Venezuelan Minister for Prisons Iris Varela announced July 31 that she plans to release up to 40% of the country's prisoners in an effort to reduce prison overcrowding. Varela, who was appointed to the position by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez last week, said roughly 20,000 inmates who had committed minor crimes and who posed no danger to society would be conditionally released. Prison authorities will begin determining which inmates could be eligible for release starting this week. Varela's appointment, as well as the latest measures to reduce prison overcrowding, come in response to a deadly uprising at El Rodeo prison in Guatire, Venezuela. Over 25 people died during the June riot and stand-off when armed prisoners clashed with National Guard troops. Chávez has set aside nearly $100 million for reforming the Venezuelan prison system, which is notoriously overcrowded.

Ollanta Humala was sworn in as Peru's president on July 28—with his populist base and the resource industries both seemingly afraid of being betrayed. "We're worried," said Mario Huaman, head of the General Workers' Confederation of Peru (CGTP), the country's largest labor group, which endorsed Humala in the election. "We’ll listen very carefully to what he says in the coming days and see if he shares our views. Then we'll decide our plan of action, our plan to fight. He promised change." Similar reservations were expressed by Renee Ramirez, general secretary of the Unitary Syndicate of Education Workers in Peru (SUTEP): "The new government has built up such great hopes that if it doesn't follow through there’ll be a big divorce. We’re not going to keep quiet. We threw our weight behind Humala but we didn't write him a blank check."

Campesino communities affected by mining in Peru's Andean departments of Junín and Huancavelica, meeting July 23 in Junín's capital, issued a "Declaration of Huancayo," demanding a new constitution guaranteeing the fundamental rights of the country's indigenous peoples and establishing the "agricultural character of our country, and not the mineral." The meeting, formally the "Bioregional Forum on Mining, Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Health and Prior Consultation," was convened by the National Confederation of Communities Affected by Mining (CONACAMI). It additionally demanded the government declare fragile ecosystems such as river headwaters and glaciers off-limits to mining.

Speaking before a conference of campesina women in Cochabamba July 25, Bolivia's President Evo Morales said he fears a US plot to frame him for drug offense: "Do you know what? I think they have to be preparing something. So much that I'm afraid to go with our airplane to the United States. Surely when we arrive, they can plant something and detain the presidential plane." Morales reiterated these fears to CNN en Español the following day: "The United States, as a global power, has all the experience of creating setups... They are preparing something to discredit us with drug trafficking." He said agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration had pursued him when he was a union leader, and that US authorities still seek to link him with drug trafficking. "When presidents do not submit to the United States government, to its policies, there are coups," he said.

All 44 teachers at the public high school in Las Delicias, a village in Tierralta municipality in the northern Colombian department of Córdoba, sought refuge in Montería, the department's capital, on July 22 after being threatened by a paramilitary group. According to Domingo Ayala Espitia, president of the Córdoba Teachers Association (Ademacor), the paramilitaries sent the teachers text messages demanding 15 million pesos (about $8,535). More than 1,100 students attended the abandoned school.

Peru's populist president-elect is scheduled to take office in just one week, and ominous signs are mounting that (campaign promises aside) he will continue his predecessor's trajectory towards breakneck resource extraction, plunder of the environment, pauperization of the peasantry—and attendant bloody social conflicts. Or, as The Economist puts it, "Ollanta Humala has given strong signals that he will keep Peru's successful economic policies."

Canadian oil company Pacific Rubiales has reportedly reached a deal with striking workers following a month of labor unrest in Puerto Gaitan, Colombia, that culminated this week in a blockade of the oilfields and riots in which several vehicles were destroyed, both protesters and National Police officers were injured, and by some reports one striker was killed. The dispute was triggered by the firing of 1,100 contractors by Cepcolsa, the Colombian subsidiary of Spanish multinational CEPSA, which partners in the region with state-controlled Ecopetrol and private companies such as Pacific Rubiales.

The People's Defense Front in Víctor Fajardo province of Peru's central Andean region of Ayacucho, on July 12 announced a one-week deadline for the Southern Peru Copper Corporation to halt its exploration activities in the area before local campesinos launch an indefinite civil strike, or paro. The Front's president, Rubén Usccata Saccatoma, said the company's operations pose a threat to mountain lakes that provide water to five communities in the province, and said there would be no negotiation on its demand. Southern Peru Copper began explorations on the local Cerro Chinchinga, Hualla district, in February. On July 5, the Front led a 24-hour "preventative" paro as a warning for the company to quit the zone. (Enlace Nacional, July 15; La Republica, July 13; El Muki blog, Peru, July 7)