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 [...]

No surprise here: Brazil has approved the environmental permit for the Jirau Dam on the Madeira River, the Amazon’s largest tributary. Along with the planned San Antonio Dam, the Jirau forms the 6,450 MW Madeira River Hydroelectric Complex. This complex is intended to supply power for mining, metal processing and agriculture, and to ease river [...]

A massive indigenous mobilization in the Peruvian Amazon is nearing its second month, with no sign that the native protesters will allow themselves to be intimidated into giving up on their demands.
Thousands of indigenous protesters have blockaded critical infrastructure in Peru’s Amazon region since April 9, when they declared a national strike in protest of [...]

The company Doe Run has shut down its smelter in the Peruvian city of La Oroya. The smelter is responsible for making La Oroya one of the 10 most polluted cities in the world, leading to astonishing rates of birth defects and other health problems for the inhabitants.
The Peruvian government recently mandated that Doe Run [...]

17 people were arrested in three separate anti-coal protests in West Virginia on May 23.  In the first, eight people were arrested for hanging a “Never Again” banner and locking down to a dump truck at a mountaintop removal mine on Kayford Mountain. In the second, two were arrested for boating onto the Brushy Fork [...]

A couple of us recently did an interview with Healing the Earth radio, out of Guelph, Ontario. The interview is available for listening or download at:
Healing the Earth
Rabble.ca
We talked about the Root Force analysis and strategy, how infrastructure projects are interconnected, how to oppose infrastruture in the climate of  “economic stimulus,” and more. Check it [...]

For more than a month, indigenous groups in the Peruvian Amazon have been maintaining blockades of roads, rivers, airports and oil and gas pipelines to protest a series of new laws that would lead to increased industrial exploitation of their territories. The decrees were passed in accordance with the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement.
An estimated 13,000 [...]