Bolivia's government announced Aug. 5 it has started a program of military training for civilians at army barracks in the east of the country—a stronghold of the right-wing opposition. Army officials said the program will extend to all the country's military bases. Questions about the training program arose after a TV station broadcast images of young men armed with rifles taking target practice at a base in the regional capital of Santa Cruz. Also shown in the video were young indigenous women in traditional billowing skirts and bowler hats doing calisthenics.

Community activist and hip-hop artist Marcelo Pimienta Sánchez AKA "MC Chelo," 23, was shot dead by unknown assailants Aug. 6 near his home in the conflicted Comuna 13 district of Medellín, Colombia. The father of a two-year-old boy, Chelo was a member of the group Hip-Hop Eskalones, and a recognized leader in social and cultural activities aimed at ending the endemic violence in the district, home to several armed factions. Chelo was the third member of the community group Red Cultural Elite Hip Hop to be killed in recent months. Andrés Felipe Medina was shot dead in Comuna 13 last month, and the artist known as"Colacho" was killed near the district nearly a year ago. (Red Juvenil, Boletín Alcaldía de Medellín, Aug. 6)

Nine US human rights activists are holding a vigil at the Tolemaida military base near Bogotá with a 12-foot banner that reads "U.S. MILITARY OUT OF COLOMBIA." The Tolemaida base is one of seven in Colombia to which the US military has been granted access for 10 years under the US-Colombia Defense Cooperation Agreement signed in October 2009.

Colombian union sources report that Alejandro Betancur, president of the Union of Mining Industry Workers (SINTRAMINEROS) in the northwestern department of Antioquia, received a death threat by telephone on July 26 in connection with his union activities. According to Carlos Julio, president of Colombia's Unitary Workers Central (CUT), Betancur was threatened because of his efforts on behalf of about 100 miners employed by companies belonging to Industrial Hullera, which is now in liquidation. The dispute, which has gone on for 13 years, concerns labor rights and pensions. (El Mundo, Medellín, July 31; Adital, Brazil, July 29)

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on Aug. 2 issued a statement strongly condemning the murder of Colombian indigenous leader Luis Alfredo Socarras Pimienta. The IACHR, an autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), "urges the State of Colombia to investigate the crime committed against the indigenous leader Socarras Pimienta and to prosecute and punish those who perpetrated and planned the crime." The statement adds that "the IACHR also urges the State to attend to the needs for protection and security of those who defend the rights of the indigenous peoples of Colombia, to ensure that crimes such as this one do not happen again."

Peru will cancel the operating license of the US company Doe Run for a large smelter complex at La Oroya, Junin region, as the company failed to meet a deadline for submitting a new environmental protection plan, President Alan García announced July 28. The law will be enforced and the permit canceled, said García during his address to the nation on Peru's Independence Day.

A report released July 29 by the interfaith peace group Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) details how US aid to the Colombian military has been supporting army units whose members have killed hundreds of civilians. Drawing on extensive data from the offices of Colombia's Prosecutor General (Fiscalía), Inspector General (Procuraduría) and armed forces, as well as the US State Department and 20 human rights organizations, the report shows that billions of dollars provided under the rubric of Plan Colombia have abrogated US human rights law and contributed to the killing of thousands of civilians by the Colombian army.

The government of Peru declared a state of emergency across 17 of the country's 25 regions as winter temperatures plunged to record lows over the weekend. At least 200 people have died in the worst cold spell in 46 years, with temperatures falling at night to well below freezing in highland areas. The most affected regions include Áncash, Apurímac, Arequipa, Cusco, Ayacucho, Huancavelica, Huánuco, Junín and Lima. (TeleSUR, BBC News, DPA, July 24) Extreme weather has resulted in social unrest over the past year in Peru, amid growing concerns about climate change in the Andes.