Our November issue featured the stories "Venezuelan Labor Between Chávez and the Golpistas" by Venezuelan journalist Rafael Uzcategui writing for the Spanish anarchist journal Tierra y Libertad, and "Venezuela: Demarcation Without Land" by José Quintero Weir writing for the Caracas anarchist journal El Libertario. The stories documented, respectively, repression against unionists and indigenous peoples under the Hugo Chávez regime. Our Exit Poll was: "Are we traitors to the Revolution for airing an anarchist critique of Bolivarian Venezuela?"

Tensions between Colombia and Venezuela have deepened after Colombian ministers failed to attend a regional summit in Ecuador. The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) meeting in Quito was intended to defuse the crisis. But Bogotá refused to send its foreign and defense ministers, saying respectful discussions were "impossible"—sending only what what it called a "technical delegation." Venezuela called the move an act of "contempt." (BBC News, Nov, 28)

Venezuelan media activist Mijail Martinez, the son of a former state deputy for the chavista Fifth Republic Movement (MVR), was assassinated in a drive-by shooting Nov. 26 at his home in the city of Barquisimeto, Lara. Martínez, 24, was a cameraman and activist with the Victims' Committee Against Impunity in Lara state (CVCI-Lara) and an audiovisual producer on the TV program of his father, Victor Martínez, a longtime Bolivarian militant. Victor had recently been making a series of official complaints in which he had implicated a host of high governmental and police figures in corruption and human rights violations. (El Libertario, Caracas, Nov. 28 via Anarkismo.net; El Nacional, Caracas, Nov. 26)

The government of Peru has officially apologized for the first time to its citizens of African descent for centuries of "abuse, exclusion and discrimination." The executive resolution, published Nov. 28 in the official newspaper El Peruano, states that discrimination against black Peruvians still exists and is "a barrier for social, economic, labor and educational development." Women and Social Development Minister Nidia Vilchez said the government hopes its apology will help promote the "true integration of all Peru's multicultural population." But critics point out that the apology does not explicitly refer to slavery or state plans for reparations or changing the status quo for Afro-Peruvians.

Magaly Janeth Moreno Vega AKA "La Perla", wanted by Interpol and Colombia as a key fugitive leader of the outlawed AUC paramilitary network, was arrested by Venezuelan authorities in Maracaibo. There was no immediate word on whether Venezuela would extradite. Upon her arrest, Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami again accused Colombia's government of supporting the illegal paramilitaries and using them to subvert Venezuela. El Aissami, speaking on state television, accused Colombian President Alvaro Uribe of "institutional and moral decay" for his government's ties to paramilitary groups that "attack our people and threaten peace and order." (LAT, Nov. 23)

A gang in a jungle area of Peru's Huánuco region has been killing people to harvest their fat for sale on an international black market, police charged Nov. 19. Medical experts express skepticism at the authorities' claim that the fat is extracted for use in cosmetics by companies in Europe. But Col. Jorge Mejia, chief of the National Police Kidnapping Division, said three suspects have confessed to killing five people for their fat, and two were arrested carrying bottles of liquid fat. At least five other suspects, including two Italian nationals, remain at large, authorities said. Police said the gang could be behind the disappearances of up to 60 people in Huánuco and Pasco regions.

The governments of Colombia and Venezuela traded angry words again on Nov. 19 following the bombing of two footbridges connecting the two countries by Venezuelan guardsmen. The bridges were at the border town of Rangonvalia, where Venezuela's Táchira state meet Colombia's Norte de Santander department. In a statement, Colombia's Foreign Ministry announced it will denounce the destruction of the bridges before the United Nations and the Organization of American States, charging in a statement that "this is a unilateral act of aggression against the civilian population and the border communities."

The chief of the DAS, Colombia's secret police, says a mob assaulted three of its agents as they tried to arrest a suspect with guerilla ties Nov. 15. DAS director Felipe Muñoz says Ivan Danilo Alarcon, wanted for rebellion and drug trafficking, was detained near a university in the city of Cali. Muñoz says Alarcon cried out he was being kidnapped and 100 people surrounded the officers. The crowd detained the agents for over an hour, threatened them with death and took their weapons and armored vests. They freed Alarcon from handcuffs, and he fled. Muñoz charged that Alarcon posed as a human rights activist but was in fact giving logistical support to the FARC. (AP, Nov. 15)