Raquel Yrigoyen Fajardo, fired as head of Peru’s indigenous affair agency, is publicly accusing the government of removing her because she annulled the agency’s approval of an environmental impact study for expansion of the Camisea gas-fields.
Growing political conflicts over development projects have prompted security forces to intervene in recent weeks in Ecuador, with military troops and campesinos in confrontations over mining and hydro concessions.
From the San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 28: S.F. crash badly injures person in wheelchair SAN FRANCISCO — A person in a wheelchair suffered life-threatening injuries today after being hit by a pickup truck in a South of Market intersection, San… Read moreWHY WE FIGHT
Indonesian security forces fired on an unarmed political meeting of indigenous leaders in West Papua after they issued a declaration of independence. Six people were killed, many were injured, and some 300 arrested. Six have been charged with treason.
An Argentine court sentenced 12 former military and police officers to life in prison for crimes against humanity. The defendants were convicted of various crimes that took place in the notorious Naval Mechanics School.
BBC quotes several Taliban commanders boasting of the aid they receive from Pakistan’s ISI. Afghan President Karzai reacts by telling Pakistani TV: “God forbid, if ever there is a war between Pakistan and America, Afghanistan will stand by Pakistan.”
A US appeals court approved a lawsuit by Papua New Guinea citizens against mining giant Rio Tinto on claims of genocide and war crimes. The suit charges the company directed a war of extermination against indigenous people on Bougainville Island.
Police fired tear gas into a crowd of several hundred protesters backing the Occupy movement who attempted to retake an encampment outside Oakland City Hall that officers had cleared 12 hours earlier using smoke grenades and arresting 75.
Honduran and international groups are forming an organization to monitor and prevent rights violations in the Lower Aguán Valley, the site of numerous violent land disputes, where dozens of people have been killed over the past two years.
A total of 32 public universities across Colombia have gone on strike against proposed changes to the education system that students and faculty say will lead to privatization. One student was killed in protests in Cali.
About 50 Chilean students and their supporters took over a congressional budget subcommittee’s meeting in Santiago to demand that the government hold a binding plebiscite on their demands.
Activists demanded the withdrawal of the thousands of UN “peacekeepers” in Haiti UN mission and called for the UN to pay compensation for the country’s current cholera epidemic.
