Gov. César Pérez of the Venezuelan border state of Táchira, accused President Hugo Chávez of protecting Colombian guerillas that operate in his state. Pérez said that both leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries from Colombia operate in nearly a third of his state, but Venezuelan troops ignore the prior. "The guerrillas are there with the government's blessing, and the military has orders to leave them alone," Pérez told the AP. "The government only fights the paramilitaries, and I think it's good they fight them, but the government has to do the same with the guerrillas, and it isn’t doing that."

The State Department sent Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Craig Kelly to Honduras Nov. 10 in a bid to relaunch the moribund dialogue. Kelly held separate talks with ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya and de facto president Roberto Micheletti, but left the Central American country the following day with no deal. Kelly insisted the US is "advancing the dialogue," adding, "We think it's important to continue the conversations." (AlJazeera, Nov. 12)

Iranian authorities hanged Kurdish activist Ehsan Fattahian, 28, on Nov. 11 in Sanandaj Central Prison, Kordestan province. He was accused of "armed struggle against the regime" and "enmity against God." An Internet campaign had gathered over 10,000 signatures in recent days calling on Tehran to stop the execution. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and several Iranian human rights organizations issued statements calling to halt the execution. Despite reportedly being tortured, Ehsan refused to admit to participating in armed activities. It was only during the appeals process was he declared as an "enemy of God" and sentenced to execution.

From Human Rights Watch, Oct. 27:

Iraq: Protect Besieged Minorities
Yazidis, Shabaks, and Christians Caught in Kurdish-Arab Contest for Control
Iraq's central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government should protect besieged minorities in the disputed territories of Nineveh province, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch documented attacks by Sunni Arab extremist groups targeting Yazidis, Shabaks, and Assyrian Christians, and intimidation by Kurdish forces against minority political and civic associations resisting Kurdish efforts to incorporate the area into the autonomous territory the regional government controls.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit Nov. 10 on behalf of US citizen Amir Meshal, alleging that FBI agents were involved in his interrogation and rendition in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia in 2007. The suit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that agents repeatedly threatened Meshal with torture, disappearance, and execution in order to force him to acknowledge ties with al-Qaeda. Meshal was originally detained in Kenya while fleeing fighting in Somalia. After being held in Kenya, Meshal was returned to Somalia and eventually taken to Ethiopia where he was held until his release in May of 2007. No charges were ever filed against Meshal. (Jurist, Nov. 11)

Lawyers for four Chinese Muslim Uighurs detained at Guantánamo Bay filed a petition with the US Supreme Court Nov. 10, raising issues with the policy for transferring detainees from the facility. The case, known as Kiyemba II, is an appeal from an April ruling by the US District Court for the District of Columbia, and is separate from a case that the Court agreed to hear last month, known now as Kiyemba I. A critical issue raised in the appeal is whether a federal court can require the government to give 30 days notice before detainees can be transferred out of Guantánamo. This period would give the detainees time to bring any claims such as persecution or torture in US courts before they are transferred to locations outside of federal court jurisdiction. (Jurist, Nov. 11)

More than 350 Taliban inmates began a hunger strike Nov. 8 at the Sarposa prison in Afghanistan's Kandahar province. The protest is in response to harsh conditions, including abuse by guards. The Afghan Ministry of Justice has sent a delegation to the prison to investigate. The Justice Ministry fears a potential prison break attempt, after authorities reportedly learned that trucks loaded with explosives were instructed to destroy the prison walls. Millions of dollars have been spent in the last year in an effort to bolster security at the prison. The Afghan government has also increased the armed presence at the facility in recent days.

There were initially positive signals that the Obama administration was correcting the atrocious legacy of the Bush administration's denial of global climate destabilization—which extended to falsifying science and censoring dissenters. Now it appears that Obama's EPA is itself silencing critics of the administration's favored policy of carbon-trading. From the New York Times, Nov. 9: