On Oct. 29 some 300,000 campesinos who cultivate coca in 18 of Peru’s valleys began an open-ended strike to protest the failure of the government of President Alan Garcia to comply with the Tocache Document, in which it promised to… Read morePeru: cocaleros, doctors strike
Peru is sending a force of 100 national police to what has been declared a zona cocalera (coca-growing zone) in Apurímac region to hunt down suspected Shining Path guerrillas who killed a police commander and wounded an officer in a… Read morePeru: Apurímac militarized after “narcoterror” attack
Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse student protesters who turned out by the tens of thousands in Caracas Nov. 1 to protest constitutional reforms that would permit Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to run for re-election indefinitely. Chanting… Read moreVenezuela: two dead in student protests
Bolivian President Evo Morales is facing converging crises on multiple fronts—from South American neighbors, from the Colossus of the North, and from internal opposition. Peru is seeking the extradition of Walter Chavez, a top adviser to Morales’ successful 2005 campaign,… Read moreBolivian government under pressure cooker?
Ten prostitutes in the Bolivian highland city of El Alto sewed their lips together Oct. 24 as part of a hunger strike to demand that the mayor reopen brothels and bars ordered closed after angry protests by residents. Some 30… Read moreProstitutes strike in Bolivia
The Colombian armed forces committed 955 extrajudicial executions between July 2002 and June 2007, according an investigation [online at Latin America Working Group] carried out by a coalition of 11 Colombian human rights organizations and released this month. Of these… Read moreColombia: army killings escalate
From AP, Oct 19: Glass Monument to Che in Venezuela Shot CARACAS, Venezuela — A glass monument to revolutionary icon Ernesto “Che” Guevara was shot up and destroyed less than two weeks after it was unveiled by Venezuelan President Hugo… Read moreVenezuela: Che shattered
From SOA Watch, Oct. 12, via Upside Down World: We are very excited to share that President Evo Morales announced Tuesday that Bolivia will gradually withdraw its military from the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly known as… Read moreBolivia pulls out of SOA
Local Colombian officials have accused two US soldiers, Michael J. Cohen and César Ruiz, of sexually assaulting a 12 year-old girl on Aug. 25. The soldiers are stationed at the Tolemaida Airbase near Melgar, Tolima, as part of Plan Colombia…. Read moreColombia: US troops accused in sexual assault of girl, 12
On Oct. 12 Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa and Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez joined Colombian president Alvaro Uribe in Ballenas, in the northern Colombian department of La Guajira, to inaugurate the 224 km Trans-Oceanic Gas Pipeline, which will bring as much… Read moreAndean states sign pipeline pact
At least 21 Afro-Colombian barequeros, or small-scale miners, are dead and 28 others injured after a hillside collapsed Oct. 13 following several days of heavy rains on the banks of the Rio Cauca, near Suarez, Cauca department. The open-pit mine… Read moreColombian gold miners killed in landslide
An Oct. 13 New York Times story, “Energy Crunch Threatens South American Nations,” poses the problem in terms of “growth…outpacing fuel supplies”—but actually sheds much light on the continent’s political fault lines, which persist despite the predominance of populist or… Read moreEnergy populism divides South American nations
