The conservative opposition government in Bolivia's eastern lowland department of Santa Cruz, which jealously guards its autonomy from President Evo Morales' government in La Paz, is refusing to recognize the election of two indigenous lawmakers to the departmental assembly, claiming they were voted in by a process not delineated in the national electoral code. The two men, members of the Yuracaré–Mojeño and Guarayo ethnicities, were elected in the April 4 vote through a process of "usos y costumbres," or traditional indigenous community decision-making. This process is recognized as legitimate by the autonomy provisions of Bolivia's new constitution, which also instated departmental assemblies for the first time.

World War 4 Report editor Bill Weinberg is currently in Cochabamba, Bolivia, to cover the alternative conference on climate change that President Evo Morales has called. The conference opens tomorrow, and we hope to be posting daily on-the-scene reports. Watch this spot, and please make a small donation to help facilitate this work.

Some 4,000 residents of Islay, in southern Peru, blocked the Panamerican Highway on April 17, cutting off traffic with the Chilean and Bolivian borders, to protest the proposed Tía María copper project, overseen by the Mexican-owned Southern Perú Copper Corporation (SPCC), which they charge places local water sources and the agricultural economy at risk. The protesters suspended the action the following day when Peru's Defensora del Pueblo (rights ombudsperson) Beatriz Merino traveled to the region to pledge further dialogue on the environmental impacts of the project. President Alan Garcia said the roadblock was the work of a "small minority who practice terrorism." (EFE, AP, April 18)

Bolivia's Justice Ministry announced April 16 that the Interinstitutional Council for the Elucidation of Forced Disappearnces (CIEDEF) has exhumed the remains of a presumed "disappeared" follower of Che Guevara's guerilla movement in the General Cemetary of La Paz. Forensic tests are underway to determine if the remains are those of Hugo Bohorquez Fernandez, who carried on the insurgency after Che's death in the Teoponte area of Bolivia's Yungas region, and whose whereabouts have been unknown since the early '70s. CIEDEF is continuing to comb unmarked graves in government cemetaries for the remains of "disappeared" dissidents from the dirty war period of the late '60s and '70s. (Cambio, La Paz, April 17)

One year after a deadly raid on a supposed right-wing terrorist cell in a hotel in Bolivia's eastern city of Santa Cruz apparently thwarted a conspiracy to launch an armed separatist movement, the affair is back on the front page of the nation's newspapers, with the government charging the plot was overseen and financed by powerful Masonic lodges. Especially named are the lodges Caballeros del Oriente (Knights of the East) and Toborochis (named for a tree that grows in the region). Pablo Costas, brother of Santa Cruz governor Ruben Costas, is named by the Bolivian press as "brother number one" in los Caballeros del Oriente. Vice-Minister of Interior Gustavo Torrico warned that another lodge linked to eatern Bolivia's "oligarchy," Mariscal de Zepita, may have infiltrated the Bolivian military. President Evo Morales called upon the armed forces to "punish" those within their ranks who have collaborated with the separatists. (Estrella del Oriente, Santa Cruz, Cambio, La Paz, April 17; La Razon, La Paz, April 16)

A clash between Bolivia's elite Police Operations Tactical Unit (UTOP) and loteadores (squatters) calling themselves the "Sin Techo" (Roofless) movement erupted when agents evicted an encampment on a private predio (collective land-holding) of 70 hectares at La Guardia, Santa Cruz department, on April 16. The confrontation left one squatter dead and numerous on both sides wounded. At least 12 police were reported to be among the injured. Police said 11 loteadores were detained in the action. Vice-Minister of Interior Gustavo Torrico denied that security forces used firearms in the eviction, and said an investigation into the use of arms by the squatters would be carried out. One revolver was reported confiscated. (El Deber, Santa Cruz, La Razon, La Paz, April 17; ABI, April 18)

Indigenous journalist Mauricio Moreno Medina, founding member of a community radio station for the Pijao people, was murdered April 11 by unknown assailants at his home in the town of Ortega, Tolima department. Medina, 50, died of multiple knife wounds. Police say they see no link to illegal armed groups, asserting that Moreno had not received any death threats. But Reporters Without Borders (RWB) suggest that the murder was not a "crime of passion" as police maintain. "The label 'crime of passion' is too often used to avoid investigation of any link with the victim’s work, even to the extent of covering up a case. This has already happened in several other murders of journalists in Colombia," RWB said. "As a director of a community radio, the kind of media often targeted by the authorities, particularly in conflict areas, Medina ran risks as a result of his work."

Colombia's Sen. Piedad Córdoba, flown by a Brazilian helicopter, arrived March 27 in the central city of Villavicencio to oversee the release of two hostages held by the FARC. Brazil is providing logistical support for the operation. Córdoba, the Brazilian team, the bishop of the city of Magangué, members of Colombians for Peace, and members of the International Red Cross are scheduled to leave Villavicencio to pick up one of the two hostages this weekend.