Ecuador signed a deal to export some 3 million barrels of crude oil to China through the Petrochina company, with the Andean country to receive $1 billion as an advance payment, the statal Petroecuador announced July 23. The first payment represents 28% of the total value of the oil that Ecuador has agreed to export. Ecuador produced over 485,000 barrels of crude oil per day in May. Quito is also negotiating a $1 billion loan with China, economic minister Diego Borja said earlier this week. (Reuters, July 23)

Peru has given the green light to an Anglo-French company to drill for oil in the Amazon—in the immediate wake of a wave of unrest over government develop plans in the region, in which at least 30 were killed. The Ministry of Energy and Mines announced late last month it has approved the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) submitted by Perenco for the construction of seven platforms and drilling of 14 wells in Block 67. Perenco estimates that Block 67 reserve potential is 300 million barrels of heavy crude—believed to be Peru's biggest oil discovery in 30 years. Block 67 covers the "vacated" community of Buena Vista, in the district of Napo, Maynas province, Loreto region. While protests against the company were taking place last month, Perenco's chairman, Francois Perrodo, met Peru's President Alan García in Lima and pledged to invest $2 billion in the project.

The UK-based advocacy group Survival International has published an eyewitness account of the killings in the Peruvian Amazon that caused shockwaves around the world. The report contains dramatic photos by two Belgians, Marijke Deleu and Thomas Quirynen, who were caught up in the June 5 police attack on the roadblock in Bagua province and were themselves shot at.

Indigenous groups in Peru have called off protests after two controversial laws, decreed by President Alan García to implement a free trade agreement with the US, were revoked by the country's Congress in an 82-12 vote late June 18. "This is an historic day for indigenous people because it shows that our demands and our battles were just," said Daysi Zapata, vice president of AIDESEP, the Amazonian indigenous alliance that led the protests.

Peru recalled its ambassador to June 16 after President Evo Morales described the recent killings of indigenous protesters in the Peruvian Amazon as "genocide." Ambassador Fernando Rojas said Morales' comments were a "totally false assessment." Peruvian Foreign Minister José García Belaunde said the measure was "a redress manifestation for the continued intromissions of the Bolivian government on internal issues of the country." He added that he considered Morales an "enemy of Peru."

Senior figures in Peru are threatening a clamp-down on both Peruvian and foreign NGOs in the wake of the violent protests which have erupted in the country's Amazon region. The Congressional Foreign Relations Committee is examining a proposal to restrict the funding of Peruvian NGOs by outside agencies. Many indigenous organizations have for decades received financial support from Western funding agencies.

Peru's Prime Minister Yehude Simon said June 16 he plans to resign in the coming weeks, as President Alan García's government faces harsh criticism over its handling of protests by indigenous groups in the Amazon region. Simon, a former left-wing activist, joined the cabinet last October in an effort by García to improve relations with Peru's poor. A day earlier, Simon announced that he had reached a deal with the protesters in which he would ask Congress to repeal the controversial decrees that would speed development in the Amazon. (NYT, June 16)

On June 3 the Brazilian Senate approved a bill regulating government transfers of land in the Amazon region. The bill—Conversion Bill 09 (PLV 09/2009, originally MP 458/09)—was passed by the Chamber of Deputies in May and awaits the signature of President Luis Inácio "Lula" da Silva. The Catholic Church's Pastoral Commission on Land (CPT), Greenpeace, WWF-Brasil (the Brazilian affiliate of the World Wildlife Fund) and other groups say some articles in the measure will enable companies and individuals to keep lands they seized illegally. The law "especially benefits people who should be on trial for usurping areas covered by the agrarian reform," according to Greenpeace. The groups are urging people to call on Lula (phone +61-3411.1200, +61-3411.1201 or email at https://sistema.planalto.gov.br/falepr2/index.php) to veto the articles. (Adital, June 12)