The Russian Federation vetoed a measure before the UN Security Council that would have extended the mandate of a panel investigating the use of chemical weapons in Syria for 30 days. The UNSC had established the Joint Investigative Mechanism with a two-year mandate following the use of chemical weapons in Syria in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Indigenous protesters at the Bolivian Altiplano pueblo of Achacachi lifted their blockade of the main highway to the Peruvian border after a full month of paralyzing traffic on the artery. Following a clash with National Police, villagers agreed to dialogue on their grievances, to be mediated by the Catholic church and Bolivia's human rights ombudsman. The conflict reveals a split over the stance of Bolivia's powerful indigenous movement toward the government of President Evo Morales.
A consortium led by China Three Gorges Corp has agreed to buy a giant hydro-electric plant under construction in Peru from scandal-mired Brazilian company Odebrecht. The Chaglla complex, slated to be Peru's third largest dam, is the latest addition to a growing string of South American hydro facilities to come under control of Chinese companies.
Bolivia and Brazil agreed to coordinate their military forces to fight criminal gangs that operate on their shared jungle border, long porous for drug and arms traffickers.
President Evo Morales signed into a law a bill passed by Bolivia's congress that nearly doubles the area of national territory open to coca leaf cultivation for the legal market.
Argentina's new restrictive immigration policy is drawing protests from neighboring Bolivia—and accusations that President Mauricio Macri is emulating Donald Trump.
Indigenous communities in the Bolivian Amazon are joining with ecologists to oppose a "mega-dam" complex the government has announced for the Río Beni.
President Evo Morales on Christmas Eve pardoned and released 1,800 prisoners—part of his ongoing effort to curtail dangerous overcrowding in Bolivia's penal system.
With action blocked by Russia's veto in the Security Council, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution establishing an independent investigation into war crimes in Syria.
With action in the Security Council blocked by Russia and China, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution demanding an immediate end to all attacks on civilians in Syria.
Indigenous leaders in Pando region of the Bolivian Amazon issued an urgent call for the protection of "uncontacted" peoples threatened by oil operations.
Peru's National Forestry and Wildlife Service is investigating the death of some 10,000 frogs whose bodies have been found in the Río Coata, which flows into Lake Titicaca.
