Ecuador's indigenous movement launched a national "Mobilization to Defend the Water" Sept. 28, erecting roadblocks with rocks, trees and burning tires on several sections along the Panamerican highway and various other locations. The mobilization was called by Marlon Santi, president of Ecuador's national indigenous coalition CONAIE, two weeks earlier, at a "National Assembly to Defend the Water." A statement on the website of Ecuador's Amazonian peoples alliance ECUARUNARI states that the country's indigenous movement has been "exhausted by the process of dialogue" with the Rafael Correa government.

Two Qeqchi Maya leaders were shot and killed and over a dozen wounded this week near the site of a shuttered nickel mine in Guatemala. The first shooting took place Sept. 27 on land claimed by the community of Las Nubes, which Compañia Guatemalteca de Niquel (CGN), a subsidiary of Manitoba's HudBay Minerals, also claims to own. Early reports indicated CGN's private security guards opened fire while attempting to remove families from their land. Adolfo Ichi Chamán, a teacher and community leader, was killed and at least eight more wounded by AK-47 fire.

The Canada-based Linear Gold Corp. ceded to pressure from indigenous communities who oppose plans to exploit gold and silver deposits at Ixhuatán in Mexico's southern state of Chiapas, and announced the closure of its offices in the state on Sept. 28. Along with the company Blackfire Exploration Corporation, Linear Gold Corp. holds most of the concessions granted by the Mexican government to foreign mining outfits in the conflicted state. The company's statement upon closing its Chiapas offices cited the world financial sitaution, and left open the possibility of resuming local operations. The Mexican Network of the Mining-Affected (REMA) had held numerous protests against the project. (No a la Mina, Sept. 28)

Four suspected militants were killed Sept. 30 when a presumed US drone fired missiles at two vehicles in Nurak, a village just east of the city of Miran Shah, in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area. It was the third suspected US drone strike in Pakistan's tribal areas in the past 24 hours. (CNN, Sept. 30) Tahir Yuldashev, leader of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), was killed in an Aug. 27 drone attack in South Waziristan, local media report. (Xinhua, Oct. 2)

Tribal elders said Oct. 1 that eight people—at least five of them civilians—were killed in an airstrike in southern Afghanistan on the previous day. A US military spokeswoman, Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, confirmed the strike, in the Nad Ali district of Helmand province, but declined to estimate the number of casualties before a review of the attack. According to Hajji Talib, a district council member from the area, the strike killed a farmer, his family and three guests in the village of Khushal. (NYT, Oct. 1)

Argentina's former President Carlos Menem was charged Oct. 1 with obstructing an investigation into the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid Association (AMIA) in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and wounded more than 300. At the time of the bombing, Menem, now 79, was in the midst of his 12 years as president. He also faces charges in a separate case involving a scheme to smuggle weapons to Croatia and Ecuador. (NYT, Oct. 1)

The American Civil Liberties Union is offering to help University of Pittsburgh students who were arrested during the Group of 20 economic summit in Pittsburgh—some of whom say they weren't even protesting. ACLU attorneys made the offer at a rally Oct. 1 attended by some 150. They say police conducted unlawful mass arrests and used excessive force.

Internationally-known Mexican environmentalist and forest defender Felipe Arreaga was killed Sept. 16, while driving his ATV in Petatlan, Guerrero. The longtime campesino leader was struck by a mini-bus and died a few hours later in a hospital in nearby Zihuatanejo. Although Petatlan is the site of a military base, it lacks civilian medical facilities capable of handling serious injuries. The driver of the mini-bus fled the scene of the crash, and many circumstances of the incident are still unclear.