On Nov. 13 Puerto Rican environmental activist Alberto de Jesus ("Tito Kayak") ended a week-long protest at a small island near San Juan with a spectacular escape from a police operation that included four launches, motorboats and a helicopter. De Jesus had occupied the top of a 200-foot-high crane; he and the environmental organization Friends of the Sea were attempting to block completion of the Paseo Caribe tourist complex on what they said was public land with historic value. The sit-in was opposed by a builders association and construction unions. There was at least one demonstration by Paseo Caribe supporters, and at least seven shots were fired at De Jesus during the week.

From the International Herald Tribune, Nov. 15, links and emphasis added:

Unorthodox sects face prosecution in Indonesia
JAKARTA — Indonesian human rights lawyers are again questioning the country's commitment to religious freedom after the recent arrests of several unorthodox Islamic leaders and the banning of their organizations.

An open letter to the world human rights community and Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, from PetitionOnline:

Delaram Ali is a woman’s activist who has been given a custodial sentence for 28 months with 10 lashes for taking part in a protest meeting in June 2006 in Iran. In an interview with the official newspapers she expressed her anger at the fact that the security guards were not penalized for beating and maltreating her. Delaram’s imprisonment has led to a mass protest action in Iran. Despite all the protests and the efforts of her solicitor, Mrs Shirin Ebadi, the Islamic regime condemned her to jail sentence.

Oil prices rose Nov. 19 after suggestions from the Riyadh OPEC summit that member nations are considering ditching the dollar. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the dollar a "worthless piece of paper." Venezuela's Hugo Chavez added: "The dollar is in free fall, everyone should be worried about it. The fall of the dollar is not the fall of the dollar — it’s the fall of the American empire." That led to a reaction from Saudi Arabia. "OPEC shouldn’t be used as a political organization," Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said at the event's closing press conference. "Oil should be a tool for development and not a tool for conflicts." (London Times, NYT, Nov. 19)

Pakistan's atomic weapons are secure, Muhammad Khurshid Khan, deputy director of Islamabad's Strategic Plans Division, told a meeting of nuclear counter-terrorism specialists in Edinburgh Nov. 20. "There's nothing to worry about the safety and security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons," Khan told the meeting sponsored by the IAEA, emphasizing that the people guarding the weapons "are not the fundamentalists." (Bloomberg, Nov. 20)

Just as the Peru Free Trade Agreement has passed the US House of Representatives, efforts to pass a similar agreement with Colombia hit an embarrassing snag. Sandra Suarez, the special envoy Colombian President Alvaro Uribe sent to Washington in July to usher the FTA through Congress, stepped down Oct. 30, stating in her resignation letter that she'd failed her government and that the agreement is dead. Although her letter didn't mention it it, the day she resigned a former intelligence chief for Colombia's Administrative Security Department (DAS), Rafael Garcia, testified to a Colombian government Commission of Investigation that Suarez collaborated with leaders of the AUC paramilitary network, and with the governors of Cesar and Magdalena departments to establish AUC control over key Colombian territory. The two governors are in prison for their own links to the outlawed paramilitary network. (United Steelworkers International president Leo W. Gerard for The Hill Blog, Nov. 9)

The rural community of Cutumay Camones, in Santa Ana department, El Salvador, is demanding justice following a series of violent attacks by the national police and army troops. On Oct. 12, security forces invaded Cutumay Camones, using tear gas and rubber bullets against community members, including children and elders, for protesting against the construction of a garbage dump they say will contaminate local water sources. The scene was repeated on Oct. 25, when a TV journalist was also attacked. National Civilian Police authorities have removed the officers implicated in the attack on the journalist, but community leaders are demanding further measures.

Testimony has begun in the trial of seven Mam Maya villagers who sought dialogue with Goldcorp/Montana Exploradora mining company in Guatemala. The seven villagers were among a group of 28 who approached Goldcrop's local facility in Sipacapa municipality on Jan. 10, demanding talks regarding the impacts of the nearby Marlin mine. The villagers testify that the company rejected calls for dialogue, and sent private security officers to disperse them. Security officers attempted to abduct one person, fired gunshots and threw rocks at the group. Following the attack, over 600 villagers peacefully blocked the road into the mine, a protest which lasted 12 days.