The former head of Peru's National Water Authority (ANA) and current water consultant to the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB), Abelardo de la Torre, warned March 19 that Peru faces at least 70 social conflicts related to control of water, and that these are likely to worsen if urgent action is not taken to address them. He said ANA's Hydraulic Resources Management Modernization program, launched under his leadership, was aimed at eliminating inefficiencies in the national irrigation networks, and pointed to the environmental impacts of informal mining as contributing to the degradation of watersheds. (Reports did not indicate that he mentioned the impacts of formal mining.)

Peru's President Ollanta Humala told TV program Panorama March 25 that his government is "one step away" from reaching a deal with the consortium developing Block 88, one of the main blocks in the Camisea field—following through on a campaign promise that gas from that block would be reserved for domestic use. "This has been a renegotiation with the Camisea consortium, without using any force or without kicking over the table in any way," Humala said. He said that under the deal, the gas will be "recovered" for the people of Peru.

On March 13 the Bolivian government declared three days of mourning for union and leftist leader Domitila Barrios de Chungara, who died of lung cancer at her home in Cochabamba earlier that day. Born into a mineworkers' family in 1937, Barrios de Chungara started her political work in a women's auxiliary for the mineworkers union in the Siglo XX mining district and eventually became a prominent union leader. In 1978 she initiated the mass hunger strike that resulted in the collapse of the 1971-1978 dictatorship of Col. Hugo Banzer Suárez and the restoration of formal democracy. (La Jornada, Mexico, March 14)

Retired Peruvian Gen. Jorge Aquiles Carcovich Cortelezzi, now serving as chief of the firearms control agency DICSCAMEC, is being investigated by the special human rights prosecutor for Ayacucho region, Andrés Cáceres Ortega, for his involvement in the massacre of 25 schoolchildren and five campesinos by a military patrol in the village of Umasi (Canaria district, Fajardo province) on Nov. 27, 1983.

Colombia's ambassador to Peru resigned March 14 after the Prosecutor General's Office ordered his arrest for alleged ties to paramilitary groups. Jorge Visbal Martelo Hannibal has been accused of working with paramilitaries while he was president of the National Rancher's Federation (FEDEGAN) from 1998 until 2004. He is specifically accused of collaborating with Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, AKA "Jorge 40"—notorious commander of the AUC paramilitary network's Northern Bloc. Martelo's defense assured the Prosecutor's Office that he will appear before the court in Bogota this week. President Juan Manuel Santos appointed Martelo as ambassador to Peru in February 2011. (Colombia Reports, La Republica, Lima, March 15)

In a surprise move on March 13, agents of Peru's National Police arrested three leaders of the struggle against the controversial Conga gold mining project in the northern region of Cajamarca, while charges were announced against some 40 others. Wilfredo Saavedra Marreros, leader of Cajamarca's Environmental Defense Front, was detained in the southern city of Tacna, where he had been invited to speak by student groups. Nearly simultaneoulsy in Cajamarca, police agents arrested Lucio Díaz Chávez, former regional president of the teachers union SUTEP, and César Tafur Tacilla, secretary general of the local construction workers union. Saavedra was taken in police custody to Cajamarca, where he was freed the next morning along with Díaz and Tafur. All three are charged with obstruction of public transport in connection with last year's protest mobilization against the Conga mine, and await orders to appear before a judge. The next day, the Cajamarca branch of the Fiscalía, Peru's attorney general, released a list of 41 activists facing identical charges—including virtually all the prominent leaders of the Cajamarca protest movement.

Thousands of demonstrators led by Paúl Carrasco, prefect of Azuay province, filled the streets of Cuenca, Ecuador, on March 11, to launch the regional feeder march of the cross-country Walk in Defense of Water, Life and Dignity, which is to coverge on Quito from several points around the country later this month. Carrasco, addressing the crowd of protesters, aimed his comments at President Rafael Correa, demanding that plans for be dropped for massive new mineral development in the region. "Señor Correa, the mineral project in Cuenca will not go ahead," he said. Although the march was peaceful, many protesters wore masks, saying they feared retribution from the authorities. (Hoy, Quito, March 11, El Comercio, Quito, March 10).

Led by the National Confederation of Artisenal Miners (CONAMI), small-scale independent gold miners led strikes and protests across several regions of Peru last week. The southern rainforest region of Madre de Dios was most affected, with regional capital Puerto Maldonado virtually shut down for several days following initiation of the paro (civil strike) on March 5. Thousands of miners filled the streets, wearing helmets and plastic ponchos color-coordinated to represent their geographic zone. Other social movements observed the paro in solidarity, and most businesses shut down. The region's estimated 18,000 artisenal miners—the vast majority of them "informal"—are demanding the aborgation of recent presidential decrees mandating that only legally recognized mining activity will be permitted. Some 3,000 miners are currently camped out in Puerto Maldonado as they await the arrival of a cabinet-level commission led by Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar Vidal and Energy and Mines Minister Jorge Merino to establish a dialogue on "formalization" of the artisenal miners. Luis Otzuka, leader of the Madre de Dios Regional Artisenal Mining Federation (FEDEMIN), said the strike will be maintained until a solution is reached.