Gunmen killed at least 18 people in outlying districts of Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo, in a series of overnight attacks Aug. 14. Witnesses and video footage in several locations indicated that masked gunmen pulled up in a car before opening fire. In many cases they checked the victims' names before shooting, or asked if they had criminal records. At least six other people were injured in the attacks, in the districts of Osasco and Barueri. Authorities are said to be investigating whether the attacks were a coordinated campaign of revenge by off-duty officers following the deaths of two colleagues in the targeted districts the previous week. Police in Brazil are responsible for more than 2,000 deaths per year, and off-duty officers rarely face prosecution for vigilante justice. (Reuters, BBC News, Aug. 15)

Workers at La Oroya on Aug. 13 lifted an "indefinite strike" declared two days earlier, and relaxed their blockades of the highway through central Peru's Junín region. The first day of the strike saw one worker killed by a bullet to the chest and some 60 others injured in clashes with the National Police. The decision to "suspend" the strike was taken after union representatives met in Lima with officials from the Environment and Labor ministries, and National Office of Dialogue and Sustainability (ONDS), a new body established to address social conflicts. Officials promised union leaders to try find a way to keep the troubled Oroya Metallurgical Complex open. But deadlines are looming: the workers say they will resume their strike if a solution is not found within eight days. Meanwhile, creditors of complex owner Doe Run say if there are no bidders for the smelters and associated Cobriza mine by Aug. 27, the company will go into liquidation. Peru's government rejected worker demands to ease the legal limit on sulfur dioxide emissions for the complex to allow it to re-open.

Opponents of the disputed Tia Maria mega-mine project organized a dissident contingent at the "Friendship Parade" through the capital of Peru's southern Arequipa region, during festivities marking the 475th anniversary of the city's founding. Farmers from the Tambo Valley, barred by organizers from having a politically themed float in the Aug. 15 parade, marched alongside it, chanting "¡Agro sí, mina no!" (farming yes, mine no!). (Correo, Andina, Aug. 15; Peru this Week, Aug. 12) Protests over the project have resumed since a 60-day state of emergency instated for Islay province in May ran out. Mine opponents are meeting to discuss a region-wide general strike against the project. (Peru This Week, Aug. 10)

National Police troops used tear-gas and armored vehicles against marchers for abortion rights in Lima Aug. 13, who attempted to storm Peru's Congress building. Many of the hundreds of women at the protest were partially naked, with demands for reproductive freedom written on their torsos in red—symbolizing blood. Protesters were pressing for passage of a bill to remove penalties for abortion in the case of rape. A simialr measure was introduced to Congress last year, but failed to pass.

One year after a catastrophic dam breach at the Mount Polley Mine in the interior of British Columbia, the facility has passed the first phase of remediation and resumed operations—with certain restrictions. The August 2014 disaster sent millions of cubic meters of water contaminated with mine waste into the local Hazeltine Creek, which ultimately flows into the Fraser River. Water-use bans were issued for several local towns, and the spill prompted the government to toughen mine permitting requirements. Imperial Metals Corp has completed a "Phase 1" clean-up overseen by the BC Ministry of Environment. The company has supposedly ensured that water entering Quesnel Lake, which Hazeltine Creek flows through on its way to the Fraser, meets provincial quality standards. The provincial government issued the conditional permit allowing the Mount Polley mine to reopen earlier this month. However, the company cannot discharge water until it receives a second conditional permit, likely in the early fall. (Globe & Mail, July 29, 2015; ThinkProgress, Aug. 5, 2014)

One day after Chile's Supreme Court sentenced him to 20 years in prison for a "dirty war" crime, retired Gen. Hernán Ramírez Rurange shot himself in the head in his apartment in Santiago on Aug. 13. Ramírez was convicted as intellectual author of the "disappearance" of Eugenio Berríos, a chemist with the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA). Berrios disappeared in 1992 after fleeing to Uruguay to avoid testifying in assassination cases  carried out under Operation Condor. Among the cases at issue was apparently that of former foreign minister Orlando Letelier, slain by a car-bomb attack in Washington DC in 1976. (EFE, 24Horas, Aug. 14; TeleSUR, La Trecera, Aug 13)

A imprisoned ex-commander of Colombia's far-right AUC paramilitary network on Aug. 12 testified that an army general now taking part in peace negotiations with FARC rebels also took part in the killing of journalist and comedian Jaime Garzón. According to a report in news magazine Semana, the ex-commander of the AUC's notorious Cacique Nutibara Bloc, Diego Fernando Murillo Bejarano AKA "Don Berna," testified before Colombian prosecutors that among those conspiring to kill Garzón on August 13, 1998 were Maj. Mauricio Santoyo of the National Police, army Gen. Harold Bedoya and, most controversially, then-army commander Gen. Jorge Enrique Mora. Santoyo, who was later promoted to general and became the personal security chief of then-president Alvaro Uribe, was sentenced to 13 years by a US court after being convicted of protecting drug traffickers. Bedoya, currently a close ally of Uribe in opposing the peace talks, has long been accused of ties to the AUC, which committed tens of thousands of rights violations between 1997 and 2006 when its last unit was demobilized. Don Berna's testimony from his Miami prison cell came one day before the 16th anniversary of Garzón's slaying. (Colombia Reports, Aug. 13; El Colombiano, Aug. 12)

After walking cross-country for 10 days,  an indigenous "March for Life and Dignity" arrived in Quito Aug. 13, just as a general strike was launched to press Ecuador's President Rafael Correa on a list of demands related to economic, social and environmental issues. The marchers established a camp in Quito's  Arbolito Park, where they pledge to remain until Correa agrees to their demands. As on such occasions in the past, the marchers were confronted by a pro-Correa rally, sparking a fracas. Correa supporters chanted "fuera golpistas, fuera" (out, coup-momgers, out), while the indigenous protesters countered with "fuera Correa, fuera." Under the work stoppage, public transport was halted in Quito and major thoroughfares were blocked in Guayaquil, Cuenca and other provincial capitals.