On May 24, the Federation of Ayllus of North Potosí announced that they will march on La Paz to demand the release of Cancio Rojas, the mallku (traditional chieftain) of Sacaca village (Ibañez province, Potosí department), who was arrested on charges related to angry protests over the local operations of the Mallku Khota Mining Company (CMMK), owned by Canada-based South American Silver. Village authorities say several residents were injured in a clash with National Police and private security personnel the previous day in the nearby municipality of Acasio (Bilbao province), where protesters attempted to occupy the mining camp. (See map.) CMMK—which hopes to exploit deposits of the rare element indium, used in semiconductors—says its own personnel were held against their will by the protesters. Rojas is being held in Santo Domingo de Cantumarca prison in Potosí, the regional capital. In a statement from his prison cell, Rojas charged, "They want to decapitate the indigenous movement to appropriate the water of the territory of Mallku Khota, this is the clear intention of the company, and they are extending strong influences" on the local officials.

The struggle against the planned Conga gold mine in Peru's northern region of Cajamarca continues to gain ground, with formation of a "Unitary Struggle Command for the Northern Macroregion and Oriente," coordinating popular movements in adjoining regions. A general strike throughout the Northern Macroregion (comprising the regions of Cajamarca, La Libertad, Lambayeque, Piura, Tumbes and Amazonas) and possibly beyond has been called for May 31. Local struggles are joining their demands to those of the mine opponents in Cajamarca. Farmers in the irrigation district (Usuarios de Riego) of the Valle Chancay in Lambayeque who oppose water-diversion projects that would benefit agribusiness have pledged their support for the strike, as have the rondas campesinas (peasant self-defense patrols) in Ayavaca, Piura region, who oppose the local operations of Río Blanco Copper.

A state of emergency has been declared in Espinar province of Peru's Cuzco region after a confrontation with National Police on May 29 left two campesinos dead amid an indefinite paro (civil strike), called to protest pollution caused by the mining operations of Xstrata Tintaya, local subsidiary of the Anglo-Swiss company Xstrata PLC. After protesters blocked roads with tree-trunks, police opened fire, killing two. Authorities say several police were also hurt. The state of emergency declared by Prime Minister Oscar Valdés suspends civil liberties for at least 30 days.

Lake Cachet II in southern Chile's Aysén region vanished in less than 24 hours last week, leaving behind just some large puddles and chunks of ice. Lake Cachet II's 200 million cubic liters of water gushed out into the Río Baker, tripling its volume and emptying the five-square-kilometer lake bed. (See map.) The lake is usually held behind a natural glacier dam, but rising temperatures weakened the ice. This was actually the 11th time that the lake has drained since 2008, leaving downstream residents terrified of sudden deluges. Lago Témpanos in Magallanes region of far southern Chile drained in a similar fashion in May 2007. "Climate models predict that as temperatures rise, this phenomenon, known as GLOFs [glacial lake outburst floods], will become more frequent," said glaciologist Gino Casassa from Chile's Center for Scientific Studies (CES). The GLOF phenomenon has also been reported in recent years in the Himalayas, and in Iceland due to volcanic activities, Casassa said. (The Watchers, May 23; AFP, May 22; El Mundo, Spain, May 7, 2007)

Indigenous Miskito residents of Ahuas village on the remote Caribbean coast of Honduras are demanding justice in the wake of a deadly raid by Honduran National Police and DEA agents May 11—with details still emerging on the scope of the violence. Villagers report that machine-gun fire from two helicopters lasted 15 minutes near the man village pier, adding to initial accounts of four killed in a combined air and ground assault on a canoa or pipante (dugout canoe) on the Río Patuca. As residents cowered in their homes, the two choppers—marked with the US flag, villagers say—next landed and disgorged some 50 heavily armed and uniformed men, who then proceeded to break down the doors of local homes. Residents were menaced at gunpoint and threatened with death to demand information about one "El Renco," as their modest homes were ransacked. Residents say English-speaking "gringos"—presumably, DEA agents—took part in the raids and rough interrogations, which lasted up to two hours.

In the seventh YouTube edition of the Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade, World War 4 Report editor Bill Weinberg, just returned from Peru where he was on assignment for The Progressive, speaks at the Libertarian Book Club's Anarchist Forum on the Quechua indigenous struggle against US-backed mining projects and in defense of land, water and autonomy in the Andes.

It is bitterly disappointing, but there is a sense of the inevitable to it. When the Tuareg rebels of the MNLA first claimed to have seized northern Mali and declared the independent state of Azawad last month, they trumpeted their commitment to secularism and dismissed the Islamist factions that had evidently taken power in Timbuktu and elsewhere in the territory as insignificant "groupsicles" that they would shortly crush. Now, just a few weeks later, the MNLA announces that it is merging with the most significant of these factions, Ansar Dine. The marriage of convenience is an obvious one. The MNLA, despite its boasting, was not able to crush the Islamists and is adhering to the old adage "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." They have betrayed their supposed commitment to secularism in order to achieve their more fundamental aim of an independent Azawad. Ansar Dine, in turn, have sacrificed their loyalty to a unified Mali (which probably never meant much to them anyway) in order to achieve their more fundamental aim of an Islamic state.

Following last week's indecisive elections, the Muslim Brotherhood is urging Egyptians to support its presidential candidate Mohammed Mursi in next month's seemingly inevitable run-off with Ahmed Shafiq, the ex-air force chief who was Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister. The Brotherhood is deriding Shafiq and his supporters as "feloul"—a scornful Arabic term for "remnants" of Mubarak's order. (Middle East Online, May 26; Egyptian Gazette, May 25) The Brotherhood's own website Ikhwanweb.com sports a headline reading "Muslim Brotherhood, Freedom and Justice Party: We Seek National Unity to Save Revolution," calling on "all patriotic parties and political players to join hands and face up to [presumably meaning 'stand up to'] the heinous coup of reactionary Mubarak-era leftovers." But Egypt's secular progressives are no more heartened by the Brotherhood than the "feloul." Ahmed Khairy of the liberal Free Egyptians Party called the likely runoff "the worst-case scenario," describing Mursi as an "Islamic fascist" and Shafiq as a "military fascist." (Ahram Online, May 25)