On Aug. 13 leaders of the Dominican Medical Guild (CMD) and the National Union of Nursing Services (UNASED) announced the suspension of a strike they started on July 29 over salaries. The unionists said the suspension was based on what they considered an agreement that Public Health Secretary Bautista Rojas Gómez would drop his efforts to remove seven health professionals—including Rufino Senén Caba Plasencia, president of the CMD's National District (Santo Domingo) branch—for alleged involvement in a violent incident during the strike. The job action was the latest development in an 18-month struggle around a demand for a monthly minimum wage of 58,400 pesos ($1,624) for medical professionals.

The heads of three major Canadian, Mexican and US labor federations responded to the Aug. 10 "Tres Amigos" summit—a meeting of Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, Mexican president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and US president Barack Obama in Mexico City—with a joint statement criticizing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a 15-year-old agreement on trade between the three countries. The statement was signed by Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) president Kenneth Georgetti; Francisco Hernández Juárez, president of the National Workers Union (UNT), Mexico's second-largest union federation; and John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, the largest US labor federation.

In comments published in the Chilean daily La Tercera, Peru's President Alan García accused his Bolivian counterpart of Evo Morales of an "under the table" deal with Chile over the coastline disputed by the three countries. Peru has a case against Chile pending before the World Court over the maritime boundary, and García charged Morales with taking the Chilean position in the dispute: "I imagne that Evo Morales has government-to-government accords with Chile, and this is why he is so respectful. I would say he is obsequious towards Chile... By the evidence, it seems that they have it. This is the only thing that explains why he has such a courteous attitude towards Santiago." (El Comercio, Lima, Aug. 24)

After consulting with some 300 apus (traditional chiefs) from Amazon communities, the Peruvian indigenous alliance AIDESEP announced Aug. 24 that it is putting off a decision to return to its paro (protest campaign) to give dialogue with the government more time. But AIDESEP spokesman Salomón Awanash warned the administration of President Alan García to take the talks more seriously. "We don't want advisors, but actors who can make decisions," he said. He also said that AIDESEP is demanding an independent "truth commission" to investigate the June 5 violence at Bagua, in Amazonas region, which has been dubbed the "Amazon's Tiananmen." (El Comercio, Lima, Aug. 24; Agencia Pulsar, Aug. 21)

According to a new report based on official government findings, "Estudio comparativo de la evolución de la coca y la cocaína en Perú y Colombia" by the specialists Jaime Antezana Rivera and Jaime García Díaz, in 2008 Colombia produced 430 (metric?) tons of cocaine compared to 302 in Peru. But Colombian authorities supposedly intercepted 198 tons compared to only 20 in Peru. This leaves Colombian trafickers free to export 232 tons and their Peruvian counterparts 282—leading the authors to conclude that Peru is now the world's top exporter of cocaine.

Prosecutors in Peru are seeking a 30-year prison term for Vladimiro Montesinos, former intelligence chief under autocratic president and convicted political criminal Alberto Fujimori. At a trial underway at a naval base in Callao where he is being held, special prosecutor for organized crime Ramiro Salinas named Montesinos as chief of a criminal network known as "Los Camellos" (the Camels) that exported massive quantities of cocaine from 1994 to 2000. Salinas charged that Montesinos protected the Camellos' operations in the Upper Huallaga Valley, a key coca cultivation zone. Montesinos is identified as the criminal boss who went by the aliases "El Fayed," "El Viejo," "El Doc," "Rubén," "El Hombre," and "El Mesías." The network is said to have directly coordinated with Mexico's Tijuana Cartel. Montesinos is also charged with protecting an auxiliary gang known as "Los Fantasmas" (the Phantoms). (Prensa Latina, Aug. 21)

Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, the wife of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, called Aug. 20 on followers to continue marching in support of her husband. "We will manage to defeat them, let's keep marching," she told local broadcaster Radio Globe. "We are very clear that history is allowing us to change our nation. We are fighting for real change that comes from the base of the people." (Xinhua, Aug. 21)

Deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, speaking to reporters on a visit to Lima, Peru, asserted that "Barack Obama is the president of the United States, but not the chief of the empire... To be chief of the empire, Obama has to put in order the CIA and the Pentagon, which behind his back are undertaking processes of destabilization of our peoples."