After 27 months of negotiations and despite official efforts to decertify their union, tens of thousands of Puerto Rican public school teachers went on strike on Feb. 21. Public employees are barred from striking under Puerto Rican law, and the government of Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila announced that it would keep schools open. Striking teachers blocked school doors and in some cases chained them shut. Police agents beat a teacher with clubs at the entrance to the Gabriela Mistral school in San Juan on Feb. 21 and threw her to the ground. At least 12 teachers were arrested across the island on the first day.

Campesinos and farmers started an open-ended strike in eight Peruvian departments on Feb. 18, holding marches and blocking highways to demand government measures to ease the impact of a free trade agreement (FTA, or TLC in Spanish) with the US. The action was called by the National Convention of Agriculture (Conveagro), the National Council of Irrigation Users (JNUDR) and the National Agrarian Confederation (CNA). According to JNUDR president Enrique Malaga, the FTA, which is to lift tariffs on heavily subsidized US farm products, will harm more than 1.75 million Peruvian farms.

Argentine president Cristina Fernandez hosted a meeting in Buenos Aires on Feb. 23 with Bolivian president Evo Morales and Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva about a possible energy crisis in the countries and to consolidate plans for regional integration. Bolivia has offered to redirect some of its natural gas to Argentina from Brazil, where the winters are milder. Earlier in the week Buenos Aires hosted a meeting of Latin American and Arab foreign ministers; trade between the two regions has been on the rise. (La Jornada, Mexico, Feb. 24)

In a communique made public on Feb. 21, Mexico's rebel Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) denied any connection to the Jan. 30 shooting death of police director Alejandro Barrita Ortiz, a bodyguard and two civilians in the southern state of Oaxaca. Barrita Ortiz headed a police unit that guards banks and other businesses; the government blames his death on criminals. The communique said he was involved in the May 2007 disappearance of two EPR leaders, Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sanchez, but charged that he was murdered because he had become "inconvenient for the government of [Oaxaca governor] Ulises Ruiz [Ortiz]." (La Jornada, Feb. 22)

Reading between the lines in the Kosova coverage can sure be depressing, especially for those of us who have been following the conflict there over the past 20 years. While 20 years ago, Albanian protesters were throwing rocks at Serbian police, today Serb protesters are throwing rocks at Albanian police. Ah, progress. Meanwhile, for all the passions in play over Kosova's supposed "independence"—whether Albanian pride or Serb rage—the new government still does not seem to have any real control over its territory. When Serbia's minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, made his controversial visit to the territory, it was the UN administrator Joachim Ruecker who took responsibility for the decision to "allow" him in. In other words, the "international community" is obviously still running the show. And angry Serbs are throwing rocks and Albanian cops retaliating with tear gas over a mere fiction. From AP, Feb. 25:

The Sudanese military renewed its aerial bombing campaign in West Darfur region Feb. 25, with the joint UN-AU mission in Sudan, UNAMID, saying it had received reports of air-strikes in the Jebel Moun region. UNAMID said there is grave concern for the safety of thousands of civilians in the area. The report came as China's new special envoy for Darfur, Liu Guijin, began a five-day visit to Sudan to pledge humanitarian aid and push for peace. Liu said he will travel to Darfur this week, the fifth anniversary of the start of the conflict which has left 200,000 people dead and 2.5 million homeless. Critics dismissed the move as part of a public relations offensive ahead of the Beijing Olympics. (Ghana Broadcasting Corp., San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 25; Xinhua, Feb. 26)

Four more Shi'ite pilgrims headed for Karbala for Arbaeen celebrations were killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad Feb. 25—one day after a suicide bomber killed 48 pilgrims, detonating a vest filled with explosives at a rest stop in Iskandiriyah. US officials blamed the attack on al-Qaeda. Arbaeen marks the close of Ashura, the 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed. (AFP, ISNA, Feb. 25)

Hundreds of angry youth clashed with anti-riot forces in Tehran Feb. 23 after trying to liberate a young girl who had been arrested by the Islamic Guidance police. The confrontation began in a main square of Tehran after the morality police stopped a young girl walking with her boyfriend and attempted to abscond her into their van. When the girl resisted, she was beaten, and people watching the scene intervened. Riot police arrived, firing in the air and hurling tear gas to break up the protesters. At least 15 were arrested. The Islamic Guidance units are part of a new "Social Protection" project launched last year by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (IPS, Feb. 24)