By Ronald Chavez and Harold Lavender

The repression/attacks against grassroots organizations, activists, human rights workers, etc. in Latin America (as in the rest of the world) has reached a very dangerous and sad new level.

Following the recent assassination of Mexican human rights activist Dignia Ochoa, a lawyer for politcal prisoners, four more human rights workers have received death threats in Mexico.

In southern Mexico, the army has reoccupied many areas, launching a campaign of intimidation against the local population, especially those communities suspected of supporting Zapatistas.

In Honduras, the police captured and jailed (after beating up) several workers who demonstrated outside the US embassy.

In Columbia three University students were killed, one of them by uniformed police, after students demonstrated against the neoliberal policies of the Columbian government and against the US bombing of Afghanistan. Paramilitary groups have committed several new massacres, and it was also revealed that visas have been granted to some 50 paramilitary members to enter the US (despite the fact the US has declared the AUC-paramilitary a terrorist organization).

The paramilitaries are notorious for assassinating and disappearing trade unionists, left wing politicians, community leaders, indigenous leaders, human rights workers as well as massacring unarmed civilians, especially peasants.

Now repression in Columbia has been given a thin veil of "legality." The Columbian Peace Association has sent out an urgent appeal concerning the safety of Jairo Claderon Rueda, Alonso Martinez Arias and Romon Rangel Guerra, members of the oil workers union Sindical Obrera. They were detained on Oct. 19 in Santander, under charges of terrorism. The are still in custody, accused of collaborating with the FARC and ELN guerilla movements.

Seventeen people were arrested in a massive police operation to root out so-called guerilla collaborators or "terrorists" under the anti-terrorist statute recently passed in Columbia. New security regulations give the government and its security forces dangerous powers to detain suspected "terrorists" for long periods of time without any clear evidence.

In Guatemala, on Oct. 10, President Portillo announced plans for a National Security Commissioners for Anti-Terrorism. The next day he met with the US ambassador to Guatemala and US security personnel to discuss candidates. Retired General Miguel Angel Calderon was appointed to the post, which will focus on preventing terrorist acts on Guatemala soil. His appointment comes less than five years after the end of a 36-year conflict in which 200,000 people were assassinated and disappeared. State forces are believed responsible for 93 percent of the casualties.

In Bolivia, death squads murdered 12 peasants from the organization Campesinos sin tierra who demanded land reforms.

The list of attacks against the people of Latin America keeps growing every day. There is no doubt that the "war on terrorism" launched by the US has been taken seriously by the armies and governments of Latin America to crack down on any form of opposition.

The levels of poverty and despair in which most of the people of Latin America live are now so profound that for most, there is no choice but to resist and fight to defend their dignity and build a more just society.