On Jan. 18, Salvadorans went to the polls to elect 262 mayors, one for every municipality in the country, as well as 84 deputies in the national assembly. After a tense day of voting and claims of violence and intimidation, both the leftist FMLN and the right-wing ARENA celebrated victories—the FMLN winning the most seats in the legislative assembly and ARENA taking the government of the capital San Salvador. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal has yet to verify the results.

Two police officers were killed and four were seriously injured while evicting hundreds of peasant families from Bosque de Pómac nature preserve in northern Peru's Lambayeque region Jan. 20. Authorities said the peasants had been illegally occupying the reserve for more than a year, but advocates for the evicted families said many had been fraudulently been sold lands within the reserve and believed that they held legal title.

On Jan. 20, nation-wide protests over large-scale metal mining called by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) brought out some 12,000 people from indigenous, campesino, environmentalist and human rights organizations across eleven provinces of the small Andean nation. Although large-scale metal exploration has been ongoing since the early '90s, no project has yet reached production. Mining activities are currently suspended until a new law is passed.

With a short memo on Inauguration Day, President Barack Obama blocked plans to loosen some air quality standards and to remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list. But he did not stop several other controversial, late-term environmental regulations issued by the Bush administration, including a weakening of the Endangered Species Act, a first step in opening Western lands to oil shale development, leases for oil and gas drilling near some national parks, and the start of a process to allow new oil rigs off the Atlantic, Gulf, Alaska and California coasts. (LAT, Jan. 22)

In his first call to a foreign leader, President Barack Obama spoke to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on the phone Jan. 21, saying he wants to work "as partners to establish a durable peace in the region," according to an Abbas aid. He shortly followed the call up with one to and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Israel is currently withdrawing the last of its troops from the Gaza Strip, but prevented Abbas' administration from transferring $80 million to Gaza to pay Palestinian Authority workers there. Israel told the UN and other aid agencies they must apply for project-by-project Israeli approval and provide guarantees none of the work will benefit Hamas. (Bloomberg, Reuters, Jan. 21)

Hours after taking the oath of office, President Barack Obama called for a halt to the Guantánamo tribunals, directing military prosecutors to seek a 120-day "continuance" (legalese for postponement) in proceedings underway at the prison camp against five accused 9-11 co-conspirators, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Four employees of Minera Afrodita and two people who were traveling with them in the Peruvian Amazon were held hostage for a sixth day on Jan. 20, by protesters angry over mining development. The group, which includes two administrative workers, two security guards, their boat captain and his helper, was seized last week in the remote community of Huampami, Cenepa district, Condorcanqui/Bagua province, Amazonas department. The company said its workers were there to invite local leaders to a meeting to talk about mining projects.

Peruvian agricultural producers ended three days of mobilizations on Jan. 17 after Enrique Málaga, president of the National Users Council of the Irrigation Districts of Peru (JNUDRP), met with Prime Minister Yehude Simón and Agriculture Minister Carlos Leyton. "The strike has been suspended in consideration of our having reached an agreement for approval of the General Law of Water, which we were demanding," Málaga told the media. "This law is going to be promulgated next week." Málaga indicated that the agreement also included the formation of a commission for the solution of small agricultural producers' debt problems. (24 Horas Libre, Peru, Jan. 17; Univision, Jan. 17 from AFP)