After years of waiting—during which they suffered from violent attacks and the degradation of their ancestral lands—the Ingaricó, Macuxi, Patamona, Taurepang and Wapichana indigenous peoples of Raposa-Serra do Sol in Brazil's Roraima state have received a favorable decision by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). During its last session at the end of October, the IACHR issued an admissibility decision in their case against the government of Brazil. The decision signaled that the government's treatment of indigenous peoples in Raposa may constitute a violation of their human rights. The IACHR is next set to issue a formal judgment on the matter.

As oil companies with pending contracts in the Peruvian Amazon continue to deny the existence of indigenous "peoples in isolation" in remote forest areas, new evidence has emerged. In November, Peru's National Institute of Development of Andean, Amazonian and Afro-Peruvians (INDEPA) released video footage of a newly "discovered" tribe in the Kugapakori Nahua Nanti reserve (Upper Camisea River, Cuzco region).

A decade after the end of Peru's 1980-2000 counterinsurgency war was officially declared, the army broke its silence, to give its own version of events. The report, "In Honor of the Truth," based on officers' field dispatches, contradicts the findings of the official Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR) that nearly 70,000, mainly indigenous peasants, were killed or forcibly disappeared in the war against the Shining Path guerillas.

Writers, academics and indigenous groups in Argentina are lobbying for Julio Argentino Roca, an army general who served as president from 1880-86 and 1898-1904, to be recognized as a political criminal who exterminated indigenous peoples and doled out their lands to cronies. In recent weeks, two cities—Santa Cruz and Tucumán—have renamed Julio Argentino Roca avenues after Néstor Kirchner, the former president who died in October. Other initiativess call for removing Roca from the 100-peso note and replacing his statue in Buenos Aires with a bronze figure of an indigenous woman. A leading writer and historian, Osvaldo Bayer, said he felt ashamed every time he passed Roca's statue.

Chilean police evicted indigenous Rapa Nui protesters who had occupied the central plaza and a luxury hotel in Hanga Roa, capital of Easter Island, over the new year. At least 17 Rapa Nui are facing charges from the occupation and were ordered to appear in court this week. The occupation was launched to press ancestral land claims over 16 sites on the island. The eviction order came from Mayor Raul Celis of Valparaiso, Chile, which has jurisdiction over Easter Island despite being more than 2,000 miles away. (Radio New Zealand International, Jan. 13; UPI, Jan. 4)

A March 2009 US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks reports that Peru's new military head was involved in narco-corruption, a charge that the general adamantly denies. The document, written by then-Ambassador Michael McKinley, stated that an unnamed source "saw signs that officers may have continued to cooperate with drug traffickers." The document referenced a 2007 meeting between Peruvian Gen. Paul da Silva and a local fishing industry boss, Rolando Eugenio Velasco Heysen, where the two allegedly discussed drug shipments. In October 2007, Velasco was arrested on charges that he attempted to export 840 kilograms of cocaine hidden in frozen fish.

Bolivia's state energy company YPFB last month awarded Argentina's Astra Evangelista SA a $160 million contract to build a natural gas processing plant at in Rio Grande in the eastern province of Santa Cruz. The plant, due to come online in 2012, will process will producing 380 metric tons of liquefied petroleum gas and 600 barrels of gasoline per day, mostly for export to Brazil. The original plan called for the plant to be built in 2009, but the project was stalled after a corruption scandal that led to the dismissal and subsequent jailing of YPFB chief Santos Ramírez.

Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is interrogating 12 foreign oil firm executives over bribes worth more than $100 million. Executives from US oil services firms Tidewater, Transocean and Noble Corporation are being held. The panel accuses them and executives of Lagos-based Murphy Shipping of offering bribes to Nigerian officials. Last month, Nigeria dropped charges against Houston-based oil services giant Halliburton and executives—including former US vice president Dick Cheney—after a $35 million settlement. (Bloomberg, Jan. 13)