Deadly street clashes erupted in the Maldives, with protesters reported to be seizing police stations on some islands, after the archipelago nation’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Nasheed, was removed in a coup d’etat.
The “New Generation” narco gang has threatened to kill one police officer a day until Ciudad Juárez police chief Julian Leyzoala step down—who they accuse of collaborating with their rivals. The 2,000-strong police force have moved into hotels and safe houses.
Hundreds of independent small-scale gold miners marched on the Venezuelan city of BolĂvar to protest the militarization of Manaima district, where security forces have been sent in to crack down on unlicensed operations following a violent clash in the area.
As government troops search southern Colombia for FARC guerillas after a wave of audacious attacks, the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca protested that several indigenous residents have been killed by armed actors in recent weeks.
Former militants of the Alfaro Vive Carajo guerilla group turned over to Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa the swords of revered 19th century presidents Eloy Alfaro and Pedro J. Montero, stolen by the guerillas from a Guayaquil museum in 1983.
The Kichwa Confederation of Ecuador (ECUARUNARI) announced a national mobilization that will converge on Quito from points around the country next month to oppose what leaders call President Rafael Correa’s policies in favor of the resource industries.
Bolivia’s government says it will coordinate with the leaders of a cross-country march in favor of a new road into the Amazon rainforest on repeal of a law that suspended the project after a bigger cross-country march in opposition last year.
Opponents of the US-owned Conga mining project in Peru’s northern Cajamarca region launched a cross-country National March for Water, symbolically departing for Lima from one of the mountain lakes threatened by the project.
In a series of regional consultations, Peru’s indigenous leaders found that proposed regulations implementing a new law on indigenous territorial rights do not meet standards established by Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization.
Survival International has released new photos of an “uncontacted” indigenous band in Peru. With illegal logging interests and proposed highway projects rapidly encroaching on their territory, Peru’s government has denied the “uncontacted” peoples exist.
The number of civilians killed in the Afghan conflict has risen for the fifth year in a row, according to the annual report of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, which documents 3,021 civilian deaths in 2011 compared with 2,790 in 2010.
Indonesia opened the trial of five pro-independence activists on makar (treason) charges in the West Papua capital of Jayapura—amid protests from international human rights groups, who say the five were exercising free expression.
