Citing a lack of clear response from Peru's government, a group of some 50 apus (traditional leaders) of indigenous peoples in the Pastaza and Corrientes watersheds on July 18 suspended dialogue in the "consultation" process over expansion of oil operations at Bloc 192, in the northern Amazon region of Loreto. For the past 15 years, the bloc has been under development by PlusPetrol, but next month the government is take bids on its expansion over the next 30 years. Pacific Rubiales and Perenco as well as PlusPetrol are expected to place bids. Indigenous organizations FEDIQUEP and FECONACO have been in talks over the expansion with agencies including PeruPetro, the Culture Ministry, the Mines & Energy Ministry, and the General Directorate of Environmental and Energy Issues (DGAAE). FECONACO president Carlos Sandi charged, "The State seeks to repeat that same history of 45 years of oil exploitation," which for rainforest communities has meant "45 years of oil pollution." Added Magdalena Chino of FEDIQUEP: "Mother Earth is suffering, her breast has gone dry and she is crying for us; the animals are missing... It is easy to make standards that destroy us, but when it comes to making standards to protect us, they say it is too difficult." A representative of the Culture Ministry categorically denied negotiating in bad faith. (Diario Uno, July 20; El Comercio, July 19; Observatorio Petrolero, July 18; RPP, June 25)

A controversial mega-project to build a transcontinental railway through the Amazon basin has caused outrage among indigenous people and advocacy groups. UK-based Survival International charges that the rail project, backed by the Chinese government, would cross through many indigenous territories and areas of high biodiversity across the rainforest in Peru and Brazil, opening them to industrial exploitation, illegal mining and logging, and peasant colonization. Survival warns that "uncontacted tribes" would face devastation from invasions into their lands, calling these peoples "the most vulnerable societies on the planet." Whole populations could be wiped out by violence from outsiders and by diseases like flu and measles to which they have no resistance.

Peru's authorities can't seem to put out the last flicker of the Sendero Luminoso insurgency. A generation ago, the Maoist guerillas seemed capable of toppling the government but are now largely confined to a remote pocket of jungle known as the Apurímac-Ene-Mantaro River Valley (VRAEM). But that happens to be a top coca cultivation zone, affording the insurgency access to funds. Now, authorities claim to have uncovered evidence that the neo-Senderistas are in league with one of the re-organized Colombian cocaine cartels, ironically known as the "Cafeteros" (coffee-producers). "For the first time in an objective and concrete manner, the state can corroborate the link between drug trafficking and terrorism in the VRAEM," Ayacucho regional anti-drug prosecutor Mery Zuzunaga told Cuarto Poder TV.

One was killed at some 200 reported injured when police fired on striking miners blocking a highway near the Shougang Hierro Perú iron mine at Marcona, Nazca province, in Peru's coastal region of Ica on May 25. At least one other worker suffered a bullet wound. Videos aired on media in Peru show workers chanting "no disparen, no disparen" (don't shoot, don't shoot) at the National Police troops. The strike was called by the FNTMMSP union federation to oppose the layoff of more than 80 workers by subcontractor Coopsol. Strikers were also pressing community demands for reduced electricity rates and a potable water project. All 963 workers at the mine took part in the strike, and the company has not brought contract workers to replace them while talks with the FNTMMSP are ongoing. The FNTMMSP on May 18 called a national strike to protest recent government decrees that allow greater use of subcontractors in the mining sector. The FNTMMSP called off the national strike on May 27. (FNTMMSP, May 27; Correo, Revolution News, LAHT, May 25; Reuters, May 18) 

The government of Peru on May 23 declared a two-month period of martial law in the southern region of Arequipa where residents are protesting the construction of a copper mine. Martial law allows police to enter homes without search warrants, as well as to break up protests and meetings. Southern Copper Corporation plans to build a copper mine known as Tia Maria for $1.4 billion, which residents strongly feel will contaminate the water and air in the region, and will be detrimental to the local farming economy. Protests have continued for over two months and often turn violent, even after the government approved the company's environmental study last year that claimed the company could operate a clean mine. The government had already sent in over 4,000 police officers and 1,000 soldiers to the area to control the protests, which have resulted in the deaths one police officer and three protesters. José Ramos Carrera, mayor of Punta de Bombon, stated that the martial law declaration "shows is that the government wants the mine to go ahead at all costs."

China's Premier Li Keqiang, on a tour of South America, is plugging a transcontinental railway project that would cut through the heart of the Amazon rainforest. Last year, President Xi Jinping signed a memorandum on the project with the governments of Brazil and Peru, and Li is now pressing for an actual feasibility study. According to an interactive map on Diálogo Chino website, the "Twin Ocean Railroad" or "Transcontinental Railroad" would start at Porto do Açu in Rio de Janeiro state, and cut through the Brazilian states of Goiás, Mato Grosso and Rondônia. It would terminate at Puerto Ilo in Peru's southern Moquegua region.

Grupo Mexico's Southern Copper Corp on May 15 announced a 60-day halt in its huge Tia Maria project in southern Peru's Arequipa region following seven weeks of escalating protests in which three people have been killed and more than 200 injured. Company president Oscar Gonzalez said in a statement that the "pause" would let all sides air concerns and "identify solutions." Protesters in Cocachacra, the center of the conflict in Islay province, say they have no intention of backing down from their demand that the $1.4 billion project be canceled. Peru's President Ollanta Humala said canceling the project would expose the country to lawsuits and make it less attractive to investors.

It has been making practically no headlines outside Peru, and hardly any within, but a force of US Marines has apparently been mobilized to the Andean country—specifically to the conflicted coca-growing jungle region known as the VRAE, or Valley of the Apurímac and Ene Rivers. Peru's Congress quietly approved the deployment in a resolution Jan. 29. The first contingent of 58 soldiers arrived on Feb. 1, and a second of 67 troops on Feb. 15. They are to stay for a year on what is being called a "training" mission. A much larger contingent is to arrive in September, a total to 3,200 Marines, for a six-day joint exercise with Peruvian forces. (Defensa.com, Feb. 19)