Peru's President Ollanta Humala told TV program Panorama March 25 that his government is "one step away" from reaching a deal with the consortium developing Block 88, one of the main blocks in the Camisea field—following through on a campaign promise that gas from that block would be reserved for domestic use. "This has been a renegotiation with the Camisea consortium, without using any force or without kicking over the table in any way," Humala said. He said that under the deal, the gas will be "recovered" for the people of Peru.

Retired Peruvian Gen. Jorge Aquiles Carcovich Cortelezzi, now serving as chief of the firearms control agency DICSCAMEC, is being investigated by the special human rights prosecutor for Ayacucho region, Andrés Cáceres Ortega, for his involvement in the massacre of 25 schoolchildren and five campesinos by a military patrol in the village of Umasi (Canaria district, Fajardo province) on Nov. 27, 1983.

A day of pitched street-fighting on March 14 left three dead, some 35 wounded and 60 detained in Puerto Maldonado, capital of Peru's lowland Madre de Dios region, as small-scale independent gold miners continued their paro (civil strike) to oppose the government's announced crackdown on their activities. Thousands of miners blocked the city's streets, and attempted to seize the airport and the newly built Continental Bridge over the Rio Madre de Dios. Protesters hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at helmented National Police troops in full military gear, who responded with tear gas and live rifle fire.

Colombia's ambassador to Peru resigned March 14 after the Prosecutor General's Office ordered his arrest for alleged ties to paramilitary groups. Jorge Visbal Martelo Hannibal has been accused of working with paramilitaries while he was president of the National Rancher's Federation (FEDEGAN) from 1998 until 2004. He is specifically accused of collaborating with Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, AKA "Jorge 40"—notorious commander of the AUC paramilitary network's Northern Bloc. Martelo's defense assured the Prosecutor's Office that he will appear before the court in Bogota this week. President Juan Manuel Santos appointed Martelo as ambassador to Peru in February 2011. (Colombia Reports, La Republica, Lima, March 15)

Thousands of demonstrators led by Paúl Carrasco, prefect of Azuay province, filled the streets of Cuenca, Ecuador, on March 11, to launch the regional feeder march of the cross-country Walk in Defense of Water, Life and Dignity, which is to coverge on Quito from several points around the country later this month. Carrasco, addressing the crowd of protesters, aimed his comments at President Rafael Correa, demanding that plans for be dropped for massive new mineral development in the region. "Señor Correa, the mineral project in Cuenca will not go ahead," he said. Although the march was peaceful, many protesters wore masks, saying they feared retribution from the authorities. (Hoy, Quito, March 11, El Comercio, Quito, March 10).

Led by the National Confederation of Artisenal Miners (CONAMI), small-scale independent gold miners led strikes and protests across several regions of Peru last week. The southern rainforest region of Madre de Dios was most affected, with regional capital Puerto Maldonado virtually shut down for several days following initiation of the paro (civil strike) on March 5. Thousands of miners filled the streets, wearing helmets and plastic ponchos color-coordinated to represent their geographic zone. Other social movements observed the paro in solidarity, and most businesses shut down. The region's estimated 18,000 artisenal miners—the vast majority of them "informal"—are demanding the aborgation of recent presidential decrees mandating that only legally recognized mining activity will be permitted. Some 3,000 miners are currently camped out in Puerto Maldonado as they await the arrival of a cabinet-level commission led by Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar Vidal and Energy and Mines Minister Jorge Merino to establish a dialogue on "formalization" of the artisenal miners. Luis Otzuka, leader of the Madre de Dios Regional Artisenal Mining Federation (FEDEMIN), said the strike will be maintained until a solution is reached.

On March 5, a special intelligence unit of Peru's National Police announced the arrest of Walter Díaz Vega AKA "Freddy" or "Percy"—said to be the successor of the Shining Path leader "Comrade Artemio," himself captured weeks earlier. Comrade Freddy was apprehended in the hamlet of Alto Alianza, José Crespo y Castillo district, Leoncio Prado province, Huánuco region. The hamlet is in the Magdalena Valley, an arm of the Upper Huallaga Valley, one of two zones of the country where a state of emergency remains in effect due to Shining Path activity. Comrade Freddy, apparently betrayed by infiltrators, was transfered to the National Anti-Terrorism Directorate (DIRCOTE) in Lima for interrogation. The National Police hailed the arrest as a "mortal blow" against the Shining Path.

US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano on Feb. 28 defended the US-backed war on the drug cartels, despite the growing violence in Mexico and Central America. On a five-day tour of the region, Napolitano insisted in a joint press conference with Mexican Interior Minister Alejandro Poire that the US and Mexico would maintain "a continuing effort to keep our peoples from becoming addicted to dangerous drugs.... It's a different type of crime and it's a different type of plague, but that's also why it is so important that we act not only bi-nationally, but in a regional way, to go after the supply of illegal narcotics."