Evo Morales sticks it to the landed elite. He saves the announcement for a trip to Santa Cruz, the section of the country which had threatened to secede if he nationalized the gas (as he has now done). A none-too-subtle message. And the land barons immediately talk of forming paramilitaries. This should be interesting... From Reuters, June 4:

SANTA CRUZ - Bolivia's leftist president, Evo Morales, took a first step on Saturday toward handing over a fifth of the country's territory to poor farmers, a day after angry landowners vowed to form self-defense groups.

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.

From the Global Justice Ecology Project, June 6:

Protesters Arrested After Disrupting Negroponte in Vermont
by Orin Langelle and Anne Petermann/Global Justice Ecology Project

St. Johnsbury,VT--National Intelligence Director John Negroponte's Commencement Address to the graduating class of private St. Johnsbury Academy was disrupted twice by protesters inside the auditorium where the ceremony was being held.

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 May 29, some 600,000 public and private high school students went on strike throughout Chile, and thousands took over school buildings. On May 30, at least 500,000 students marched in the streets around the country. The protests were met with intense repression: riot agents of the militarized Carabineros police arrested 725 people and beat up two television camera operators and a news photographer. At least two students and nine police agents were also injured. The mobilization, called by the national Coordinating Assembly of High School Students (ACES), is the largest student protest in Chile since 1972. The movement, which picked up intensity in mid-May, is being called the "Penguin Revolution" because of the uniforms the students wear. (AP, June 4; Europa Press, May 31; Adital, June 6)

The Indigenous Rights Center (CEDIAC) in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, is demanding an investigation into the assassination of Tzeltal Maya campesino Sebastian Cruz Lopez, accused by state police of belonging to a gang which held up cars on the Palenque-Ocosingo highway, but according to witnesses killed at his home in front of his family in Chilon municipality. Another campesino was also said to be killed in the operation, and ten more imprisoned, including five minors. (La Jornada, June 3)

80,000 striking teachers marched in Oaxaca City June 2 to press their demands for better wages and a reorganization of the state's education system, marking the largest mass mobilization in the city's history. In addition to a large state police presence, a contigent of 500 elite Federal Preventative Police were dispatched to the city for the rally. (La Jornada, June 3) "The governor has sounded the drums of war, but we will not be intimidated," said Enrique Rueda Pacheco, secretary general of Section 22 of the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE), speaking of Oaxaca's Gov. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. (La Jornada, June 4)