From the Reporters Without Borders, Nov. 9:

Coca grower leader threatens to kill five journalists
Reporters Without Borders today condemned death threats made against five journalists in the northwestern province of Tocache by Sergio Gonzales Apaza, the leader of the "Saúl Guevara Díaz" group of cocaleros (coca growers). The cocaleros have been on strike since 2 November in protest against the eradication of their crops by the government, which accuses them of cooperating with drug traffickers.

Three days before the Nov. 7 opening of the Ibero-American Summit in Santiago, a hacker broke into the website of Chile's presidency and planted the flag of Peru, leaving the site inoperable for some 18 hours. AP reports the intruder left a message—"Long live Peru," followed by "an expletive." Chile's less squeamish Noticias 123 identifies the full epithet as "Viva el Perú, mierda" (Long live Peru, you shit). AP helpfully informs us: "The Santiago daily El Mercurio on Monday reported that officials believe the hacker was a Peruvian." (No, ya think?) The move comes as officials are taking steps to redress Peru's long-standing grievances against its southern neighbor. BBC reports Nov. 7 that Chile has returned 3,778 books—many dating back to the 16th century—to Peru's national library, which was pillaged by Chilean soldiers during their 1881 occupation of Lima. BBC smarmily notes, "there was no talk of a fine." Peru lost territory to Chile in the 1879-83 War of the Pacific, and Bolivia lost access to the sea.

On Oct. 29 some 300,000 campesinos who cultivate coca in 18 of Peru's valleys began an open-ended strike to protest the failure of the government of President Alan Garcia to comply with the Tocache Document, in which it promised to register coca growers (cocaleros) and to end the destruction of coca crops. The strikers were members of the National Confederation of Farm and Livestock Producers of the Cocalero Basins of Peru. Campesinos blocked the Federico Basadre highway, in Ucayali department, and several sections of the Marginal highway in the Pucallpa region northeast of Lima.

Peru is sending a force of 100 national police to what has been declared a zona cocalera (coca-growing zone) in Apurímac region to hunt down suspected Shining Path guerrillas who killed a police commander and wounded an officer in a grenade attack there Nov. 2. Some 30 presumed Senderistas attacked the district police station in Ocobamba, Chincheros province, in what authorities say was an attempt to recover 82 kilos of cocaine which had been confiscated by police some 15 days earlier. Said Interior Minister Luis Alva: "Narcoterrorists always try to show force like this. It's an area where there are terrorists and drugs traffickers, and this happened because, in the last few days, we've been working in the area and seizing drugs." Several days before the attack, the government said it feared powerful Mexican drug syndicates, including the Sinaloa Cartel, were starting to operate in Peru. (Living in Peru, Reuters, Nov. 2)

Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse student protesters who turned out by the tens of thousands in Caracas Nov. 1 to protest constitutional reforms that would permit Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to run for re-election indefinitely. Chanting "Freedom! Freedom!," protesters marched on the National Electoral Council (CNE) to deliver a document calling for the referendum on the reforms, scheduled for Dec. 2, to be postponed. Authorities broke up the protest outside the CNE headquarters, where six police officers and one student were reported injured. Protesters said the 69 amendments drafted by Venezuela's Chavista-dominated National Assembly would derail democracy. But as the march passed through the poorer area of Parque Central, the protest was met with spontaneous cries from Chavez supporters of "Chavez is not going" and "They will not return"—a reference to the political leaders of the pre-Chavez era. (AP, Nov. 3; VenezuelAnalysis, Nov. 2)

Bolivian President Evo Morales is facing converging crises on multiple fronts—from South American neighbors, from the Colossus of the North, and from internal opposition. Peru is seeking the extradition of Walter Chavez, a top adviser to Morales' successful 2005 campaign, on terrorism charges related to accusations that he extorted businessmen on behalf of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). Chavez, a Peruvian former journalist, has lived in Bolivia since 1992 and was granted political asylum there in 1998. (Reuters, Oct. 26)

Ten prostitutes in the Bolivian highland city of El Alto sewed their lips together Oct. 24 as part of a hunger strike to demand that the mayor reopen brothels and bars ordered closed after angry protests by residents. Some 30 more are participating in the hunger strike, fasting inside a local medical clinic. "We are fighting for the right to work and for our families' survival," Lily Cortez, leader of the Asociación de Trabajadoras Nocturnas de El Alto (Association of Nighttime Workers of El Alto), told local television. "Tomorrow we will bury ourselves alive if we are not immediately heard. The mayor will have his conscience to answer to if there are any grave consequences, such as the death of my comrades." Prostitution is legal and government-regulated in Bolivia, but El Alto Mayor Fanor Nava says he is responding to a popular mandate in his move to shut the brothels. The sex workers are also demanding an investigation into recent arson attacks on bars and brothels in the city, and have threatened to march naked through the streets of La Paz, the nearby national capital. (Reuters; La Gaceta, Tucumán, Argentina, Oct. 25; AFP; La Razón, La Paz, Oct. 24)

The Colombian armed forces committed 955 extrajudicial executions between July 2002 and June 2007, according an investigation [online at Latin America Working Group] carried out by a coalition of 11 Colombian human rights organizations and released this month. Of these killings only two have resulted in a judicial conviction. The number of killings by Colombia's armed forces represents a 65% increase over the previous five-year period from 1997 to 2002.