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 Sécure 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.
Peru raided an illegal logging site in Manú National Park, just days after the UK-based Survival International released the first detailed photos of the “uncontacted” Mashco-Piro tribe that inhabits the Amazon rainforest reserve.
Indigenous leaders in Bolivia have filed a complaint with the Inter-American Human Rights Commission over a new “consultation law” they say is designed to lubricate approval of the controversial Amazon highway that has already led to violence.
Hundreds of independent small-scale gold miners marched on the Venezuelan city of Bolívar 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.
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.
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.
