More than 100 of Mexico's elite Federal Preventative Police attacked student protesters from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state, Nov. 30. Fifty-six were detained, and two gravely injured. The students were staging a protest occupation of a toll booth at La Venta, outside Acapulco on the highway to Mexico City—the latest in a series of actions over school budgets and related demands. The students did not block cars, but attempted to collect the fares on the Autopista del Sol—a federal highway with some of the highest tolls in Mexico, despite its deteriorating condition. In a hearing Dec. 2 in Acapulco, 39 of the detainees were freed, and 17 held pending charges. (IMC Mexico, Dec. 2)

Federal judicial authorities in the State of Mexico have granted an amparo, or order of protection, to 27 residents of San Salvador Atenco village, giving immunity from arrest until charges against them are reviewed. The Ninth District court in Nezahualcóyotl found insufficient evidence for carrying out pending arrest orders for involvement in clashes with police at the conflicted village in May 2006. (La Jornada, Dec. 8) Two Atenco leaders, Felipe Álvarez Hernández and Ignacio del Valle Medina, were also cleared of charges of leading violent attacks on police in the disturbances. However, they remain incarcerated at Altiplano maximum security prison on charges of illegally detaining State of Mexico officials at the village a few weeks before the riots broke out. (La Jornada, Dec. 5)

Diego Arcos Meneses, arrested over a year ago in the massacre at the rainforest settlement of Viejo Velasco on what Amnesty International called "fabricated and deficient" evidence, was freed Dec. 4 by order of state authorities in Chiapas, Mexico. Amnesty hailed the dropping of charges against Arcos, but demanded both restitution to him and his family, as well as a renewed investigation to find those responsible for the attack, in which four were killed, another four abducted, and scores forced to flee. (Amnesty International, Dec. 6)

Land conflicts between communities loyal to the Zapatista rebel movement and the state's traditional political machine continue to generate violence in Chiapas, Mexico. The Zapatista Good Government Junta (JBG) Corazón del Arcoiris de la Esperanza announced that on Nov. 24, the community of Bolom Ajaw, Autonomous Municipality Olga Isabel, was attacked by members of the OPDDIC paramilitary group. The force of some 80 men armed with pistols, rifles, clubs and machetes arrived when the community's men were working in the fields, with only women, children and elders at home. They briefly held the community hostage, beating one ill resident unconscious with clubs. (La Jornada, Nov, 26)

Antonio Vázquez Secum, named by Mexico's Prosecutor General of the Republic (PGR) as the author of the December 1997 Acteal massacre, died Nov. 17 at his home in the village of Quextic, Chiapas. Secum, who was over 70 years old, was freed from Cerro Hueco prison last year when he contracted pneumonia. The PGR's "white book" on the affair said he led a group of eight men from Miguel Utrilla Los Chorros hamlet in the attack on nearby Acteal (both in Chenahló municipality) in retaliation for the slaying of his son, Agustín Vázquez. He was among the first arrested for the massacre early in 1998. (La Jornada, Nov. 20)

A fire erupted Dec. 7 on the pipeline carrying oil from the Kirkuk fields to the Baiji refinery north of Baghdad. The state-run Northern Oil Company said the reason was unclear. In September, the pipeline burst in a suspected bomb attack. (Gulf News via Iraq Updates, Dec. 7) There have been 576 pipeline attacks in Iraq since March 2003, along with 69 attacks on refineries, 508 attacks on tanker trucks, six on maritime tankers and one on a train tanker car. At least 635 oil workers have been attacked—killed, wounded, kidnapped or subject to an attempted kidnapped. At least 1,211 workers in Iraq's power sector have also been targeted, and there have been 651 attacks on distribution and transmission lines and towers, 66 attacks on thermal power stations and five on hydroelectric power stations and 13 on power substations. Iraq's northern pipeline has been the major target. It was built with a total capacity of around 1.7 million barrels per day, but frequent attacks since the war have kept is largely out of commission. Recent repairs and a new security plan have allowed it to resume working, part of the reason Iraq has increased production from a little more than 2 million bpd to nearly 2.4 million. (UPI, Dec. 6)

However naive she may be about Western intentions, Ayaan Hirsi Ali deserves creds for asking the tough questions about the Muslim establishment. Why—with rare exception—are no voices on the anti-imperialist left asking these questions? From the New York Times op-ed page, Dec. 7 (links added):

Pakistani security forces dynamited the homes of Maulana Fazlullah and his spokesman Maulana Sirajuddin Dec. 6 in the Swat Valley village of Imam Dehri, North-West Frontier Province. The Maulana's madrassa was left intact. "The fate of the controversial seminary of Maulana Fazlullah will be decided by local people," an official said. Military authorities said soldiers seized machine-guns, pistols, hand-grenades, rocket-launchers, computers and—surprisingly—some liquor bottles. Clean-up operations are said to be underway. "The forces will chase militants out of the area," Maj-Gen Naseer Janjua told journalists in the village. (Dawn, Pakistan, Dec. 6)