October 12th is Columbus Day, when the U.S. government shuts down to honor the infamous mass murderer. Happily, in other countries in the Americas, people "celebrate" Columbus Day a little differently. In Honduras, the Committee of People's and Indian Organizations staged a three-month trial of Christopher Columbus culminating with a unanimous "guilty" verdict on 10 charges, including kidnapping, rape, slave trading, invasion, murder, torture, and genocide against the native population of the Americas. "Columbus and his crew committed innumerable crimes against our Indian ancestors and there is no statute of limitations on those crimes ... He is guilty and will receive exemplary punishment," said Oswaldo Martinez, one of the organizers of the event. Columbus was then sentenced to death and, before a crowd of over 2,000 people in a downtown Tegucigalpa square, four archers representing four different indigenous groups fired arrows into a plywood portrait of the criminal. The demonstrators then demanded an apology and reparations from Spain, aid from the Honduran government for indigenous groups, and an investigation into the unsolved murders of 43 native leaders in Honduras over the past six years.--Maria Tomchick

There were other demonstrations to protest Columbus Day. In Paraguay, 2,000 people from four indigenous groups marched in Asuncion to demand the return of ancestral lands. (Paraguay has the most uneven distribution of land of any country in South America.) In Mexico City, 3,000 people demonstrated on the city's main boulevard, where poet Jose Chavez stripped naked and climbed on top of a statue of Columbus. He made a speech and read poetry, wearing only his socks and a hat. "We've been colonized for 500 years. Today is a time for poets," he said. Simultaneously, about 500 miles south of the Mexican capital in the city of Ocosingo in Chiapas state, 1,500 people marched to protest the Mexican government's ongoing war against the Zapatista movement and the indigenous people of Chiapas.--M.T.

Last week, the government of Brazil was in the news for securing a $3 billion loan package from the IMF; what didn't make the news were the austerity measures attached to the loan, including a $5 billion cut in social spending. Also, the government has completely frozen spending for several government departments, among them the Indian Foundation (FUNAI). FUNAI provides vital services to Brazil's 215 Indian nations, including funds for healthcare, medical clinics, and hospitals. On Oct. 15th, 150 warriors from the Kaiapo tribe, wearing black warpaint and carrying traditional clubs, protested outside the FUNAI headquarters in Brasilia demanding that the government release funds for FUNAI. 10 separate outbreaks of cholera, tuberculosis, malaria, pneumonia, and other diseases have taken a heavy toll among Brazil's 320,000 indigenous people, while the Brazilian government shuffles money around to pay interest to banks.--M.T.

On Oct. 7, millions of people demonstrated all across Russia, demanding to be paid their overdue wages and calling for the resignation of Boris Yeltsin and his government. The Russian government estimated that 1.3 million people turned out, while the Russian unions say over 25 million people participated in protests, strikes, demonstrations, sit-ins, and work stoppages. Yeltsin was in such a panic that he appointed a whole new set of senior military officers and swore them in on the same day that the protests took place, then reminded the officers that they owed their loyalty first and foremost to him.--M.T.

Lawyers for a Nigerian human rights group are preparing a lawsuit against Chevron Corp. for complicity in the death of two Nigerian protesters and the injury of several more on an offshore oil platform in the Niger River delta. The lawsuit will likely be brought to court in the U.S.; last year a California court ruled, in a precedent-setting case, that Unocal Corp. could be sued in U.S. court for human rights abuses in Burma (Myanmar). The Nigerian case is based on the following incident: on May 25th, 100 Nigerian protesters occupied an offshore oil rig operated by Chevron to protest pollution from the rig and the exploitation of local resources without compensation to the local population. After three days of negotiations with the activists, the company suddenly broke off discussions and called in the Nigerian military and police to evict the demonstrators. The Nigerian military and "mobile police" are known for their corruption and brutality; they proceeded to tear-gas, bludgeon, bayonet, and shoot demonstrators. Evidence suggests that Chevron may have paid the military and police "special duty pay" for their raid on the oil rig.--M.T.