By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

LIMA, Peru – Large shafts of Peru’s Amazonian rainforests are disappearing every day, turned from once pristine virgin rainforest ecosystems, home to countless animal and plant species, have been turned into fragmented forests and mercury poisoned wastelands. This devastating deforestation trend is driven by illegal gold mining operations in Peru, a practice dependent on the use of toxins like mercury, a neurotoxin used to bind gold found in natural deposits. The ruined wastelands scar the southeastern region of Madre de Dios, a region high in biodiversity whose unique natural environment attacks scientists interested in studying the area for its future pharmaceutical and scientific potential as well as eco-tourists whose visits help support the region’s economy. The practice of illegal mining is devastating to the local indigenous community, who live in voluntary isolation deep within the Amazonian forests.

Over the past decade, mining has denuded 230 square miles (595 square kilometers) of forest in the Madre de Dios region, poisoning the critical watershed. A study released last year, led by the Carnegie Institution for Science, found that 76.5 percent of people in the region had mercury levels above acceptable limits. Illegal mining is the second largest cause of deforestation in Peru, behind clear-cutting for agricultural development, Environmental Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal said. “It is terrible for the nearly irremediable wounds it causes to the forest,” he said.

Rainforests serve as large scale natural carbon seeks, absorbing and holding atmospheric carbon dioxide, which make these ecosystem’s important natural mitigation tool for global climate change. Peru is home to the second-largest area of the Amazonian rainforest, after Brazil. According to the findings of new research conducted by the Carnegie Institute for Science (CIS) the Peruvian rainforests stores nearly seven billion metric tons of carbon stocks, mostly in its Amazon rainforest which is higher than The United States’ annual carbon emissions for 2013 which were calculated at 5.38 billion tons. However, according to Greg Asner, the project “found that nearly a billion metric tons of above-ground carbon stocks in Peru are at imminent risk of emission into the atmosphere due to land uses such as fossil fuel oil exploration, cattle ranching, oil palm plantations and gold mining.”

Deforestation and land conversion account for about 40 percent of Peru’s greenhouse gas emissions. The Peruvian government has vowed to halt deforestation by 2021, and Norwegian in September pledged $300 million toward that goal. However, Peru’s stewardship and conservation efforts have come under scrutiny by environmentalists as deforestation appears to be on the rise in the country. Despite the government’s crackdown on illegal minge smuggling has continued to proliferate in the country as smugglers move to bring illegal gold across the border into Bolivia for export to the United States.

The United Nations will host the 20^th session of the Conference of the Parties e to the Kyoto Protocol to United Nations Convention on Climate Change will be held from December 1 to 12 December and is being hosted by the Government of Peru, in Lima.

For more information please see:

U.S. News and World Report – Scarred, poisoned wasteland highlights Peru’s challenges in halting deforestation – 2 December 2014

Reuters – FEATURE-Peru crackdown on illegal gold leads to new smuggling routes – 25 November 2014

The Guardian – Peru’s forests store more CO2 than US emits in a year, research shows – 7 November 2014

The United Nations Convention on Climate Change – Lima Climate Change Conference – December 2014 – December 2014

By Delisa Morris

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Earlier this week Argentina officials passed a bill that required every piece of Argentinian transportation to have a sign that says “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” or “the Falkand Islands are Argentine”.

A diplomatic source said Argentina’s choice to display the signs laying claim to the islands are “regrettable”.

The Argentine MP behind the initiative said it would “reflect our undeniable sovereignty” over the territory.  The idea was introduced along with a number of other public transportation reforms which were passed unanimously on Thursday.

Senator Teresina Luna, the member of Congress who proposed the new regulation, wrote to the president of the parliament to say: “It is directed not only at the foreigner who comes here as a tourist or visits our country, but also at the citizens in general, and will serve to reinforce our history, our culture and our identity.”

President Cristina Fernandez’s government has often raised the issue of sovereignty over the islands known in Spanish as Las Malvinas.

Argentina lays claim on the islands, which it calls Las Malvinas, but Britain maintains that it ha sovereignty and has accused Argentina of ignoring the wishes of its residents who desire to remain British.  Argentina lost a brief, bloody 1982 war with Britain over the South Atlantic archipelago and still claims the islands.  Argentina claims Britain has illegally occupied the islands since 1833.

Recently, an angry mob erupted when Jeremy Clarkson was spotted driving through Argentina with a number plate H982 FKL which some claimed a reference to the Falklands War.

The Top Gear cast and crew had to flee the South American country after they were attacked by an angry mob, which Clarkson described as ‘the most terrifying thing I’ve ever been involved in.’

Last year, Falkland islanders took part in a referendum, voting by 1,513 to three to remain a British overseas territory.  The island consists of about 3,000 residents.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said at the time that the result “could not have sent a clearer message” but Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has maintained that the islanders’ wishes are not relevant.

The source added: “No sign can change the rights of the Falkland islanders to their own identity and we are determined to uphold that right.”

The measure was approved by the lower house of congress after getting approval from the Senate.  It applies to all forms of public transportation whether rail, air, land or sea.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Falkland Islands are Argentine signs ‘regrettable’ – 21 Nov. 2014

news.com.au – Falkland orders for Argentine transport – 21 Nov. 2014

Daily mail – Argentina passes law stating that all public transport and stations must display the words ‘The Falklands are Argentina’ – 20 Nov. 2014

SanLuisObispo.com – Public transport to say ‘The Falklands are Argentine’ – 20 Nov. 2014

By Delisa Morris

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Colombia — President Juan Manuel Santos suspended peace talks in Cuba this week, which are quickly approaching their second year, amid the kidnapping of General Ruben Dario Alzate.

Today, Colombian Marxist rebels agreed to release General Alzate.  Colombians hope that this will diffuse the situation and resume the peace talks to end conflict that has spanned over five decades.  The rebel forces, also known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) also agreed to release four other captives, that have been captured in the past two weeks.

President Juan Manuel Santos’s office responded immediately to the announcement, pledging to resume talks as soon as the hostages are free.

Alzate and two others were seized on Sunday by a FARC patrol as they left a boat in the poor and crime-ridden coastal region of Choco, prompting Santos to halt talks and throwing into doubt the two-year peace process under way in Cuba.

Just days earlier, the rebels had kidnapped two soldiers in eastern Arauca department.

“The government will give its total collaboration to guarantee the safe return of these people to their homes, which we hope will be in the shortest time possible,” Santos’s office said in a brief statement.

“Once they are all free, the government’s delegation will return to Havana.”

The FARC’s decision to release the captives may counter critics of the peace process who say the rebels are not serious about ending Latin America’s longest-running war, which has killed more than 200,000 people since it began in 1964.

The suspension of talks is the most serious setback to peace efforts after months of complicated discussions resulted in partial accords on three out of five agenda items.

Wednesday, the FARC defended the negotiations aimed at ending the half-century conflict. A FARC commander best known by his alias Ivan Marquez said the biggest achievement so far is a growing sense of reconciliation among Colombians.

The two sides have already reached agreements on agrarian reform, political participation for the FARC and how to jointly combat illicit drugs in what was long the world’s largest cocaine producer.

But the remaining issues, including how the FARC will lay down their arms and whether commanders will face prosecution for atrocities and drug-trafficking, are some of the thorniest.

The most recent peace process with the FARC collapsed in 2002 after the group used the breathing room of a demilitarized zone to build its fighting force, intensify its cocaine trafficking, and take hostages.

The final straw came when the FARC boarded a commercial plane and seized a senator, who was held captive for six years.

For more information, please see:

ABC News – Colombia Rebel-Held General a Bookish Strategist – 20 Nov. 2014

BBC News – Colombia kidnap: Farc agrees conditions for release – 19 Nov. 2014

ABC News – Colombia, Rebels Agree on Steps to Free General – 19 Nov. 2014

Reuters – Colombia rebels to free general, opening door to resume peace talks – 20 Nov. 2014

By Delisa Morris

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LIMA, Peru — In less than two weeks Peru will host a key global climate conference.  However, the country has again come under fire for failing to protect activists who were murdered in an attempt to save the country’s quickly diminishing rainforest and other ecosystems.

According to the NGO Global Witness, the South American country has become the fourth most dangerous state in the world for environmental and land defenders.  The NGO also accused Peru’s government of placing too much emphasis on exploitation of the land opposed to conservation.

In a recent report at least 57 activists have been killed in Peru since 2002, where more than 60% of the deaths have been within the last four years.  The other three most dangerous countries are Brazil, Honduras and the Philippines.

The report, with the updated death toll comes just in time as Lima prepares to host ministers from around the world for the United Nations climate conference, even though the host nation hasn’t been spot on addressing green issues.

Deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon – which accounts for about half of the country’s carbon emissions – nearly doubled in 2012, as farmers, miners and illegal loggers sawed deeper into the forest.  The World Bank estimates that almost 80% of the country’s timber exports were felled illegally.

Sources detail that most of the activist murders were related to conflicts over land or resistance to mining projects or illegal logging operations.  A large number of the victims were from indigenous tribes who had been granted reserves or applied for land titles, but receive little to no protection or enforcement from the government.

In a recent case, anti-logging campaigner Edwin Chota and three other Ashéninka leaders were killed in Ucayali in September over land they had spent a decade trying to secure for their community.  The community planned to use the forest sustainably.

Chata asked for protection before he and his colleagues were murdered.  He told the police he was receiving death threats from illegal loggers, and sent them photographs of the suspects.  Currently many of the suspects have been arrested, but the authorities are being accused of negligence.

“The murders of Edwin Chota and his colleagues are tragic reminders of a paradox at work in the climate negotiations,” said Patrick Alley, co-founder of Global Witness. “While Peru’s government chairs negotiations on how to solve our climate crisis, it is failing to protect the people on the frontline of environmental protection … The message is clear, if you want to save the environment, then stop people killing environmental defenders.”

For more information, please see:

ABC News – Widows: Probe Into Peru Activist Killings Stalled – 17 Nov. 2014

the guardian – Spotlight on murders of activists as Peru prepares for Lima climate talks – 17 Nov. 2014

Yahoo news – Peru activist killings condemned ahead of climate talks – 17 Nov. 2014

herald online – Widows: Probe into Peru activist killings stalled – 17 Nov. 2014