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."

Peruvian lawmaker and ex-interior minister Mercedes Cabanillas of the ruling Aprista Party, with the support of current Prime Minister Javier Velásquez, is proposing legislation that would authorize the National Police to use deadly force against civilians if they believe a violent confrontation is imminent. Opponents of the measure say it would give police broad discretion to fire on protesters—just as indigenous groups in the Amazon are preparing a new mobilization in defense of their land rights.

A bill introduced in Peru's congress to ammend the law on the "Right to Rectification for People Affected by Insulting or Inexact Information in the Mass Media" would be a threat to the freedom of press, especially for small and independent outlets, say journalists and other media professionals. Congressman Victor Andres Garcia Belaunde said "this is a way to threaten the owners of the companies running the media, a subtle way to tell them 'don't let John Doe say this because you may end up having civil responsibility.'" ("no contrastes a fulano porque lo que digan podrá hacerte civilmente responsable")

Supposedly temporary restrictions on freedom of expression in the run-up to Afghanistan's presidential vote are drawing protests from the country's press. Media outlets are standing firm against a government call not to broadcast reports of violence on election day, charging that it violates their constitutional rights. Fahim Dashti, the editor of the English-language Kabul Weekly newspaper, told Associated Press that the demand was "a violation of media law" and a constitution that officially protects freedom of speech. Kabul fears that voters will be scared away from polling booths by the reports.

Jaime Mendoza Collío, a 24-year-old Mapuche activist, was shot by the police while taking part in an occupation of land claimed as indigenous territory Aug. 12 at Angol in the southern Chilean region of Araucanía. His slaying marks the third indigenous activist killed since the restoration of democracy in 1990, when the Mapuche launched a strategy of land occupations aimed at recovering their ancestral territory.