President Ollanta Humala boasted a new “expert review” of the controversial Conga gold mine project in Peru’s northern Cajamarca region, but regional president Gregorio Santos charged Humala is “on his knees” before corporate power.
Amid rival protests for and against re-opening the idled US-owned metal smelter at La Oroya in the Peruvian Andes—one of the 10 most polluted spots on Earth—the owners are suing Peru’s government for violating terms of the FTA.
UN aid agencies in the occupied West Bank protested that Israel destroyed 21 homes of Palestinian Bedouin refugees at Khalayleh north of East Jerusalem—leaving 54 people homeless, including 35 children.
After re-taking the contested oil-rich border enclave of Heglig, Sudan’s President Omar Bashir called the South Sudanese “insects” and said he will will not allow the South to export any oil through the cross-border pipeline.
An elderly man set himself on fire in Kyrgyzstan’s southern city of Osh, the scene of repeated rival protests between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks. Labor strikes and local protests have meanwhile shut down the country’s giant Kumtor gold mine.
As the Libyan regime consolidates control over regional militias, Amnesty International warns of torture and killings of Black African detainees at militia-run camps. Fighting between Arab militias and Black Libyans continues in the country’s south.
With Sudan and South Sudan effectively at war, each are apparently arming guerillas in the other’s territory. The Geneva-based Small Arms Survey finds that the South is arming rebels in Kordofan, while Khartoum arms insurgents across the border.
Peru’s Panamericana TV broadcast an interview with the leader of the Sendero Luminoso guerillas who last week took hostage some 40 Camisea gas pipeline workers—adding further confusion to the already extremely murky affair.
The special panel charged with conducting a review of the controversial Conga mining project in Peru’s northern Andean region of Cajamarca handed its findings in to the government—as anti-mine protesters occupy Cajamarca’s central plaza.
At the Summit of the Americas, President Obama announced approval of Colombia’s supposed progress in protecting labor rights, allowing the Free Trade Agreement to take effect next month—to protests of the country’s embattled trade unions.
Revelations that Secret Service agents protecting Obama at the Cartagena summit hired local sex workers puts Colombia briefly in the news—while the four car bombs that went off during the summit barely rate a mention.
With the Keystone pipeline to the US stalled, Canada’s government is pushing a new Pacific route from the Alberta tar sands fields for export to China. But First Nations in the proposed pipelines’ path oppose both routes.
