On Oct. 12 Colombian university students proceeded with plans announced in September to carry out an open-ended strike against proposed changes to the education system that they say will lead to privatization. A total of 32 public universities have gone on strike, according to the Broad National Student Panel (MANE), a national coordinating group, which has called for weekly demonstrations in support of the strike, including a special national mobilization at all public universities on Oct. 26.

Peru's National Police report the seizure of nearly a ton of cocaine, after two operations coordinated with the army in the conflicted Apurímac-Ene River Valley (VRAE). Victor Torres, police commander in the VRAE, said 540 kilograms of cocaine were seized in the first operation on Oct. 7, near the community of Boca Sonaro, in the province of Satipo, Junín region. Seven were arrested in the operation, led by the army's 31st infantry brigade. Officials reportedly seized 415 kilograms in the second operation, which took place on Oct. 12, in Llochegua, Huanta province, in Ayacucho region. The operation, involving helicopters, also saw the destruction of two cocaine laboratories. Torres told radio network RPP that "although the operations were carried out at different times both are related, because it is the same gang, headed by a Colombian national, who went by the name of 'Bellota,' operating in Llochegua." (Peru This Week, Oct. 13)

Peru's new populist president, Ollanta Humala, is facing his first corruption scandal, as his Second Vice President Omar Chehade has come under investigation by the Prosecutor General on charges of using his influence to arrange a police eviction of cooperative farmers at a disputed property outside Lima. Former National Police general Guillermo Arteta claims that Chehade participated in a meeting with three police chiefs at the famous Brujas de Cachiche restaurant in Lima's fashionable Miraflores district, to discuss the conflict over the Andahuasi cooperative sugar mill and plantation in the Huaura-Sayán Valley. Chehade's brother and cousin also reportedly took part in the meeting, where they lobbied the generals to evict the 1,500 workers at Andahuasi, so that Peru's agribusiness giant Grupo Wong could take control of the site. Arteta says he was fired in an earlier purge of senior police generals because he refused to evict the workers.

Just as opposition to neoliberal economic policies was generating new protests around the world, on Oct. 12 the US Congress passed long-delayed neoliberal free trade agreements (FTAs, or TLCs in Spanish) with Colombia, South Korea and Panama. The three agreements were negotiated by the administration of former US president George W. Bush (2001-2009); the Colombia FTA was signed in 2006, and the Korea and Panama FTAs were signed in 2007. But approval by Congress was delayed because of partisan maneuvering and the unpopularity of previous agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Many Democrats and US labor leaders opposed the Colombia pact because of continuing murders of unionists in the South American country.

Tens of thousands of striking workers were joined by students in marches through cities across Colombia Oct. 7 to demand the right to unionize, public health care and education, and an end to labor contracting. In some cities the protesters were joined by rural workers, displaced people and indigenous communities demanding an end to the abuses they suffer at the hands of Colombia’s armed groups. In Bogotá, marches led by different unions and student organizations blocked traffic as they converged on Plaza Bolívar from points around the city. In Cali, over 10,000 marchers coverged on San Francisco square, while in Medellín different blocs took over the city streets in staggered marches throughout the day, the last lighting the way with torches.

Richard Trumka, president of the US's AFL-CIO labor federation, sent a letter to US president Barack Obama on Sept. 26 opposing any immediate action on a proposed free trade agreement (FTA, TLC in Spanish) with Colombia. Obama is expected to send the Colombia-US FTA for approval to Congress in the next few weeks. Trumka, whose federation is the largest union group in the US, said a labor action plan that Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos agreed to in April has proven ineffective. According to the AFL-CIO, Colombian workers are still forced to sign pactos colectivos—salary and benefit agreements imposed by employers--or to join cooperatives that act as company unions. So far this year, 22 unionists have been murdered in Colombia, including 15 since the labor action plan went into effect, Trumka wrote. (AFL-CIO Now blog, Sept. 26)

Peru's national government pledged to establish formal talks between Southern Copper and the regional government of Tacna region to resolve a dispute over scarce water resources. Authorities in Tacna say they want Southern Copper to stop using groundwater that it relies on to operate two of its copper mines, at Toquepala and Cajone. Tacna's president, Guillermo Chocano, said mines in the desert region should rely on desalinated seawater instead. The regional government has called for a halt to protests to give the government time to respond to its demand that approval of an environmental impact study on the planned expansion of operations at the Toquepala be suspended. But he and provincial mayors promised a strike to shut down the region next week if their demand is not met. "We are ready to open a working group on this," Prime Minister Salomon Lerner told reporters. "The strike won't go forward." He suggested the use of desalinated sea water rather than scarce groundwater for operations at the mines. (Reuters, Sept. 28; RPP, Sept. 27)

An operation by the Mobile Anti-Riot Squad (ESMAD) of Colombia's National Police in Pamplona University in the northern department of Norte de Santander on Sept. 20 set off a confrontation between police and students that left four students and two police agents injured; two students were arrested. The students had started blocking the school's main entrances on Sept. 16 to protest high tuition costs, to demand improvements in the school's program and infrastructure, and to oppose a national education "reform" bill. The riot police reportedly used tear gas in an effort to remove the protesters, who responded with rocks and sticks.