Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona's Maricopa County is vowing to defy a federal order to halt immigration round-ups. On Oct. 16, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told Arpaio to stop using the authority of the federal 287g program—which deputizes local law enforcement to help federal agents target undocumented immigrants—in his Phoenix street sweeps that have primarily led to arrests of people who haven't committed any serious crimes. Arpaio publicly refused as he headed a 12th major anti-immigration operation through the metro Phoenix county that day.

Demonstrator Imer Boror, 19, was killed by police gunfire and two were wounded as indigenous protesters blocked entry points into Guatemala's capital on Oct. 12, Dia de La Raza. Roads were also blocked at several other points around the country. Juana Mulul, leader of the "Day of Dignity and Resistance" protests, told AFP the direct action campaign "is purely in defense of Mother Earth and our territory." After the violence, President Alvaro Colom agreed to appoint a special panel to meet with indigenous leaders to discuss their demands. Aparicio Pérez of the Campesino Unity Committee (CUC) said representatives would ask the government to cancel mining, hydroelectric and industrial concessions because "multinational companies are taking over natural resources, which have long been the source of life for rural families." (AFP, Oct. 13)

The seventh summit of the Latin American anti-imperialist bloc ALBA concluded Oct. 17 in Cochabamba, Bolivia, with resolute support for ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, strong opposition to planned US military bases in Colombia—and an agreement to form a new international currency to make the region less dependent on the dollar. The new currency, named the sucre after José Antonio de Sucre, who fought for South America's independence alongside Simon Bolívar, is slated to be issued in coin form in 2010.

Two weeks after Rio de Janeiro celebrated winning the 2016 Olympic Games, the Brazilian city was rocked by an intense gun battle that left 12 dead, including two police, in one of the northern favelas, and a Military Police helicopter was shot down, killing two officers. The violence began early Oct. 17, when Morro dos Macacos favela, controlled by the Amigos dos Amigos drug gang, was invaded by members of the rival Comando Vermelho. Both sides then turned against the police who were sent in to intervene. Ironically, the violence took place near a football field known as the Vila Olímpica. Fighting quickly spread to the neighboring favelas of Sampaio and Vila Isabel, where numerous buses were torched in protest of the police invasion. The conflicted favelas have since been flooded with hundreds of Military Police. (BBC News, Jornal de Brasília, Oct. 18; The Guardian; Jornal do Commercio, Recife; eBand, Brazil, Oct. 17)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said Oct. 17 that Iran is helping his country explore for uranium. "We're working with several countries, with Iran, with Russia," Chavez told reporters during a visit to Bolivia. But he emphasized that Venezuela is taking the lead in the exploration: "We're responsible for what we're doing, we're in control." He also insisted that Venezuela would only use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes: "What we propose is for nuclear bombs to be eliminated. Venezuela will never build a nuclear bomb." (Reuters, Oct. 17)

On Oct. 16, 22 students were arrested on the National University campus in Bogotá after they detained the university rector for five hours during a demonstration. Some 300 students were protesting lack of funds for the public university. During the protest, the rector was surrounded by students and held while attempting to leave the campus. The arrests came after President Alvaro Uribe ordered anti-riot police into the campus. Seven of the detained were released for being minors. Uribe called on prosecutors to charge the students with kidnapping. (Colombia Reports, Oct. 17)

Colombia's top prosecutorial office, the Fiscalía General, ordered the detention of army lieutenant Alberto Williams Echeverry as the presumed author of the Aug. 9, 2006 massacre of five members of the Awá indigenous people at Ricaurte, Nariño department. Investigators from the Fiscalía's human rights department found that the killings were "false positives"—slain civilians reported as guerillas killed in battle. Other army personnel are said to be under investigation in the incident. (RCN Radio, Colombia, Oct. 17)

The Sunni resistance movement Jundallah, or Soldiers of God, took credit for a car bomb that killed two senior commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guards and 27 other officers in a suicide attack in Pishin, Sistan-Baluchistan province. The blast targetted a meeting of Revolutionary Guards commanders and local tribal leaders.