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.
The suspended governor of Peru's Cajamarca region Gregorio Santos was released from prison following a decision by the Supreme Court not to extend his "preventative detention."
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.
Colombia’s constitutional court overturned a 2012 government decree that allowed mining in nine areas of the country, together making up 20% of the national territory.
Peru's president-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has unveiled a platform that calls for privatizing and "individualizing" communal lands to facilitate mineral and agribusiness development.
Campesinos launched a strike across Colombia, with some 100,000 blocking highways and effectively shutting down at least half of the country's 32 departments.
As Venezuela lurches deeper into political crisis, President Maduro launches a new phase in his controversial "Operation Liberate the People" security program.
On Argentina's Revolution Day, townspeople in Jáchal held a "patriotic march" to oppose the local operations of Barrick Gold—only to be surrounded and arrested by the police.
Peru's President Ollanta Humala declared a state of emergency in the rainforest region of Madre de Dios following reports of mercury poisoning by outlaw gold-mining operations.
Police arrested 65 protesters, many in kayaks, who shut down Australia's biggest coal export terminal as part of a global direct action campaign against fossil fuels.
