Talks are underway in Lima between small-scale miners and Peru's Ministry of Energy and Mines to arrive at a National Plan for Formalization of Artisanal Mining following a paro, or protest campaign, by miners last month to demand clarification of land and prospecting rights. Clashes with National Police at roadbocks established by thousands of protesting miners near the coastal village of Chala, Arequipa department, April 4-7, left six miners dead. Reports said protesters threw stones and sticks at the police, who responded with tear gas and live fire. Charges have been brought against leaders of the National Federation of Artisanal Miners of Peru (FENAMARPE) and the affiliated Mining Federation of Madre de Dios (FEDEMIN).

On May 1, a second rancher was sentenced for his role in the murder of Dorothy Stang, the US-born nun who was assassinated in 2005 in retaliation for her efforts on behalf of poor farmers in Brazil's Amazon rainforest. Regivaldo Galvao was sentenced to 30 years in prison by a jury in the city of Belém. Last month rancher Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura was also sentenced to 30 years in prison for hiring hitmen to kill Stang. Three gunmen were earlier sentenced for the crime.

Spanish-Argentine oil giant Repsol-YPF has applied to Peru's government to cut 454 kilometers of seismic lines and construct 152 heliports in its search for oil on uncontacted tribes' land in the remote Amazon rainforest. Repsol's plans were revealed in a report sent last month to Peru's Energy Ministry, which will now decide whether to approve the project. Cutting seismic lines, a key part of oil exploration, involves clearing paths through the forest and detonating explosives at regular intervals.

On April 29, a group of indigenous Kichwa men from the community of Sarayaku in the Ecuadoran Amazon were attacked with dynamite and firearms by invaders illegally encroaching on indigenous lands. The assailants fired at point-blank range as the Kichwa men were drinking chicha on a jungle trail, and three Kichwa were injured. One, Silvio Malaver, who received the impact of the dynamite, shows signs of brain damage. The three had to be carried through the jungle for 14 hours to the airstrip in Sarayaku, and were then taken to hospital in the town of Puyo by medevac plane.

An army sergeant was killed and another wounded Feb. 26 in a Sendero Luminoso attack on Bajo Somabeni Counter-Terrorist Base at San Martín de Pangoa, Junín department, in Peru's conflicted Río Apurímac-Ene Valley (VRAE). With the death of Sgt. Ronald Gabriel, the number of soldiers killed in the VRAE, a remaining pocket of Sendero activity, since Aug. 30, 2008 reaches 43. (AP via Univision, Reuters via Terra, Feb. 26)

Juan José Quispe, attorney with Peru's independent Pro-Human Rights Association representing survivors of last June's Bagua massacre, issued a statement Feb. 26 protesting Defense Minister Rafael Rey's proposal for an internal military hearing instead of a trial on homicide charges for two generals of the Peruvian National Police (PNP) accused of ordering the violence. The generals, Luis Muguruza and Javier Uribe, have been formally charged with the deaths of four indigenous residents in the June 5 confrontation at Curva del Diablo, a stretch of road in Bagua, Amazonas department, where police opened fire on protesters. It is now believed that 34 were killed in the incident. Quispe said Rey sought to protect the generals' "impunity."

Representatives of Peru's Amazonian indigenous alliance AIDESEP and affiliated regional organizations opened meetings in Lima Feb. 15 with the National Institute for the Development of Andean, Amazonian and Afro-Peruvian Peoples (INDEPA) to arrive at a "plan for protection of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact."

The special commission appointed last year to investigate last June's deadly confrontation between National Police and indigenous protesters at Bagua in the Peruvian Amazon handed in a final report over the New Year holiday, endorsed by the presidential appointees on the panel—but disavowed by those members representing indigenous communities. Speaking on the stalemate, President Alan García assailed his critics in the opposition Nationalist bloc in Peru's Congress for defending the "assassins" of 24 police agents. He made no reference to the at least 10 indigenous activists killed at Bagua.