Chile's Codelco suspended copper production for an entire day at one of its four mining divisions July 10 and cut back operations at another plant following violent protests by striking workers, in the most serious flare-up yet in a two-week stand-off between management and subcontracted workers who are demanding improved pay and conditions.

Argentina is preparing for a new human rights trial for crimes committed during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. Just days before the start of the latest trial, Argentine police discovered a body thought to be that of a missing witness. Police early July 3 found a body of a man who they believed to be Julio Lopez, the key witness who went missing last year following the land mark conviction of a police official who ran clandestine torture centers.

On June 26, nearly 1,200 people camped out on the BR 428 highway between Cabrobo and Oroco municipalities in Brazil's Pernambuco state to block national army engineering battalions from proceeding with the construction of a canal project on the Sao Francisco river. The protesters plan to remain at the site indefinitely; they are also demanding return of the Mae Rosa estate to its rightful inhabitants, the indigenous Truka people.

The Agrarian and Popular Movement (MAP) of Paraguay reported in a June 26 statement that base-level MAP leader Perfecto Irala was abducted and disappeared by police on June 25 from Pariri, in Vaqueria district, Caaguazu department. Since last Feb. 26, Irala and other MAP members had been occupying lands in Pariri designated for agrarian reform which were sold by the National Institute of Rural Development and Land (INDERT) to foreign companies for the production of transgenic soy. "According to the information of several witnesses, Perfecto Irala was kidnapped by an officer of the National Police with the last name Vazquez, of the deputy police station of the Colonia Santa Clara in the Vaqueria district. Several fellow leaders have gone to the police stations of Santa Clara and Vaqueria in search of information, but they have not received any response concerning the whereabouts of the companero Perfecto Irala," said the MAP statement.

On June 25, some 5,000 campesinos set out from 11 different areas of Argentina on a "national march for rural development." The mobilization culminated with a rally in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires on June 28, where the campesinos demanded that the government of Nestor Kirchner support their struggle against what Argentine Agrarian Federation (FAA) leader Eduardo Buzzi called "faceless agriculture"—the control of vast farming and ranching resources by a few wealthy companies and individuals. Police said fewer than 2,000 people participated in the closing rally. (Adital, June 26; Prensa Latina, June 28; Clarin, June 29)

Thousands of Chileans clashed with police, blocked roads and set fire to buses on Monday to protest Chile's state-owned mining company Codelco. "We are going to intensify the strike," said Cristian Cuevas, a spokesman for the newly formed Confederation of Copper Workers (CTC) that comprises 30,000 subcontracted workers at Codelco. Contract workers with the state copper giant are demanding higher wages, bonuses, access to health care and education benefits. The price of copper has almost tripled in three years. "We will not end this movement until a negotiation with Codelco, with the government, is resumed," added union leader Cuevas.

At least 14 people have been killed, and dozens more injured, amid clashes between police and drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro over the past two weeks. Vila Cruzeiro favela, one of the impoverished districts hardest hit by the violence, remains a war zone. "It's absurd! Police have been here for two weeks, bullets flying all over the place, children cannot go to school, and the traffickers don't even hide," said a 56-year-old grandmother in Vila Cruzeiro, who identified herself only as Rose. Authorities intend to launch more police occupations of the favelas and are considering bringing in military Black Hawk helicopters to bolster the city’s security prior to hosting the Pan-American Games in July. (Reuters, May 16)

Amnesty International published a report this week exposing Brazil's public security crisis. "Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo have reached a tragic impasse. Criminal gangs ... have rushed to fill the vacuum left by the state, Balkanizing the cities into a patchwork of violent fiefdoms," the report ("From Burning Buses to Caveirões": The Search for Human Security") stated. [AI, May 2]