Nine informal miners were rescued April 11 after six days trapped in a tunnel at the Cabeza de Negro copper mine in Yauca del Rosario district, Ica province, Peru. President Ollanta Humala was on hand to greet them as they emerged—and in his public comments said the incident pointed to the dangers of informal mines. He said that informal mining companies that operate outside the law are "exploiting" workers, and that he will instruct the Public Ministry to toughen measures against them. The Cabeza de Negro mine was abandoned more than 20 years ago, but its entrance had never been dynamited as the law prescribes. In recent years, informal miners re-entered the tunnel, selling the copper on the gray market that is widely tolerated. Media reports emphasized that the miners were trapped by a cave-in triggered by an explosion they themselves had set. (AP, RPP, Andina, El Periodico.com, Spain, April 11)

Colombia's FARC guerillas responded to reports that they have been weakened, and asserted that the rebels' "struggle for a socialist Colombia" is legitimized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In a video recorded on March 24 and published on YouTube two days later, FARC commander Luciano Marín Arango AKA "Iván Márquez" said "there exists no end to the guerrilla as propagandized by the pawns of the trans-nationalization of the economy of Colombia. What does exist is an intense political and military confrontation and a growing mobilization of the social sectors." The guerrilla leader rejected the FARC's international label as terrorist organization, claiming that "the revolutionary violence, the rebellion against unjust and tyrannic regimes is an irrevocable universal right."

An estimated 3,000 dead dolphins have washed up on the coast of northern Peru so far this year—an average of 30 per day, and the mysterious die-off shows no sign of slowing. The mass wash-ups were first reported by the Association of Artisanal Fishers in Puerto Eten, Lambayeque. In the past days, over 480 carcasses have washed up in the Chaparrí Ecological Reserve. Carlos Yaipen of the Organization for Conservation of Aquatic Animals (ORCA) says he believes use of "marine bubble" technology in offshore oil exploration is responsible. "The oil companies use different frequencies of acoustic waves and the effects produced by these bubbles are not plainly visible, but they generate effects later in the animals," he told Peru21 newspaper. "That can cause death by acoustic impact, not only in dolphins, but also in marine seals and whales."

Troops have been mobilized to Peru's northern Andean region of Cajamarca ahead of an announced resumption of the civil strike there in opposition to the Conga gold mining project. Especially militarized are the outlying provinces of Celendín and Hualgayoc, where the project is slated, with some 1,000 National Police agents and 500 army troops having occupied strategic positions in the town centers. While the Cajamarca regional government is strongly backing the protest call, the provincial governments seem to be cooperating with the security forces. In Celendín, provincial authorities have made a sports arena available to the troops as a staging ground, according to Milton Sánchez of the local civil coalition, the Celendina Inter-institutional Platform. An unused jail in Hualgayoc's provincial capital Bambamarca has been similarly opened, according to Edy Benavides, leader of the Hualgayoc Defense Front. Both groups issued statements protesting the troop presence. Stressing the peaceful nature of the struggle, Benavides said, "We do not accept the militarization in our zone, because it has no justifiable reason."

On April 2 the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) released the last members of the security forces they were holding captive—a group of 10, who have been held for more than 12 years. They were handed over in a joint operation orchestrated by the Colombian and Brazilian governments, the Red Cross, and activist group Colombians for Peace. The men were picked up in a Brazilian military helicopter, and taken from the jungle to the city of Villavicencio, Meta department, where they were reunited with relatives, appearing before TV cameras waving Colombian flags and punching the air. Afterwards they were flown to Bogotá, where President Juan Manuel Santos gave a speech welcoming their return.

A Colombian judge overturned the conviction of a FARC commander March 29 for his alleged role in a 1998 massacre in which 17 civilians were killed. The judge in northeastern Arauca department ruled it was unlawful to sentence Germán Suárez Briceno AKA "Grannobles" for the deaths of civilians in a Colombian Air Force (FAC) response to the slaying of nine soldiers by Grannobles and his men. Grannobles continues to face charges for the killings of the soldiers. Authorities investigated the bombing, known as the Santo Domingo Massacre, and the FAC was ordered to pay compensation to the victims' families. The Colombian government has appealed a decision by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) to force the state to compensate the victims, claiming the FARC was guilty of the civilian deaths. (Colombia Reports, March 30)

It made at least brief international headlines March 26 when Colombia's military announced it had killed 36 FARC fighters in the pre-dawn bombing of a guerrilla camp in Vista Hermosa, Meta department. Five days earlier, the armed forces claimed to have killed 33 fighters in ground fighting and air attacks in Arauca—near the area of Arauquita municipality where 11 soldiers had been killed in a FARC ambush on March 17. The claimed deaths come just as the FARC says it is preparing to free its last hostages. Armed forces chief Gen. Alejandro Navas dismissed suggestions that the military attacks could delay the releases, saying the strikes fall within the "rules of the conflict." (AP, March 26; WSJ, March 21; Secugo, March 18)

On March 20, Peru's Nobel Laureate in literature and sometime right-wing politician Mario Vargas Llosa gave the opening address at an elite forum, "Latin America: Opportunities and Challenges," convened at the University of Lima by the Fundación Internacional para la Libertad, making proud front-page coverage in Lima's La Republica. Vargas Llosa intoned against the "temptation of populism [and] dictatorship"—as if the two are inevitable concomitants. He called for solidarity with the (right-wing) opposition in Venezuela, and hailed the presidential candidacy of Mexico's (right-wing) Josefina Vázquez Mota, who was in attendance. Taking open glee in the ill health of Hugo Chávez, he acclaimed the "light at the end of the tunnel" in Venezuela. That much is all quite predictable...