On March 24, Brazilian federal police and environmental agents shut down a major deep-water port on the Amazon River owned by Cargill Inc., saying the US-based multinational agribusiness firm failed to provide an environmental impact statement required by law. Cargill's controversial soy export terminal port is located in the town of Santarem, in Para state. Judge Souza Prudente ordered the port shut down late on March 23. Federal police agent Cesar Dessimoni said Cargill had prepared an environmental assessment that did not meet federal standards. "They'll have to do it correctly, as the law demands," he said. "A big step forward has been taken in enforcing the responsible use of natural resources and bringing greater governance in the Amazon," Paulo Adario, Greenpeace Amazon Campaign Coordinator in Brazil, said in a statement.

At least 475 youths were arrested and about 100 police agents were injured in clashes in Santiago on March 29 when Chilean students, mostly from secondary schools, carried out their annual march for the Day of the Young Combatant. Some of the columns marched peacefully in the center of the city, but others—including anarchists and masked youths carrying Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front (FPMR) banners—clashed with police near the La Moneda palace. The police then blocked the march and used tear-gas grenades and water cannons on the protesters. There were also disturbances outside the capital. Five youths were arrested near Tarapaca University in the northern city of Arica, and violent incidents occurred in the northern city of Copiapo, and at Atacama University, as well as in Valparaiso, Concepcion and Temuco.

The family of independent US journalist Bradley Roland Will traveled to Mexico the week of March 19 to demand an impartial investigation of his death in Oaxaca on Oct. 27. The Oaxaca state attorney general, Rosa Lizbeth Caña Cadeza, has ruled that Will was shot dead by leftist protesters during a demonstration; she has freed two local government officials, Abel Santiago Zarate and Orlando Manuel Aguilar, who were arrested as suspects. The federal Special Prosecutor's Office for Attention to Crimes Committed Against Journalists is now investigating the case, and the Will family was present for a reconstruction of the killing at the scene in Oaxaca. In a press conference in Mexico City on March 23, Howard Will, the journalist's father, called the Oaxaca state investigation "partial and inept." Craig Will, Brad Will's brother, said if the Mexican government didn't satisfy the family's demand for justice, they would take the case to international bodies. (La Jornada, March 24)

The government of center-right Mexican president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa is "seeking a provocation" among indigenous communities in the southeastern state of Chiapas, according to the 17 de Noviembre autonomous municipality, one of the communities supporting the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). With the participation of federal soldiers, indigenous youths are being recruited into paramilitary groups, the community charged in a communique in the middle of March. The government is "organizing groups to attack...[s]o that if there's a confrontation, it will have an opportunity to bring in the army and apply, as it says, a state of law."

Attorney Luz María González Armenta, founder of the local group Defense and Promotion of Human Rights-Emiliano Zapata (DEPRODHEZAC), was arbitrarily arrested March 30 at a protest vigil she was leading outside the municipal presidency office in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

Now that it's spring, we are officially ending our winter fund drive. We are deeply appreciative to everyone who gave, and those of you who have not yet received your premiums should get them in a week or two. We are still just over $500 short of our ambitious goal of $2,000. So we are making this one last appeal to push us over the top. As always, a donation of $10 or more will get you one of our three premium pamphlets (interviews with Iraq's civil opposition, parts one & two; and critique of 9-11 conspiracy theory). If you can donate $100, we will send the complete three-pamphlet series

Sarah Ferguson writes for the Village Voice, March 31:

Friday night's Critical Mass bike ride was played as a First Amendment "showdown" over the NYPD's new parade rule, which requires groups of 50 or more to get a permit to be on the streets.

From the Center for Constitutional Rights, March 30:

Hicks Forced to Agree to Gag Order With Plea
Guantanamo Detainee May Not Speak to Press, Criticize his Detention or Say He was Tortured
The US government required Guantánamo detainee David Hicks to agree to a series of conditions in exchange for accepting his plea before the military commission and releasing him to Australia to serve a sentence of seven years for "material support of a terrorist organization." Attorneys with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which represented Hicks in the original Supreme Court case that established the right of the detainees to challenge their detention in US courts, criticized the deal.