On July 27, the eve of Peru's Independence Day, much of the southern regions of Cusco, Puno, Madre de Dios and Apurímac were paralyzed by a paro, or general strike, to call a halt to the export of natural gas from the Camisea field in the rainforest of Cusco region. Called by peasant and indigenous groups organized in regional Defense Fronts, and supported by many local municipalities, it is the second general strike in as many months to halt traffic and business in Peru's Southern Macro-Region—and this time the strike has been declared open-ended. Violence was reported at various locales around Cusco region on the strike's opening day, as National Police used horses, clubs and tear gas to disperse protesters and clear roadblocks. Attacks were also reported on local residents who refused to observe the strike.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will evict some 300 squatter camps in a crackdown on Roma immigrants and "Travellers." People in the camps found to be living illegally in France will be expelled, Sarkozy said announcing the move. The order is a response to riots last week in which Travellers armed with hatchets and iron bars attacked the police station in the Loire Valley town of Saint Aignan. The riot erupted after a gendarme shot and killed a Traveller youth who had driven through a checkpoint. Sarkozy pledged that those responsible for the violence will be "severely punished." The announcement came in a meeting between Sarkozy and top law enforcement officials at the Elysee Palace. Groups representing Travellers and Roma were not invited.

Amid the thousands of pages of classified US military documents released July 25 by the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks are details of nearly 200 incidents that involve Task Force 373, an elite Special Forces unit tasked with hunting down and killing enemy combatants in Afghanistan. Documents indicate the unit has also been responsible for the deaths of numerous civilians, Afghan police officers, and, in one particularly bloody raid, seven children.

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Arizona on July 28 issued a preliminary injunction against several provisions of the controversial Arizona immigration law, set to take effect the next day. The injunction comes at the request of the US Department of Justice (DoJ), which filed suit challenging the constitutionality of the law earlier this month. Judge Susan Bolton rejected the DoJ's argument that the law should be enjoined in its entirety, finding that the individual provisions were severable.

Brazilian indigenous rainforest dwellers are occupying the site of the Dardanelos hydroelectric plant on the Aripuana River in Mato Grosso state, demanding that they be compensated for the damage caused to their lands by the dam, and an end to further destructive hydro development in the region. Around 300 Indians from eleven tribes, including about 50 from the Enawene Nawe people, arrived July 25 at the dam site, and more are continuing to join the occupation.

The government of Peru declared a state of emergency across 17 of the country's 25 regions as winter temperatures plunged to record lows over the weekend. At least 200 people have died in the worst cold spell in 46 years, with temperatures falling at night to well below freezing in highland areas. The most affected regions include Áncash, Apurímac, Arequipa, Cusco, Ayacucho, Huancavelica, Huánuco, Junín and Lima. (TeleSUR, BBC News, DPA, July 24) Extreme weather has resulted in social unrest over the past year in Peru, amid growing concerns about climate change in the Andes.

After three days of searching, Nuevo León state police on July 25 uncovered a total of 51 bodies from a clandestine narcofosa ("narco-grave") in a garbage dump in Benito Juárez municipality, outside Monterrey. There have been numerous such grisly findings in Mexico in recent months, but authorities say this was the biggest. Most of the bodies are of people age 20-30, and three are female. Some were some burned and mutilated. Police estimate they were buried within the past two weeks. Identification is pending forensic work.

The Colombian government is denying reports of a mass grave found in the Meta department on the eastern plains, charging that the allegation is a strategy to derail the Andean nation's free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU). A group of NGOs and activists headed by Sen. Piedad Córdoba reported last week that a grave containing 2,000 bodies had been found in the Meta municipality La Macarena, next to an army installation. The finding was corroborated by an international human rights commission led by six members of the European Parliament.