Colombia is mourning after the tragic landslide in Mocoa, capital of Putumayo region—the latest disaster to hit the Andes as a result of this year's "abnormal" El Niño.
Colombia's Constitutional Court ruled that "prior consultation" with local communities must be carried out before an open-pit gold mine project can move ahead.
The FARC completed its "demobilization" to transition camps under protest, charging that the Colombian government is failing to restrain right-wing paramilitary groups.
FARC leaders admit that five regional commanders—those most co-opted by the narco trade—are refusing to lay down arms, and have been expelled from the movement.
An Indonesian court dismissed a class-action suit seeking to force the Aceh provincial government to protect the threatened Leuser Ecosystem in its land-use plan.
Illegal gold mining in Peru has razed almost 62,500 hectares of rainforest—an area over ten times the size of Manhattan—over the past four years.
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.
Peru launched its first satellite into space this month, to monitor illegal mining, logging and other extractive activities in the country's vast stretch of the Amazon rainforest.
A deputy interior minister in Bolivia's government was abducted and killed by striking miners in a conflict over privatization of mineral claims on the Altiplano.
Outlaw mining operations are a growing sideline for Colombia's narco networks, in a nexus with paramilitaries and companies operating on the margins of the law.
Peru sent elite troops to raid outlaw gold-mining operations in the Tambopata Nature Reserve—but they are massively outnumbered by perhaps 10,000 illegal miners in the area.
Amid moves toward peace in Colombia, the goad of the war—the country's lucrative cocaine trade—clearly remains robust, as record-breaking hauls are reported.
