After a 10-year trial, on Dec. 12 Bolivian judge Angel Arias sentenced three former officers to 30 years for their involvement in the 1980 military coup in which Luis Garcia Meza overthrew President Lidia Gueiler. Socialist leader Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz and legislative deputy Carlos Flores Bedregal were murdered soon after the coup in an assault on the offices of the Bolivian Workers Central (COB). Judge Arias convicted Felipe Froilan Molina Bustamante, Franz Pizarro Solano and Javier Hinojosa Valdez of armed uprising and the organization of irregular groups. The judge did not find them guilty of murder, leading to shouts of "murderers" and "neither forgetting nor forgiving" from friends and relatives of Flores Bedregal and Quiroga Santa Cruz in the courtroom. Another 14 defendants were found guilty of coverup and false testimony; they received sentences of two to four years. Former dictator Garcia Meza began serving a 30-year sentence in 1995; charges against him included sedition, genocide and the theft of the diaries of Argentine-born guerrilla leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara. (La Jornada, Mexico, Dec. 13)

On Dec. 10, some 150 people marched to the federal building in Hartford, CT, to demand an end to immigration raids. Activists were upset about the arrest of 21 Brazilian immigrants in early November in the city's Parkville neighborhood in a joint operation between local police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Local police said they had asked ICE to help them search for a Brazilian man being sought on attempted murder and robbery charges. They didn't find the suspect, but ICE picked up 21 other people suspected of being in the US without permission.

A Mexican citizen who is in the US legally has filed the first lawsuit challenging the aggressive immigration-enforcement efforts of Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona's Maricopa County, charging unlawful detainment and racial profiling. The suit seeks a declaratory judgment that Arpaio's actions are unconstitutional, and injunctions prohibiting the use of Arpaio's anti-immigration hotline and directing the Sheriff's Office to disband its Illegal Immigration Interdiction unit.

From the Iraq Freedom Congress, Dec. 12:

We Must Stand Together Against the Women-Killing Gangs
Unidentified gangs began to commit a series of organized crimes and killing many women in various cities in Iraq, particularly in Basra where more than 40 women are said to have been killed in the last 5 months. In addition to those crimes, these gangs threatened unveiled women to follow Islamic law and start wearing head scarf otherwise facing the severe consequences.

From the Iraq Freedom Congress, Dec. 8:

Under the slogan of "No to occupation ... No to sectarianism and subservience... No to the Oil & Gas Law," the clans of southern Iraq held a large conference in the province of Basra on December 8, 2007. These clans have a strong opposition to the Iranian interference in Iraqi affairs, especially in the city of Basra.

Turkish warplanes attacked PKK guerilla positions across the border in the mountains of northern Iraq early Dec. 17, the military General Staff said in a statement. BBC reports that 10 villages were hit, and at least one person killed. A representative of the Kurdish Regional Government said the struck villages were not held by the PKK, and asserted the attacks were illegal. The representative said that while Turkish forces have previously hit Iraqi territory with artillery and helicopters, this attack marked the first time planes were used. (Reuters, BBC World Service, Dec. 16)

The rival Moro guerrilla groups in the Philippines have agreed to talks after a meeting in Manila with Saiful Islam Qadaffi, eldest son of Libyan President Moammar Qadaffi. The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) agreed to work towards peace with the government as well. "We agreed to resolve the conflict not beyond September 2008 in accordance with a road map," said MILF leader Eid Kabalu.

Eight people were killed in a four-hour gun battle between police and thieves in the Villa Hermosa suburb of Guatemala City. An armed gang had robbed a jeweller in a shopping center, killing a security guard. Hundreds of Special Forces troops from the National Civil Police, backed up by some 70 army troops, later surrounded them in a private house, where they refused to surrender. One local radio station, broadcasting from the scene, carried recordings of a man shouting: "The only way we'll come out is dead." One officer was killed in the shoot-out, and six bodies were found in the house—along with assault weapons and hand grenades. Four police and a soldier were wounded. "The exchange of gunfire was very intense, but everything is now under control," Interior Minister Adela Camacho said. (BBC, Xinhua, Prensa Libre, Guatemala, Dec. 16)