The United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued a formal recommendation Aug. 28 that the government of Peru open an "exhaustive, objective and impartial investigation, including indigenous represetatives" into the June 5 deadly violence that ensued when National Police troops broke up an indigenous road blockade at Devil's Curve in Amazonas region—a bloody episode that the Peruvian press has dubbed the "Baguazo." (24 Horas Libre, Lima, Aug. 29)

The closing festival of the Primer Encuentro de Culturas Andinas in the southern Colombian city of Pasto was suspended Aug. 27 "as a gesture of solidarity" following the massacre of 12 members of the Awá indigenous group in the region. The Encuentro brought together more than 1,000 representatives of indigenous peoples from seven Andean nations, as well as Mexico, Guatemala and the US.

On Aug. 22 a delegation from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR, or CIDH in Spanish), an agency of the Organization of American States (OAS), issued what it called "preliminary observations" on the human rights situation in Honduras since a June 28 coup removed president José Manuel Zelaya Rosales from office. The delegation, headed by Luz Patricia Mejía Guerrero, said that from its visit it had "confirmed the existence of a pattern of disproportionate use of public force, arbitrary detentions, and the control of information aimed at limiting political participation by a sector of the citizenry."

A series of wildcat strikes that shut down an industrial park on Port-au-Prince's northern outskirts for at least two days in early August continued into the week of Aug. 10 as thousands of Haitian workers, students and activists demonstrated for a law to increase the country's minimum wage from 70 gourdes ($1.74) a day to 200 gourdes ($4.97). President René Préval has blocked the 200 gourde increase, arguing it would hurt the country's maquiladora sector—the tax-exempt plants that assemble products chiefly for export—and cause the loss of thousands of jobs.

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)