July 8: Ten Ecuadorians were arrested while protesting plans for the private Hidrotambo hydroelectric dam along the Dulcepamba river in Chillanes canton, Bolivar province. The arrests came after a six-month land occupation in opposition to the dam. (Got any more info on this? Let us know! This came only from a brief mention in a longer article about Ecuador and press release from November).

UPDATE: Thanks to those who sent us more information on the project! We have placed it in a separate post, here.

July 8-10: Two Peruvian peasant and agrarian organizations called for national days of protest to voice a wide range of grievances with the government. This overlapped with a July 9 national strike called for by a worker’s confederation.

The nationwide protests, strikes and blockades were met with a fierce government response, including the mobilization of the military and 100,000 police officers.

While most press reports have focused on most protesters’ demands for more equitable wealth distribution and an end to neoliberal policies, Amazon tribes also formed a significant component of the protests. Among these tribes’ key demands were respect for their collective rights and opposition to exploitation of their territories by industries such as mining, oil exploration and tree farming. They also objected to proposed laws that would allow the government to terminate collective indigenous landholdings and sell them to private owners.

July 22ish: The Brazilian government announced that it was abandoning plans for three of four dams on the Xingu River, in a move explicitly described as a political attempt to placate both dam opponents and advocates. Once the still-on-the-table Belo Monte Dam gets built, however, nothing would prevent the government from reintroducing plans for the other three. In fact, studies suggest that Belo Monte would not be economically feasible without the other dams — suggesting that the plan is indeed to move forward with them at a later date.

The Xingu dams have drawn a great deal of opposition on both legal grounds and from indigenous nations whose territory would be flooded or degraded if they go through. They are part of a much larger plan to scale up Brazil’s energy infrastructure through the construction of massive hydroelectric and nuclear plants.

July 28: Communities along Panama’s Río Mamoní issued a statement of opposition to the government’s proposal to construct the El Salto hydroelectric dam on the river, stating that “The Mamoní River is not negotiable for this or for any other project that runs against the natural character of our River…. Our communities are ready to take the struggle to the ultimate sacrifice in order to prevent this project from being approved.”