The UN's International Labor Organization (ILO) released a report by a committee of experts March 3 finding that the Brazilian government violated the rights of indigenous people by moving forward on the massive Belo Monte dam without consulting native communities. The report follows a request last year by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for the Brazilian government to suspend the dam, which is currently being built on the Rio Xingu River in Pará state, in the Amazon Basin. It has met with repeated angry protests by the Kayapo and other local indigenous peoples.

A day of pitched street-fighting on March 14 left three dead, some 35 wounded and 60 detained in Puerto Maldonado, capital of Peru's lowland Madre de Dios region, as small-scale independent gold miners continued their paro (civil strike) to oppose the government's announced crackdown on their activities. Thousands of miners blocked the city's streets, and attempted to seize the airport and the newly built Continental Bridge over the Rio Madre de Dios. Protesters hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at helmented National Police troops in full military gear, who responded with tear gas and live rifle fire.

Representatives of indigenous organizations in Peru met in Lima Feb. 20 to announce that they have rejected proposed implementing regulations for the new Law of Prior Consultation for Indigenous and Original Peoples, and submitted proposals for improving it. Alberto Pizango, national leader of the Amazonian indigenous alliance AIDESEP called on the government to extend approval of the regulations by 30 days to accommodate indigenous leaders' recommendations. He singled out the demand that binding consultation apply to oil and mineral projects already underway, not only new ones. "We appeal to dialogue, we only want to defend our rights," he said. Leading organizations in the Multisectoral Commission that evaluated the regulations included AIDESEP, the Agrarian Confederation of Peru (CNA) and the National Organization of Andean and Amazonian Women (ONAMIAP).

Peru on Feb. 8 raided an illegal logging site in Manú National Park, Madre de Dios region—just days after the UK-based Survival International released the first detailed photos of the "uncontacted" Mashco-Piro tribe that inhabits the reserve. In an operation led by SERNANP, Peru's agency for protected areas, park guards and police uncovered more than 3,000 feet of illegally harvested timber. SERNANP's two-day operation led to the arrest of a group of men and confiscation of their tools. The men face prison terms of three to six years. Sightings of the Mashco-Piro have risen in recent months, with many blaming illegal loggers for pushing the tribe out of their forest home.

On the night of Feb. 9, Bolivia's Plurinational Assembly passed a new law mandating a consultation process for indigenous communities in the Isiboro-Sécure Indigenous Territory and National Park (TIPNIS)—billed as a "compromise" between proponents and opponents of the proposed road through the reserve. The new law threatens to undermine the existing law that cancelled the highway in October and now protects the TIPNIS as an "untouchable" ecological zone. The consultation law was developed by ruling Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) legislative leaders in conjunction with CONISUR, an indigenous organization that favors the road project. It was approved by the MAS-controlled legislature in less than a week, and promptly signed into law by President Evo Morales—sparking an immediate outcry from indigenous leaders opposed to the road.

Hundreds of independent small-scale gold miners marched on the Venezuelan city of Bolívar Feb. 5, to protest the militarization of Manaima district, where security forces have been sent in to crack down on unlicensed operations following a violent clash in the area last month. Some 400 soldiers were dispatched to the community of La Paragua after six people were killed in what authorities called fighting between rival gangs for control of a gold mine called Nueva Bulla Jan. 9. Thousands of unlicensed miners in the remote jungle area have been unable to work due to the heavy military presence. Venezuela's newly appointed defense minister, Gen. Henry Rangel Silva, said the miners are "victims of exploitation by mafias." But miner spokesman José Lucart countered: "All of Manaima is militarized and we want to be left to work. We are ready to work together with the organs that oversee the exploitation of gold, to arrive at a sustainable mining. We are seeking a meeting with the Ministry of Mines, as well as the Ministry of Defense...to coordinate an exit satisfactory to both parties."

The Kichwa Confederation of Ecuador (ECUARUNARI) announced a national mobilization that will converge on Quito from points around the country next month to oppose what leaders called President Rafael Correa's policies in favor of the resource industries. The "Great Pluriethnic March for Water, Life and Dignity of the People of Ecuador" is set to depart March 8 from the southeastern town of Zamora, on the edge of the Amazon rainforest. (See map.) ECUARUNARI president Delfín Tenesaca said the organization "rejects the entrance into the territories of [indigenous] nationalities of mineral companies, without consulting anybody and disrespecting the constitution." He called for participation from other provinces of the country affected by mineral and oil interests. The effort has the support of Salvador Quishpe, prefect of Zamora-Chinchipe province,* who stated, "We call upon all social organizations in the country to unite in this great march of reclamation... It cannot be that 'Correismo' tries to silence the Ecuadoran people." (Servindi, Feb. 1)

Some 2,000 peasants and cocaleros from the Indigenous Council of the South (CONISUR) arrived in La Paz Jan. 31, after a 40-day march from Isinuta in the Chapare region of Cochabamba department, to demand that President Evo Morales move ahead with plans to build a highway through their lands on the edge of the Amazon rainforest. Morales put the project on hold last year after a larger cross-country march in opposition to it met with police repression. Several thousand supporters of Morales' Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) swelled the ranks of the CONISUR marchers as they passed through El Alto, the sprawling working-class city on the altiplano above La Paz. El Alto's MAS mayor, Édgar Patana, welcomed them as "illustrious guests" of the city before their final descent into La Paz. (NACLA News, Feb. 3; AFP, Cambio, La Paz, Jan. 31)