Peru's Congress has voted to suspend two land laws that eased restrictions on developing resources in the country's Amazon rainforest. The laws had triggered violent protests by indigenous people that left 60 dead in the past week.
A video posted on the Internet showing infanticide in some Amazon tribes has reignited debate in Brazil over the controversial practice. But NGOs defending the rights of these minorities are accusing the campaign of being an attempt at manipulation.
Brazilian police on Friday set about evicting non-indigenous farmers from a vast tract of rainforest in northern Brazil after a court ruled the area be set aside for native tribes.
Amazonian Indians celebrated a Supreme Court decision to uphold the creation of a 1.7-million-hectare reserve on the northern border. The landmark ruling could encourage Indians across the country in their struggle to regain ancestral lands.
The Guarani, a South-American indigenous people, were reduced to servitude by colonisation. To this day, their basic rights continue to be violated, but new land ownership legislation is allowing some to start a new life.
