The North Cauca Association of Indigenous Councils (ACIN) in Colombia's Cauca department has implemented its own re-immersion program for demobilized guerillas, helping them through the interview process required by the government and assisting them in finding homes and employment.

A Peruvian appeals court announced on Jan. 24 it had rejected the government's petition to overturn a lower court's decision to grant parole to Lori Berenson, a US citizen held since 1995 for collaboration with a Marxist rebel organization. According to Berenson and her lawyer, the ruling was final and cannot be appealed, representing a major setback to the government's efforts to return her to prison. Berenson's release last year sparked angry reaction in Peru, where she is widely remembered for her tirades in court during her televised trials in 1995. Berenson is obliged to stay in Lima for the remaining five years of her 20-year prison sentence, unless her sentence is commuted by President Alan García. If her sentence is commuted, Berenson would be deported immediately, allowing her to return to her native New York.

On Jan. 26, coca growers and their supporters gathered in cities across Bolivia to hold peaceful demonstrations in support of their government's proposed amendment to the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. The amendment seeks to decriminalize the traditional practice of coca leaf chewing. Coca growers' federations from the Chapare region gathered in Cochabamba's main plaza to collectively chew coca, distribute information, offer free samples of coca leaves, and show their solidarity with the Bolivian government's legalization proposal. (Andean Information Network, Jan. 26)

The state agency PeruPetro has given the consortium that operates Peru's massive natural gas field at Camisea has until March 30 to negotiate a deal on export royalties, with talks deadlocked. The controversy comes as presidential candidate Alejandro Toledo has made a key platform plank of his demands that extractive industries contribute more of their revenue to support social development programs. (Reuters, Jan. 28; Bloomberg, Jan. 27)

A new study in the journal Science shows that the Amazon suffered a serious drought last year—making for two severe droughts in the world's biggest rainforest within five years, and raising disturbing implications for global climate. While the Amazon normally absorbs huge amounts of CO2, droughts cause the reverse effect—with the forests releasing emissions as dead trees decay. Emissions from last year's drought may exceed the 5 billion tons of CO2 that the last drought in 2005 is believed to have released. This is roughly equal to the annual emissions of the United States.

Brazil's National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI) has released new photographs of an isolated tribe living in a remote rainforest region of Acre state near the Peruvian border. FUNAI has been monitoring "uncontacted" tribes—those with only limited dealings with the outside world—from the air in recent years. Photographs of what is believed to be the same tribe were released to the world two years ago. Campaigners say the tribe, believed to be part of the Panoan indigenous group, are threatened by a rise in illegal logging on the Peruvian side of the border.

Brazil's environmental agency, IBAMA, has issued a "partial" installation license for the Belo Monte dam, to be built on the Xingu River in the Amazon. The license allows the initial stages of construction, including the clearing of vast areas of forest, to commence, despite the numerous human rights and environmental violations this involves, and huge opposition from the local population.

Palestinians demonstrating in support of Egyptian anti-government protesters were forcibly disbanded when a few dozen men in plainclothes disrupted the rally in Ramallah Feb. 5. Several hundred protesters carrying the Egyptian and Tunisian flags and chanting "The people want to bring down the regime" were set upon by a gang of men chanting "The people want Mahmoud Abbas!" The two groups clashed before the protesters were dispersed. (CNN, Feb. 5)