Peru: new mobilization against Conga project
Campesinos in Peru’s northern Cajamarca region began the year with a renewed campaign against the pending Conga mining project, pledging to occupy the concession area.
Campesinos in Peru’s northern Cajamarca region began the year with a renewed campaign against the pending Conga mining project, pledging to occupy the concession area.
In the first sign of a thaw in relations between the US and Venezuela, Caracas is weighing a request from Washington to allow a return of DEA officials to the South American country.
Guerillas of Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN) abducted five gold prospectors working for a Canadian company on an exploratory mission in Bolívar department.
Colombia’s FARC rebels announced the immediate end of a two-month unilateral ceasefire and renewed its call for a bilateral truce to hold peace talks with the government.
Bolivia was re-admitted to the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs —with a special dispensation recognizing traditional use of coca leaf as legal within its borders.
Peru’s Minister of Mines Jorge Merino assured investors that his government will make every effort to see the controversial Conga gold mining project move forward in 2013.
Thousands of campesinos filled the streets of Chiclayo in northern Peru to protest La Zanja mining company’s plan to dump waste water in high Andean canyons.
Total area planted with coca in Bolivia dropped by up to 13% last year, as both eradication efforts and the areas where coca can be legally cultivated were expanded.
Aymara authorities at Mallku Khota in Bolivia’s Potosí department declared two technicians from Canadian mining company South American Silver to be fugitives from justice.
A Brooklyn businessman was freed from prison in Bolivia on money-laundering charges after he accused authorities of extorting him and illegally seizing his goods.
Ten men arrested on “terrorism” and “subversion” charges in Quito were freed after a prison hunger strike. Three women in the group remain behind bars, refusing food.
Residents and officials in Ecuador’s port Guayaquil are protesting a planned gas pipeline that would run through densely populated areas, charging inadequate safety studies.