Soldiers are deployed across Honduras as the coup-installed regime holds presidential elections Nov. 29 that the civil resistance has pledged to boycott. The days leading up to the polls have seen numerous instances of violence and repression. Ángel Fabricio Salgado Hernández, 32, is in critical condition after soldiers fired on his car at close range and with no warning or order to stop at a checkpoint near the headquarters of military high command at Comayagüela Nov. 27. Salgado lost control of the vehicle when he was hit, crashing into a taxi and injureing several bystanders, including 45-year-old woman, who was also hit by a stray bullet. She is now also hospitalized in serious condition. Amnesty International is calling on the Honduran Human Rights Prosecutor to urgently investigate the incident. (Honduras en Resistencia, Nov. 29; Vos el Soberano, AI, Nov, 28)

Tensions between Colombia and Venezuela have deepened after Colombian ministers failed to attend a regional summit in Ecuador. The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) meeting in Quito was intended to defuse the crisis. But Bogotá refused to send its foreign and defense ministers, saying respectful discussions were "impossible"—sending only what what it called a "technical delegation." Venezuela called the move an act of "contempt." (BBC News, Nov, 28)

Venezuelan media activist Mijail Martinez, the son of a former state deputy for the chavista Fifth Republic Movement (MVR), was assassinated in a drive-by shooting Nov. 26 at his home in the city of Barquisimeto, Lara. Martínez, 24, was a cameraman and activist with the Victims' Committee Against Impunity in Lara state (CVCI-Lara) and an audiovisual producer on the TV program of his father, Victor Martínez, a longtime Bolivarian militant. Victor had recently been making a series of official complaints in which he had implicated a host of high governmental and police figures in corruption and human rights violations. (El Libertario, Caracas, Nov. 28 via Anarkismo.net; El Nacional, Caracas, Nov. 26)

The government of Peru has officially apologized for the first time to its citizens of African descent for centuries of "abuse, exclusion and discrimination." The executive resolution, published Nov. 28 in the official newspaper El Peruano, states that discrimination against black Peruvians still exists and is "a barrier for social, economic, labor and educational development." Women and Social Development Minister Nidia Vilchez said the government hopes its apology will help promote the "true integration of all Peru's multicultural population." But critics point out that the apology does not explicitly refer to slavery or state plans for reparations or changing the status quo for Afro-Peruvians.

A front-page New York Times story Nov. 28, "Afghans Offer Jobs to Taliban If They Defect," indicates that Hamid Karzai's government—presumably with Washington's support—is enlisting traditional tribal elders "to lure local fighters and commanders away from the Taliban by offering them jobs in development projects..." Note the "and commanders"—claims that the amnesty was just aimed at Taliban cannon fodder appear to have been the thin end of the wedge. The Canadian Press meanwhile reports that with the insurgency gaining ground—and a corrupt government unable to keep its promises—the amnesty effort is winning few former fighters. "The Taliban are getting stronger than they were before," said Haji Agha Lalai, a prominent Panjwaii district elder and former director of Kandahar's reconciliation program. "Also the government does not support us very well and we could not fulfill our promises to Taliban."

Thousands-strong protests were held in Bilbao Nov. 28 in reaction to the detainment of 34 members of a youth organization that Spanish authorities say is linked to the outlawed Basque separatist organization ETA. Two days earlier, angry protesters burned a bus and set fire to an underground station in the city. The suspected members of the illegal youth organization Segi were detained Nov. 24. The operation in the three Basque provinces and neighboring Navarre was ordered by the Audiencia Nacional justice Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who has been responsible for many sweeps against against accused ETA operatives.

Climate change could increase the likelihood of civil war in sub-Saharan Africa by over 50% within the next two decades, according to a new study led by a team of researchers at Stanford University, the University of California-Berkeley, New York University and Harvard University. The study is to be published online this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague began proceedings Nov. 24 for the trial of two Congolese nationals believed to be responsible for the killings of more than 200 men, women, and children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2003. Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui both pleaded not guilty to three crimes against humanity and seven war crimes, including murder, sexual slavery, pillage, and the use of child soldiers.