Indigenous peoples around the globe are making themselves heard in international arenas and at the national level. But many challenges remain in the fight for full recognition of all their rights.

MEXICO: Murder of Indigenous Reporters Fuels Hatred, Division
Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY – No one has been brought to justice for the murders of two young indigenous reporters in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca in April, a case that has mobilised social activists and drawn condemnation from UNESCO.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42752

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CHILE: Growing Outcry Over Filmmaker?s Arrest
Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO – There is growing international alarm over the arrest of Chilean filmmaker Elena Varela, who was taken into custody by police a month ago while working on an investigative documentary on the conflicts between lumber companies and the Mapuche indigenous people in southern Chile.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42746

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Japan Officially Recognises Ainu
Catherine Makino
TOKYO – In a historic breakthrough Japan’s Diet has unanimously passed a resolution pressing the government to recognise the Ainu as indigenous people.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42738

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BOLIVIA: Two More Steps Towards Provincial Autonomy
Franz Chávez
LA PAZ – Bolivia?s leftist government responded cautiously to the approval of two new regional autonomy statutes, this time in the northern provinces of Beni and Pando, while the rightwing opposition celebrated their victory.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42627

Indigenous Demands Overshadowed by Autonomy Movement
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42599

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BRAZIL: Landowning-Military Front Against Indigenous Policy
Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO – The battle to defend Brazil?s Amazon region “began in Roraima,” according to Paulo Cesar Quartiero, a central figure in land conflicts in the indigenous border territory of Raposa Serra do Sol which are prompting politicians and military officers to organise an opposition front.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42620

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PERU: Unburying the Evidence of Biggest ‘Dirty War’ Massacre
Ángel Páez
LIMA – It was not hard to find the remains of the victims, some of whose bones were actually exposed to the elements. But it took 24 years for the people of the highlands village of Putis in southern Peru to get a response to their insistent requests for exhumation and identification of the remains.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42605

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BOTSWANA: Of Tourists, Bushmen – and a Borehole
Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN – A planned lodge development at the settlement of Molapo in Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve has become a source of controversy.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42585

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Biological Patents Yield Unequal Benefits
Julio Godoy – Tierramerica
BONN – The medicinal or nutritional properties of many plants can give rise to enormous economic benefits, which put patents for naturally existing plants at the centre of an ethical, commercial and legal debate.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42576

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PERU: Indigenous Groups Challenge Private Investment Decree
Milagros Salazar
LIMA – More than 5,000 indigenous and peasant communities in Peru launched a petition drive this week with the aim of getting President Alan García?s decree promoting private investment in communally owned land declared unconstitutional.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42578

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