Chilean Minister of Finance Andrés Velasco, Canadian Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty, and World Bank President Robert Zoellick joined AS/COA's Santiago conference. Topics included the global economic downturn in Latin America, Chile's response, and the role that hemispheric integration and investment will play in recovery.

With an eye to the recent conflict in Peru's Amazon region, the Council of the Americas hosted a June 18 briefing in Washington by Peru’s Ambassador to the U.S. Luis Valdivieso.

In an AQ web exclusive, Lila Barrera-Hernández spells out the details surrounding recent indigenous protests against government decrees on land use and resources in the Peruvian Amazon region of Bagua.

Violence in Bagua, Peru claimed dozens of lives when indigenous groups clashed with police forces because of a dispute over laws related to land and resources. Conflicting reports emerged over which side is responsible, the number of fatalities, and foreign involvement.

After a 15-month "mega-trial," a Peruvian court found former President Alberto Fujimori guilty of human rights abuses. The verdict makes him the first democratically elected leader in Latin America convicted in a human rights case in his home country.

Council of the Americas hosted former Peruvian Ambassador to the United States Eduardo Ferrero to discuss the Andean country's economic and political outlook in the context of the global financial downturn.

By striking free-trade agreements with Colombia and Peru, "Canada is taking a leadership role in the logical and inevitable move toward freer trade," writes Canadian Senator Pamela Wallin.