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.
Six days after they were abducted by Shining Path guerillas, hostage Camisea Consortium workers were freed in the rainforest of Peru’s Cuzco region—but accounts are sketchy and contradictory on exactly how the captives were released.
A National Police helicopter searching for 40 hostages held by presumed Sendero Luminoso guerillas in a rainforest area of Peru’s Cuzco region was fired upon, killing a police captain on board, and wounding three others.
In a surprise move, Bolivian President Evo Morales rescinded the contract of a Brazilian firm to build a controversial highway through the Amazon rainforest. But opponents of the project suspect a move to undermine their struggle.
Peru’s President Ollanta Humala declared a state of emergency in La ConvenciĂłn province, following the abduction of workers from the Camisea Consortium by presumed guerillas of the Shining Path.
A Brazilian federal judge suspended the construction license of the Teles Pires hydroelectric dam in the Amazon rainforest, saying the permitting process violated the riights of the Kayabi, Apiaká and Mundurucu indigenous peoples.
Peru’s government is ignoring new UN guidelines on the protection of isolated indigenous peoples in the Amazon, Survival International charged last week. The landmark document was issued by the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Presumed guerillas of the Shining Path seized a work camp of the Camisea Consortium in La Convención province, Cuzco region, holding captive the 30 workers there. Most were released, but seven remain hostage of the guerillas.
Leaders the Isiboro SĂ©cure National Park Indigenous Territory (TIPNIS) in Bolivia’s eastern lowlands voted to hold a new cross-country march on La Paz to oppose construction of a road through their territory.
The UN’s International Labor Organization released a report finding that the Brazilian government violated the rights of indigenous people by moving forward on the massive Belo Monte dam without consulting native communities.
A day of pitched street-fighting left three dead, some 35 wounded and 60 detained in Puerto Maldonado, Peru, as small-scale gold miners continued their civil strike.
Representatives of indigenous organizations in Peru met in Lima to announce that they have rejected proposed implementing regulations for the new Law of Prior Consultation for Indigenous and Original Peoples, and submitted proposals for improving it.
