Two Peruvian army troops and four presumed narco-senderistas—remnant Shining Path guerilla fighters turned drug gangsters—were killed Aug. 26 in a shoot-out at San Antonio de Carrizales, Huancayo province, Junin region, in the coca-producing zone dubbed the VRAE, for the Apurimac-Ene River Valley. The confrontation brings to 30 the number of soldiers killed in the VRAE since October 2008.

The closing festival of the Primer Encuentro de Culturas Andinas in the southern Colombian city of Pasto was suspended Aug. 27 "as a gesture of solidarity" following the massacre of 12 members of the Awá indigenous group in the region. The Encuentro brought together more than 1,000 representatives of indigenous peoples from seven Andean nations, as well as Mexico, Guatemala and the US.

In comments published in the Chilean daily La Tercera, Peru's President Alan García accused his Bolivian counterpart of Evo Morales of an "under the table" deal with Chile over the coastline disputed by the three countries. Peru has a case against Chile pending before the World Court over the maritime boundary, and García charged Morales with taking the Chilean position in the dispute: "I imagne that Evo Morales has government-to-government accords with Chile, and this is why he is so respectful. I would say he is obsequious towards Chile... By the evidence, it seems that they have it. This is the only thing that explains why he has such a courteous attitude towards Santiago." (El Comercio, Lima, Aug. 24)

According to a new report based on official government findings, "Estudio comparativo de la evolución de la coca y la cocaína en Perú y Colombia" by the specialists Jaime Antezana Rivera and Jaime García Díaz, in 2008 Colombia produced 430 (metric?) tons of cocaine compared to 302 in Peru. But Colombian authorities supposedly intercepted 198 tons compared to only 20 in Peru. This leaves Colombian trafickers free to export 232 tons and their Peruvian counterparts 282—leading the authors to conclude that Peru is now the world's top exporter of cocaine.

Prosecutors in Peru are seeking a 30-year prison term for Vladimiro Montesinos, former intelligence chief under autocratic president and convicted political criminal Alberto Fujimori. At a trial underway at a naval base in Callao where he is being held, special prosecutor for organized crime Ramiro Salinas named Montesinos as chief of a criminal network known as "Los Camellos" (the Camels) that exported massive quantities of cocaine from 1994 to 2000. Salinas charged that Montesinos protected the Camellos' operations in the Upper Huallaga Valley, a key coca cultivation zone. Montesinos is identified as the criminal boss who went by the aliases "El Fayed," "El Viejo," "El Doc," "Rubén," "El Hombre," and "El Mesías." The network is said to have directly coordinated with Mexico's Tijuana Cartel. Montesinos is also charged with protecting an auxiliary gang known as "Los Fantasmas" (the Phantoms). (Prensa Latina, Aug. 21)

A bill introduced in Peru's congress to ammend the law on the "Right to Rectification for People Affected by Insulting or Inexact Information in the Mass Media" would be a threat to the freedom of press, especially for small and independent outlets, say journalists and other media professionals. Congressman Victor Andres Garcia Belaunde said "this is a way to threaten the owners of the companies running the media, a subtle way to tell them 'don't let John Doe say this because you may end up having civil responsibility.'" ("no contrastes a fulano porque lo que digan podrá hacerte civilmente responsable")

Police in Peru fired tear gas to disperse protesters blocking a highway near Pisco Aug. 15. The protesters were denouncing government inaction on helping the southern town rebuild from a 2007 earthquake that destroyed some 75,000 homes. Two years later, many people in the region still live in tents and shacks. Protesters burned tires and snarled traffic on the Pan-American highway for hours. (Reuters, BBC News, Aug. 15)

Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez announced Aug. 8 he is sending his ambassador back to Bogotá—while not formally re-establishing relations or backing down from opposing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's plan to open the country's military bases to a bigger US presence. "The decision to freeze relations with Uribe's government remains," Chávez told reporters. "We have plenty of reasons to be highly concerned." Chávez told Ambassador Gustavo Marquez to return 11 days after he was ordered home. (AP, Aug. 10) However, the next day, Chávez accused Colombian soldiers of crossing into his country. "We are not talking about a patrol with a few soldiers that strayed over a border," Chávez said on his weekly television show Aug. 9. "These troops crossed the Orinoco River in a boat and carried out an incursion into Venezuelan territory... When our troops got there [the Colombian troops] had already gone away." (AlJazeera, Aug. 10)