Colombian army general Rito Alejo del Río Rojas, accused of forming a “macabre alliance” with paramilitary groups, was sentenced to 25 years for murder of a peasant leader.
Gen. Mauricio Santoyo, security chief to Colombia’s ex-president Álvaro Uribe, pleaded guilty before a US court to collaborating with the outlawed AUC paramilitary network.
Venezuela’s opposition accused the state oil company of negligence after the deadly refinery explosion at Amuay, while the government says foreign subversion undermined safety.
Aymara campesinos are occupying installations of the Inti Raymi Mining Company outside the Altiplano city of Oruro, in protest of the pollution of local water sources.
As protests continue in defiance of a state of emergency, the CEO of Newmont Mining acknowledged that conditions do not exist to move ahead with the giant Conga project.
Just as Ecuador has granted asylum to Julian Assange, President Rafael Correa’s government moves to rescind the asylum status granted to a whistleblower from Belarus.
Indigenous groups in Ecuador responded to the granting of asylum to Julian Assange by protesting that “democracy begins at home,” pointing to President Correa’s own repression.
Campesinos in Peru’s northern Piura region pledge to resist announced plans by Chinese mining company Zijin to move ahead with the long-contested Río Blanco copper project.
The San José de Apartadó Peace Community in Colombia’s northern Urabá region is again under threat—seven years after the massacre that forced many residents to flee the village.
Embera indigenous communities on Colombia’s Pacific coast came under bombardment by army helicopters, while an Awá community expelled illegal gold miners from their land.
The Andean Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations (CAOI), meeting in Cundinamarca, Colombia, called for construction of a "new paradigm" for a "sustainable civilization."
Even establishment voices in Peru are calling for a suspension of the Conga mining project, as Cajamarca region remains under a state of emergency for another month.
