Peru is set to overtake Colombia as the world's top coca producer, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in its World Drug Report 2010 released this week. The agency cited a 6.8% increase in areas of Peru under coca cultivation in 2009 compared with 2008—despite an overall 5% decrease from 167,000 hectares in 2008 to 158,000 hectares in 2009 across the Andean region generally. This brought Peruvian territory under coca cultivation to 59,900 hectares. There was a 16% decline in areas under coca cultivation in Colombia for the same time period, to 68,000 hectares, and an increase of 1% in Bolivia. About 55% more coca is grown in Peru now than a decade ago, the report found. In 2009, Peru produced 119,000 tons of coca, representing about 45.4% of the Andean region's production, UNODC found. Colombia produced 103,100 tons, about 39.3% of the region's coca production, and Bolivia produced 40,200 tons, or 15.3% of the total.

The US Supreme Court on June 21 ruled 6-3 in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project that the section of the PATRIOT Act criminalizing the provision of "material support" for groups designated "terrorist organizations" does not violate the First Amendment. The Court held that the law's prohibitions on "expert advice," "training," "service," and "personnel" are not vague, and did not violate speech or association rights as applied to plaintiffs' intended activities.

Bolivia's Minister of Autonomy, Carlos Romero, June 21 appealed to the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of the Oriente of Bolivia (CIDOB) to call off its cross-country march for territorial autonomy, to return to the dialogue table, and to "shake off" the interference of foreign-backed NGOs. CIDOB broke off talks with the government last week, and on the 21st launched a march from Trinidad, capital of the Amazonian department of Beni, to La Paz. CIDOB is demanding that the government accept its broader definition of indigenous rights than that in the new national autonomy law.

Oil company Perenco has been slammed for denying the existence of uncontacted tribes by a Peruvian indigenous leader almost immediately after his return from 11 months in political exile. Alberto Pizango, leader of indigenous organization AIDESEP, has condemned Perenco for denying the existence of uncontacted Indians in a remote region of the Peruvian Amazon where it aims to build a pipeline to exploit an estimated 300 million barrels of heavy crude oil.

Colombia's president-elect Juan Manuel Santos announced after his victory in the second-round vote June 20 that outgoing President Alvaro Uribe is to thank for his victory, and pledged to hit the FARC guerillas even harder than his predecessor. "If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants," Santos said, quoting Isaac Newton while addressing thousands of supporters who gathered in Bogotá to celebrate his victory. "While [the FARC] insist on terrorist methods, while they insist on attacking the people there will be no dialogue, and we will continue to confront them with total toughness, with total firmness," Santos said.

Gunmen shot and killed Jesús Manuel Lara Rodríguez, mayor of the Mexican border town of Guadalupe as his wife and child watched on June 19. Lara Rodríguez was hit by 10 bullets from an assault rifle as he walked from his car outside his second home in Ciudad Juárez. An outspoken opponent of the drug cartels' reign of terror in the region, Lara had received numerous death threats. He had recently purchased the home in Juárez, the closest city to Guadalupe, believing his family would be safer there. (CNN, El Dairio, Juárez, June 20)

Turkey's once-close relations with Israel are in jeopardy following the deadly Israeli naval attack on a Turkish-organized "Free Gaza" aid flotilla, with Ankara reportedly instating on a freeze on deals with Israeli defense contractors. But this has not kept the Turkish military from using Israeli-supplied drones against the Kurdish PKK rebels—inside Iraq. According to Turkish sources, the army has been using Israeli-made drones to locate PKK positions, both in eastern Turkey and northern Iraq. After delays of more than two years, a partnership of Israel Aerospace Industries and the Israeli defense firm Elbit delivered six Heron drones to the Turkish military in April. Four more are expected later this month. (Ha'aretz, Hurriyet Daily News, June 20)

Three journalists were among eight injured on June 20 in the West Bank town of Beit Jala as locals and internationals gathered to protest the continued construction of Israel's separation wall. Border guards at the site, near the 18th century Cremisan winery and monastery, beat protesters with batons, and fired sound bombs, tear-gas canisters and rubber-coated bullets, witnesses said. (Ma'an News Agency, June 21)