Thailand was shaken by a string of simultaneous terror blasts on the Christian New Year, and now again on the Chinese New Year. The Jan. 1 blasts in Bangkok are still murky, but the Feb. 17 blasts in the heavily Muslim south are claimed to be the work of Islamic militants. Few are making the connection, but could the date have been chosen because it marked the opening of the Year of the Pig—an animal thought to be propitious in Chinese astrology, but haram for Muslims? Interestingly, authorities in China have actually banned images of the pig from state television during the festivities, in the name of cultural sensitivity—a move that Alt.Muslim dismisses as "Throwing a (Pig) Bone to China's Muslims," a patronizing gesture aimed at underming the Muslim Uighur insurgency in China's far west. In Thailand, some arrests have been made, but little real information seems available. How devout could these supposed Muslim militants be if they "boosted their courage with narcotics and cough syrup"—which is just as haram as swine for the orthodox? From AP, Feb. 20:

Friends and advocates from the Paraguayan Union of Journalists (SPP) will mark the one year anniversary of Paraguayan radio journalist Enrique (Kike) Galeano’s disappearance with a protest in his home town of Yby Yaú. Galeano was reporting on drug trafficking in the northeast region of Paraguay on the Brazilian border when he disappeared on February 4, 2006. Galeano was under police protection shortly before his disappearance, when he covered the seizure of a shipment of cocaine and heavy weapons for Radio Azotey. His coverage linked trafficking to local government officials, such as ruling Colorado Party parliamentary representative Magdaleno Silva. (RSF, Oct. 25) The event has been covered widely by the local press, but little has been done to find Galeano or his abductors.

Almost two months after Ecuador’s Ministry of Energy and Mines rejected Ascendant Copper’s Environmental Impact Study for the controversial and locally unpopular Junin copper mine project, the company’s shares plummeted to a measly $0.47 per share on Monday. In addition to the rejection of the company’s environmental study (a prerequisite to begin the exploration phase), which was nixed because of a lack of consultation with local communities (a decision Ascendant president Gary E. Davis angrily described as "asinine"), there have been a number of other setbacks that may explain the lack of investor confidence about the viability of the company’s project.

The 15-member United Nations Security Council voted unanimously in New York on Feb. 15 to approve Resolution 1743, which extends the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) until Oct. 15. The eight-month period was a compromise. A number of countries, including Brazil, Canada, France, the United Kingdom and the US, recommended a one-year extension. But China—which has no diplomatic ties with Haiti because of Haiti's links to Taiwan—had argued for a six-month renewal so the council could have better oversight. Resolution 1743 asked the MINUSTAH "continue the increased tempo of operations in support of the HNP [Haitian National Police] against armed gangs as deemed necessary to restore security, notably in Port-au-Prince." (AlterPresse, Feb. 15; Haiti Support Group News Briefs, Feb. 14 from Reuters; Security Council press release, Feb. 15) MINUSTAH's anti-crime operations have been widely criticized for indiscriminate violence in impoverished Port-au-Prince neighborhoods, with reports of deaths and injuries to local residents who had no connection to crime.

A UN working group recently investigated abuses by private security firms recruiting and training hundreds of Peruvians to work as mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan. (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Feb. 5) Mercenaries are currently the second largest military force in Iraq, with numbers estimated as great as 50,000. Britain is next in line with 10,000 troops. This marks a shift from the "coalition of the willing" to a "coalition of the billing" used to complement the 130,000-strong US occupying force in Iraq. (AFP, Feb. 3)

The Human Rights Defense Commission (CODDEHUM) of the southern Mexican state of Guerrero is investigating a Jan. 25 police operation that removed 60 workers and campesinos who were blocking the Los Filos gold mine near the community of Carrizalillo in Eduardo Neri municipality. CODDEHUM president Juan Alarcon noted that a commission representative went to the mine and asked the police to show their court order to remove the protesters; the agents admitted they didn't have one.

We have noted repteated claims and denials that veterans of the feared Guatemalan counter-insurgency troops known as the Kaibiles are active in Chiapas and collaborating with Mexico's narco-mafias. But these Kaibiles, caught in the new Chiapas immigration sweeps, seem to have fallen on hard times. From El Universal, Jan. 25, our translation:

Mexican President Felipe Calderón announced Feb. 18 that he is dispatching some 3,300 army troops and federal police to combat narco-traffickers in Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, two states that border Texas. Nuevo Leon capital Monterrey and the Tamaulipas border town of Nuevo Laredo, both plagued by drug violence in recent months, are especially targeted, Defense Secretary Guillermo Galvan said. Soldiers have already set up roadside checkpoints in and around Monterrey to search vehicles for weapons and drugs. Since taking office Dec. 1, Calderón has already ordered 24,000 troops and federal police into Tijuana, Acapulco and Michoacan state in response to narco-violence that claimed over 2,000 lives last year. (San Antonio Express, Feb. 19)