In an official report, Paraguay's Department of Indigenous Affairs (INDI) confirmed this week that an uncontacted tribe is living on lands in the northern Chaco region owned by a controversial ranching company. Signs of the isolated Ayoreo tribe have been found on lands of the Brazilian firm River Plate. The investigation shows clear signs of the presence of the so-called "hiding tribe"—detailing footprints, holes dug to capture tortoises, and broken branches. INDI warned that the tribe is being "forced to flee to other areas to avoid being discovered." The evidence will have consequences for cattle ranching companies River Plate and BBC SA, which have already been accused of putting the lives of the Ayoreo at risk. Satellite images from 2011 revealed their destruction of almost 4,000 hectares of forest inhabited by uncontacted bands, and led to the companies being charged with illegal deforestation.

After blocking roads for 13 days to demand more resources for Chile's isolated southern Aysén region, local citizens' groups opened up the Presidente Ibáñez Bridge in Puerto Aysén on Feb. 25. The move came one day after the Social Movement for the Aysén Region, the coalition of fishing people, unionists, cab drivers and students that has led the protests, presented the national government with a new list of demands, asking for a response over the weekend. Iván Fuentes, one of the movement's leaders, told Radio Cooperativa that the protesters opened the bridge"first of all [to provide] free access to the community, and most importantly, to give a signal to the government that just as we are vigorous in our mobilization, we're also rational people who can carry on a conversation." (AFP, Feb. 25, via La Nación, Paraguay)

An Argentine commuter train smashed into a barrier at Station 11 in the center of Buenos Aires on the morning of Feb. 22, killing 51 passengers and injuring 706. Failing brakes caused the crash, the train's operator told a judge. According to a source in the judicial system, Marcos Córdoba testified that the brakes had failed twice before the crowded train crashed, and that he had warned his supervisors."In each station I advised the traffic controller by radio that I had problems with the brakes," Córdoba said."From the other side they answered: 'Go on, go on, go on.'"

In response to a judicial order, on Feb. 16 supporters of open-pit mining at the Bajo de la Alumbrera gold and copper deposit in northwestern Argentina ended a roadblock they had set up in Andalgalá in Catamarca province. The mining supporters began their protest on Feb. 11 after the repression of similar roadblocks that local opponents of mining had set up in several towns and cities in Catamarca and neighboring Tucumán province. Provinicial authorities violently dispersed three of the anti-mining protests on Feb. 8 and Feb. 10, with dozens of protesters arrested or injured.

An Argentine trade union has instructed its members not to work on British ships or aircraft arriving in the country, as a show of support for the Buenos Aires government's claim of sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, known in Argentina as the Malvinas. In a statement reported in the Argentine press Feb. 14, the country's confederation of transport workers (CATT) said: "We have resolved to boycott any ship with the British flag, or with the lying and invented flag of the Falklands, or with any flag of convenience which the British pirates use. "The world should know that Argentinians are a peaceful people, with deep humanitarian feelings, but with a firm conviction to recover the usurped territory." Argentine newspapers reported that the move also extends to aircraft operated by UK firms.

Police in the northwestern Argentine province of Catamarca used tear gas and rubber bullets the morning of Feb. 10 to disperse some 100 local residents who were blocking a road near the town of Tinogasta to protest open-pit mining. "[B]etween 12 and 13 people went to the hospital with some type of contusion or wound," Catamarca governance secretary Francisco Gordillo reported, but he claimed that 11 anti-riot police were also wounded. The police operation was necessary, according to Gordillo, because trucks carrying explosives for a nearby mine were being held up on the highway, which he said represented "a danger for society."

Argentina on Feb. 12 agreed to accept UN mediation in an escalating dispute with Britain over the South Atlantic archipelago known to one nation as the Malvinas and to the other as the Falkland Islands. Buenos Aires and London have in recent days waged a fierce war of words over the sparsely populated islands, some 460 kilometers off of the Argentine coast—less than two months ahead of the anniversary of the brief 1982 Falklands War. The war cost 1,068 Argentine and 255 British lives, ending with Argentina failing to hold the islands but refusing to acknowledge British rule over them. The UK is contracting a Zimbabwean team to clear out mine fields left by the 74-day Argentine "occupation." Argentina now accuses Britain of provocatively sending warships to the archipelago—a move London says is a routine exercise. (Xinhua, Feb. 12; CNN, Feb. 9; The Falklands Conflict website)

On Feb. 1 the Montreal-based Osisko Mining Corporation announced that it and the government of the northwestern Argentine province of La Rioja would suspend exploration for a proposed gold mine at the Nevados de Famatina mountain as long as "there is no social license for exploration and development in the area." The announcement followed weeks of protests against the open-pit mining project by local residents, who selectively blocked access to the area for company employees and officials of the provincial government. Osisko and the provincial government said they were now preparing a "program of information and consultation with the community" to win local support, but assemblies formed by area residents have voted to continue the blockade. "[N]o mega-mining company or project has a social license in our territory," the assemblies declared. (Página 12, Argentina, Feb. 2)