Thousands of Bolivian mine workers marched and blocked streets in the cities of La Paz and Cochabamba in a two-day strike, throwing dynamite at police who formed a cordon around the presidential palace.
President Ollanta Humala boasted a new “expert review” of the controversial Conga gold mine project in Peru’s northern Cajamarca region, but regional president Gregorio Santos charged Humala is “on his knees” before corporate power.
Amid rival protests for and against re-opening the idled US-owned metal smelter at La Oroya in the Peruvian Andes—one of the 10 most polluted spots on Earth—the owners are suing Peru’s government for violating terms of the FTA.
The special panel charged with conducting a review of the controversial Conga mining project in Peru’s northern Andean region of Cajamarca handed its findings in to the government—as anti-mine protesters occupy Cajamarca’s central plaza.
At the Summit of the Americas, President Obama announced approval of Colombia’s supposed progress in protecting labor rights, allowing the Free Trade Agreement to take effect next month—to protests of the country’s embattled trade unions.
Revelations that Secret Service agents protecting Obama at the Cartagena summit hired local sex workers puts Colombia briefly in the news—while the four car bombs that went off during the summit barely rate a mention.
Much of Peru’s northern Andean region of Cajamarca was shut down in a 24-hour civil strike or paro, the latest action in the protest campaign against the US-owned Conga gold-mining project.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is hearing a case involving a “dirty war” atrocity in which President Ollanta Humala was implicated—sparking a frenzy of conspiracy theories among Peru’s political class.
Over the past 10 years, more than 40% of Colombia’s national territory has come under the control of multinational corporations for oil, mineral and biofuel production—part of what critics decry as a global land-grab.
Nine miners were rescued after six days trapped in a tunnel at an “informal” copper mine in Peru. President Ollanta Humala said the incident points to the dangers of informal mines—but several such disasters have recently struck legal mines.
In a YouTube statement, Colombia’s FARC guerillas responded to reports that they have been weakened, and asserted that the rebels’ “struggle for a socialist Colombia” is legitimized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Ecologists say “marine bubble” technology used in offshore oil explorations is behind the mysterious dolphin die-off on the Peruvian coast. An estimated 3,000 dolphins have washed up on the coast so far this year.
