Amid protests over food prices, Bolivia’s Evo Morales government instated a new law to achieve “food sovereignty” and protect the campesino sector. But is a sop to agbiz, the law also lifts restrictions on GMO crops.
Representatives of the Aymara protest movement in southern Peru’s Puno region met with leaders of the mining ministry in Lima, who agreed in principle to put a halt to the operation that sparked the protests.
Obama and congressional leaders “are within striking distance of a deal” to ratify free trade accords with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, says Chamber of Commerce president Thomas Donohue.
Walter Aduviri, leader of the Aymara protest movement in Peru’s conflicted Puno region, launched a protest vigil at the congress chambers in Lima, demanding his right to address the body, after an arrest warrant against him was dropped.
Rolando Páucar of the Lima-based Institute for the Investigation of Energy and Development (IEDES) hailed Peru’s cancellation of the mega-scale Inambari hydro-electric plant, but called for development of nuclear power as an alternative.
Walter Aduviri, leader of the Aymara protest movement in Peru’s southern Andean region of Puno, is under siege in the studios of Lima’s Panamericana TV station, with police surrounding the building to carry out arrest orders.
After a suspension to allow for presidential elections to take place in the Puno region, local Aymara activists announced that they will resume their strike civil strike indefinitely, and immediately erected roadblocks on the main highway to Bolivia.
Ana Fabricia Córdoba, a leader of displaced Afro-Colombians seeking return of their usurped lands, was slain by an unidentified gunman on a city bus in Medellín. Her daughters received a phone threat that they would “end up the same way.”
Ecuador sent the army into jungles along the Colombian border to crack down on illegal small-scale mining operations—as the government moved ahead with new mining contracts with industry majors.
Peruvian voters elected the fiery populist Ollanta Humala to the presidency, dealing a defeat to neoliberal candidate Keiko Fujimori—and precipitating a plunge in the Lima stock market.
A federal court in Florida issued a ruling in the case in re Chiquita Brands, allowing lawsuits brought by some 4,000 Colombians seeking compensation for violence by armed groups the company backed to move ahead.
Hugo Chávez and the US State Department alike denied claims touted by neocon think-tanks that Iran is establishing missile bases in Venezuela. But the State Department sanctioned Venezuela’s state oil company for aiding Iran’s energy sector.
