Santa Gertrudis, Sierra Juarez, Oaxaca - The 4th annual Zapotec Feria of the Cornfield - Globalization and the Natural Resources - was held in Santa Gertrudis, Sierra Juarez on February 7-8. Organized by the Union of Social Organizations of the Sierra Juarez of Oaxaca (UNOSJO), this year´s event was attended by representatives of UNOSJO´s 24 affiliated communities, participants from all over Mexico, along with a large international presence of activists from Uruguay to Wales, Turkey to the United States, as well as a 15-strong delegation of German Organic farmers.

Militarisation presents an extreme technique in which the state legitimates and exercises its power. It is a form of controlling the people, a strategy of national security and of counterinsurgency; a tactic to control the streets; demonstrating the violence which is naturally produced in a capitalist system. It is one of the ways this system can ensure its dominance and reproduce systematic orders which violate and subordinate the population in general but in particular, women. It is a further manifestation of patriarchitism. The consequences of militarization for women are multiple and complicated. Sexual abuse, physical and psychological violence and forced displacement present just a small number of them.

Saludos solidarios to all our compañeros around the world! As the New Year rolled in, the first months have brought a number of groundbreaking events throughout Latin America. In January, the world turned to Haiti, when an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude rumbled through the island and destroyed homes, communities, and major infrastrutures. The world watched as the U.S. military closed off aid planes with food and medical aid from landing, and instead occupied/militarized lands by bringing in soldiers in uniform with weapons on hand. Nothing short of new, the U.S.-Mexico Border continues with its militarization and criminalization of undocumented immigrants from Latin America, as the Obama Administration continues to fall short of its "hopes" and "change". Despite imperial forces sweeping through, people at the grassroots are mobilizing and building networks stronger than ever.

In a November 13 speech to the Center for American Progress in Washington, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano made clear that President Obama's administration intends to move forward soon on legislation that would bring about "an immigration system that works." The administration, she promised, "will pursue reforms" true to an American identity as "both a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws." In this way, Napolitano asserted, Congress and the White House would avoid the pitfalls of the "one-sided" reforms of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. "The enforcement part of the equation was promised," she said, referring to portrayals of the 1986 legislation by its proponents, "but it didn't materialize."[1]