Peru's government is ignoring new UN guidelines on the protection of isolated indigenous peoples in the Amazon, Survival International charged last week. The landmark February report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "Norms for Protection of Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact of the Amazon Region, Gran Chaco and Oriental Region of Paraguay" (PDF, in Spanish), makes clear that the lands of isolated tribes should be untouchable, and that "no rights should be granted that involve the use of natural resources." However, Peru is allowing the country’s largest gas project to expand further into indigenous territories known to house numerous uncontacted Indians. The expansion plan adds to existing controversies around Argentine gas giant Pluspetrol and its notorious Camisea project in southeast Peru.

Presumed guerillas of the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) movement seized a work camp of the Camisea Consortium April 9 at Kepashiato community, La Convención province, Cuzco region, holding captive the 30 workers there. Several hours later, all but seven were released—sent walking towards the Kepashiato village center, where the National Police established a command post after the hostage-taking. The seven remaining are employees of the Skanska and Coga construction companies, which are contracted by the consortium. National Police say they believe the armed men are Sendero militants who entered La Convención Valley from the Apurímac-Ene River Valley (VRAE), a pocket of jungle just over a mountain range to the northwest where a surviving Sendero column is active. (WSJ, Reuters, La Republica, RPP,Terra Peru, April 9)

Colombia's FARC guerillas responded to reports that they have been weakened, and asserted that the rebels' "struggle for a socialist Colombia" is legitimized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In a video recorded on March 24 and published on YouTube two days later, FARC commander Luciano Marín Arango AKA "Iván Márquez" said "there exists no end to the guerrilla as propagandized by the pawns of the trans-nationalization of the economy of Colombia. What does exist is an intense political and military confrontation and a growing mobilization of the social sectors." The guerrilla leader rejected the FARC's international label as terrorist organization, claiming that "the revolutionary violence, the rebellion against unjust and tyrannic regimes is an irrevocable universal right."

An estimated 3,000 dead dolphins have washed up on the coast of northern Peru so far this year—an average of 30 per day, and the mysterious die-off shows no sign of slowing. The mass wash-ups were first reported by the Association of Artisanal Fishers in Puerto Eten, Lambayeque. In the past days, over 480 carcasses have washed up in the Chaparrí Ecological Reserve. Carlos Yaipen of the Organization for Conservation of Aquatic Animals (ORCA) says he believes use of "marine bubble" technology in offshore oil exploration is responsible. "The oil companies use different frequencies of acoustic waves and the effects produced by these bubbles are not plainly visible, but they generate effects later in the animals," he told Peru21 newspaper. "That can cause death by acoustic impact, not only in dolphins, but also in marine seals and whales."

Troops have been mobilized to Peru's northern Andean region of Cajamarca ahead of an announced resumption of the civil strike there in opposition to the Conga gold mining project. Especially militarized are the outlying provinces of Celendín and Hualgayoc, where the project is slated, with some 1,000 National Police agents and 500 army troops having occupied strategic positions in the town centers. While the Cajamarca regional government is strongly backing the protest call, the provincial governments seem to be cooperating with the security forces. In Celendín, provincial authorities have made a sports arena available to the troops as a staging ground, according to Milton Sánchez of the local civil coalition, the Celendina Inter-institutional Platform. An unused jail in Hualgayoc's provincial capital Bambamarca has been similarly opened, according to Edy Benavides, leader of the Hualgayoc Defense Front. Both groups issued statements protesting the troop presence. Stressing the peaceful nature of the struggle, Benavides said, "We do not accept the militarization in our zone, because it has no justifiable reason."

José Antonio Acosta Hernández AKA "El Diego"—purported leader of La Linea criminal organization, who has been linked to some 1,500 homicides in Mexico—was sentenced to 10 life terms April 5 in El Paso after pleading guilty to the slayings of three people tied to the US Consulate in Ciudad Juárez. Acosta also admitted ordering the massacre of 15 young people in the Mexican border city's Villas de Salvarcar neighborhood, and a car bombing in downtown Juárez. Acosta also pleaded guilty to racketeering, narcotics trafficking, and money laundering charges. US District Judge Kathleen Cardone sentenced him to seven concurrent life terms, three additional consecutive life terms, and 20 years in federal prison.

The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), the Tuareg rebel army which has seized control of Mali's north, declared the independence April 6 of what it called the Azawad nation. "We, the people of the Azawad," the statement reads, "proclaim the irrevocable independence of the state of the Azawad starting from this day..." The military chiefs of 13 of Mali's neighbors met one day earlier in Ivory Coast to hash out plans for a military intervention to push back the MNLA. France said it will offer logistical support for the intervention. The European Union followed Paris' lead in announcing it will not recognize the new state. The intervention pact comes with a move to recognize Mali's besieged military junta. The junta and the West African bloc ECOWAS announced a deal that includes the lifting of sanctions and an amnesty for those involved in last month's coup. (AFP, April 7; AP, April 6)