From the Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC), Feb. 12:

Once Again US Troops Desperately Attempt to Suppress the Voice of Freedom in Iraq
The occupying troops have made another attempt to eliminate the voice of freedom from Iraq by raiding the IFC headquarters in Baghdad today at 2:00 AM, when they forced themselves in, verbally and physically assaulted the guards and stood them out in the rain for several hours.

Mindanao anarchists

In Davao City, on the conflicted Philippine island of Mindanao, a group of nonviolent anarchists known as the "As A Whole" Collective have for the past two years been feeding homeless youth and the elderly as a local Food Not Bombs chapter, as well as holding rallies against corporate exploitation, and were part of a successful activist campaign that resulted in a complete ban of aerial pesticide spraying on banana plantations. The group has now established a space called Saydee's Kitchen, from which they are offering free meals twice a week, feeding up to 100 youth and elderly. While local markets are donating food, Saydee's Kitchen is requesting donations of stoves, large cooking pans and kitchen utensils, or money to purchase these items.

Lorenzo Fernández Ortega, a 38-year-old bricklayer and member of the Organization of the Indigenous Mepha'a People (OPIM), was stabbed to death Feb. 10 in Ayutla de los Libres, a village in the conflicted Mexican state of Guerrro. The group had been protesting a campaign of forced sterilizations of indigenous women in the region, and charged that the federal army is establishing paramilitary groups which have carried out recent attacks on indigenous activists. OPIM's statement on the murder said, "our compañero Lorenzo was assassinated by paramilitaries that work for the 48th Infantry Battalion of the Mexican Army, headquartered at Cruz Grande." (OPIM statement via Zapateando; La Jornada, Feb. 12)

From the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Feb. 13:

El Salvador's Attorney General last Friday [Feb. 8] requested that charges of "acts of terrorism" be dropped against 13 peaceful protesters arrested at a demonstration against water privatization last July in the town of Suchitoto. After more than six months of investigation into the events of July 2, 2007, the Salvadoran government was unable to substantiate its original terrorism accusations, which carried a potential sentence of up to 60 years in prison. The charges fell under the jurisdiction of El Salvador's 2006 "Special Law Against Acts of Terrorism," which was championed by the US Embassy in San Salvador. Human rights experts in El Salvador and on the international level uniformly concluded that the Suchitoto protest was lawful and denounced the terrorism charges.

Anti-draft protest, Medellín

Under the slogan "Servicio Militar: Y Mi Vida, Que?" (Military Service: What About My Life?), the Colombian anti-war group Red Juvenil (Youth Network) held a rally attended by thousands of of young people at Medellín's Atanasio Girardot stadium Feb. 12. The rally was held partly to celebrate the Jan. 26 release of Carlos Andrés Giraldo Hincapié, a conscientious objector from Yondó, Antioquia department, from forced military service. Giraldo Hincapié was press-ganged into the army at the village of La Soledad in August 2006 and taken to Casabe Military Base, in what Red Juvenil calls a violation of his freedom of conscience. (Red Juvenil, Feb. 13; War Resisters International, July 18, 2007)

Just two weeks after saying he hoped oil prices would "stabilize" at under $100 a barrel, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez this week threatened to send them soaring to $200 a barrel in response to his growing dispute with Exxon. Chávez called Exxon's threat to freeze the assets of Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA part of Washington's "economic war" against his government, and vowed that Venezuela would not be intimidated. "They will never rob us again, those bandits of ExxonMobil, they are imperialist bandits, white collar criminals, corruptors of governments, over-throwers of governments, who supported the invasion and bombing of Iraq and continue supporting the genocide in Iraq," he said on his weekly TV show "Aló Presidente" Feb. 11.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Iraq Feb. 10 just before the first anniversary of the troop "surge." Gates said in Baghdad that he supports a pause in troop draw-downs from Iraq after about 30,000 soldiers have been sent home by July. His comment that the security situation in Baghdad remained "fragile," was emphasized by two car bombings that left 19 people dead. "I think that the notion of a brief period of consolidation and evaluation probably does make sense," he told reporters after a two-hour meeting with the US commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus. The 157,000-strong US force is officially on track to come down from 19 brigades to 15 by July, a reduction of at least 20,000 troops plus another 7,000 to 10,000 members of support units. (AFP, Feb. 12)

In an important ruling, an Egyptian court has allowed two converts to Islam to return to their original Coptic Orthodox faith. In the past many Copts who become Muslims in order to secure divorces (which is not permissible under Coptic practice) were allowed to reconvert to Christianity. However, a hardening of religious feeling in Egypt has made such delicate issues as conversion away from Islam much trickier. The ruling provides human rights and minority rights campaigners with hope that minority religious rights will be upheld and protected in Egypt.