The government of Indonesia this month responded to UN recommendations to recognize the rights of its indigenous peoples by claiming that none live in the country. In a response to the UN's Universal Periodic Review, a four–year human rights check-up for all countries, Indonesia said, "The Government of Indonesia supports the promotion and protection of indigenous people worldwide… Indonesia, however, does not recognize the application of the indigenous peoples concept… in the country."

Local campesinos reported Oct. 26 that thousands of young trout were found dead in the Río Llaucano, in Peru's northern region of Cajamarca, and blame contamination from the ginat Yanacocha gold mine that sits atop the watersahed. The campesinos held a press conference in the town of Bambamarca to announce  thier grave fears for the safety of the region's waters. The Llaucano is a tributary of the Marañon, one of the main rivers that drains into the Amazon. The fish were found washed up near the communities of Santa Rosa in Bambamarca province and La Paccha in Chota province. (Servindi, Oct. 26)

Hundreds of campeisnos staged a protest outside the Governor's Palace in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua last week, following the Oct. 22 double murder of two leading members of the activist organization El Barzón. Ismael Solorio Urrutia and his wife Manuela Martha Solís Contreras were shot while driving in in thier truck on the highway near Ciudad Cuautémoc, west of the state capital, Chihuahua City. Supporters are demanding a face-to-face meeting with Chihuahua's Gov. César Duarte to demand justice in the case, asserting that Solorio had faced numerous threats and attacks in recent weeks. On Oct. 13, Solorio and his son Eric were beaten by men that activists claim were in the pay of Vancouver-based mining company MAG Silver. Solorio and fellow Barzonistas had been opposing the installation of the company's El Cascabel mine in the municipality of Buenaventura. The Barzonistas say the mine is illegally slated for Ejído Benito Juárez, a collective campesino agricultural holding. The site is belived to hold a rich vein of the rare element molybdenum.

The UK's Daily Mail this week, citing a letter from indigenous leaders obtained via Brazil's Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI), reported that en entire tribe of the Guarani people—consisting of 50 men, 50 women and 70 children—have threatened to commit collective suicide if they are evicted from their traditional lands. The Guarani-Kaiowa tribe are currently camped on lands claimed by a rancher in Brazil's southern state of Mato Grosso do Sul, and local Judge Henrique Bonachela upheld a petition by the rancher to have the Guarani evicted—dimsissing their claim that they have lived on the land for centuries and it includes ancient burial grounds. Bonachela reportedly imposed a fine equivalent to $240 for every day that the tribe remains on the land, on the banks of the Rio Joguico. The Spanish news agency EFE later cited both CIMI and the Brazilian indigenous affairs agency FUNAI as denying that the Guarani-Kaiowa had threatened mass suicide. A statement on the CIMI website says there are "different interpretations" of the letter issued by the Guarani-Kaiowa community, called  Kue Pyelito, in which they denounced the eviction as tantamount to their "collective death." (EFE, CIMI, Oct. 25; Daily Mail, Oct. 24; Combate ao Racismo Ambiental, Oct. 10)

After an all-night session, Panama's National Assembly agreed Oct. 27 to repeal Law 72, which approved the sale of land in the Colón Free Trade Zone (ZLC)—responding to nine days of strikes, protests and riots that began in the Caribbean port of Colón and spread to the capital, Panama City. Thousands of vehicles clogged the capital's main arteries, immobilized by protest roadblocks. The Unitary Syndicate of Construction Workers (SUNTRACS) and allied citizens' group, the Frente Amplio Colonense, rejected government offers to increase the amount of money from the land sales to be directed into social programs, insisting the sale be cancelled altogether. "We are not participating in any type of conversation until the entire law is revoked," said Felipe Cabezas of the Frente Amplio. Three were killed in the nine days of protests, including a 10-year-old boy, as police repeatedly used tear gas against demonstrartors who fought back with bricks and sticks.

The Second Civil Court of the Special Circuit for Land Restitution in the northern Colombian town of Carmen de Bolívar issued an historic ruling Oct. 16, ordering the return of 65 hectares to 14 families who had been forced from their lands in the "Massacre of Mampuján," a paramilitary attack carried out on March 11, 2000. The ruling, the first under Colombia's new Land Restitution Law, calls on the government's Victims Reparations Unit to oversee the return of the predios, or private collective land-holdings, to the residents of Mampuján, a caserío (unincorporated hamlet) in María la Baja municipality, Bolívar department. The residents had been forced to flee when the caserío was attacked by the María la Baja Bloc of the United Colombian Self-Defense Forces (AUC). Bloc commander Uber Enrique Banquez Martínez AKA "Juancho Dique" was sentenced to 22 years in prison in July after confessing to massacres in the region. Subsequently, the displaced residents returned to Mampuján from the exile hamlet they had established, "New Mampuján."

With representatives from the Colombian government and FARC rebels currently engaged in "phase two" of the peace talks in Oslo, conservative politicians in Colombia warn of evidence that factions of the guerrilla army in the country's south are not willing to participate in the peace process. "We urge the government and the guerrillas to say if the Southern Mobile Bloc and the Teofilo Forero Mobile Column are in the peace process, because they are still recruiting and trafficking drugs," said Sen. Carlos Ramiro Chavarro. Conservative Party president Efrain Cepeda. "The dialogue needs to be with 100% of the guerrillas to be legitimate." The agenda of "phase two" of the negotiations focuses on five overlapping points: agrarian reform, guarantees of political participation, ending the armed conflict, drug trafficking, and the rights of victims.

In a ceremony at the Quemado Government Palace in La Paz, Bolivia's President Evo Morales on Oct. 15 signed a new Law of Mother Earth and Integral Development for Living Well—MTDIVB, by its Spanish acronym—enacting several measures that had long been demanded by the country's popular movements. The law will extend Bolivia's agrarian reform program, calling for the complete "elimination of the latifundia," with women, indigenous peoples, Afro-Bolivians and "intercultural communities" to be given preference for redistributed lands. It creates a Defender of Mother Earth office to hear public complaints related to ecological issues, and a Climate Justice Fund to oversee remediation of lands impacted by the Andean climate crisis. It tightens Bolivia's ban on genetically modified seeds, entirely prohibiting GMO seeds from the country—their importation, use, or release into the environment. The measures together are intended to bring about the country's "integral development in harmony and balance with Mother Earth," the law states.