Tens of thousands of students, teachers and supporters protested Chile's education policies with a huge demonstration in Santiago on June 16 that the local daily La Tercera said was "the most massive march since the return of democracy" in 1990; the University of Chile radio station called it "historic." The Carabineros militarized police gave a crowd estimate of 80,000, while organizers said 100,000 people had attended. Thousands more held marches in the cities of Concepción, La Serena, Temuco and Valparaíso. The nationwide protest followed several days of student strikes at dozens of high schools and universities.

More than 5,000 agricultural workers blocked the Trans-Amazonian highway in the northern Brazilian state of Pará on June 15 and 16 to push demands for land, government aid and an end to violence against activists. They continued the action after one protester was run over and killed on June 15, but they agreed to open up the highway on June 16 as the result of an agreement for Presidency Minister Gilberto Carvalho and representatives of the Mining and Energy Ministry and the Agrarian Development Ministry to meet with them on June 20.

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)