Following a wave of protests by local Aymara campesinos that left one dead earlier this month, Bolivian President Evo Morales agreed to revoke the permit for the Mallku Khota mining project in Potosí department July 10. The accord was announced after a gathering at the presidential palace of Aymara leaders from both sides of the conflict—those who oppose the project as a threat to local waters, and those who support it as source of new employment. The situation escalated after indigenous opponents of the mine detained—"kidnapped," in English-language media coverage—seven mining company employees. Under the new deal, the concessions granted to Canada-based South American Silver in 2004 will be cancelled, and the Mining Ministry will explore the possibilities of creating a state entity to exploit deposits of the rare element indium at Mallku Khota. Aymara leader Cancio Rojas, who had been jailed after the "kidnapping" incident, was released July 15, after paying a fine of 10,000 bolivianos (about $1,500), in an apparent compromise solution. Local Aymara comunarios said the mine personnel were illegally operating on their ayllu (communal land holding). (OCMAL, July 19; La Razón, July 15; EFE, July 11)

One person was killed and 23 wounded as Colombia's army retook a base that had hours earlier been occupied by protesters in Cauca department July 17, local indigenous authorities said. Special forces troops were sent in to clear the 1,000 protesters armed with sticks who briefly took control of the "Berlin" army base, located in war-torn Toribio municipality. Photos showed Nasa indigenous protesters armed with sticks physically ejecting soldiers from the base. National Police backed up the army troops to evict the protesters, firing tear gas. Nasa indigenous authorities said army troops also opened fire. Defense Minister Carlos Pinzón, while not confirming the death, said the troops had "the right to defend themselves…if the indigenous initiate an aggression." President Juan Manuel Santos denounced the takeover of the base via Twitter, saying, "I do not want to see a single indigenous in the military bases." And: "Make no mistake. We will not allow attacks on those who defend us. Everything has a limit."

In the eighth YouTube edition of the Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade, World War 4 Report editor Bill Weinberg discusses the cultural survival struggles of the Quechua of Peru and the Tuareg of Mali—the first threatened by global capitalism, the second by the global jihad, in a demonstration of the paradoxical unity of opposites.

After hundreds of Embera Chamí and Embera Katío indigenous people from Colombia's departments of Chocó and Risaralda marched in Bogotá July 11, the city government met with their leaders and brokered a deal for them to return to their lands which were usurped some 10 years ago by paramilitary groups. Under the deal, the some 70 Embera families are to return to their lands within 60 days, accompanied by a delegation from the national government to assure their security. (Radio Caracol, El Espectador, Bogotá, July 12) But just days earlier, Embera leader José Vicente Jarupia Domicó in Los Canales de Tierralta community, Córdoba department, was assassinated in a hail of bullets fired by two men on a motorcycle. (El Universal, Cartagena, July 5)

As the giant Mother Earth flag from Cajamarca arrived in Peru's capital of Lima on July 12, a demonstration of some 1,000 construction workers with the General Confederation of Workers of Peru (CGTP) marched in solidarity with the struggle against the Conga gold mine project—as well their own demands of better pay and working conditions. In reference to the protesters killed in Cajamarca, marchers carried signs reading "¡Ni un muerto más, Sr. Humala!" (Not one more death, Mr. [President Ollanta] Humala!). The demonstration was addressed by lawmakers Rosa Mavila, Javier Diez Canseco, Jorge Rimarachín and Lima council member Marissa Glave. After the rally in Lima's Plaza San Martín, the moment there to the liberator José de San Martín was spray-painted with graffiti against the Conga project. The CGTP said this was done by young students, not unionists, and a volunteer crew of workers scrubbed the statue clean. The rally saw a brief clash between National Police in full riot gear and student protesters.

On July 6, in a silent mass demonstration that filled the central plaza of Celendín town, last rites were held for three of the five campesinos killed in protests against the Conga mine project in Peru's northern region of Cajamarca last week. The caskets, draped with banners reading "CONGA NO VA," were carried in a motorcade through villages in the region, where gathered crowds paid their respects. The flags at the offices of the regional government were flown at half mast. Cajamarca remains under an indefinite paro, or civil strike, launched May 31 to demand an end to the Conga project. (AQP Soluciones, July 7; Noticiera Bambamarquino, July 6)

On July 4, Sendero Luminoso guerillas attacked the Peruvian army's Counter-terrorist Base Number 42 at Canayre, Huanta province, Ayacucho region, in the Apurímac-Ene River Valley (VRAE), leaving one solider dead. On June 29, in a rare attack outside the VRAE, Sendero guerillas attacked Counter-terrorist Base Number 43 at Cachibamba Grande, Pampas Tayacaja province, Huancavelica region, leaving one soldier wounded. (Notimex, July 4; Correo, RPP, June 29)

Bolivian police used tear gas, pepper spray and blasts from a water cannon mounted on an armored vehicle against protesters at the camp established by the Ninth Indigenous March just off Plaza Murillo, the central square in La Paz, on July 5. "They have gassed children and indigenous of the Ninth March, they have soaked our beds," said march leader Bertha Bejarano, calling upon the people of La Paz to mobilize for the "physical defense" of the protest camp. Interior vice-minister Jorge Pérez said the police were responding to the arrival at the camp of a contingent from the local anarcho-feminist group Mujeres Creando, who he said threw rotten fruits and vegetables at the police. "There was no order, and there was no police repression," he said. "What happened was a natural reaction on the part of the police, who were attacked in a violent manner. We aren't justifying violence by any side, but those who came to savagely attack the integrity of the police was this group of ladies." A statement from Mujeres Creando said "the protest was peaceful, but we suffered repression from the police." (ANF, Erbol, La Razón, La Paz, Opinión, Cochabamba, July 5)