A US drone fired two missiles at a guesthouse next to a home in Khushali Torikhel village in Mir Ali sub-division of North Waziristan, killing four suspected militants, including foreigners, Pakistani sources said. According to a count by Iran's Press TV, the US has launched 36 drone strikes in Pakistan since January, killing at least 390. (Hindustan Times, Press TV, June 26)

At least nine ethnic Hazara men were killed in an ambush June 24 in a remote area of central Afghanistan that is largely controlled by the Taliban. The Hazaras had come to the district center of Khas Uruzguan, in a Pashtun area of Uruzgan province. Authorities did not confirm widespread reports that the men were beheaded, and there were conflicting reports on whether the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. The Taliban frequently execute those accused of spying for the government or coalition forces, but there may have been an ethnic-religious element to the attack; the Taliban carried out a campaign of genocide against the Shi'ite Hazaras during their years in power. (NYT, Central Asia Online, June 25)

President Alan García refused to sign an historic new law that would recognize Peru's international obligation to consult with indigenous peoples before proceeding with resource extraction projects that affect them. Despite broad appeal from the International Labor Organization of the United Nations, human rights groups and indigenous organizations, Garcia sent back the law to Congress with his objections just before the deadline late on June 21.

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.