Some 2,000 peasants and cocaleros from the Indigenous Council of the South (CONISUR) arrived in La Paz Jan. 31, after a 40-day march from Isinuta in the Chapare region of Cochabamba department, to demand that President Evo Morales move ahead with plans to build a highway through their lands on the edge of the Amazon rainforest. Morales put the project on hold last year after a larger cross-country march in opposition to it met with police repression. Several thousand supporters of Morales' Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) swelled the ranks of the CONISUR marchers as they passed through El Alto, the sprawling working-class city on the altiplano above La Paz. El Alto's MAS mayor, Édgar Patana, welcomed them as "illustrious guests" of the city before their final descent into La Paz. (NACLA News, Feb. 3; AFP, Cambio, La Paz, Jan. 31)

Opponents of the US-owned Conga mining project in Peru's northern Cajamarca region launched a cross-country National March for Water on Feb. 1, some 500 participants symbolically departing from Laguna Cortada, one of the high mountain lakes to be threatened by the proposed mine. The march hopes to arrive in Lima Feb. 10 in time to convene a National Forum on Hydraulic Justice. A hundreds-strong solidarity march was also held in Arequipa, capital of the southern region of that name which has been the scene of recent protests over mineral development. Organizers expect thousands to join the march on its way to Lima.

After two days of reviewing the draft proposal for regulations implementing Peru's new Law of Prior Consultation for Indigenous and Original Peoples, indigenous leaders from the Southern Macroregion announced that they rejected it as illegitimate Jan. 25. Meeting in the city of Cuzco, some 700 indigenous leaders from the regions of Tacna, Moquegua, Arequipa, Puno, Apurímac, Madre de Dios and Cuzco were joined by lawmakers Sergio Tejada and Verónica Mendoza and representatives of the indigenous affairs agency INDEPA. Participants concluded the proposed regulations did not meet standards for prior consultation established by Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO-169). A week later, a similar conclusion was announced at a meeting for the Northern Macroregion, held in the Amazonas region town of Bagua and bringing together indigenous leaders from Amazonas, Cajamarca and San Martín.

Survival International has released new close-up pictures of an "uncontacted" indigenous band in Peru, exactly a year after aerial photos of an "uncontacted" indigenous band in Brazil astonished the world. The new photographs taken in Peru's southeastern Madre de Dios region show a family believed to be from an "uncontacted" (or voluntarily isolated) band of the Mashco-Piro ethnicity. Uncontacted Mashco-Piro bands are known to inhabit Manú National Park, and sightings of them have increased in recent months. Many blame illegal logging in and around the park and low flying helicopters from nearby oil and gas projects, for forcibly displacing the bands from their forest homes. The Mashco-Piro are one of just some 100 "uncontacted" peoples in the world. The new photos are the most detailed images yet revealed of "uncontacted" indigenous peoples.

The number of civilians casualties in the Afghan conflict has risen for the fifth year in a row, according to the annual report of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which documents 3,021 civilian deaths in 2011 compared with 2,790 in 2010 and 2,412 in 2009. Most deaths were caused by insurgents, the report said, finding that improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were being used more widely and suicide attacks had become deadlier. However, it also said the civilian toll from air strikes in support of the Afghan government rose in 2011. The 2011 "Annual Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict" said a total of 11,864 civilian lives had been claimed by the conflict since 2007.

Indonesia opened the trial of five pro-independence activists on makar (treason) charges in the West Papua capital of Jayapura Jan. 31—amid protests from international human rights groups. The charges stem from the Oct. 19 incident in which security forces violently broke up a three-day Papuan People's Congress gathering in Jayapura, killing three and injuring some 90 more. Following the incident, eight police officers, including the Jayapura police chief, were given written warnings for committing a disciplinary infraction by not giving priority to the protection of civilians. No other action was taken against police or military personnel for possible misuse of force. But five of the activists—Forkorus Yaboisembut, Edison Waromi, August Makbrowen Senay, Dominikus Sorabut, and Selpius Bobii—were charged with treason under article 106 of the Indonesian Criminal Code and have been held in police detention since the October incident. Another Papuan, Gat Wenda, a member of the Penjaga Tanah Papua, or Pepta (Papua Land Guard), which provided security at the Congress, will be tried separately on charges of possessing a sharp weapon.

Iraq appeared to retreat from its political impasse Feb. 3, as the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc agreed to end its parliament boycott. The bloc's return to the cabinet depends on how Iraq's premier responds, fugitive vice president Tareq al-Hashemi told AFP. Hashemi, a Sunni, is accused of financing a death squad to target police, judges and officials. He has been hiding out in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region since December. (AFP, Feb. 3) Meanwhile, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay criticized Iraq for carrying out a large number of executions—including 34 on a single day last month. "Even if the most scrupulous fair trial standards were observed, this would be a terrifying number of executions to take place in a single day," Pillay said, referring to executions carried out on Jan. 19. "Given the lack of transparency in court proceedings, major concerns about due process and fairness of trials, and the very wide range of offences for which the death penalty can be imposed in Iraq, it is a truly shocking figure." At least 63 are believed to have been executed since mid-November in Iraq, where the death penalty can be imposed for some 48 crimes—including non-fatal offenses such as damage to public property. (Reuters, Jan. 24)

Some 20 gathered to protest Feb. 2 outside the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Manhattan's Central Park South, where the Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is said to be staying. Protesters decried Saleh's his trip to New York City for medical treatment, and a deal he received that granted him immunity from prosecution for repression during the uprising last year. The rally was organized by a group calling itself the Yemeni American Coalition for Change. "We are greatly dissatisfied that the US chose to side with a dictator,” said Summer Nasser, a member of the coalition. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Yemeni activist Tawakul Karman spoke to the group from Yemen via cellphone and an interpreter. She accused Saleh of orchestrating violence in Yemen while in New York, and concluded: "We call on the US to hold Saleh accountable and not to allow him to rule Yemen from the US." (NYT City Room blog, Feb. 2)