Airomi Smith, a university student and a leader in Panama's largest union, the Only Union of Construction and Similar Workers (SUNTRACS), was killed in Colón on Feb. 12 by a gunshot to the abdomen from a police weapon. Smith's death came during one of a number of demonstrations the union had been holding to oppose the high cost of living and to demand better safety conditions at construction sites; some 50 construction workers have died in job-related accidents in the past two years. Eliseo Madrid, a member of a National Police (PN) division known as "The Lynxes," was ordered detained on Feb. 14 in connection with Smith's death; another police agent, Marcos Perez, was summoned as a witness.

A delegation of striking miners from Grupo Mexico's Cananea copper mine in Sonora, Mexico, and of leaders from the US-based United Steelworkers (USW) visited the Capitol in Washington, DC on Feb. 13, to ask the US Congress to withhold a $1.4 billion funding package for Mexico's security forces proposed by the administration of US president George W. Bush ("Plan Mexico") until it has held public hearings to investigate the use of the police and military against the strikers on Jan. 11. "Mexico cannot be allowed to violate workers' human rights with impunity under the pretense of securing borders and combating narco-trafficking," USW president Leo Gerard said, noting that USW members in Arizona struck Grupo Mexico-owned copper mines for four months in 2005 over the company's "refusal to bargain in good faith." (AFL-CIO Weblog, Feb. 13)

Some 70,000 teachers in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca suspended classes on Feb. 14 to participate in rallies in Oaxaca city and other cities; the rallies were organized by Section 22 of the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE) and supported by members of the leftist Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO). The strikers called on the national union to expedite internal elections and demanded that the government drop charges against teachers and others for their participation in five months of militant strikes and protests in 2006. Section 22 members also protested efforts by another SNTE local, Section 59, to take over some Oaxaca schools. Oaxaca governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz discounted the possibility that the 2006 social conflict would be renewed. The state government and Section 22 were now handling disputes through a "permanent dialogue," he said. (La Jornada, Feb. 16)

Techniques that Peruvian military officers learned at the Georgia-based US Army School of the Americas were used in massacres carried out by the Colina Group paramilitary commando in the early 1990s, several former Colina members have confirmed at the trial of ex-president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000). Fujimori is accused of ordering or approving a number of human rights violations during his administration, including the deaths of 25 people at Barrios Altos in 1991 and at La Cantuta University in 1992 in operations by the Colina Group. The techniques said to come from SOA manuals and classes included the use of clandestine graves and lime to bury the victims. According to the newspaper La Primera, the military officers who organized Peru's commandos and the counterinsurgent "dirty war" were trained at SOA, now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). (Prensa Latina, Feb. 8)

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met with Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon in the Tajik capital Dushanbe Feb. 13, where the leaders of the two Persian-speaking countries issued a joint statement saying they stand for a world without nuclear arms and support creation of nuclear-free zones. They also said they regard peaceful use of nuclear power as the legal right of every country. Tajikistan has been part of a Central Asian Nuclear-Free Zone since 2006.

From Human Rights Watch, Feb. 17:

The human devastation inflicted on Lebanon by Israel's illegal use of cluster munitions highlights the urgent need for an international treaty banning the weapon, Human Rights Watch said in releasing a report today. At a conference this week, more than 100 states will discuss a treaty to ban cluster munitions, a process prompted in part by Israel's cluster attacks on Lebanon in 2006.

From Human Rights Watch, Feb. 14:

King Abdullah should halt the execution of Fawza Falih and void her conviction for "witchcraft," Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the Saudi king.

Kosova's Parliament approved a declaration of independence Feb. 17. All 120 MPs were called for the extraordinary session, but only 109 were present—all the Serb MPs boycotting. Those present—all Albanian—voted unanimously for the declaration. The session was also attended by representatives of the US and EU. When the declaration was read by Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi, Kosova's capital Pristina erupted with fireworks and celebratory gunfire. Celebrations centered around a new monument to independence unveiled earlier in the day. Ethnic Albanians also staged loud celebrations in the Macedonian capital, Skopje, and at the EU and NATO headquarters in Brussels. But in the Serb-majority Kosovar town of Mitrovica, two hand grenades were thrown at a UN building and the new EU mission (the latter failing to explode).