Hunger Strikes

The case of a jailed indigenous-rights activist who has been on a hunger strike for more than 100 days has galvanized support for restive Mapuche Indians seeking the release of prisoners and recovery of ancestral lands in central Chile. Mapuche activists and their allies have converged on this town in the Andean foothills, where Patricia Troncoso is being held in a hospital.

The Chilean government defended its decision Tuesday to back a church-brokered agreement that ended a months-long hunger strike by a jailed Indian-rights activist. A top official in the office of President Michelle Bachelet said Patricia Troncoso was not granted a pardon and would serve out her 10-year sentence -- albeit in a work camp and not in a prison, and with weekend leaves.

Though government immigration initiatives are often attacked for bringing foreign employees into the U.S., rarely are the immigrant workers the main critics. On Wednesday, however, a dozen workers from India ended a four-week hunger strike that was meant to highlight their allegations that a guest worker program is abusing foreign laborers and shutting Americans out of decent jobs.

Months into a hunger strike, Jose Ignacio de Juana's rib cage protrudes above spindly arms and legs that have been lashed to a hospital bed. Force-feeding tubes to keep him alive run from his nose. The startling image of the convicted Basque killer began circulating last month. On Thursday, the Spanish government ordered De Juana released from a prison hospital and placed under house arrest. Officials invoked a law that allows such an act of leniency when a prisoner is gravely ill.

Terrorism suspects at a maximum-security prison at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have resumed a mass hunger strike to protest the conditions of their confinement, detainees' lawyers said Sunday. The on-again, off-again action involving at least 20 prisoners over the last few months started after more than 170 of the 385 men currently detained at Guantanamo were moved to the newest and harshest facility, Camp 6.

More than 400 North Koreans being held in a Thai immigration facility have launched a hunger strike, demanding that they be sent to South Korea, Thai police and an activist group said. Thai immigration police Lt. Col. Pricha Daengsirirat said South Korean diplomats came to help negotiate with the refugees at the detention center in Bangkok, the capital. The officer said delays in the resettlement were not the fault of Thai authorities.

About 400 North Korean refugees ended their hunger strike at a Thai immigration detention center after receiving a promise that 25 of them would be flown this week to asylum in South Korean, an aid worker said. The refugees had refused food since Tuesday to protest processing delays.

Three dozen Southern California high school and college students wearing caps and gowns launched a hunger strike Monday to call for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrant students. Vowing not to eat and only drink water until Monday, the group launched its campaign at the offices of Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Santa Ana) and plan to protest at the offices of representatives in Pasadena, Bakersfield, San Jose and San Francisco.

A Cuban activist, Ramon Saul Sanchez, ended an 11-day hunger strike in Miami after White House officials agreed to listen to concerns about the repatriation of Cubans, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported. Sanchez had been protesting the treatment of 15 Cubans who made it to an abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys but were denied entry into the U.S.

Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants declared in court Tuesday that they had embarked on a jailhouse hunger strike to protest their trial on charges of violating the human rights of Shiite Muslim villagers. "For the past three days we've been on a hunger strike against you and your masters," Hussein told the judge as he walked into the courtroom. The former Iraqi leader was dressed in a crisp black suit and was more subdued than he has been on other days during the tumultuous trial.