July 4 will mark two weeks that the construction site of the planned Belo Monte dam in Brazil's Pará state has been under occupation by some 200 members of the Xikrin, Arara, Juruna, Parakana and other indigenous peoples, many armed with spears. Brazilian government officials and representatives of the utility Norte Energia are slated to meet with protestors on July 9, but occupiers pledge to stay on the site at least until then. According to a statement from the tribes, 17 indigenous villages from 13 ethnic groups are now represented at the occupation, which has slowed work at the site. The occupiers demand "that construction of the Belo Monte dam be stopped until Norte Energia and the government can adequately mitigate the disastrous impacts of the dam on local indigenous communities."

Three people were killed—including a youth of 17 years—when security forces fired on protesters July 3 in the town of Celendín, in Peru's northern region of Cajamarca. As hundreds of protesters marched through town, a group attacked the provincial government building, breaking windows.* A mixed force of some 500 soldiers and National Police troops attacked the group with tear-gas, and then opened fire. In addition to the three dead, some 20 were wounded. Authorities said five soldiers and two police were injured in the clash. Protest organizers, who oppose the planned Conga gold mine project, speculated that the attack on the government building was the work of agents provocateurs. Peru's Justice Minister Juan Jiménez announced that a state of emergency has been declared in the provinces of Celendín, Hualgayoc and Cajamarca, suspending basic civil rights. In an unusual move, the 16 detained were taken out of Cajamarca, to Chiclayo in Lambayeque region. (Celendín Libre, La Republica, RPP, Peru21, Peru.com, TeleSUR, Sociedad Política blog, La Mula via Terra.com, July 3)

More than 1,000 Haitians marched through downtown Port-au-Prince on June 25 to protest a plan to destroy homes they have built on hillsides overlooking the city. Haitian police and members of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) fired tear gas canisters to disperse the protesters when they tried to approach the National Palace; some protesters threw rocks at the police and at passing cars. This was the second demonstration on the issue in a week.

The US House of Representatives voted on June 28 to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for refusing to comply with a subpoena for documents relating to Operation Fast and Furious, a bungled program in which the Arizona office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) inadvertently let about 2,000 firearms pass into Mexico during 2009 and 2010. The ATF is an agency of the Justice Department, which the attorney general heads.

On July 1 Mexicans went to the polls to elect a new president, and all 128 senators and all 500 legislative deputies in the federal Congress. New governors were being voted on in six of the 31 states—Chiapas, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Morelos, Tabasco and Yucatán—while the Federal District (DF, Mexico City) was choosing a new head of government, the 66 DF Assembly members and the 16 delegates who represent the city's delegaciones (boroughs). Some 79 million Mexicans were eligible to vote. (La Jornada, Mexico, July 1)

Joined by mineworkers and other supporters, tens of thousands of Chilean students marched in Santiago on June 28 to protest the highly privatized educational system put in place during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The protesters say the government of rightwing president Sebastián Piñera is stalling in talks over their demand for free, high-quality education, a demand that triggered a seven-month student strike in 2011. Despite rain and cold weather, the march was the largest demonstration so far in the current school year, according to organizers, who estimated the crowd at 120,000. There were also protests in other cities, including Concepción, Copiapó, Valparaíso and Valdivia.

A group of US generals reportedly visited Paraguay for a meeting with legislators on June 22 to discuss the possibility of building a military base in the Chaco region, which borders on Bolivia in western Paraguay. The meeting coincided with the Congress's sudden impeachment the same day of left-leaning president Fernando Lugo, who at times has opposed a US military presence in the country. In 2009 Lugo cancelled maneuvers that the US Southern Command was planning to hold in Paraguay in 2010 as part of its "New Horizons" program.

Gunmen killed 17 people and wounded dozens in gun and grenade attacks on two churches in the Kenyan town of Garissa near the border with Somalia on July 1. Wearing balaclavas, the attackers killed two police posted outside churches following previous attacks before bursting inside to target worshippers as they held prayer services. Witnesses said bodies lay scattered on the floor inside the churches—one Roman Catholic, the other of the nondenominational Africa Inland Church. At least 40 were rushed to the hospital, several in a critical condition, the Kenyan Red Cross said. Three children are reported to be among the dead. Later, the Twitter site Al-Kataib, maintained by supporters of Somalia's Shabaab rebel movement, boasted of a "successful operation in Garissa." (NAU, July 1)