Teachers from the Section 22 union local in Mexico's divided southern state of Oaxaca launched blockades and occupations of government offices throughout the state Feb. 20, demanding that their members be allowed back into 250 schools where authorities have installed teachers from the rival, newly-formed Section 59. (APRO, Feb. 21) In Oaxaca City, followers of the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) occupied the offices of the state Government Secretary in solidarity with the Section 22 teachers. APPO followers also seized government offices at more than 20 locations around the state. (El Universal, Feb. 22) Violence was reported in Juchitan, where hundreds of Section 22 and Section 59 teachers battled with rocks and clubs for control of a local school. (APRO, Feb. 20; La Jornada, Feb. 21) As of Feb. 23, the protesters remained in control of several government offices throughout the state, but Government Secretary Teofilo Manuel Garcia Corpus said force could be used to remove them. (La Jornada, Feb. 23)

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with her Canadian and Mexican counterparts Peter MacKay and Patricia Espinosa in Ottawa Feb. 23 for a summit of the North American Security and Prosperity Initiative (NASPI, or ASPAN by its Spanish acronym), which was launched at a March 2006 conference in Cancun. Coordinated response to narco-trafficking, organized crime and terrorism topped the agenda, under the catch-phrase "secure and intelligent borders." Presidents Bush and Felipe Calderón are to meet to discuss the program with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Canada this August. (Notimex, Feb. 24)

Thousands of Mexican miners held a one-day strike Feb. 19, marking the one-year anniversary of the underground blast that killed 65 at the Pasta de Conchos coal mine in northern Coahuila state. Relatives of the victims celebrated a Mass and rallied outside the mine's gates to press their demands for better working conditions and recovery of the victims' remains. To date, only two bodies have been found.

Jorge Noguera, former head of Colombia's Department of Administrative Security (DAS) under President Alvaro Uribe, was arrested Feb. 22. He is accused of handing over a hit list of human rights workers and trade union activists to the right-wing paramilitaries. A number of the people on the list later were killed. Noguera, who as a regional campaign chief helped get Uribe elected in 2002, was arrested as he gave testimony in the chief prosecutor's office, according to his lawyer. If convicted, he faces up to 40 years in prison.

Dick Cheney in Australia he gave an interview to the national ABC network's PM program Feb. 23, in which he invoked Anglo racial solidarity in the most blatant terms—and raised the threat of a new Caliphate stretching from Spain to Indonesia. The PM headline, actually not quoting Cheney verbatim, invoked a "terrorist caliphate." The relevant passage follows.

The latest entry in the wave of dangerously specious terror cases is giving us deja vu. Like Jose Padilla, Daniel Maldonado is a Latino convert to Islam. Like John Walker Lindh in Afghanistan, he is accused of bearing arms for Islamist forces in Somalia, but seems to have not actually done any fighting. He is from small-town New Hampshire, of all places. Most tellingly, if his statements are to be believed, he is a case study in how extremist jihadism and the near-official climate of Islamophobia merely fuel each other in a vicious cycle. From the Eagle Tribune of North Andover, MA, Feb. 23:

From DPA, Feb. 23:

LONDON - A group of mothers who lost sons in Iraq Friday set up a 'peace camp' outside the Downing Street offices of British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London.

Anti-war protesters clashed with police in Sydney Feb. 22 before the arrival of US Vice President Dick Cheney. Seven people were arrested as mounted police attempted to bar hundreds from marching through Australia's largest city, demanding Prime Minister John Howard pull troops out of Iraq. (Reuters, Feb. 23) Meanwhile, Australian troops in East Timor shot and killed a youth who was firing steel arrows at the soldiers as they responded to a disturbance at a refugee camp near Dili airport. Two Timorese civilians were also injured in the incident. Some 800 Australian troops are in East Timor following a request from the small nation's government last year after weeks of deadly violence. About 1,000 international police are also in East Timor as part of a UN mission. (The West, Australia, Feb. 23)