A group of 12 Chilean activists began an open-ended "massive solidarity fast" on Sept. 14 to support indigenous Mapuche prisoners who have been carrying out a liquids-only hunger strike since July 12. The solidarity fasters included the presidents of the Federation of University of Chile Students (FECH) and the Federation of University of Santiago Students; the president of the Copper Workers Commission of the Unified Workers Confederation (CUT); and members of the Coordinating Committee of Santiago Autonomous Mapuche (COOAMS) and the Association of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees. A number of leftists, unionists and artists expressed their solidarity with the fast, which was being held in the FECH offices in Santiago.

The United Nations on Sept. 14 expressed its concern over forced labor in Brazil, asserting that businesses treat workers as virtual slaves with "impunity." Gulnara Shahinian, the UN special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, visited Brazil in May, and in a report praised the country for acknowledging the problem of forced labor and taking measures against it. "These exemplary actions are, however, threatened by the impunity enjoyed by landowners, local and international companies and intermediaries," the report said. (Expatica, Sept. 14)

A bomb went off early Sept. 16 at a shopping mall in Buenos Aires, causing extensive damage to American Airlines and Alitalia ticket offices but causing no casualties. Leaflets found at the scene bore the name of a Chilean anarchist cell "Vandálica Teodoro Suarez," and included demands for the release of "political prisoners" and autonomy for the Mapuches, an indigenous people who straddle the Chile-Argentina border.

Thousands protesters led by high school students marched on Buenos Aires' Plaza de Mayo on Sept. 16 to commemorate the 34th anniversary of the "Night of the Pencils," when student protesters demanding free public transportation and other benefits were kidnapped and killed by the military dictatorship. For the past four weeks, high school and university students in Argentina have occupied over 30 high schools, several buildings at the University of Buenos Aires, and the National University of Arts (IUNA) in response to budget cuts. The occupations have been repeatedly attacked by police forces. (Momento24, LAHT, Sept. 16; Occupy California, Sept. 12)

From the Daily Mail, Sept. 1:

The 33 trapped Chilean miners may not receive any wages while they are trapped underground, a union official has claimed. Evelyn Olmos says that San Esteban, the company that operates the mine, has said it has no money to pay their wages and absorb lawsuits, and is not even participating in the rescue.

Indigenous community leaders on Aug. 23 staged a take-over of Santiago-based Radio Bío-Bío to protest the station's failure to report on the hunger strike of 32 Mapuche activists. The protesters demanded that Radio Bío-Bío air an interview with a spokesperson for the prisoners, who began their hunger strike on July 12. Dressed in traditional garb and carrying musical instruments, the Mapuches gathered outside the studio's main entrance at 9:30 AM and put a padlock on the door.

After a heated 14-hour session, Argentina's Senate voted 33-27 with three abstentions in the early morning of July 15 to approve a bill extending the right to marry and to adopt to same-sex couples. The Senate vote completed the approval process for the measure, which the Chamber of Deputies had passed on May 5. Argentina is now the first country in Latin America to extend full marriage equality to same-sex couples.

Twenty-three Mapuche indigenous comuneros being held at two prisons in Chile have been on hunger strike since July 11. The prisoners are demanding the dismissal of the cases brought against them in military courts, the release of all "Mapuche political prisoners," and the end to the application of a Pinochet-era anti-terrorism law against them.