A US prosecutor has filed drug trafficking charges against a retired Colombian police general who was former President Alvaro Uribe's security chief, newspaper El Tiempo reported June 15. According to the charges filed before the Eastern District Court of Virginia, retired Gen. Mauricio Santoyo Velasco collaborated with paramilitary organization AUC and Medellín-based crime syndicate Oficina de Envigado between 2000 and 2008. Santoyo was Uribe's security chief between 2002 and 2006 after which he was named military attaché in Italy.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) will analyze information regarding the Colombian army murdering civilians and disguising them as guerillas killed in combat to artificially inflate its enemy kill count. "We are asking [the government] about this issue, they have responded to us about the cases currently under investigation. We are preparing a report about this, but for now we are in the process of analyzing," said the court's outgoing prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, in an interview with Spanish news agency EFE June 13.

A de-escalation is reported in the Espinar mining conflict in Cuzco, Peru, as a judge ordered the release of the province's imprisoned mayor, Oscar Mollohuanca. In an unusual move, he had been ordered imprisoned in Ica region—which does not even border Cuzco—while awaiting trial on charges of abetting violent protesters against the Xstrata Tintaya copper mine. Although the charges have not been dropped, Mollohuanca upon his release June 14 immediately headed for Lima, where he said he will establish a dialogue with the administration of President Ollanta Humala. (La Primera, June 14; AP, June 12)

The 42nd General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), held June 3-5 in Cochabamba, Bolivia, was dominated by calls from leftist South American leaders for restructuring the group and ending domination by the US. Bolivian president Evo Morales, the host of the meeting, set the tone by declaring that "for the OAS there are two roads: either it dies in the service of imperialism, or it is reborn to serve the peoples of America." Headquartered in Washington, DC, the OAS includes every country in the hemisphere except Cuba, which was denied representation in 1962 under pressure from the US.

Three prominent lawmakers publicly resigned from President Ollanta Humala's ruling Gana Perú coalition June 4 over the government's handling of protests against the Xstrata Tintaya copper mine in Cuzco's Espinar province. Legislators Rosa Mavila and Javier Diez-Canseco issued a joint letter addressed to Humala, charging that his government had taken a "confrontational" stance against protesters, and rejected dialogue. "Those who were defeated in the elections have become co-governors," the legislators said, referring to Humala's tilt to the pro-corporate politics he campaigned against last year. Cuzco region congress member Veronika Mendoza issued her own statement, calling a press conference to announce her resignation from the Gana Perú bloc, at which she wielded a Health Ministry study on the Xstrata Tintaya mine she said had been suppressed. "In this document, it is confirmed that the maximum limits for arsenic and mercury have been exceeded" in the area around the mine, she said. "Quantities of heavy metals above the permitted levels were found in water used for human consumption." (Cronica Viva, Peru.com, June 7; Peruvian Times, June 5; RPP, June 4)

An "indefinite" paro (civil strike) was initiated in Cajamarca, Peru, on May 31 to oppose the pending mega-scale Conga gold mine, with thousands-strong marches held in the regional capital. Hundreds of National Police troops were mobilized to the streets, and on June 1 a new march was met with a police charge and even fired shots. The violence broke out when police in full riot gear attempted to clear an open-air kitchen that a group of women had established on a traffic island in one of the city's main thoroughfares to feed the protesters. Although the incident won little media attention, video coverage posted on YouTube appears to show two shots being fired, followed by a woman crying out and collapsing on the pavement. The sparse media coverage did not indicate anyone was actually hit by bullets, and police assaulted the cameraman immediately after the shots, cutting short the film. The incident comes days after four protesters were shot by police in a similar conflict over a mineral project in Cuzco region. (Radio Nacional, June 1)

The conflict over the Xstrata Tintaya mine in Espinar province of Peru's Cuzco region escalated May 30 as dozens National Police troops in full riot gear stormed the office of the mayor, Oscar Mollohuanca, in the midst of a community meeting he was convening there on the issue, and arrested him—presumably on charges of leading the recent angry protests at the mine site. The raid came without warning, and Mollohuanca had not been told there was a warrant for his arrest. He was initially taken to the police outpost at the mine site, but as a crowd gathered there demanding his release, he was transferred to Cuzco's regional capital. “The detention of the mayor is a huge worry because it has ruined the dialogue process," Veronika Mendoza, a legislator from the ruling Gana Perú coalition, said on Canal N television. Cuzco's regional president, Jorge Acurio, also protested the arrest, charging that Prime Minister Oscar Valdés had betrayed his pledge to suspend further arrests and initiate a dialogue.

Colombia's Juan Manuel Santos and Chinese President Hu Jintao presided over the signing in Beijing May 9 of nine agreements to boost cooperation in a range of industries, emphasizing the oil sector. One pact calls for Colombian parastatal Ecopetrol to join with Sinochem conglomerate and the China Development Bank to build an inter-oceanic pipeline through the Andean country. The plan for the "Oleoducto al Pacífico" is to begin with a feasibility study to be lead by Sinochem's local subsidiary Emerald Energy. Colombian Energy Minister Mauricio Cárdenas, who was also on hand for the signing, said Chinese partners have taken the decision "to enter our country in full, with activities of exploration, with activities of production..." (Portafolio.co, Reuters, May 11; EFE, May 9)