The Amazon
Peru: Amazon highway at issue in Toledo scandal
The Inter-Oceanic Highway, long a focus of protest in Peru's Amazon, is at issue in the corruption scandal implicating ex-president Alejandro Toledo.
Tag: Brazil
The Amazon
Brazil: 60 dead in narco-fueled prison massacre
A New Year's Day prison riot in Brazil's Amazon riverport city of Manaus left up to 60 dead—with many of the bodies decapitated, mutilated and burned.
Planet Watch
UN moves to outlaw nuclear weapons in 2017
The UN adopted a resolution—hailed by disarmament campaigners as an important landmark—to launch negotiations in 2017 on a treaty outlawing nuclear weapons.
The Amazon
Environmental official slain in Brazilian Amazon
Luiz Alberto Araújo, a municipal environmental official in the Amazon town of Altamira who had aggressively campaigned against illegal logging, was shot dead by unknown gunmen.
Southern Cone
Deadly underside of Rio de Janeiro Olympics
With the Rio de Janeiro Olympics over, the world media are moving on—but the city's poor favela dwellers are left to contend with a wave of murderous police terror.
The Amazon
Brazil Olympics amid invisible terror
More than 20 land rights activists have been killed in Brazil this year, with most deaths linked to conflicts over logging and agribusiness—ongoing terror amid the Olympics spectacle.
The Amazon
‘Stop Brazil’s Genocide’ campaign greets Olympics
Advocacy group Survival International has launched a campaign to prevent the annihilation of tribal peoples in Brazil, to coincide with the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
The Amazon
Brazil: mega-dam suspended in win for indigenous
The planned São Luiz do Tapajós mega-dam in Brazil's Amazon received a significant setback when its license was suspended on grounds of its impacts on indigenous peoples.
Central America
Honduras: most dangerous country for ecologists
Human rights group Global Witness ranked Honduras as the world's most dangerous country for environmental defenders, with 109 slain over the past five years.
The Andes
Panama Papers pummel Peru politicians
Four of Peru’s presidential candidates, including far-right front-runner Keiko Fujimori, have been implicated in the “Panama Papers” revelations.
Southern Cone
Protests rock Brazil as Lula takes cabinet post
Brazil has seen its biggest protests since the end of the dictatorship as ex-president "Lula" da Silva is appointed to a cabinet post that gives him immunity in a corruption scandal.
The Amazon
Brazil: ‘zero deforestation’ push
Greenpeace sent 1.4 million signatures to Brazil's congress demanding a "zero deforestation" law—while cattle and timber barons push a bill to further open indigenous lands.