Troops have been mobilized to Peru's northern Andean region of Cajamarca ahead of an announced resumption of the civil strike there in opposition to the Conga gold mining project. Especially militarized are the outlying provinces of Celendín and Hualgayoc, where the project is slated, with some 1,000 National Police agents and 500 army troops having occupied strategic positions in the town centers. While the Cajamarca regional government is strongly backing the protest call, the provincial governments seem to be cooperating with the security forces. In Celendín, provincial authorities have made a sports arena available to the troops as a staging ground, according to Milton Sánchez of the local civil coalition, the Celendina Inter-institutional Platform. An unused jail in Hualgayoc's provincial capital Bambamarca has been similarly opened, according to Edy Benavides, leader of the Hualgayoc Defense Front. Both groups issued statements protesting the troop presence. Stressing the peaceful nature of the struggle, Benavides said, "We do not accept the militarization in our zone, because it has no justifiable reason."

On April 2 the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) released the last members of the security forces they were holding captive—a group of 10, who have been held for more than 12 years. They were handed over in a joint operation orchestrated by the Colombian and Brazilian governments, the Red Cross, and activist group Colombians for Peace. The men were picked up in a Brazilian military helicopter, and taken from the jungle to the city of Villavicencio, Meta department, where they were reunited with relatives, appearing before TV cameras waving Colombian flags and punching the air. Afterwards they were flown to Bogotá, where President Juan Manuel Santos gave a speech welcoming their return.

A Colombian judge overturned the conviction of a FARC commander March 29 for his alleged role in a 1998 massacre in which 17 civilians were killed. The judge in northeastern Arauca department ruled it was unlawful to sentence Germán Suárez Briceno AKA "Grannobles" for the deaths of civilians in a Colombian Air Force (FAC) response to the slaying of nine soldiers by Grannobles and his men. Grannobles continues to face charges for the killings of the soldiers. Authorities investigated the bombing, known as the Santo Domingo Massacre, and the FAC was ordered to pay compensation to the victims' families. The Colombian government has appealed a decision by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) to force the state to compensate the victims, claiming the FARC was guilty of the civilian deaths. (Colombia Reports, March 30)

It made at least brief international headlines March 26 when Colombia's military announced it had killed 36 FARC fighters in the pre-dawn bombing of a guerrilla camp in Vista Hermosa, Meta department. Five days earlier, the armed forces claimed to have killed 33 fighters in ground fighting and air attacks in Arauca—near the area of Arauquita municipality where 11 soldiers had been killed in a FARC ambush on March 17. The claimed deaths come just as the FARC says it is preparing to free its last hostages. Armed forces chief Gen. Alejandro Navas dismissed suggestions that the military attacks could delay the releases, saying the strikes fall within the "rules of the conflict." (AP, March 26; WSJ, March 21; Secugo, March 18)

On March 20, Peru's Nobel Laureate in literature and sometime right-wing politician Mario Vargas Llosa gave the opening address at an elite forum, "Latin America: Opportunities and Challenges," convened at the University of Lima by the Fundación Internacional para la Libertad, making proud front-page coverage in Lima's La Republica. Vargas Llosa intoned against the "temptation of populism [and] dictatorship"—as if the two are inevitable concomitants. He called for solidarity with the (right-wing) opposition in Venezuela, and hailed the presidential candidacy of Mexico's (right-wing) Josefina Vázquez Mota, who was in attendance. Taking open glee in the ill health of Hugo Chávez, he acclaimed the "light at the end of the tunnel" in Venezuela. That much is all quite predictable...

On March 22, World Water Day, the "March for Water, Life and Dignity," more than 1,000 strong, reached Ecuador's capital after a two-week, 700-kilometer cross-country trek to oppose plans for large-scale mining projects on indigenous lands. Carrying the rainbow-colored indigenous flag, marchers were joined by thousands of supporters in Quito. Some demonstrators clashed with police outside the National Assembly building. Police repelled rock-throwing youth with tear gas, and at one point charged the demonstrators on horseback.

On March 20, Colombia's Committee-Foundation for Solidarity with Political Prisoners (FCSPP) informed the press that 500 prisoners in several of the country's facilities had initiated an indefinite hunger strike. The strikers are mostly imprisoned FARC guerillas who undertook their action to demand that they be recognized as "political prisoners of war and conscience," and to protest the government's denial of a request by the group Colimbians for Peace (CCP), led by ex-senator Piedad Córdoba, to visit the prisoners and verify "the actual conditions of human rights that they face." The strike started at El Barne prison in Cómbita (Boyacá department), and quickly spread to other facilities. Some have decided to lift their strike since the announcement, but at last report 417 were still refusing all food. The strike follows the FARC's recent pledge to release hostages and abandon abductions. (Antifa Bogotá, Adital, Radio Nederland Internacional, March 22; EFE, March 21; Semana, AVN, March 20)

Colombia is enjoying an oil boom, its output of crude having nearly doubled in the past six years, from 525,000 barrels a day in 2005 to a daily average of 914,000 last year. But as exploration expands in the country's eastern lowlands, oil companies continue to confront armed groups. In February, the ELN guerrillas kidnapped 11 workers in Casanare department who were building the Oleoducto Bicentenario, slated to be Colombia's largest oil pipeline. The 11 were released in early March. Simultaneously, Interior Minister Germán Vargas Lleras warned that he was "not going to tolerate" more road blockades in the region. Local peasants and residents have in recent weeks repeatedly blocked arteries through the region to protest the lack of benefit to their communities by the oil operations, facing down troops of the elite National Police riot squad, ESMAD. Leaders have denied government claims that the guerillas are behind the protest campaign.