Peru: environmental defenders still dying
Murders of indigenous leaders in Peru continue, despite government promises to improve protections. Those who seek to defend their land and protect the local environment are targeted by illegal loggers, miners and drug traffickers.
Two men missing in The Amazon ‘wild-west’
The Javari reserve in Amazonas, where Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira disappeared, is a wild-west border region with multiple problems of drug trafficking, smuggling and land grabbing.
Tomasa Tito Condemayta depicted in new film
Whilst Túpac Amaru II is hailed as the hero of the 1780 Andean Rebellion against the Spanish in Peru, little is known about Tomasa Tito Condemayta. Maria Herrera Badell's new short film is a ‘false’ documentary with truth at its heart.
Ecuador: Intag stands up to mining
Intag communities in Ecuador are resisting development of a copper mine at Llurimagua, proposed by Enami and Codelco. In Peru, residents of Aquia, Ancásh, accuse the Antamina mine of encroaching on their land without consultation.
Mining: democracy comes from the street
Protests at Chubut in Argentina highlight the importance of pressure from the streets to force local officials to hold the line against destructive mine development. In Brazil, meanwhile, it is the trans-Brazil FIOL railway project that is mobilising communities to defend their land and livelihoods.
Peru’s grim Covid record
Why did Peru suffer 200,000 deaths in a population of less than 33 million?
Peru: teachers and social justice
A prolonged and bitter teachers' strike in Peru in 2017 was about much wider social discontents and eventually brought militant strikers' leader Pedro Castillo victory in the country's presidential elections.
Chile: BHP forced to halt mining
It's not all plain sailing for mining companies. Communities at Cerro Colorado in Chile have put up stiff opposition to BHP, whose mine threatens water supplies from a key a key aquifer. And peasants in Huamachuco, Peru, staged a massive protest against mining in their province.
Abimael Guzman: death of the ‘fourth sword’
The death in prison of 86 year-old Abimael Guzmán, the self-styled ‘President Gonzalo’ who was the leader of Peru’s Sendero Luminoso guerrilla group marks the end of the most violent chapter of that country’s recent history. LAB’s Nick Caistor looks back at Guzmán’s life and its impact on Peru.
Stepping softly on the earth
A new film from Marcos Colón interviews indigenous leaders from across the Amazon whose thinking could transform our world as modern extraction and exploitation tip us further towards chaos and the destruction of the planet