The Obama administration sought to boost security ties with hemispheric allies last month as Defense Secretary Robert Gates traveled to Peru, Colombia, and Barbados. Before kicking off his tour in Lima, Gates and met with Brazil's Defense Minister Nelson Jobim at the Pentagon April 12, to sign the two countries' first bilateral defense pact since 1977. In Bogotá, Gates voiced support for the stalled US-Colombia FTA. "I would hope we would be in a position to make a renewed effort to get ratification of the free trade agreement," Gates said. "It is a good deal for Colombia; it is also a good deal for the United States."

Ecuadoran police on May 6 fired tear gas at indigenous protesters gathered outside the National Assembly building in Quito to oppose a water resources bill that they say would favor mining companies and agribusiness over peasant communities. Protesters blocked highways at three points around the country as well as blocking the entrances to the National Assembly building. Police said two protesters and 11 police officers were injured in the clash. At least 1,000 protesters are now camped out in a park near the congress building, where they expect to be joined by delegations from several provinces that are still marching on the capital. Near Guayllabamba, Pichincha province, police detained a convoy of 15 buses carrying some 1,000 indigenous comuneros from the village of Cayambi towards Quito. (IPS, Reuters, El Comercio, Quito, May 6)

Thousands of unionized public employees marked International Workers Day on May 1 with marches in Quito and Guayaquil, Ecuador, joined by members of socialist president Rafael Correa's PAIS Alliance (AP) party. ("PAIS" is the acronym of "Proud and Sovereign Homeland" in Spanish, and also spells the word for "country.") Unemployment in Ecuador reached 9.1% in the first quarter of 2010, up from 7.9% at the end of 2009, while underemployment among the country's 4.6 million economically active workers is officially at 51.3%.

Several thousand marched in the Bolivian capital La Paz on May Day, in a militant display that incessantly shattered the air with hurled firecrackers—and some much louder explosives that might have been dynamite. While the main Workers Central of Bolivia (COB) led at the front of the march, contingents ranged from indigenists to Trotskyists to anarchists, with varying degrees of support for (or dissent from) the left-nationalist Evo Morales government. (World War 4 Report on the scene in La Paz)

After scoring points with global environmentalists with his World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth (CMPCC) in Cochabamba this week, Bolivian President Evo Morales has got himself in hot water with gay activists across the planet. On April 21, he commented to reporters at the CMPCC on the dangers of factory-farm chicken—but in half-baked (pardon the pun) and homophobic terms. "The chicken we eat is full of feminine hormones," the populist president said. "And therefore when men eat these chickens, they experience deviances in being men."

As the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth (CMPCC) convened for a third day April 21 at Tiquipaya, outside the central Bolivian city of Cochabamba, Aymara indigenous leaders and their supporters continued to meet just outside the official summit at the dissident "Table 18," on social conflicts related to climate change. Greivances centered on ecological impacts of mineral projects, including the Japanese-owned San Cristobal mine in southern Potosi department and the state-owned Corocoro mine in La Paz department.

As the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth (CMPCC) convened for a second day April 20 at Tiquipaya, outside the central Bolivian city of Cochabamba, Aymara indigenous leaders held their own dissident "Table 18" on social conflicts related to climate change. Barred by organizers from the official summit grounds on the campus of the University del Valle (Univalle), Aymara elders of the National Council of Ayllus and Markas of Cullasuyu (CONAMAQ) and their allies convened the dissident forum in a Brazilian restaurant just off the campus.

As the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth (CMPCC) opened April 19 at Tiquipaya, outside the central Bolivian city of Cochabamba, a controversy has emerged over an "eighteenth table" being demanded by Aymara indigenous leaders. While the CMPCC officially has 17 "tables" or working groups, dealing with issues such as indigenous rights and forestry, dissident Aymara leaders say they will hold a "Table 18" on social conflicts related to these questions. Bolivian Environmental Vice-minister Juan Pablo Ramos dismissed the demand. "In reality, there is no Table 18," he said, asserting that since it proposes discussion of Bolivia's "internal problems," it is therefore not appropriate to an international forum.