Comuneros in the Mexican village of Tepoztlán seized the town hall and took the mayor captive to demand cancellation of a highway expansion they say violates their land rights.
Colombia's ambassador in Washington, Carlos Urrutia, resigned after being implicated in the illegal transfer of lands from campesino communities to ag-biz companies, including Cargill.
The July 22 Global Day of Action Against Open-Pit Mining, most widely observed in the Andean nations, also saw coordinated protests in NAFTA partners Mexico and Canada.
Anti-corruption activist and lawyer Xu Zhiyong was arrested by Chinese authorities on suspicion of having "gathered crowds to disrupt public order."
The government of Chiapas cancelled a controversial forest protection plan that critics said failed to address root causes of deforestation and endangered indigenous peoples.
Peru’s Constitutional Tribunal issued a decision ordering the government to honor debt owed for land confiscated under the agrarian reform that began in the 1960s.
Israeli forces used bulldozers to demolish the “unrecognized” Bedouin village of al-Araqeeb in the Negev desert—amid protests over a Knesset bill that would expropriate Bedouin lands.
Colombia's federation of cattle ranchers rejected the recent agrarian deal with the FARC, charging that it could lead to Venezuela-style expropriations of private property.
Carlos Vásquez Becerra, a campesino leader who opposed mining projects in Peru’s conflicted Cajamarca region, was found beaten to death in a canyon.
Following two weeks of escalating protests by local campesinos, two were killed as National Police troops opened fire at Ocaña in Colombia’s Norte de Santander department.
Negotiators from Colombia's government and the FARC rebels signed an agreement on agrarian reform, calling for redistribution of illegally held or underused lands.
Some 700 indigenous representatives occupied Brazil’s lower-house Chamber of Deupites in a final effort to stop attempts to change the law concerning their territorial rights.
