From El Universal, Oct. 4 via Chiapas95, Oct. 4 (our translation):

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica.- The president-elect of Mexico, Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, and that of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias, agreed on the need to re-evaluate and re-analyze the Plan Puebla-Panama (PPP); and on the possibility of creating a Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (ALCA). Arias said "there are many obstacles", including the "great hypocrisy" of countries like the United States, "that talk in favor of free trade but don't practice it."

It seems Oaxaca's revolutionary model may be spreading to neighboring states. From Notimex Oct. 1, via Chiapas95:

CHILPANCINGO, GUERRERO: This weekend, at least 30 trade unions and social organizations formed the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Guerrero (APPG in its Spanish initials), whose members announced mobilizations set for this coming Monday.

Tensions are remain high in Oaxaca following the killing of pro-government teacher, which protest leaders fear will be usd to justify a crackdown. Math teacher Jaime Rene Calvo Aragon was amember of the Central Council of Struggle (CCL), which is actually loyal to the political machine of Oaxaca's Gov. Ulises Ruiz and his ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). It is a dissident pro-government current in local Section 22 of the National Education Workers Syndicate (SNTE), which is demanding that Ruiz step down. Calvo Aragon was found knifed to death Oct. 5. Immediately, the Popular Peoples Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO), which is supporting Section 22's demands, denounced the murder as a ploy to justify repression, and claimed the government is planning to use military troops to put down the movement in Oaxaca under the name "Plan Iron." APPO remains on "maximum alert." (La Jornada, Oct. 6)

This is one solution that the perennially annoying Thomas Friedman didn't advocate in his recent rant against the "petro-authoritiarians" who have got the USA by the balls. But we certainly do. From the web page of California's Buddhist Deer Park Monastery, Sept. 29:

We almost wet our pants laughing a few years back when Exxon took out an ad on the New York Times op-ed page praising the despotism of Kazakhstan's Nursultan Nazarbayev as a "democracy." But these days Bush is writing much better material. So is Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, who recently got hot under the collar about "petro-authoritarians" taking Uncle Sam for a ride. He singled out Chavez and Ahmadinejad (of course), but Nazarbayev seems to have escaped his ire. Why is that, we wonder? From the New York Times, Sept. 29 (emphasis added):

The New York Times Sept. 30 takes note of widespread conspiracy theories that the White House is manipualting oil prices:

A gallon of regular gas now averages $2.33, after rising above $3 in August. But given that even the current lower prices are higher than was common just a couple of years ago, the question of who will benefit politically from the drop is still hotly disputed.

From BBC, Sept. 20:

Israelis 'train Kurdish forces'

The BBC has obtained evidence that Israelis have been giving military training to Kurds in northern Iraq.

It looks like Nicaragua may be poised to once again become strategic to US interests in the western hemisphere—just as the Sandinistas seem poised to take the presidential elections. Can you say deja vu? From BBC, Oct. 4:

Nicaragua has announced plans to build a waterway linking the Pacific and Atlantic that would carry bigger ships than the existing Panama Canal.