Peruvian miners began an open-ended strike on Nov. 5, affecting copper, tin, iron and zinc mines owned by Southern Copper Corp., Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., Newmont Mining Corp., Doe Run Resources Corp, Cia. de Minas Buenaventura SA, Minsur SA, Shougang Hierroperu, Cia. Minera Raura SA and Cia Minera Santa Luisa. Copper prices have gone up 10% on the international market this year, in part because of reductions in output caused by strikes in Peru (including a five-day national walkout in May), Chile and Mexico. Peru is the world's largest producer of silver; it comes in third in copper, zinc and tin production and fifth in gold production.

The US House of Representatives voted 285 to 132 on Nov. 8 to approve the Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA, or TLC for its initials in Spanish). The agreement, which eliminates tariffs and establishes new rules for foreign investment, was approved by Peru's Congress in June 2006. It still requires ratification by the US Senate, but the measure is expected to pass when it comes up for a vote the week of Nov. 12.

On Nov. 7 Chilean authorities suddenly moved prisoners José Huenchunao and Patricia Troncoso Robles to the hospital in Angol in Region IX, apparently because of the effects of a 28-day hunger strike. Along with three other prisoners—José Millalen, Jaime Marileo and Hector Llaitul—Huenchunao and Troncoso started an open-ended hunger strike on Oct. 10 to demand the release of more than 20 indigenous Mapuche activists they consider political prisoners; an end to the militarization of the traditional Mapuche territories; and an end to repression.

Spain's King Juan Carlos (now famously) told Hugo Chavez to "shut up" after the Venezuelan president repeatedly referred to former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar as a "fascist" at the Ibero-American Summit in Santiago, Chile, Nov. 10. (AP, Nov. 11) The following day, Chavez upped the ante by suggesting that Juan Carlos knew in advance of the abortive 2002 coup d'etat in Venezuela. Chavez asserted that Spain's ambassador had appeared at Venezuela's presidential palace during the two-day coup to support interim "president" Pedro Carmona—with the King's blessing. "Mr. King, did you know about the coup d'etat against Venezuela, against the democratic, legitimate government of Venezuela in 2002?" Chavez rhetorically asked at a news conference "It's very hard to imagine the Spanish ambassador would have been at the presidential palace supporting the coup-plotters without authorization from his majesty."

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)