Thousands of Guatemalan campesinos blocked roads at seven or more sites on June 4 in a nationwide protest organized by the Committee for Campesino Development (CODECA) to demand that the government carry out agrarian reform, provide agricultural products for about 25,000 campesinos, buy land for cultivation and forgive debts that some campesinos incurred by taking out bank loans to buy land. CODECA spokesperson Mauro Bay said the campesinos had been making these requests of President Alvaro Colom's government since Feb. 5, 2008 but had received no response. Presidential spokesperson Fernando Barillas said the government had offered to meet with CODECA leaders on the demands but CODECA turned down the offer.

In one of the largest demonstrations in recent Puerto Rican history, tens of thousands of people marched in front of the Capitol building in San Juan on June 5 to protest plans by Gov. Luis Fortuño of the conservative New Progressive Party (PNP) to lay off about 30,000 government workers and to privatize some public services. Estimates of participation ranged from 50,000 to 100,000. Many public employees attended despite veiled threats of reprisals if they were absent from work on June 5; supervisors had been drawing up lists of people who planned to take the day off.

On a whirl-wind tour of the Southwest late last week, senior members of the Barack Obama administration laid out the White House strategy for border security, narcotics control and immigration reform. And contrary to the expectations of some border residents and advocates who were betting on a new approach last January, the new administration's strategic policy thrust mainly follows and even expands on the course long pursued by previous Democratic and Republican administrations. A solid alliance with the Calderón administration in Mexico City is a key component of the Obama border policy.

The legacy of Dr. Manuel Arroyo Galvan was remembered in a large rally and march held June 3 in Ciudad Juárez. The 44-year-old sociology and education professor for the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez (UACJ) was shot to death in broad daylight in a May 29 killing that outraged a city practically numbed by more than 2,200 murders during the last 17 months.

Nine more police officers were reportedly killed in a standoff with indigenous protesters in Peru's Amazonas region June 6, bringing the total dead since the previous day's police attack on a road blockade in Bagua municipality to an estimated 60. Authorities say 22 officers of the Peruvian National Police (PNP) have been killed—seven with spears. Indigenous leaders say at least 40 of their people have been killed, including three children. The government says it can confirm only nine civilian deaths. Thousands of indigenous protesters armed with spears are blockading roads throughout the region.

Pakistan's army said June 5 it has arrested senior associates of the radical Islamist cleric Sufi Mohammad, in the country's northwest. Six men, including Sufi Mohammad's deputy Maulana Mohammed Alim, spokesman Ameer Izzat Khan, and aide Syed Wahab were detained, officials said. Mohammad is the father-in-law of Maulana Fazlullah, Taliban leader in the Swat valley where the army is battling militants.

Israeli soldiers shut down a non-violent protest in Hebron June 6, declaring the area a "Closed Military Zone" and harassing international peace activists and Palestinians. The protest was against the expansion of the illegal Susya settlement of south of Hebron, which has recently added several trailer homes outside the initial settlement boundaries. Verbal clashes and heated arguments erupted as troops barred protesters from entering the area—though the soldiers claimed the area was closed because they feared violence from settlers against the protesters. (Ma'an News Agency, June 6)

President Barack Obama's historic speech to the Muslim world, delivered June 4 at Cairo's al-Azhar University, Islam's highest institution of learning, was—like much in the president's program—a meaningful step forward nonetheless compromised by tactical equivocation. This is illustrated by two historical invocations in his text: one a courageous repudiation of his predecessor's Christian crusader mentality—the other a dangerous omission that undermines his message of reconciliation...