News stories by Milagros Salazar, page 7

An energy deal that Peru and Brazil signed this week in the Amazon city of Manaus in Brazil is opposed by environmentalists and local indigenous communities in Peru where the planned hydroelectric dams will be built. What is at stake?

Peru's proposal to curb military spending in Latin America is weakening as the 40th General Assembly of the Organisation of American States (OAS) comes to an end, undermined by wariness on the part of some governments and by nationalist interests, according to experts.

Not only do Latin America and the Caribbean collect less tax revenue than any other region in the world, in spite of positive economic growth this decade, but national tax systems are unfair, as they rely heavily on indirect taxes that are levied equally on rich and poor, according to a new study by ECLAC.

The governments of Latin America and the Caribbean asked ECLAC Tuesday to come up with a new set of criteria so middle-income countries are not excluded from official development assistance. They also called for greater South-South cooperation.

Indigenous peoples in Peru finally have a law that obliges the state to consult them about any project or provision that affects their territory or communities. But it will be difficult to implement, as the body charged with this task is in need of reforms, and additional legislation is needed before it can be fully enforced.

One of the three public hearings held this week in Lima by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights discussed the responsibility of the Paraguayan state for violations of the right of indigenous communities to collective ownership of their land.

In response to a government promise to negotiate, small-scale gold miners in southern Peru temporarily called off protests Wednesday in which six people were killed and as many as 30 injured when the police attempted to clear a roadblock.

A 200-km oil pipeline that Franco-British oil group Perenco aims to build in the heart of Peru's Amazon jungle region is at the centre of a controversy because of the reported existence of uncontacted native groups in the area.

Peru is enthusiastically espousing free trade, and has signed six tariff-lowering agreements in the space of a year. But it has not matched them with the internal policies needed to reduce their impact on labour rights, the environment, and sensitive areas like agriculture, social organisations and experts say.

Although the Peruvian government reported that it had suspended the exploration activities of the Afrodita mining company in the country's northern Amazon jungle region to avoid further protests by local indigenous people, officials took no actual steps to bring the firm's work to a halt.