According to figures released by the Mexican government March 28, drug-related violence claimed 12,903 lives in the country in 2011—down from the record-breaking 15,273 claimed for 2010. In releasing the new figures, the administration of President Felipe Calderón attempted to down-play the number, asserting that drug-related violence throughout the hemisphere last year claimed 150,000 lives. This caused some confusion in the Mexican press, as two days earlier, US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta had used the 150,000 figure to refer to the total number killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since 2006, when Calderón took office and began using the armed forces aggressively against the cartels. Panetta's comment itself caused controversy, since the more common estimate for drug-related deaths in Mexico since 2006 is 50,000. Panetta presumably misspoke—or intentionally exaggerated the scope of the crisis.

The head of Libya's Toubou people on March 30 called for international intervention after deadly clashes in the southern oasis town of Sabha. "We demand that the United Nations and European Union intervene to stop the ethnic cleansing of the Toubou," said Issa Abdel Majid Mansur, a former opposition activist under slain dictator Moammar Qaddafi. He accused Arab tribes in Sabha of bombarding a power station providing electricity to areas of southern Libya with a large Toubou population, including Qatrun and Morzuk. The first clashes erupted five days ago after Arab tribesmen accused the Toubou of killing one of their people. The first three days of fighting claimed more than 70 lives, and Zintan Arab militiamen from the north were sent in. A ceasefire was brokered March 28, although continuing clashes have since been reported. Mansur said his people are ready to revive the organization they had formed to oppose Qaddafi in order to fight for their rights in post-Qaddafi Libya—and raised the possibility of separatism. "We announce the reactivation of the Toubou Front for the Salvation of Libya to protect the Toubou people from ethnic cleansing," Mansur told AFP. "If necessary, we will demand international intervention and work towards the creation of a state, as in South Sudan." (AFP, Magharebia, March 30; AFP, March 27)

Presumed Tuareg rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) on March 29 launched an attack on Mali's northern city of Kidal, using shell and rockets as well as small arms—and following through on a promise made in the wake of the coup d'etat a week earlier. During an interview with VOA's Francophone Africa service, MNLA second-in-command Karim ag Matafa said rebels plan to advance toward key cities of Kidal, Timbuktu, and Gao, and claim them as liberated territory. In Bamako, Mali's capital, thousands of junta supporters took to the streets on March 28, backing the military putsch that forced President Amadou Toumani Toure into hiding. Many of the marchers were apparently soldiers and veterans who felt Toure was ineffective in countering the Tuareg insurgency. Pro-junta protesters took over the city's main airstrip, forcing jets carrying West African presidents for a meeting with Mali's new military rulers to turn back mid-flight. Leaders of the regional body ECOWAS organized the trip to pressure the junta to restore constitutional rule. Junta leaders meanwhile announced on state TV that they have drafted a new constitution, and pledged to hold elections—although they did not announce a date. The new constitution supposedly bars coup leaders from running for elected office. (Daily Star, Lebanon, This Day Live, Nigeria, March 30; EuroNews, Jurist, March 29; VOA, March 23)

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on March 27 proposed the nation's first Clean Air Act standard for carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants. Under the standard, greenhouse gas emissions from new coal-fired plants would be reduced by about 50% over the life of the plants. The rule only concerns new generating units that will be built in the future, and does not apply to existing units already operating or units that will start construction over the next 12 months. The proposed standard follows a 2007 decision by the Supreme Court in Massachusetts vs EPA that greenhouse gases are air pollutants that can be regulated under the Clean Air Act.

On March 22, World Water Day, the "March for Water, Life and Dignity," more than 1,000 strong, reached Ecuador's capital after a two-week, 700-kilometer cross-country trek to oppose plans for large-scale mining projects on indigenous lands. Carrying the rainbow-colored indigenous flag, marchers were joined by thousands of supporters in Quito. Some demonstrators clashed with police outside the National Assembly building. Police repelled rock-throwing youth with tear gas, and at one point charged the demonstrators on horseback.

The UN's International Labor Organization (ILO) released a report by a committee of experts March 3 finding that the Brazilian government violated the rights of indigenous people by moving forward on the massive Belo Monte dam without consulting native communities. The report follows a request last year by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for the Brazilian government to suspend the dam, which is currently being built on the Rio Xingu River in Pará state, in the Amazon Basin. It has met with repeated angry protests by the Kayapo and other local indigenous peoples.

On March 20, Colombia's Committee-Foundation for Solidarity with Political Prisoners (FCSPP) informed the press that 500 prisoners in several of the country's facilities had initiated an indefinite hunger strike. The strikers are mostly imprisoned FARC guerillas who undertook their action to demand that they be recognized as "political prisoners of war and conscience," and to protest the government's denial of a request by the group Colimbians for Peace (CCP), led by ex-senator Piedad Córdoba, to visit the prisoners and verify "the actual conditions of human rights that they face." The strike started at El Barne prison in Cómbita (Boyacá department), and quickly spread to other facilities. Some have decided to lift their strike since the announcement, but at last report 417 were still refusing all food. The strike follows the FARC's recent pledge to release hostages and abandon abductions. (Antifa Bogotá, Adital, Radio Nederland Internacional, March 22; EFE, March 21; Semana, AVN, March 20)

Colombia is enjoying an oil boom, its output of crude having nearly doubled in the past six years, from 525,000 barrels a day in 2005 to a daily average of 914,000 last year. But as exploration expands in the country's eastern lowlands, oil companies continue to confront armed groups. In February, the ELN guerrillas kidnapped 11 workers in Casanare department who were building the Oleoducto Bicentenario, slated to be Colombia's largest oil pipeline. The 11 were released in early March. Simultaneously, Interior Minister Germán Vargas Lleras warned that he was "not going to tolerate" more road blockades in the region. Local peasants and residents have in recent weeks repeatedly blocked arteries through the region to protest the lack of benefit to their communities by the oil operations, facing down troops of the elite National Police riot squad, ESMAD. Leaders have denied government claims that the guerillas are behind the protest campaign.