Baluchi militants on Jan. 6 carried out an armed operation against Iranian security forces on the outskirts of the city of Sarbaz in Baluchistan province, claiming dozens of casualties, including senior Revolutionary Guards officers. The Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice) group said the operation was carried out by its Abdulmalik Mollazadeh Brigade. A press release said their forces ambushed two military vehicles carrying a large number of Revolutionary Guards personnel in the Jekigvar area, with the drivers and nearly all passengers killed or injured. A terse report from the regime’s official Fars News Agency acknowledged only that one border guard had been killed and others wounded in an ambush by "terrorists."

The Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz took responsibility for the bombing of two pipelines Jan. 3 in Iran's oil-rich Khuzestan province. The cell that carried out the attacks near the villages of Omidiyeh and in Deylam was identified as the Brigades of the Martyrs al-Nasser Mohiuddin. (Asharq al-Awsat, Jan. 4) The attack follows growing repression against Ahwazi Arab activists and leaders in Khuzestan. On Dec. 8, environmental activist Roqaya Jafari and journalist Rahil Mosavi were arrested after participating in a demonstration against the government's planned diversion of the Karoon River. The water diversion scheme was revealed in a leak to Iran's media, and has sparked local outrage amid fears it could leave already aridifying Khuzestan completely dry. The redirection is regarded as a "death sentence to the ecosystem of the whole southwest region of Iran." (UNPO, Dec. 12)

The Central of Indigenous Communities of Tacana II Rio Madre de Dios (CITRMD), representing the Tacana people of Pando department in the Bolivian Amazon has issued a letter to the ministries of Justice and Environment requesting urgent government intervention to protect "uncontacted" indigenous peoples threatened by oil operations. The CITRMD said "footprints and broken branches" among other evidence were found within the operations area of BGP, a subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). September letters by BGP to Bolivia's state oil company YPFB, to which it is contracted, noting this evidence, as well as one physical encounters with "originarios." CITRMD is urging BGP and the government to respect "their wish not to be contacted." (The Guardian, Oct. 27)

More than 140 were arrested Oct. 27 as over 300 police officers in riot gear—backed up with several armored vehicles and two helicopters—cleared the camp erected to block construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. North Dakota's Gov. Jack Dalrymple used emergency powers declared over the protests in August to bring in officers from neighboring states.  The 1851 Treaty Camp was set up directly in the path of the pipeline, on private land recently purchased by Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the pipeline. But the land has been declared reclaimed as tribal territory by the Standing Rock Reservation under the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851. The Morton County sheriff’s department said protesters torched several police vehicles, and that two officers were lightly wounded. Those arrested were not allowed to post bail. The sweep brought the total number arrested in the protests since August to 411. State officials have stated that they will no longer communicate with the protesters. (Native News Online, Bold Nebraska, NYT, Forum News Service, ICTMN, Sacred Stone Camp, Oct. 28; EcoWatch, Oct. 25)

Yaqui indigenous communities on opposite sides over a proposed gas pipeline through Mexico's Sonora state clashed Oct. 21, leaving at least one dead by gunfire. The confrontation involved close to 300 people from the neighboring communities of Loma de Bácum (Bácum municipality) and Loma de Guámuchil (Cajeme). The former community is opposed to the pipeline project, while the latter is in favor. Bácum community leaders won an amparo (injunction) against the pipeline, which resulted in temporary suspension of construction in the area, and Bácum residents set up a protest camp at the idled construction site. The clash erupted when company workers arrived to resume construction—allegedly in violation of the amparo, and with the support of Guámuchil leaders and local politicians. Accounts are unlcear as to which side the fatality was on, but 13 vehicles belonging to Bácum residents were torched. There were also several injuries, and reports of a second death still not acknowledged by state authorities. The battle lasted three hours before a mixed force of state and federal police backed up by army troops intervened.

After 37 days, indigenous protesters in Peru's Loreto region lifted their blockade of the Río Marañon Oct. 7 as the central government acceded to their demand that a high-level delegation be sent to their remote community of Saramurillo, Urarina district. The delegation—led by Rolando Luque, head of the National Office for Dialogue and Sustainability and vice-minister for interculturality Alfredo Luna—met with indigenous communities at a local installation of the state firm PetroPeru. The communities were represented by their spokesman José Fachin, while the region's Bishop Miguel Olaortúa moderated. But things turned heated Oct. 12, when indigenous leaders demanded that presidential advisor on social conflicts Jorge Villacorta leave the table. The conflict began in a dispute over whether indigenous leaders from outlying communities would be paid to attend the next meeting. The meeting broke down into shouting, and a physical altercation threaeted, before Villacorta agreed to leave. The river remains open with the next meeting still pending. The government has declared an "environmental emergency" in the distrcits of Urarinas and Parinari over the recent pipeline spills, shipping in potable water. But local communities are demanding the North Peru Oil-duct be closed until its safety is assured, as well as greater social investment in their jungle zone. (La República, Oct. 13; RPP, RPP, Oct. 12; RPP, Oct. 8; RPP, Oct. 7)

Peru's government announced Sept. 28 that an official delegation will meet with indigenous protesters who have been blockading a main tributary of the Amazon River to protest pollution caused by a recent spate of oil spills. As many as 2,000 protesters have blocked river traffic on the Río Marañon since the start of the month. They have demanded that President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski fly into the rainforest to meet with them. Kuczynski instead said he will send a delegation to meet with the protesters and report back. Protest leaders contend they will only attend the meeting if the delegation includes cabient chief Fernando Zavala. There is also the controversy about where the meeting is to take place. It is now slated for Kuczynski’s hometown of Iquitos, the Amazon riverport which is the major city in Loreto region Protesters want the meeting to take place in the community of Saramurillo in Urarinas district, near where the protests are taking place—10 hours from Iquitos by boat.

Following a trial lasting seven years and four months, a court in Peru's Amazonas region on Sept. 22 absolved 52 indigenous leaders in charges related to the 2009 Bagua massacre. Initially, charges were brought against 53, but one defendant died over the course of the proceedings. The Penal Chamber of Bagua district found insufficient evidence that the accused indigenous protesters had handled firearms at the scene of the massace, in which at least 32 lost their lives. The defendants faced charges in the deaths of 12 police officers at the scene. The violence began when National Police troops attacked protesters blocking the road at Devil's Curve on June 5, 2009—yet no police officer or commander has served time for the massacre. The incident came amid indigenous protests over changes to Peru's land tenture system pushed through in preparation for the Free Trade Agreement with Washington and aimed at opening the rainforest to oil exploitation.