A "humanitarian caravan" from Bogotá arrived in Colombia's southern Andean department of Cauca June 28, bringing food and other aid to hundreds of indigenous campesinos who have been maintaining a protest encampment to prevent the military from establishing a new base at Tres Cruces, in a conflicted area of Miranda municipality. The caravan, which includes many international supporters from Europe and elsewhere, is being organized by former senator Piedad Córdoba's group Colombians for Peace. The same group on April 23 held a "Patriotic March" in Bogotá, attended by some 100,000, calling for a negotiated end to the conflict with the FARC guerillas. (AFP, El Espectador, Bogotá, June 28; FOR, June 1)

On his 50th birthday June 28, the day after presiding over a massive rally of his supporters in Lima's Plaza San Martín, Peru's President Ollanta Humala flew to Junín region to officiate over the unveiling of a water development project—where he offered comments on the conflict in northern Cajamarca region, now nearly one month into a civil strike to oppose the pending Conga gold mine project. He had words of admonition for Newmont Mining of Colorado that hopes to develop the project: "The mining companies sometimes do not understand the concept of social responsibility, and generate a lack of confidence." But calling on Newmont's local subsidiary Yanacocha to "comply with its commitments to win the confidence of the people," he also called on "all the leaders" of the region to enter into a dialogue—without specifically mentioning Cajamarca's regional president Gregorio Santos, a key figure of the movement against the mine. (La Republica, June 28; El Comercio, June 27) Protesters in Cajamarca meanwhile marked Humala's birthday by holding a mock funeral for him—marching through the city with a cross and casket marked with his name. (Caballero Verde, June 27)

In a second day of mobilization, some 20,000 informal gold miners from the communities of Rinconada, Lunar de Oro, Limbani and Phara filled the streets of the city of Puno in southern Peru, demanding that the regional government support their demands for "free sale" of gold—meaning a lifting of all government controls on its purchase and trade. Miners leader Víctor Mejía Chambi warned regional president Mauricio Rodrigues that "other methods" would be considered if their demands were not met. (Los Andes, RPP, June 26)

Venezuelan activist website APORREA reported June 23 the murder of Yukpa-Wayuu indigenous activist Alexander Fernández Fernández and two others, who were leaders of the Yukpa movement fighting for their land in Machiques de Perija municipality, Zulia state, near the Colombian border. The victims had been living on recovered land since December last year. Their families have stated that wealthy nearby ranchers wanted to invade the land, originally owned by the Yukpa people, and have accused the ranchers of being behind the crime. Fernández was briefly jailed with Yukpa chief Sabino Romero in 2010, in what their followers have labelled "political persecution."

On June 27, Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa, at a meeting in Quito with a delegation of the US-based activist group SOA Watch, made the announcement that Ecuador is ceasing to send soldiers to the School of the Americas, the US Army training facility that has officially been renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). Ecuador joins Venezuela, Uruguay, Argentina and Bolivia, who have likewise pulled out of the SOA/WHINSEC.

The Ninth Indigenous March, now camped at Yolosa on the edge of the Bolivian Altiplano, held a celebration June 21 of the Aymara New Year festival, Willkakuti or "Return of the Sun"—marking year 5520 in Aymara calendric reckoning. For the first time, the festival was jointly honored by the Aymara and indigenous peoples of Bolivia's Amazon lowlands who have joined together for the Ninth March under the respective leadership of the National Council of Ayllus and Markas (CONAMAQ) and the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of the Oriente of Bolivia (CIDOB). Leaders of the two groups pledged to renew their commitment to fight for the protection of Mother Earth and indigenous rights in both the Altiplano and Amazon. (CONAMAQ statement [PDF], June 21)

One protester was gravely hurt with a head injury as National Police attacked a demonstration against the planned Conga gold mine project in Peru's northern city of Cajamarca June 21. Seven were arrested as police unleashed tear gas, and protesters responded with sticks and hurled rocks. Authorities said five police officers were also injured in the confrontation in the city's Plaza Bolognes—which came as Cajamarca's regional president Gregorio Santos was leading a rally against the mine in the city's Plaza de Armas, just a few blocks away. (El Comercio, June 21) When two rights attorneys—Genoveva Gómez of the Defensoría del Pueblo (human rights ombudsman) and Amparo Abando of the National Human Rights Coordinator— entered at city's National Police headquarters to inquire after the seven detained, they were themselves attacked by police, both suffering bruises. (Celendin Libre, June 22)

A mutiny by rank-and-file National Police demanding higher wages spread across Bolivia on June 22, with an estimated 4,000 officers occupying barracks. The mutiny began the previous night, when some 30 officers and their wives seized control of the barracks of the elite anti-riot force (UTOP), just a block from the presidential palace in La Paz. Striking officers also sacked and set fire to furniture and documents at a police office in downtown La Paz that processes disciplinary complaints. Officers quickly joined the protest in major cities including Santa Cruz, Cochabamba and Oruro, demanding direct talks with President Evo Morales. The president returned early from the UN climate summit in Brazil to deal with the crisis, and is currently in the palace, protected by rifle-weilding military police.