Over the past 10 years, more than 40% of Colombia's national territory has been leased to, or is being solicited for leasing by, multinational corporations, according to a report released last year by the NGO PBI Colombia, "Mining in Colombia: at what cost?" (PDF). Of Colombia's total territory of 114 million hectares, more than 8.4 million have been licensed for mineral exploration and more than 37 million for oil exploration. Colombian business website Portafolio.com reported April 8 on a February report by the Colombian Geological Survey indicating that 18 multinational mining companies own the rights to over 1.5 million hectares—with the two largest, Anglo Gold Ashanti and Mineros SA, accounting for 59% of the total figure. Portafolio.com reported Jan. 15 that US multinational Cargill recently purchased 90,000 hectares in Meta department for grain production, and is seeking more. Foreign agribusiness interests from Argentina, Switzerland, Israel and other countries have procured some 100,000 hectares around Colombia for production of "biofuels" and other cash crops—particularly in the Magdalena Medio region.

In a surprise move, Bolivian President Evo Morales announced April 10 he is rescinding the contract of the Brazilian firm OAS to build a controversial highway through the Amazon rainforest. Morales had already suspended the most contentious section, which was to pass through the Isiboro Sécure National Park Indigenous Territory (TIPNIS)—which was the subject of rival indigenous marches on La Paz for and against its construction. Now he is said he will annul the contract to build the remaining sections of the road that would link Villa Tunari in Cochabamba department with San Ignacio de Moxos in the rainforest department of Beni. Morales told a press conference in La Paz that the company had violated terms of the contract, charging, "OAS suspended construction in these sections without justification or authorization." Morales did not say if the road project would ultimately resume, or if OAS would be compensated. (MercoPress, April 11)

Peru's President Ollanta Humala declared a 60-day state of emergency in La Convención province April 11, following the abduction there two days earlier of workers from the Camisea Consortium by presumed guerillas of the Sendero Luminoso movement. Over the past 48 hours, details of the affair in the media have changed, and are sometimes contradictory. Initial accounts said a Camisea work camp was taken over by the guerillas; accounts now indicate the workers were abducted from their hotel in Kepashiato village, Echarate district, La Convención province, Cuzco region. Initial accounts said 30 workers were seized, and all but seven later released; accounts now say 43 are being held. Accounts are also placing the abductions in the the Apurímac-Ene River Valley (VRAE), one of the last areas of the country that still has an active Sendero Luminoso presence. However, La Convención is in the valley of the next river to east of the Apurímac-Ene, the Urubamba, separated from the VRAE by a mountain range. This could either be sloppy journalism, or an expansion of the VRAE's definition to include adjacent areas where Sendero is now active.

Nine informal miners were rescued April 11 after six days trapped in a tunnel at the Cabeza de Negro copper mine in Yauca del Rosario district, Ica province, Peru. President Ollanta Humala was on hand to greet them as they emerged—and in his public comments said the incident pointed to the dangers of informal mines. He said that informal mining companies that operate outside the law are "exploiting" workers, and that he will instruct the Public Ministry to toughen measures against them. The Cabeza de Negro mine was abandoned more than 20 years ago, but its entrance had never been dynamited as the law prescribes. In recent years, informal miners re-entered the tunnel, selling the copper on the gray market that is widely tolerated. Media reports emphasized that the miners were trapped by a cave-in triggered by an explosion they themselves had set. (AP, RPP, Andina, El Periodico.com, Spain, April 11)

Ali Mushaima, a 28-year-old Bahraini activist, on hunger strike for 10 days in London, on April 4 began a public vigil outside the US embassy on Grosvenor Square to call attention to US complicity in the repression of Bahrain's civil revolutionary movement and Washington's tacit support to the Saudi occupation of the country. He is also expressing his solidarity with human rights activist Abdul Hadi al-Khawaja, who has now been on hunger strike for over 60 days in a Bahraini prison. Al-Khawaja was recently moved to a new facility with medical equipment in anticipation of an onset of coma. His daughter, Maryam al-Khawaja said her father "is entering a critical phase, where his life is at stake." Ali's own father, Hassan Mushaima, is also imprisoned, and suffering from cancer for which Ali says he is not receiving proper treatment inside Bahrain's "torture chambers." (Bahrain Freedom Movement, April 10; CNN, April 6)

Police in Tunis used tear gas and baton-charges against unemployed protestors demanding jobs and relief on April 9. President Moncef Marzouki decried the violence, but criticized the protesters for holding an unauthorized demonstration. "Such a degree of violence is unacceptable,” he said on national television, blaming "the unacceptable standoff between the state that has banned demonstrations on Bourguiba Avenue and those who deliberately violated the ban." At least 15 civilians and eight police officers were reported injured in the street clashes. The violence, the worst in the capital since last year's revolution, has been dubbed "Black Monday" by protesters and the press. (AFP, Now Lebanon, April 10)

While Tuareg rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) claim to control the north of Mali—the vast stretch of the country beyond the Niger River—there is growing evidence that Islamist organizations have actually taken power in much of this territory. With the Islamist faction Ansar Dine still reported to be patrolling the streets of Timbuktu, the northern region's main city, a second such faction was reported April 8 to have stormed the Algerian consulate in Gao, some 200 miles across the desert to the west, abducting the consul and six members of his team. The Jamat Tawhid wal Jihad fi Garbi Afriqqiya—or Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) —claimed responsibility for the abduction in a statement sent to AFP, saying it "will be making its demands known."

A Brazilian federal judge on March 30 suspended the construction license of the Teles Pires hydroelectric dam in the Amazon rainforest, saying the permitting process violated the riights of the Kayabi, Apiaká and Mundurucu indigenous peoples. Judge Celia Regina Ody Bernardes in Mato Grosso state sided with public prosecutors from the states of Mato Grosso and Pará, who argued the dam would cause "imminent and irreversible damage to the quality of life and cultural heritage of indigenous peoples of the region." The dam would flood a series of rapids on the Rio Teles Pires known as Sete Quedas (Seven Waterfalls), a fish spawning grounds of great importance to the indigenous residents. A declaration by indigenous peoples cited in the lawsuit states, "Sete Quedas is a sacred place, where the Mae dos Peixes [Mother of Fish] and other spirits of our ancestors live." The judge ordered the immediate suspension of all construction activities at the site, "especially explosions of boulders in the region of Sete Quedas."