Nearly 30 heads of state attended the Second Africa-South America Summit, a Sept. 26-27 meeting of representatives of 61 nations on Isla Margarita, Venezuela, intended to increase trade and economic development cooperation between the two regions. The first summit was held in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, in November 2006. "North-North and North-South summits have been held," Venezuelan Deputy Foreign Minister for Africa, Reinaldo Bolívar, told the Inter Press Service (IPS), "but apart from the Summits of South American-Arab Countries in 2005 and 2009, the Africa-South America meetings are the only South-South summits taking place in the world."

Spanish police arrested former Argentine military pilot Juan Alberto Poch on Sept. 21 in Valencia on charges by Argentine courts that he flew some of the "death flights" in which as many as 1,000 opponents of Argentina's 1976-1983 military dictatorship were thrown from planes into the Atlantic while drugged. When he was arrested, Poch, a dual national of Argentina and the Netherlands, was working as a pilot for Transavia, a low-cost airline owned by KLM and Air France. He was arrested while at the controls of a plane in Manises airport, about to fly a holiday group from Valencia to Amsterdam. Spanish police said Poch is named in four separate investigations in Argentina; he will face an extradition tribunal to determine whether he will be sent to Argentina. (The Guardian, UK, Sept. 23)

On Sept. 23 Chevron Corp., the second-largest US oil company, announced that it had asked the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague to shift responsibility to Ecuador for paying any money that Amazon Basin residents might win in a lawsuit over environmental damage from oil operations. The suit, brought by indigenous Ecuadorians 16 years ago, could result in an award of $27 billion. If Chevron wins in the arbitration court, Ecuador will have to pay the damages, according to Barry Appleton, an attorney who has represented companies in similar cases. "Judgments from this panel are enforceable around the world," he said.

During a meeting in Brasilia on Sept. 17, Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim and US commerce representative Ronald Kirk ratified a plan to allow Brazilian companies operating in Haiti to export products to the US without paying customs fees. This would be done through an extension of two US trade acts ostensibly aiding Haitian industries: the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity Through Partnership Encouragement (HOPE) Act of 2006 and the HOPE 2 Act of 2008. Amorim told the Chinese news agency Xinhua that the initiative's goal is humanitarian, "to aid Haiti's economic development through sustainable production activity," although he noted that it would also benefit Brazilian and US companies.

As of the morning of Sept. 28, a 45-day state of siege decreed by the de facto Honduran government was in effect, allowing the authorities to suspend rights of free speech and assembly; police agents and soldiers had already closed the Radio Globo radio station and the Channel 36 television station under the decree. The state of siege followed a week of increasing tensions after president José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, deposed by a June 28 military coup, secretly returned to the country on Sept. 21 and established his headquarters in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. (Americas MexBlog, Sept. 28)

Honduras' de facto government backed off Sept. 28 from an emergency decree that barred protests and limited free speech after congressional leaders warned that they would not support the measure. The turn-around came just hours after soldiers raided the offices of Radio Globo, seizing equipment, and shut down Channel 36 TV, leaving it broadcasting only a test pattern. Regime spokesman Rene Zepeda said the outlets had been taken off the air in accordance with an emergency decree announced late the previous day that allowed authorities to close news media that "attack peace and public order."

Indigenous people and coca-growers clashed over control of land in a national park in northern Bolivia Sept. 27, leaving one dead. Indigenous groups that have land rights in the remote Isiboro National Park, Beni department, have long complained that hundreds of coca-growers have been clearing forests inside their territory. "As a result of the clashes between Yuracare Indians [and] the illegal settlers that are illegally growing coca in their territory, a person was killed, presumably an Indian, and three more were injured," deputy interior minister Marcos Farfan was reported as saying by state news agency ABI. (Reuters, Sept. 27)

An officer of Peru's National Police was killed Sept. 22 as protesting metal workers clashed with security forces at La Oroya in Junin region. Several miners were also injured, and one later died in the hospital after breathing tear gas. The workers were blocking roads to demand more time for the local smelter to comply with a clean-up plan (known as the Environmental Adjustment and Management Program, or PAMA). Doe Run Peru, owned by the US-based Renco Group, stopped production at the smelter in June, after banks cut off credit. The company says an extension of the PAMA deadline, set to run out next month, is critical to getting enough international credit to resume operations. Almost 20,000 jobs are at stake in La Oroya, considered to be one of the most polluted towns in the world. Peru's Congress voted to give the company a 30-month extension in the wake of the violence. (RPP, Reuters, Sept. 24; RPP, Sept. 22; Red, Green and Blue, Sept. 5)