A court in Trujillo, Peru, issued a ruling July 23 absolving former National Police colonel Elidio Espinoza and nine troops who served under him in the deaths of four suspected "delinquents" in the coastal city in 2007. Espinoza, who was accused of operating a "death squad" within the National Police, had been sentenced to life in prison by the Public Ministry, the branch of Judicial Power with authority over government officials, for the crimes of kidnapping, homicide, and abuse of authority. After the ruling was issued, Espinoza led his supporters in a public celebration in Trujillo's Plaza de Armas. (Peru21, RPP, July 23)

Peru's Vice-Ministry of Inter-Culturality (VMI) on July 12 issued a critical report temporarily blocking expansion of the country's biggest gas project and asserting that two "isolated" indigenous peoples living in the area could be made extinct if it goes ahead. The VMI report is a detailed review of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the planned expansion of the Camisea project in the southeast Amazon, which was written by the operating company, Pluspetrol, together with UK consultancy Environmental Resources Management (ERM). Approval of the EIA is currently pending by Peru's Ministry of Energy (MEM). According to the VMI, the health, "traditional economic activities" and ways of life of the indigenous peoples in "initial contact" and "voluntary isolation" would be severely impacted and two of them, the Nanti and the Kirineri, could be made "extinct."

The First Supra-provincial Court of Lima on July 30 issued an order of preventative detention against ex-lawmaker Nancy Obregón, on suspicion of narco-trafficking and "collaboration with terrorism." Obregón, who rose to prominence as a leader of peasant coca-growers, was taken into custody by troops of the National Anti-drug Directorate (DINANDRO), and turned over to judicial authorities for interrogation. Her case will then return to a judge who will decide whether she is to be held for the full 15 days permissible under Peruvian law.

On July 27, the day before Peru's independence day celebrations, the country's General Workers' Confederation (CGTP) and the activist network #Tomalacalle (Take the Streets) marched through the center of Lima, seizing avenues in defiance of riot police backed up with armored vehicles, to protest the new Civil Service Law passed earlier this month. CGTP secretary-general Mario Huamán pledges to launch a general civil strike in August to demand repeal of the law. The bill's passage in early July saw angry protests in cities throughout the country, with tear-gas used to disperse demonstrators in Arequipa and elsewhere. The law, introduced to Congress by President Ollanta Humala, limits collective bargaining for public-sector employees to work conditions and not wages, yet restricts the right to strike to only after "mediation or negotiation mechanisms have been exhausted." It also imposes strict evaluation measures the CGTP says threaten job security. Lawmaker Verónika Mendoza (Popular Action/Broad Front) is preparing a measure to have the law annulled as unconstitutional. (La Republica, July 28; Peru21, July 27; El Comercio, July 19; El Comercio, July 4; La Republica, July 3)

The Penal Chamber of Peru's Supreme Court on July 21 affirmed its acquittal of imprisoned former intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos of homicide charges related to the 1997 military raid on the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima after it was seized by guerillas of the now-defunct Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). Two commandos, one hostage, and all 14 of the guerillas were killed in the operation, code-named "Chavín de Huantar." Two commandos who oversaw the operaiton, Nicolás Hermoza Ríos and Roberto Huamán Azcurra, were also cleared of homicide charges in the ruling. The three had been acquitted last October, but prosecutors requested a review of the earlier ruling on the basis of forensic evidence. The high court admitted that at least one of the "terrorists" (as the guerrillas are almost universally refered to in Peru's press), Eduardo Cruz Sánchez AKA "Tito," had been "executed"—shot to the head after he had already surrendered to the commandos. But the court found that it could not be determined who shot him, or if orders were given for the killing.

July 22 was declared a Global Day of Action Against Mega-Mining, with protests held throughout the Andean nations under the banner "No to mining, yes to life." Among the most significant actions was a mobilization by local campesinos on the site of the Conga gold mining project in Peru's Cajamarca region, which was occupied by protesters carrying their giant green-woven Mother Earth flag. In Argentina, protests were reported from the mining-impacted regions of Chubut, Catamarca and Mendoza, with a solidarity march in Buenos Aires. (La Republica, Lima, Terra, Argentina, July 22) In the far south of Chile, the local Austral Defense Front marched in Punta Arenas to protest open-pit coal mining on nearby Riesco Island. (Radio Popular, Punta Arenas, July 22) In Maipú, on the outskirts of Santiago, residents marched to demand closure of the open-pit mine at Quebrada de la Plata they say is contaminating local drinking water. (Diario UChile, July 24)

Peru's Constitutional Tribunal on July 16 issued a decision ordering the government to honor debt owed for land confiscated under the agrarian reform that began in the 1960s. The ruling stated that the government must uphold a similar order issued by the nation's highest court in 2001, which has gone unenforced. The new ruling sets a timeline, saying the government must pay off the debt within 10 years, and that the Finance Ministry must issue a payment plan within six months. The issue sparked a public spat last week when President Ollanta Humala asked the court to refrain from issuing any rulings on "sensitive issues"—an obvious reference to the land compensation question—until the Congress votes on appointing six new members to the court. The court's president, Oscar Urviola, charged that Humala had overstepped his bounds by trying to order the court.

National Police troops in Peru's Cajamarca region opened fire July 6 on campesinos attempting to attend the public presentation of an environmental impact statement on the Chadín II hydro-electric project at the highland town of Celendín, witnesses said. According to a statement from the group Tierra y Libertad, nine were wounded when the troops fired on the opponents of the project who were trying to gain access to the public building where the meeting was being held. Marle Libaque Tasilla, a leader of the local ronda, or peasant self-defense patrol, and an organizer for Tierra y Libertad, said that among the injured is the noted Peruvian environmentalist Nicanor Alvarado Carrasco.