The Andes

Sinaloa Cartel kingpin nabbed in Colombia

Colombia announced the arrest of Cesar Demar Vernaza AKA “El Empresario”—accused crime boss of Ecuador and top South American operative of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel. 

The Andes

Peru: clash at Conga mine site

Campesino protesters at the site of the Conga mining project in Peru’s Cajamarca region stormed police lines, putting pipes and other equipment to the torch. 

The Andes

Colombia: peace talks advance amid violence

Colombian peasants held a mass meeting to press for agrarian reform as talks with the FARC continue in Havana—but fighting and repression continue around the country.

The Andes

Ecuador: protests mount over mining, oil

Protesters crashed the opening of the Expominas trade fair at the Quito Exhibition Center, where Ecuador's government sought to win new investors for the mineral and oil sectors.

The Andes

Peru: pressure on for Fujimori pardon

Peru's President Ollanta Humala is under growing pressure from the right-wing opposition to grant a "humanitarian" pardon to imprisoned ex-dictator Alberto Fujimori. 

The Andes

Peru: Lucanamarca massacre remembered

Peru's President Ollanta Humala oversaw a ceremony at Lucanamarca village, delivering a "symbolic" package of reparations for the massacre there in April 1983. 

The Andes

Ecuador: Quito bicyclists get a martyr

Sebastián Muñoz, founder of the bicyclists' rights group Andando en Bici Carajo in Quito, Ecuador, was struck by a car and killed while on his bicycle.

The Andes

Colombia: coffee strike claims advances

With a strike that lasted from Feb. 24 to March 8, tens of thousands of Colombian coffee growers took to the streets across the country, ultimately claiming victory.