A controversial mega-project to build a transcontinental railway through the Amazon basin has caused outrage among indigenous people and advocacy groups. UK-based Survival International charges that the rail project, backed by the Chinese government, would cross through many indigenous territories and areas of high biodiversity across the rainforest in Peru and Brazil, opening them to industrial exploitation, illegal mining and logging, and peasant colonization. Survival warns that "uncontacted tribes" would face devastation from invasions into their lands, calling these peoples "the most vulnerable societies on the planet." Whole populations could be wiped out by violence from outsiders and by diseases like flu and measles to which they have no resistance.

Federal prosecutors in Brazil on June 16 called for authorities to halt the eviction of some 2,000 families living in an area of the Amazon rainforest where the huge Belo Monte dam is being built. Prosecutors with the Federal Public Ministry said the consortium building the dam has broken numerous agreements on the relocation of residents. The Norte Energia consortium is violating terms of a contract with guarantees that the indigenous people, peasant settlers and fishermen living in the area would be relocated and provided with alternative means of survival, prosecutors said. The statement especially urged the government to halt the work of a vessel, known as the "demolition boat," hired by the consortium. "It has been travelling along the Xingu River evicting the families who live by the river, in the area to be flooded by the Belo Monte dam," the prosecutors' statement charges.

UK-based advocacy group Survival International says it has received reports that violent conflict between Ethiopian soldiers and Hamar pastoralists left dozens dead last month. The Hamar are one of several tribal peoples of the Lower Omo Valley who are subject to the government's policy of "villagization." They are being forcibly relocated to government-created villages along new roads through the region, while their ancestral grazing lands are sold off to investors for commercial plantations. These land-grabs have already led to starvation in parts of the Lower Omo. Tensions have been rising as a result of these evictions; at the end of May, Hamar were reportedly attacked by soldiers with rifles and mortars. Survival says a "news blackout" imposed by the government makes it impossible to know the exact number of casualties, but one observer referred to what took place as a "massacre." The incident follows a pattern of abuses in the Lower Omo, including beatings, rape and arbitrary arrest. One displaced Hamar said, "The government told us that if we don't give in to them we will be slaughtered in public like goats." (Survival International, June 5)

Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate Nusra Front acknowledged on June 13 that its followers were responsible for a massacre at the Druze village of Qalb Loze, Idlib governorate, saying they had violated orders and would face justice. Twenty Druze villagers were reportedly killed June 10 when Nusra militants opened fire in an incident that began with the militants' attempt to seize a local home. (Reuters, June 13) Following the massacre, five of the largest militias in Idlib, all members of the Jaysh a-Fatah coalition, issued a statement condemning the killings. The militias—identified as Ahrar al-Sham, the Sham Front, Ajnad al-Sham, Thuwar al-Sham and Fastaqm Kama Umrat—declared that "Islam forbids spilling people's blood whatever their sect is." The massacre was also condemned by the more secular Syrian National Coalition. (Mkaradjis blog, June 13) In the wake of the massacre, Israel is said to be considering creation of a "safe zone" on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights to protect Druze residents of the area. (Times of Israel, June 14)

US warplanes on June 14 carried out air-strikes on a farm outside Ajdabiya, Libya, killing several leading members of the Ansar al-Sharia militant network. Among those reported killed is Algerian jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar AKA "Khaled Abou El Abbas" or "Laaouar," former leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Details of the attack were reported by authorities of Libya's "official" government in Tobruk, who said they had been consulted before the raid. Washington only confirmed a raid against a "mid-level al-Qaeda operative in Libya," without giving any names or exact location. After the air-strikes, there was apparently an attempt to bring the wounded into town for treatment at the hospital, but it was met with stiff resistance both from local reaidents and troops from the Libya army's 151 Battalion. The targeted farm reportedly served as a base for a mixed force of jihadists from Ansar al-Sharia, ISIS and the Ajdabiya Shura Council. (Libya Herald, AFP, June 14)

Mexican authorities boasted another take-down of a top narco lord May 29, with the arrest in Jalisco state of Manuel García Orozco, a leader of the New Generation cartel. García Orozco was detained "without a shot fired" at a road checkpoint in Tlajomulco de Zuniga municipality. He is accused of overseeing operations in Jalisco's Cienega region along the border with Michoacán state, including drug smuggling, fuel theft and extortion. He is also accused of involvement in "various attacks" against security forces, including the abduction and murder of two federal police officers in Michoacán in November 2013. The investigation into their disappearance led to the discovery of 37 clandestine graves containing 75 bodies in the Jalisco municipality of La Barca, near the state line. (AFP, May 29)

For months, Libya has been divided between the Islamist-led Libyan Dawn coalition that controls Tripoli and the west, and the more secular "official" government now exiled to Tobruk in the east. But with ISIS seizing territory, it is now turning into a three-sided war. Heavy fighting is reported as the "official" Libyan National Army's Brigade 309 has launched an offensive to take the port of Mreisa from ISIS fighters. (Libya Herald, June 13) Meanwhile, the Majlis al-Shura militia, aligned with the Libyan Dawn movement, is fighting ISIS for control of Derna. One June 13, a presumed ISIS suicide bomber killed three when he blew himself up on a Derna street. (Reuters, June 13)  The day before, seven Derna residents were shot dead when militants fired on a protest against the ISIS occupation of the city. (Reuters, June 12)

Flights to the Galápagos islands were canceled June 12 and Ecuadoran soldiers fired tear gas to clear roadblocks as residents staged a nine-hour general strike to protest cost-cutting legislation that will cut subsidies they call essential to meet high living costs in the remote territory. The strike effectively shut down the two main islands of Santa Cruz and San Cristóbal. Protests in the archipelago have been mounting since June 8, when Ecuador's National Assembly overturned the 1978 Special Regime Ordinance for Galápagos Province, giving public employees on the islands a wage subsidy that effectively doubled their salaries. Under the reform, the 25,000 inhabitants of the islands, which lie 600 miles from Ecuador's coast, also lose the right to fly free of charge to and from the mainland. (El Universo, June 13; Ecuador Inmediato, AP, June 12; El Comercio, June 11)