Activists from Rainforest Action Network and Forest Ethics gathered on June 19 to protest the Canadian-American Business Council’s forum on energy and environment in Washington DC. About thirty protesters held signs outside, while two dressed up as industry representatives and snuck into the meeting. During the keynote address, the protesters unfurled banners blasting the Canadian [...]

Giving the lie to its earlier claims that it was impossible to repeal the contested decrees that sparked 70 days of protests and blockades throughout the country’s Amazon region, the Peruvian government rescinded two of those laws on June 18th.
The protests started after President Alan Garcia passed 10 laws by presidential decree that would open [...]

Fourteen people were arrested on June 18 in a protest meant to launch a week of action against mountaintop removal coal mining in West Virginia. Four people climbed a 150-foot dragline at a mine site near Twilight, WV, and unfurled a banner reading, “Stop Mountaintop Removal Mining”. Another 9 entered the mine site to unfurl [...]

Attracting less attention in light of the full-fledged  uprising that has consumed Peru’s Amazon region for 70 days, a mine blockade is ongoing in the country’s highlands. On June 10th, miners launched roadblocks at the Buenaventura mining company’s Orcopampa gold mine in Peru, in protest of poor labor conditions and the mine’s impact on local [...]

June 15th-19th
Rising Tide North America is calling for a week of action starting Monday June 15th to show solidarity with the indigenous tribes resisting Peru’s attempt to open their lands to the oil, gas, and logging industries.
Last week over 85 people were killed by Peruvian police while protesting the governments plans revoke protections for traditional [...]

Following is a list of some upcoming (North American) protests in solidarity with the indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon, who are facing murderous repression in a two-month mobilization against laws that would open their territories to increased exploitation.
For a list of protests outside the American continent, see here. Remember that June 11 is the [...]

The results are starting to be felt from Ecuador’s controversial new mining law, which opened the country to large-scale metal mining. Codelco — Chile’s state copper company and the world’s largest copper miner — has been given permission to explore south-central Ecuador for copper deposits.
Background:
South American Mine Resistance (Jan 29, 2009)
“Responsible Mining is a Miserable [...]

Recent reports indicate as many as 84 people killed and 150 arrested in clashes stemming from an early morning violent raid by police on unarmed protesters on June 5. Police are reported to be burning the bodies of the dead and dumping them into the river.
Astonishingly — but not surprisingly — the government is accusing [...]

***Please Disseminate This Alert Widely***
Background
Early this morning (June 5th), Peruvian police launched a violent attack on a nonviolent road blockade held by Amazonian indigenous protesters opposing 10 laws that would open up their territory to increased mineral, oil, gas and timber exploitation. Police opened fire with live ammunition, killing at least 28 people (see below).
Why [...]

As many as 30 protesters were arrested by Panamanian police acting in conjunction with the Petaquilla Gold company in late May. The protesters, indigenous campesinos, were taking part in a roadblock against the expropriation and destruction of their lands for the Petaquilla Gold Mine. Police used tear gas, batons and other weapons to beat and [...]