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)

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, speaking to reporters from the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa where he has taken refuge Sept. 24, indicated that he has already opened channels of dialogue with the de facto regime. Meanwhile, security forces clashed with his supporters at several points around the capital, hurling tear gas, detaining over 100, and leaving two dead and another 100 injured by official count. Zelaya charged that at least 10 were killed over the past two days of protests, and that "there are death squads" operating in Honduras that the world doesn't know about.

International climate experts will gather in Lima this weekend to debate the impacts of global warming on the Andean region. Scientists from Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, the US and France will meet at the seat of the Andean Community for the First International Summit on Climate Change in the Andes. (RPP, Sept 21) There is little debate on whether climate change is real in Huaraz, a town high in Peru's Cordillera Occidental, where the impacts of global warming are already being felt—and threaten imminent catastrophe...

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has reportedly returned to his country, taking refuge inside the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, from where he called for dialogue and for resistance leaders to converge on the capital. "I cannot give details, but I'm here," Zelaya told Channel 36 TV by telephone announcing his arrival Sept. 21. De facto President Roberto Micheletti denied that Zelaya was back. Honduran authorities have threatened to arrest him if he returns.

Indigenous leaders in Peru's Amazon region of Madre de Dios Sept. 13 issued a joint statement rejecting a Hunt Oil contract on their traditional territories. Antonio Iviche, president of the Native Federation of the Río Madre de Dios (FENAMAD), warned that if Hunt Oil doesn't quit the territory within a week, indigenous communities will physically expel them. The statement was released following a meeting with Hunt representatives at FENAMAD's offices in the regional capital, Puerto Maldonado. Hunt is currently opening trails in preparation seismic exploration within the local indigenous reserve, while FENAMAD has gone to court seeking an injunction to halt the work. The controversy comes as dialogue between Peru's national government and Amazon indigenous leaders continues in Lima in the wake of a rainforest uprising that left several dead in June.