In what authorities call a dispute over control of drug trafficking routes and timber resources, paramilitaries linked to organized crime have used death threats and violence to cause a general exodus of the campesino community of La Laguna, in Coyuca de Catalán municipality of southern Mexico's Guerrero state. In a caravan of seven trucks, 30 adults, the majority women and elders, with 77 children, fled the night of April 21 from the hamlet in the Sierra Madre del Sur to Puerto Las Ollas, some five hours away on rugged mountain roads. There they remain, having been granted refuge by local residents.

Prominent Mexican journalist and commentator Miguel Angel López Velasco was shot dead along with his wife and son in Veracruz early on the morning of June 20. Gunmen broke into the family's home in the port city's Playa Linda section, killing López, 55, his wife Agustina Solano, and their son, Misael López Solana, 21. López worked as an editor at Notiver, the city's biggest newspaper, covering corruption, crime and drug trafficking. He wrote a widely read column called "Va de Nuez" under the pseudonym Milo Vela.

Local environmental activist Juan Francisco Durán Ayala of El Salvador’s Cabañas department was found dead June 16, in an open field in the Lamatepec district of Soyapango municipality, outside San Salvador. Durán Ayala went missing on June 3—a day after hanging up posters and distributing flyers in his hometown of Ilobasco opposed to a gold mine operated by the Canadian Pacific Rim corporation. (See map.) He had continued his public opposition to the mine despite having received numerous threats. Activists are expressing outrage that his body was promptly buried by authorities in a "common grave" in the capital's Bermeja cemetery. The Environmental Committee of Cabañas (CAC), the National Board Against Metal Mining and the local Radio Victoria—whose operators have also recently received threats—are demanding that the national authorities reveal what they know in the case and launch an aggressive investigation. Durán is the fourth Pacific Rim opponent killed in El Salvador in the last two years. (Mining Watch, June 20; LaPágina, San Salvador, June 18; FSRN, Diario CoLatino, San Salvador, CAC statement, June 16)

We noted years ago when the Kyoto Protocol was pending that right-wing entities like the Competitive Enterprise Institute were pushing the line that climate change is inevitable and that the correct response is to "adapt to it." Since then, a hubristic agenda for what its advocates call "geo-engineering" has emerged. Environmentalists have dismissed the notion as a "dangerous distraction" or even as counter-productive. Now it appears that this agenda may be winning some sympathy in high places From AFP, June 18 (links added):

A report on Feb 17th, website of the Libyan Youth Movement, states:

On June 16th, The ANSWER Coalition in LA held an event titled "Eyewitness Libya" with Cynthia McKinney, part of Cynthia's nation-wide tour to continue to propagate Gaddafi's lies. Members of the Libyan community in LA were prevented from entering the room in which the event was being held, on the basis of "seeming like they may cause trouble". They stood outside as others were allowed in, although many of them were invited to the public event. It was ironic that an event discussing the situation in Libya did not host any Libyans to speak in the panel or even allow Libyans to enter the room to participate in the discussion.

Some 10,000 marched in Casablanca June 19 in answer to a call from Morocco's youth-based February 20 Movement, which has rejected constitutional reforms proposed by King Mohammed VI. Among the marchers in the city's popular Derb Soltaine neighborhood were members of the Islamist Justice and Charity group. Rabat also saw a large march against the proposed reform package, and a much smaller march in support of the king was also held in Casablanca. The February 20 Movement said the proposed reforms would leave in place a network of privilege and patronage surrounding the king. While stopping short of a call for abolition of the monarchy, the movement is calling for democratic restrictions on the king's power. (AFP, MoroccoBoard News Service, June 19)

Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged on June 19 that the US had opened preliminary talks with members of the Taliban as part of an effort to end the war in Afghanistan. In an appearance on CNN’s "State of the Union," Gates cautioned that the talks were in preliminary stages and officials remain uncertain the Taliban participants are authentic representatives of leader Mullah Omar. He said the effort was being carried out by diplomats but did not directly involve the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. And he said several other countries are participating, though he did not name which ones. "We have said all along that a political outcome is the way most of the wars end," Gates said. "The question is when and if they are ready to talk seriously." (NYT, June 19)

NATO acknowledged June 18 that its aircraft had mistakenly hit a column of rebel military vehicles last week near the Libyan oil port of Brega, and early June 19 the Qaddafi government showed reporters a destroyed cinder-block house that neighbors and the government said was hit by an errant NATO air-strike in Tripoli. Two bodies were pulled from the rubble, and at the Tripoli Central Hospital, government officials showed reporters three others, including an infant and a child, who they said were killed in the house. Western media accounts called it the first time in three months of air-strikes that the Qaddafi regime has presented credible evidence of what appeared to be direct civilian casualties of NATO attacks. The destroyed building was far from any obvious military facility, in the Souq al-Juma area, which is actually known for its hostility to Qaddafi. In a statement NATO said: "A military missile site was the intended target of air strikes in Tripoli. However, it appears that one weapon did not strike the intended target and that there may have been a weapons system failure which may have caused a number of civilian casualties." The air-strike was apparently carried out by French jets. (The Telegraph, June 19; NYT, June 18)