At least 25 were injured on Sept. 25 as National Police fired shotguns and tear-gas bombs on protesters blocking access to the Toquepala copper mine in Peru's southern region of Tacna. Some 100 were also detained. Campesinos from the nearby villages of Huaytire, Camilaca and Cairani gathered at the mine site following public hearings for an environmental impact statement on plans to expand operations at the mine. In a paro, or civic strike, called to protest the expansion plans, schools and public transportation in the city of Tacna were also shut down for 48 hours. The mine is owned by Southern Peru Copper Corporation, a holding of the giant Grupo Mexico, and hopes to expand operations in order to begin exports to China. (RPP, Sept. 22; Mariátegui blog, Lima, Sept. 21; Reuters, Sept. 14)

A federal judge in Miami on Sept. 23 sentenced Bolivia's former top anti-drug official, Gen. Rene Sanabria, to 14 years in prison for cocaine trafficking—although the "Colombian drug lords" he thought he was dealing with were really undercover DEA agents, and the "conspiracy" to smuggle 300 pounds of coke via truck to Chile for export to the US was controlled by the DEA from start to finish. Sanabria's role in the pseudo-conspiracy was to assure that the shipment would be unmolested. Sanabria was President Evo Morales' chosen director of the Bolivian Center of Anti-Drug Information since 2009, and before that served as leader of the Special Force for Struggle Against Narco-trafficking (FELCN), an elite unit of the National Police. He was arrested in August 2010 in Panama and extradited to the US.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on Sept. 17 criticized the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) for ruling in favor of presidential hopeful Leopoldo López, thereby allowing him to run for office. A Venezuelan anti-corruption official had barred López from running for office after conducting a corruption investigation in 2005. Chávez called the IACHR, a body of the Organization of American States (OAS), part of an international system that "protects the corrupt and obeys the mandate of the imperial power and the bourgeoisie." He added: "What value can that court have? For me, it's worthless... One of my haircuts is worth more than this court"— a play on the fact that the Spanish corte means both "court" and "cut."

Days ahead of the release of a White House report singling out Venezuela for insufficient narcotics enforcement efforts, the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) accused four close allies of President Hugo Chávez of assisting Colombia's FARC guerillas. "Today's action exposes four Venezuelan government officials as key facilitators of arms, security, training and other assistance in support of the FARC's operations in Venezuela," said OFAC director Adam Szubin. "OFAC will continue to aggressively target the FARC's support structures in Venezuela and throughout the region."

The international price of copper has soared this week as strikes halted operations at two of the world's largest mines, both owned by the multinational Freeport McMoRan. At Cerro Verde, in Peru's Arequipa region, some 1,200 workers walked out Sept. 14, following through on their threat to launch an indefinite strike to demand higher wages. The next day, 10,000 workers walked out at the company's flagship Grasberg mine in West Papua, Indonesia, demanding that their pay be raised from the current $1.50 to $3 an hour to the global standard of at least $17 an hour. "We are disappointed that union workers decided to implement an illegal work stoppage," local subsidiary PT Freeport Indonesia said in a statement, asserting that the company "has negotiated in a diligent good-faith manner" with the union FSP-KEP, an affiliate of the ICEM. Freeport McMoRan president James Moffett earned $21.5 million last year. (WSJ, Dow Jones, Bloomberg, BBC News, Sept. 15; Rebanadas de Realidad, Argentina, Sept. 12)

A diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks sheds light on why the United States opposed passage of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Jan. 28, 2008 cable, from the US embassy in La Paz and entitled "Bolivia: Repercussions of UN DRIP," states: "Although most indigenous leaders seem to view the UN Declaration as a 'feel good' document that will give them more inclusion in the public sector, some leaders are citing the Declaration in support of concrete aims like self-governance and control over land and resources. Post will watch for further developments, particularly with regards to property rights and potential sovereignty or self-rule issues."

Petrominerales, the fourth largest oil producer in Colombia, resumed production Sept. 14 after a stoppage caused by protests, the company announced on its website, saying it "expects to be producing at full capacity within 48 to 72 hours." Calgary-based Petrominerals produces 40,000 barrels per day (bpd) from all its fields. The company's shares on the Bogotá exchange, which had slipped in recent days, started to rise again upon the announcement. The company thanked the Colombian government for "restoring public order to the area and their leadership in organizing community meetings that were held September 13." During the meetings a timeline was agreed upon for "continued diplomatic discussions aimed at developing sustainable solutions for the area."

On Sept. 14, Colombia's Supreme Court of Justice condemned Jorge Noguera Cotes, director of the Administrative Security Department (DAS) from 2002-5, to 25 years in prison for allowing right-wing paramilitary groups access to sensitive intelligence, leading to at least three assassinations of left-wing dissidents. He was convicted on charges of criminal conspiracy, illegal use of privileged information, and homicide. The most prominent of the victims was Alfredo Correa de Andreis, a sociologist and human rights activists gunned down by masked men on a motorbike in Barranquilla in September 2004.