The southern Bolivian city of Potosí has been paralyzed by strikes and protests for over a week, with roads blocked, businesses closed and the airport under occupation. All flights are suspended, and some 100 foreign tourists trapped. Among other concerns, protesters are demanding construction of a new airport, a metal smelter and a cement factory; and recognition of the disputed community of Coroma, now within the jurisdiction of the neighboring department of Oruro, as part of Potosí department.

Bolivia's government announced Aug. 5 it has started a program of military training for civilians at army barracks in the east of the country—a stronghold of the right-wing opposition. Army officials said the program will extend to all the country's military bases. Questions about the training program arose after a TV station broadcast images of young men armed with rifles taking target practice at a base in the regional capital of Santa Cruz. Also shown in the video were young indigenous women in traditional billowing skirts and bowler hats doing calisthenics.

In a deal signed in Quito Aug. 3, the government of Ecuador and the UN Development Programme agreed to establish a trust fund to protect Yasuni National Park from oil development in exchange for payments in compensation for foregone revenue. Proponents say the accord will prevent the discharge into the atmosphere of more than 400 million tons of carbon dioxide that would have resulted from burning oil from the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) fields in the area.

Community activist and hip-hop artist Marcelo Pimienta Sánchez AKA "MC Chelo," 23, was shot dead by unknown assailants Aug. 6 near his home in the conflicted Comuna 13 district of Medellín, Colombia. The father of a two-year-old boy, Chelo was a member of the group Hip-Hop Eskalones, and a recognized leader in social and cultural activities aimed at ending the endemic violence in the district, home to several armed factions. Chelo was the third member of the community group Red Cultural Elite Hip Hop to be killed in recent months. Andrés Felipe Medina was shot dead in Comuna 13 last month, and the artist known as"Colacho" was killed near the district nearly a year ago. (Red Juvenil, Boletín Alcaldía de Medellín, Aug. 6)

The long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) lost its hold on power in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca in gubernatorial elections last month, but the PRI's local apparatus of control may only be hardening—especially in the state's conflicted Mixtec region, where paramilitary groups terrorize peasant communities that have broken with the political machine.

Slovak police intervened Aug. 7 against a march by the far-right Our Slovakia People's Party (LSNS) in front of the castle in Bratislava. Ten were arrested, including Marián Kotleba, leader of the Slovak Brotherhood, an allied right-wing organization. Authorities allowed the event to take place, but police blocked protesters when they tried to march to the statue of Prince Svatopluk on the castle grounds. Local media reported that one detainee's head was bloodied.

Hundreds of Taiwanese indigenous villagers protested Aug. 7 against the government's resettlement plans ahead of the one-year anniversary of the disastrous Typhoon Morakot. "Guard the homeland" and "oppose forced resettlement," shouted protesters from central and southern Taiwan, as they gathered in Ketagalan Square near the presidential office in Taipei. Some 1,000 villagers camped in the square to press President Ma Ying-jeou hear their demands. "We are forced to move out of our lands and this will destroy our tribes and cultures," said organizer Omi Wiling of the Indigenous Peoples Action Coalition of Taiwan (IPACT). "We want to have a say in the resettlement process. The government neither understands nor respects our way of life."

The paramilitary Rapid Action Force is still patrolling Srinagar even as a curfew has been lifted elsewhere in Indian-controlled Kashmir after days of deadly riots across the territory finally subsided Aug. 6. The death toll of civilians since the new unrest began June 11 now stands at 50. Meanwhile, the disastrous floods that have devastated much of Pakistan hit Kashmir, with at least 130 killed, hundreds more injured, and rescue efforts ongoing. (VOA, Hindustan Times, Aug. 7; Hindustan Times, Aug. 6)