MEXICO CITY — The unfavorable results of last month’s Mexican election and allegations of fraud so angered Jesus Alberto Nito Tellez that he left his wholesale business in the central Mexican city of Celaya three weeks ago and drove to the heart of Mexico City, where he pitched a tent in a protest camp organized by disgruntled presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who narrowly lost the presidential race. How long Nito Tellez stays depends on how soon he and his colleagues from a left-leaning coalition, dubbed “For the good of all” and headed by the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), [...]
To better prepare its troops for tough counterinsurgency warfare, the U.S. military is investing in super-realistic exercises that combine traditional live-fire training with sophisticated cultural instruction and Hollywood-style special effects that blur the lines between training and combat. At the start of the so-called Global War on Terrorism, the military’s combat training infrastructure reflected an entrenched Cold War mentality. At the sprawling National Training Center (NTC) in California’s Mojave Desert, armored brigades maneuvered against an Opposing Force equipped with mock Soviet tanks. At the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) in the Louisiana bayou, light infantry battalions trained on simulated battlefields [...]
Thousands of Venezuelans gathered in front of the offices of the Consejo Nacional Electoral (National Electoral Counsel/CNE) in downtown Caracas on Saturday, Aug. 12, to demonstrate their support for Pres. Hugo Chávez Frías. Chávez had come to CNE’s offices to formally register his re-election bid and he came accompanied by members of his Movimiento Quinta República (Fifth Republic Movement/MVR) and members of Bloque del Cambio (Bloc for Change) an alliance of twenty-three left-wing political and social justice groups that support his administration. Supporters applauded the popular incumbent as he announced the opening of his re-election campaign in the Plaza Caracas. [...]
