The government of Peru’s newly elected President Ollanta Humala announced that it is suspending the US-backed coca eradication program in the Upper Huallaga Valley, the only ongoing eradication campaign in the country.
Bolivia’s President Evo Morales, on a visit to Beijing, signed an agreement with the China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC) to conduct lithium exploration in the Andean country’s Coipasa salt flats.
Bolivian authorities are hoping the arrest of Robin Rosales Agreda, “big fish” in the country’s cocaine trade, will be a final blow against the criminal machine that controls land and politics in eastern Santa Cruz department.
Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos says he will meet with Hugo Chávez to discuss accusations from his armed forces chief Adm. Edgar Cely that Venezuela is continuing to harbor FARC guerillas, even after the Andean neighbors had rebooted relations.
Bolivia and South Korea have agreed to a joint venture to exploit the lithium battery business sector, the state-run Korea Resources Corp (KORES) announced July 31. KORES has signed a memorandum of understanding with Bolivia’s state-owned mining corporation COMIBOL to… Read moreBolivia enters lithium deal with South Korea
Francisco Contreras, Peru’s recently retired chief of staff warns that Iran’s growing ties with Bolivia mask support for terrorist groups in South America. Bolivian police meanwhile announced the cracking of a Sendero Luminoso cell from Peru.
Venezuelan Minister for Prisons Iris Varela announced that she plans to release up to 40% of the country’s prisoners in an effort to reduce prison overcrowding, following last month’s deadly uprising at El Rodeo complex outside Caracas.
Labor and indigenous leaders are wary as Ollanta Humala, elected as a populist, begins his term in office with a rightward tilt. But Bloomberg warns that Humala’s efforts at “moderation” have not quelled the fears of multinational investors.
Communities affected by mining in Peru’s Andes issued a “Declaration of Huancayo,” demanding a new constitution guaranteeing the rights of the country’s indigenous peoples and establishing the “agricultural character of our country, and not the mineral.”
Speaking before a conference of campesina women in Cochabamba, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales said he fears a US plot to frame him for a drug offense—as his government enters into a counter-narcotics pact with the United Kingdom.
All 44 teachers at a public high school in Colombia’s northern department of Córdoba sought refuge in Montería, the regional capital, after being threatened by a paramilitary group.
Peru’s populist president-elect Ollanta Humala takes office in just one week, and ominous signs are mounting that he will continue his predecessor’s trajectory towards breakneck resource extraction—and attendant bloody social conflicts.
