Peruvian journalist Walter Chávez, widely named in the press as a key campaign advisor to Bolivian president Evo Morales, was arrested in Argentina March 16, and may face extradition to Peru, where he faces charges of having served as an operative of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), a now-defunct guerilla group. Chávez was granted political asylum in Bolivia in 1992, and worked on Morales' campaigns between his election in 2005 and his most recent re-election in 2014. Bolivia refused a Peruvian extradition request in 2007. Chávez was arrested in Argentina's northern city of Salta, apparently having crossed the border some three weeks earlier. (Peru.com, March 17; InfoBae, Argentina, Eju!, Bolivia, March 16) In response to the controversy, Bolivia's cabinet chief Carlos Romero denied that Walter Chávez had ever been an official advisor, saying he did not work out of the presidential palace but "particiapted voluntarily" in Morales' campaigns. (Terra, March 17)

Argentine lawyer and federal prosecutor Alberto Nisman was the victim of murder according to Criminal Appeals Court Prosecutor Ricardo Sáenz in a Feb. 25 decision. The declaration is the first time a judicial authority has suggested the death as a homicide since the mysterious tragedy in January 2015. Sáenz recommended that the case be handed to federal authorities and investigated as a murder. The prosecutor wrote that he agreed with the assassination theory that Nisman's family presented in a complaint to the appeals court in Buenos Aires and that all the evidence points to Nisman's death as a murder, not a suicide. Judge and Nisman's former wife, Sandra Arroyo Salgado, also maintains that the case be handed over to federal authorities in order to fulfill their role as the country's institution for investigating the suspicious death of a public servant. The court will evaluate Sáenz's findings on March 18.

Riot police fired rubber bullets and tear-gas at protesting public-sector workers recently laid off by budget cuts in Argentina's La Plata municipality on Jan. 8, with several left wounded. The workers were protesting a decision by local mayor Julio Garro that canceled 4,500 contracts on Dec. 31. The country's new right-wing President Mauricio Macri's administration has laid off 10,000 public-sector workers since the beginning of 2016. In his one month since taking office, he has signed 29 Necessity and Urgency Decrees (DNUs) intended to institute structural reform and reverse the legacy of his center-left predecssor  Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. The mass lay offs have affected workers throughout Argentina and more are expected. (La Nación, TeleSur, Revolution News, Jan. 8; Perfil, Jan. 3)

Residents in the northern Argentine town of Famatina celebrated a major victory Nov. 4 after the governor-elect (and current vice-governor) of La Rioja province, Sergio Casas, announced that the Midais mining company's planned gold project in the area would be cancelled. This decision comes weeks after a peaceful protest against the project was met with police repression. Residents fear the project would contaminate the waters of the local Río Blanco. This is the fourth time that Famatina residents have thwarted mining efforts in the province of La Rioja, having successfully defeated advances by major international companies Barrick Gold, Osisko, and Shandong Gold over the past 10 years. Vice-Governor Casas cautiously commented: "The company will go despite its activities not having caused contamination, but we look for a necessary consensus among residents." (Argentina Independent, Nov. 4)

Residents of San Juan Jáchal, in Argentina's northwestern province of San Juan, are mobilizing in the wake of last month's cyanide spill at Barrick Gold's Veladero mine, under the slogan of "A Spring without Barrick or Cyanide." In the first protest roadblock the province has seen, demonstrators on Oct. 22 took over an access road leading to the mine, with a banner reading "HELP! BARRICK KILLED THE HOPES OF THE FARMERS!" The blockade was broken up that night by federal police troops at 4 AM, with 23 arrested. The local committee "Jáchal No Se Toca" (Hands Off Jáchal) issued a statement decrying the "violence and brutality" of the army attack. The Sept. 13 spill of a million and a half liters of cyanide-contaminated water affected the local Río Jáchal. (InfoBae, Oct. 23; Radio Lavaca, Buenos Aires, Oct. 22)

Thousands of protesters marched on government offices in Resistencia, capital of Argentina's Chaco province, after popular leader Angel Verón died Oct. 19 from wounds sustained in a beating by police three weeks earlier. Verón, a leader of "No al Desalojo" (No Evictions) campaign for housing rights as part of the Unemployed Workers Movement (MTD), was at a roadblock on the major route into Resistencia when he was attacked by police on Sept. 24. The roadblock was launched to press Gov. Jorge Capitanich on his pledge to provide construction materials for his group to build housing for the poor. Protesters are demanding the resignation of provincial police chief Gustavo Peña, and a thorough investigation of the incident leading to Verón's death. Protesters held a vigil outside the provincial government building to demand a meeting with Capitanich, but were rebuffed. Capitanich stepped down earlier this year as President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's cabinet chief. (Chaco por Día, Oct. 21; Diario Norte, Oct. 20; Clarín, Oct. 19)

A peaceful anti-mining march headed towards the Midais site in Argentina's La Rioja province was dispersed by police using tear-gas and rubber bullets Oct. 15. The march was made up of environmental activists and citizens from Famatina, near where Argentine firm Midais SH hopes to begin gold-mining operations. Provincial police attacked the march, which began in the town of Angulos, to enforce a judicial order barring protests within three kilometers of the mine site. National deputy Julio César Martínez of the Radical Civic Union (UCR) was reportedly hit in the neck with a rubber bullet during the assault. Two children were also reported injured. Fatamina was the scene of widespread protests in 2007 and 2012 when Canadian companies Barrick Gold and Osisko sought to begin operations. Residents fear for the impacts of mining on the local Río Blanco, and say the  companies have no "social license" to operate in the area. (Argentina Independent, IPPM, InfoBae, Clariín, Oct. 15)

Residents of San Juan Jáchal, in Argentina's northwestern province of San Juan, took to the streets in protest after an industrial malfunction caused a pipe carrying cyanide to Barrick Gold's nearby Veladero gold mine to rupture and spill an undetermined amount of its contents in the area on Sept. 13. Protesters who converged on the town hall said town residents had repeatedly warned on social media and through text messages to authorities that the pipe had a faulty valve—and that no move to address the problem was taken even after messages reported that spills had reached the banks of the Río Jáchal. The river is the source of water for the town, and municipal taps have been cut off since the spill. (MercoPress, InfoBae, Sept. 16; Reuters, InfoBae, Sept. 14)