Via NYC Indymedia, Aug. 19:

August 19, 2008, New York – A group of 52 local activists today announced a $2 million settlement in their lawsuit against the City of New York. The activists were illegally arrested on April 7, 2003 while protesting against the Iraq war in front of a military contractor's offices in midtown. The settlement in Kunstler et al v. New York City follows the dismissal in 2003 of all criminal charges brought against these individuals and four costly years of delays by the City in negotiating an end to the civil lawsuit.

From the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN), Aug. 21:

The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) and the West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT) today welcomed the removal of Col. Burhanuddin Siagian from his command in West Papua. Siagian faces two indictments in East Timor for crimes against humanity committed in 1999. "Col. Siagian's removal from Papua is a welcome move," said John M. Miller, National Coordinator of ETAN. "Indonesia should take the next steps and suspend him from any command and then hand him over for trial for the crimes he committed in East Timor."

A 24-hour general strike in Bolivia's opposition-controlled departments of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando, Tarija and Chuquisaca Aug. 19 paralyzed a large swath of the country's east. Clashes broke out in the city of Santa Cruz, where protesters armed with sticks and stones fought with loyalists of President Evo Morales, and police fired tear gas. Young strike enforcers were reported to be patrolling the streets of Santa Cruz with baseball bats, while Morales supporters stood guard outside the working-class district of Plan 3000. Schools, shops, airports and private vehicular traffic were largely shut down in the five departments. Morales accused opposition leaders of using demands for the return of funds from the Direct Hydrocarbon Tax (IDH) as a "pretext" to try to divide the National Police force. But Cabinet Minister Juan Ramon Quintana lauded authorities in Tarija and Chuquisaca for not supporting the strike, despite being part of the regional opposition alliance, the National Democratic Council (CONALDE). (LAT, Aug. 21; InfoBae, Argentina, Prensa Latina, Aug. 20)

Margarita Mbywangi, a 46-year-old Ache tribal chief who says she was captured in the jungle and sold into forced labor as a child, has been appointed Paraguay's minister of indigenous affairs by President Fernando Lugo, who was inaugurated Aug. 15. Mbywangi, a mother of three, told Paraguay's Channel 2 TV: "When I was a girl, four years old, the whites kidnapped me in the jungle and I was sold several times to families of hacienda owners. They sent me to school, so I can read and write." Upon winning her freedom, she began to seek her origins "until I found my people in the community of Chupapou." She said she will immediately begin to work on titling indigenous lands. According to government figures, about 90,000 Paraguayans say they belong to one of the country's 400 indigenous communities. (The Guardian, Aug. 19)

Indigenous groups in Peru ended more than a week of militant protests Aug. 20 at key energy sites after lawmakers agreed to overturn a new land law issued by President Alan García, which sought to ease corporate access to communal territories. García had issued the law by decree earlier under special powers Congress granted him to bring Peruvian law into compliance with a new free-trade deal with the US. A congressional commission voted to revoke the law Aug. 19, and a floor vote is expected later this week. "We have lifted the strike," said Alberto Pizango, head of Amazon indigenous alliance AIDESEP. "We have faith and expect Congress to follow through." (Reuters, Aug. 20)

On Aug. 8 the Colombian Attorney General's Office arrested sociologist Liliana (or Liliany) Patricia Obando Villota in Bogotá on charges of organizing events and managing money for the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). On Aug. 9 the Attorney General's Office announced that police had also arrested Dr. Cesar Augusto Arango Garcia, the director of a public hospital in the indigenous municipality of Planadas in Tolima department; Arango was described as the personal physician of Alfonso Cano, who has led the FARC since the death of longtime leader Manuel Marulanda in March. The Attorney General's Office says it is also seeking William Parra, a journalist now working with the left-leaning Venezuelan-based Telesur television network.

The government of Colombian president Alvaro Uribe continues to be plagued by the parapolítica ("parapolitics") scandal, in which some 60 members of Congress have been linked to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary group that is now officially demobilized. The majority of these politicians are in Uribe's governing coalition, and some are in the president's extended family. On Aug. 12 a former paramilitary, Luis Adrian Palacio ("Diomedes"), gave testimony to the Attorney General's Office linking Gen. Mario Montoya, the head of the military, to the AUC. Diomedes said that in April 2002 Montoya, who then commanded the Army's Fourth Brigade, personally delivered a "present" of six AK-47 rifles and an M-16 rifle to the AUC's Bloque Mineros. Montoya denies the charge.

In the early morning of Aug. 15 a group of about 40 dissident unionists occupied the Mexico City headquarters of the Union of Petroleum Workers of the Mexican Republic (STPRM) to protest the recent reelection of Carlos Romero Deschamps, who has headed the union for 17 years. Dissident leader Omar Toledo Aburto gave a press conference in Romero Deschamps' luxurious office, announcing that he would be the "interim national leader of the more than 97,000 petroleum workers while elections take place." Two hours after the sit-in began, about 50 supporters of Romero Deschamps arrived wielding metal pipes and carrying pistols in their belts. They retook the office, beat the dissidents and confiscated their documents and cellphones. (La Jornada, Aug. 16)