In Latin America, as in much of the world, the traditional International Workers Day marches this May 1 focused on the global economic crisis and especially on increases in the unemployment rate, which is approaching 10% in many areas.

Chilean judge formally charged three retired military officers in Santiago on April 20 with the murder of 14 prisoners in Antofagasta in northern Chile on Oct. 19, 1973, near the beginning of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's 1973-1990 military dictatorship. The deaths of the 14 prisoners, mostly members of the Socialist Party, occurred on the "Caravan of Death," in which a military group headed by Gen. Sergio Arellano Stark executed more than 90 political prisoners as it traveled through the country.

After a five-day visit to Chile the week of April 6, United Nations special rapporteur for indigenous rights James Anaya said there was evidence that police agents use excessive violence against the indigenous Mapuche communities, which make up about 4% of Chile's population. Chilean human rights groups and international organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have reported that the police break up Mapuche street protests violently and have raided Mapuche communities without proper authorization.

An urgent plea for the protection of the lands of uncontacted indigenous peoples in the Gran Chaco, a region of scrub forest and arid plains in western Paraguay, has been issued by nine local organizations after round-table talks sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme. The Totobiegosode, a sub-group of the Ayoreo, are living in voluntary isolation as Brazilian cattle ranchers encroach on their territory.

In the wee hours of March 8, International Women's Day, 2,000 campesina women occupied a eucalyptus plantation belonging to the Aracruz Celulosa plant, a large paper and pulp mill in Barra do Ribeiro, 56 kilometers from Porto Alegre in southern Brazil. Seven hours later, the women, in an action coordinated with the international group Vía Campesina, marched through Porto Alegre to the Catholic University, where the second International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD) is taking place, organized by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The protesters found the gate to the university blocked by police. A tense stand-off and scuffle ensued.

The Argentinian government harshly condemned Leon Panetta, the new CIA director, for warning of a potential economic crisis in the country. The country's foreign ministry summoned the US ambassador to Buenos Aires "to explain the lamentable statements" made by Panetta, describing them as "unacceptable interference" in its affairs.

Authorities in Argentina Feb. 19 gave a "traditionalist" Catholic bishop 10 days to leave the country or be expelled after he caused an international imbroglio by denying the extent of the Holocaust. Bishop Richard Williamson of the Society of St. Pius X headed a seminary near Buenos Aires until he was removed this month. He has said he believes that there were no gas chambers and that no more than 300,000 Jews died in Nazi concentration camps, rather than the widely accepted 6 million. The Vatican has ordered him to retract his comments; Bishop Williamson said in response that he needs more time to review the evidence. (Reuters, Feb. 20)

On Feb. 14 a court in Temuco in the southern Chilean region of La Araucania formally charged indigenous Mapuche activist Miguel Angel Tapia Huenulef with six counts of possession of firearms and explosives under the Anti-terrorism Law. Police agents said they had found the weapons and explosives during raids the night of Feb. 11 at Tapia Huenulef's home in Lo Prado community in Santiago and in a house in the Huallalin sector of Padre las Casas in Novena region. The court ordered Tapia Huenulef held in prison during the investigation, which it said should be completed in four months. He also faces drug possession charges in Santiago and charges of arson and assault from a Jan. 12 attack on the San Leandro estate in Lautaro in La Araucania.