A worldwide slump in zinc prices threatens Bolivia'ss second-largest export as companies reduce output and close mines, officials said. "We're worried about zinc not only because of falling prices but because it's the principal mineral that we mine in Bolivia," Freddy Beltran, director of Bolivia's Mining and Metallurgy Ministry, said told Bloomberg. Zinc "has traditionally been our top mining export," he said.

Bolivian opposition leaders Dec. 4 accused an international commission of bias toward President Evo Morales in its report on a September jungle "massacre." The new report by the Union of South American Nations names 19 people confirmed killed in the clash in Pando province, including 17 Morales supporters and two opponents. Opposition leaders accused investigators of favoring Morales supporters’ testimony over that of pro-autonomy groups, and of reporting unsubstantiated allegations—including charges that anti-Morales factions raped young girls.

BPZ Resources of Houston received a permit from Lima's Energy Ministry to build a gas plant in northern Peru near the border with Ecuador this week. The plant, to be supplied by BPZ's offshore Bloc Z-1 field, will fuel a 135-megawatt power plant after $120 million in financing is procured from the World Bank's International Finance Corp. The project is part of $10  billion in energy investment commitments expected in Peru over the next seven years, including a $3.8 billion export project by Dallas-based Hunt Oil Co. (Bloomberg, Dec. 4)

Peru's President Alan García declared that his nation's long dispute with Chile was over Dec. 5 after removing his army chief Gen. Edwin Donayre, who caused outrage with an anti-Chilean tirade that surfaced on YouTube. In the video, Donayre told a social gathering: "The Chilean that enters [Peru] doesn't leave, or he leaves in a coffin; if there aren't enough coffins, they'll leave in plastic bags." Chile initially said it would accept an apology from García, but Chilean Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley later demanded Donayre's removal. Donayre defended his comments, telling local media they were made in private and "only express the feelings of every soldier who loves his homeland."

Three leftist Venezuelan unionists were shot dead the night of Nov. 27 in the city of Cagua, southwest of Caracas in Aragua state, just days after two of them ran unsuccessfully in Nov. 23 state and municipal elections. In what appeared to be a planned assassination, one or two armed men on a motorbike gunned the unionists down as they were leaving a nightclub. The victims were Richard Gallardo, president of the Aragua branch of the National Workers Union (UNT), the main leftist labor confederation; Carlos Requena, a UNT national coordinator; and Luis Hernández, the general secretary of the union at Pepsi Cola de Venezuela's plant in Villa de Cura in southern Aragua.

Bolivia's government said Nov. 30 it is preparing "terrorism" charges against Branko Marinkovic, a leader of the autonomy movement in the country's four hydrocarbon-rich eastern departments, in connection with a wave of strikes and protests earlier this year in which at least 17 people were killed. "We have enough evidence in this investigation to allow us to link Mr. Marinkovic with the acts of terrorism that occurred in several parts of the country in September," government minister Alfredo Rada told state radio. "What Mr. Marinkovic has to do is prepare his defence and not try to run."

Peru's President Alan García Nov. 27 blamed his country's recent rash of guerilla attacks on Mexico's drug cartels, saying their inroads have sparked violent turf wars. "Mexican cartels are capturing, or trying to capture, the Peruvian market. This is the problem," Garcia told a group of foreign reporters. "The Mexican cartels are much more aggressive than those from Colombia," he added. He was speaking the day after five police were killed in a presumed Sendero Luminoso ambush in the jungle zone of Tingo Maria. In the last two months, at least 22 police and soldiers have been killed in Peru. García's administration says the guerillas have largely abandoned their Maoist ideology in favor of narco-profiteering, and accuse them of teaming up with Mexico's Sinaloa cartel. (Notimex, Nov. 28; Reuters, Nov. 27)

In the prelude to last week's APEC summit in Lima, the leaders of Canada and Colombia met in the Peruvian capital to sign a free trade agreement. "In a time of global economic instability free trade is more important than ever," Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said. "By expanding our trading relationship with Colombia, we are not only opening up new opportunities for Canadian businesses in a foreign market, we are also helping one of South America's most historic democracies improve the human rights and security situation in their country."