cracked, releasing nearly 200 million gallons of toxic sludge, killing eight people, injuring hundreds more and causing environmental damage that some fear could take years to clean up. Police initiated their criminal investigation last week. If convicted, Bakonyi faces up to 11 years in prison.

An Israeli military court on Oct. 11 sentenced non-violent protest organizer Abdallah Abu Rahmah to 12 months imprisonment, with a six-month suspended sentence. Abu Rahmah has been in an Israeli jail since December, and was convicted in August of incitement, and organizing and participating in protests in the West Bank village of Bil'in. Ofer military court also ordered Abu Rahmah to pay a 5,000 shekel fine (almost $1,400).

The Israeli cabinet approved an amendment Oct. 10 to the country's citizenship law that would require those seeking citizenship to pledge allegiance to Israel as a "Jewish and democratic state" and promise "to honor the laws of the state." The amendment was approved by a vote of 22-8, and will be entered into law if it is approved by a majority in the Knesset and passes muster with the Supreme Court.