From La Jornada, June 6, via Chiapas95 (our translation). Amazingly, this seems to have made no international media. Now, how did this guy survive to go on a hunger strike after being nailed to a cross?

Veracruz, June 5. An eldrely sympathizer of the ecologist organization Greenpeace crucified himself in the historic center of this city to protest the "silent complicity" of the three levels of government before the destruction of the forests and mangroves in Veracruz [state] and the contamination of the rivers and lagoon systems.

On May 4 the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Georgia released documents on investigations by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into the US human rights group School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch). The group organizes massive demonstrations each year outside Fort Benning, Georgia, to call for the closing of the US military's Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC, formerly the US Army School of the Americas), a training school for Latin American soldiers whose graduates include many of the worst human rights violators in Latin America.

On June 1 in Chicago, immigration judge John Brahos granted a continuance of more than four months to Flor Crisostomo and five other workers arrested last April 19 in an ICE raid of the IFCO Systems pallet company in Chicago. The six workers must return to court Oct. 12. Immigration judge Carlos Cuevas gave another 13 of the IFCO Chicago workers (or 15, according to the Chicago-based Spanish-language daily Diario Hoy) only a two-month continuance: they must return to court on July 31. Another three workers have immigration court dates set for June 6 and 7. A total of 26 workers were arrested at IFCO's Chicago warehouse during the April 19 sweep; they were among 1,187 workers were arrested that day at 40 IFCO sites in 27 states. (Diario Hoy, June 2; Chicago Tribune, June 2; Nuevo Siglo, Chicago, June 2)

On June 3, Mexican telenovela star Ofelia Medina, who has launched the group Mujeres Sin Miedo (Women Without Fear) to support those arrested in the protests at San Salvador Atenco, held a press conference to announce that 24 of the prisoners had completed 30 days on hunger strike. (statement June 3)

On June 2, two convoys of Mexico state police entered Atenco in a brief incursion which was protested as an attempt to intimidate the residents. (La Jornada, May 4)

Here is a pretty good indication that the US is losing control of the client state it has set up in Iraq—which, in turn, is afraid of losing control of Iraq. And, since Maliki and his gang are more loyal to Tehran than Washington, this means the invasion of Iran can't be far behind... From The Jurist, June 2:

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has decared a state of emergency in Basra, where battles are raging both between Shi'ite and Sunni militias, as well as among rival Shi'ite militias. Nearly 140, mostly Sunnis but also Shi'ites and members of the security forces, were killed in Basra in May. (Boston Globe, June 1) The vying Shi'ite factions include not only the Sadr and Badr militias, but the regionally powerful Fadilah movement. (CSM, June 2) Fadilah is apparently a schism from Moktada al-Sadr's mainline Sadr movement. It is led by Najaf-based Ayatollah Muhammad Yaqubi, and appears to be even more hardline. (Juan Cole's Informed Comment, Sept. 24, 2005) Amid widespread attacks and forced expulsions, the proportion of Sunnis in Basra has declined from 40% to 15% since the fall of Saddam, according to the official Sunni Endowment in Southern Iraq. (Al-Jazeera, June 1)

Doug Ireland writes of an "anti-gay pogrom" underway in Iraq, for In These Times, May 31:

Shiite death squads in Iraq are carrying out a campaign that targets gay men for murder. This so-called “sexual cleansing" is happening under the nose of the U.S. military—but American authorities in the Green Zone have refused to do anything about it.

The ascendance of the center-left Romano Prodi as Italy's new prime minister in the narrow (and contested) April elections will apparently mean at least a phased withdrawal of Italian troops from the US-led mission in Iraq, depriving Bush of one more European ally in his Mesopotamian adventure. It will not, however, mean a withdrawal from the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan. On the contrary, Italy may be expanding its troop presence there. From the Pakistan Tribune, June 2: