Some 20 thousand peasants marked the 50th commemoration of Indonesia's National Farmers Day and passage of the country's first agrarian law Sept. 24, with mobilizations to demand a new agrarian reform program. In actions promoted by over 40 organizations nationwide, protesters demanded the government to implement reforms promised by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2007. Indonesia, a country where 25.6 million family farmers only have an average of 0.4 hectares, has implemented market-based reforms mandated by the World Bank, without aiming to achieve food sovereignty, justice or land rights, the movement charges.

US president Barack Obama personally apologized by phone to Guatemalan president Álvaro Colom on Oct. 1 shortly after the US revealed that the US Public Health Service had purposely infected Guatemalan soldiers, prisoners and mental patients with syphilis and gonorrhea in a 1946-48 experiment to test the effectiveness of penicillin in fighting sexually transmitted diseases. The program exposed some 1,500 Guatemalans to the diseases, and 696 were reportedly infected. It is not clear how many of them received medical treatment.

On Sept. 30 the National Refugee Commission of Argentina (Conare) granted political asylum to Sergio Galvarino Apablaza Guerra, a former leader of Chile's rebel Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR). Chile is seeking Apablaza's extradition to stand trial for the assassination of Chilean senator Jaime Guzmán, a close ally of dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet, in 1991, a year after the end of Chile's 1973-1990 military dictatorship. Apablaza is also charged with the 1991 kidnapping of Cristián Edwards del Río, the son of one of the owners of the Santiago daily El Mercurio.

On Sept. 27 Colombian inspector general Alejandro Ordóñez Maldonado announced that he was removing Senator Piedad Córdoba from her position and barring her from public office for 18 years because of what he said were her links to the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Córdoba, a member of the centrist Liberal Party, has mediated in negotiations which led to the release of 14 prisoners held by the FARC. She is also a member of Colombians for Peace, formed in 2008 by politicians, intellectuals, artists, journalists and former FARC prisoners to seek solutions to the armed conflicts in the country.

At a press conference in Tegucigalpa on Sept. 29, a reporter asked conservative Honduran president Porfirio ("Pepe") Lobo Sosa about calls from unions and grassroots organizations for a constituent assembly to rewrite the country's 1982 Constitution. "But what's the problem with that?" Lobo responded. "What's the problem?" The president said he considered it his "moral duty…to invite the sectors that promote it to hold a dialogue... Let's sit down and discuss [these things]. That isn't the problem."

Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman prompted the Palestinian mission to walk out of a UN General Assembly meeting Sept. 28 by saying "a long-term intermediate agreement...could take a few decades." He also called for redrawing the borders of the West Bank. Citing the "utter lack of confidence between Israelis and Palestinians," Lieberman told UN that any durable solution in the Middle East, as in the Balkans and East Timor, would require the separation of populations. "We should focus on coming up with a long term intermediate agreement, something that could take a few decades... To achieve final status agreement, we must understand that the primary obstacle is the friction between the two nations." Lieberman added that "the guiding principle for a final status agreement must not be land-for-peace but rather, exchange of populated territory. Let me be very clear: I am not speaking about moving populations, but rather about moving border to better reflect demographic realities." This notion, he claimed, has been accepted as a "virtual truism" in the academic community, which has coined the term "re-sizing the state." (Press TV, Sept. 29; Checkpoint Washington blog, WP, Sept. 28)

Israeli commandos intercepted a boat carrying Jewish activists who hoped to breach the blockade of the Gaza Strip on Sept. 28. Israeli navy boats blocked the catamaran Irene—dubbed the "Jewish Boat to Gaza"—which was carrying 10 passengers and crew, and diverted it to Israel's Ashdod seaport. The boat's cargo of medical equipment was intended for delivery to the Gaza Community Mental Health Program. Activists on board say they were shoved, manhandled—and in one case shocked with a Taser by the commandos. Yonatan Shapira—a former Israeli helicopter pilot who is well known locally for refusing to carry out his military duties—received Taser shocks while passively resisting arrest by sitting down and embracing another passenger, his brother Itamar Shapira said. (AP, JTA, Sept. 30)

From Human Rights Watch, Sept. 26:

Israel: Extend Settlement Freeze
Renewed Construction Would Have Severe Human Rights Consequences
JERUSALEM — Israel should make permanent and total the partial "freeze" on construction in West Bank Jewish settlements, Human Rights Watch said today. Israel's construction of settlements and their infrastructure violates its obligations as an occupying power and the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank, including unjustly limiting their ability to build homes and access their lands, Human Rights Watch said.