Afro-Colombian community leader Ana Fabricia Córdoba, from the Santa Cruz neighborhood in Medellín, was shot dead by an unidentified gunman on a bus in the city June 7. Córdoba was a leader of communities displaced to Medellín by political violence in the Pacific coastal department of Chocó. She arrived in the city in 2001 when she was forced to flee after paramilitary groups killed her son in Urabá, the violence-torn region that straddles the north of Chocó and Antioquia departments. A second son was killed at the hands of presumed paramilitaries just last year. With her organization, Ruta Pacifica de las Mujeres, she was a leading advocate for the recovery of usurped Afro-Colombian lands in the coastal region.

Ecuador's government sent in army troops backed up by helicopters into the jungles of the northwest coastal province of Esmeraldas to shut down illegal gold mining operations last week, saying the highly polluting activity is associated with drug trafficking and protected by armed militias. Several back-hoes, diesel generators and dredges were destroyed in controlled explosions. The small-scale mining operations in the cantons of Eloy Alfaro and San Lorenzo near the Colombian border were "totally illegal" and violated the country's mining, environmental and tax codes, Minister of Non-Renewable Natural Resources Wilson Pástor and Environment Minister Marcela Aguiñaga said in a press conference. Aguiñaga reported that arsenic and heavy metals like mercury are found in the waters of tributaries of the Rio Santiago. "This will cause cancer and other diseases in the short term," she said. Added Pástor: "Ecuador is not a no man's land. Illegal mining has to stop. We have to put a stop to exploitation of the local workforce. We have to put a stop to drug money laundering. And we're tired of the plundering of our natural resources." (IPS, June 1)

Keiko Fujimori of the neoliberal-right coalition Fuerza 2011 formally conceded defeat to challenger Ollanta Humala Tasso of the nationalist-populist Gana Perú June 6 following Peru's presidential run-off race the previous day. With 90% of the vote counted, Humala had 51% to Fujimori's 49%. Humala had tilted to the center on the campaign trail, pledging to emulate Brazil rather than Venezuela, but was nonetheless demonized by the Fujimori machine as an extremist. International markets reacted quickly to the victory of the former army officer and veteran protest leader. The Lima stock market plunged 12%—the biggest single-day drop in the nation's history. Shares also fell in global markets for mineral companies with large investments in Peru (Bear Creek Mining and Rio Alto Mining, both of Canada, dropping 6% and 13%, respectively). (La Republica, Lima, Andina, San Francisco Chronicle, Reuters, Miami Herald, June 6)

On June 3, US District Judge Kenneth A. Marra in Southern Florida issued a 95-page opinion in the case in re Chiquita Brands, International, allowing lawsuits brought by some 4,000 Colombians seeking compensation for violence by armed groups the company backed to move ahead. Chiquita had asked for the suits to be dismissed, arguing it was a victim of extortion and bore no responsibility for any crimes carried out by armed groups. Attorney for the plaintiffs Paul Wolf said the ruling "provides a roadmap for holding American corporations responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed overseas."

According to a report out last month by the German daily Die Welt, Tehran is moving forward with building missile launch bases on Venezuela's Paraguaná Peninsula (in the Guajira region, just south of Aruba—see map). The same German paper also claimed last November that Caracas and Tehran had signed an agreement to establish a joint military base in Venezuela. Die Welt's November report stated that the base is to be staffed by members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The agreement reportedly calls for Iranian Shahab 3, Scud-B, and Scud-C missiles to be deployed at the base—missiles with a trajectory range of up to 900 miles. The report was echoed earnestly by various neocon think-tanks in the US. (Jewish Policy Center, Jerusalem Post, May 17)

Thousands of Aymara indigenous protesters took over the city center of Puno in southeastern Peru May 26, and the city remains shut down. The main roads into the city are blocked by barricades erected by local campesinos demanding that the government revoke concessions recently granted to the Canadian Bear Creek mining company. Looters taking advantage of the unrest ransacked shops and offices as the police retreated, and numerous cars and government buildings were torched. Aymara from the Bolivian side of the border have joined in the roadblocks. With police confined to barracks, the city and environs are effectively in the hands of the protesters.

Mining projects in Colombia face an uncertain future following a May 11 ruling of the country's Constitutional Court that struck down a mineral code passed last year—although the regulations will remain in effect for two years to give Congress time to draft and approve a replacement bill. In its 7-1 ruling, the court found that the mineral code was unconstitutional because indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities on potentially impacted lands weren't consulted. Under the international convention known as ILO 69, approved by Colombia in 1991, indigenous inhabitants have the right to prior consultation on any decisions affecting their territories. However, the ruling is controversial because the code—known as Law 1382—included new environmental restrictions, including a ban on mining in the fragile highland ecosystems known as páramos (alpine grasslands).

The Colombian Senate on May 25 passed the Victims and Land Restitution Law, to provide financial compensation and the return of usurped lands to victims of internal "armed conflicts." President Juan Manuel Santos called the approval of the law "historic." But his predecessor Alvaro Uribe bitterly fought the law's wording, arguing that it equated the state's actions with those of the illegal armed groups. In compromise wording, the law describes illegal armed groups as "terrorists." Claimants who have been victimized by armed conflicts since January 1985 are eligible for financial compensation. Those who have had their land seized, or were forced to abandoned their lands, are entitled to restitution of their property. The government estimates that 4 million hectares of land were abandoned and 2 million were seized during the conflicts. Senator Juan Fernando Cristo (Liberal Party) stated that the law ushers in "part two of the history of this country." The restitution process is expected to take 10 years to complete.