Libardo Cardona | Bogota | May 20

The Guardian/AP - Even Colombians accustomed to treachery and deceit after more than a half-century of civil conflict and drug-related violence were stunned by the arrest of a one-time provincial lawmaker for allegedly helping plan the mass kidnapping of 11 colleagues later slain by leftist rebels.

Even more remarkable, the alleged traitor was among the kidnapped, and "miraculously" survived seven years later when the others were killed in murky circumstances.

"I can't get it in my head that this could actually have been possible," Interior Minister Federico Renjifo said upon hearing of last week's arrest of Sigifredo Lopez. "I can only hold out the hope, as a human being, that this doesn't turn out to be true."

Plenty of Colombians, including relatives of the slain deputies, are perplexed by the arrest of Lopez on suspicion of murder, hostage-taking, perfidy and rebellion in connection with events that began on April 11, 2002, when guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia disguised as soldiers slipped into the state Assembly building in Cali, the Andean nation's No. 3 city, and rounded up the deputies, killing a police officer.

Prosecutors have not yet offered a possible motive for the ex-lawmaker's arrest, prompting speculation that the 49-year-old Lopez, released by the FARC in 2009, was somehow double-crossed by the rebels.

Did he truly endure a harsh jungle captivity? Could he be a rebel mole?

May 18 | CBS

People in Honduras' predominantly Indian Mosquito coast region burned down government offices and demanded that U.S. drug agents leave the area, reacting angrily to an anti-drug operation in which a local mayor said police gunfire killed four innocent people, including two pregnant women.

Animosity is being aimed at both Honduran authorities and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which confirmed on Wednesday that some of its agents were on a U.S.-owned helicopter with Honduran police officers when the shooting happened Friday on the Patuca River in northeastern Honduras.

Honduran and U.S. officials said only the police officers on the anti-drug mission fired their weapons, and not until the helicopter was shot at first. The officials said the aircraft was chasing a small boat suspected of carrying drugs on the river.

Local officials said the two men and two pregnant women killed weren't drug smugglers. They said the victims were diving for lobster and shellfish.

** Protesters on rampage after drug agents shoot 4 dead
** Honduras prisoners riot at jail in San Pedro Sula
** Reverberations from drug raid felt in US, Honduras
** Murder of Honduran reporter blamed on drug gangs

Marcela Valente | Buenos Aires | May 10

IPS - Under a new law that recognises a broad range of rights for transvestites, transsexuals and transgender persons in Argentina, they will have the right to modify their legal documents to match their gender identity.

Activists say the law, which was passed by the Senate late Wednesday, breaks new ground in the world because it allows transgender people to change their legal identity without first having to undergo sex change surgery or hormone therapy.

But if they do decide to undergo physical changes, the new legislation guarantees them access to surgery or hormone treatment in both the public and private health care systems.

Danilo Valladares | Guatemala City | May 4

IPS - Rightwing President Otto Pérez Molina is keeping his promise to take a hard line on soaring crime in Guatemala, but his government is neglecting prevention measures. Analysts warn the strategy, along with upcoming legal reforms, may jeopardise human rights.

One of the first steps taken by retired general Pérez Molina when he took office on Jan. 14 was to send army troops out on street patrols together with the National Civilian Police (PNC).

He also created special task forces to investigate the causes of and propose solutions for robbery, extortion, homicide, kidnapping and femicide (gender-based killings of women).

William Booth | Mexico City | May 5

WaPo - Criticism of the leader of the Catholic Church in Cuba, who has been negotiating with the communist government to expand religious and political freedom, intensified last week when the head of Radio and TV Marti called the archbishop of Havana a lackey who is colluding with an oppressive regime.

The stinging editorial against Cardinal Jaime Ortega — signed by Radio and TV Marti’s director, Carlos Garcia-Perez — is significant because Marti is a U.S. government agency, with its board of directors appointed by the White House and its policies coordinated with the State Department to direct messages to Cubans.

Linda Pressly | May 2

BBC - There is a violent death every 74 minutes in Honduras

Honduras has the world's highest murder rate. Many victims are poor. And one politician campaigning for election made an unusual vote-winning promise - free funerals for anyone unable to give a loved-one a dignified burial.

Tragically, this is a service that is needed now more than ever in Honduras.

The National Commission for Human Rights has calculated that there is a violent death every 74 minutes in this small nation of about eight million people.

Last year Honduras recorded the highest murder rate in the world, with 86 people killed for every 100,000 inhabitants, up from 82 in 2010.

In the UK the rate is just over one, in Mexico, 18.

But the reasons for the explosion of killings - almost a doubling of the murder rate since 2005 - are complex.

Lolita Baldor | 20,000 feet up | Apr 28

AP - In these days of shrinking U.S. defense budgets, the Obama administration is looking to South America to help monitor and protect the Asia-Pacific region in the years ahead.

During visits to Colombia, Brazil and Chile this past week, Pentagon chief Leon Panetta underscored their importance as military partners in the Pacific, where China is challenging U.S. influence in a number of countries. As those defense relationships grow, officials say it can only help U.S. economic and political ties across South America.

bottom line:

Defense chiefs Juan Camillo Pinzon of Colombia, Celso Amorim of Brazil and Andres Allamand of Chile brought up cyberthreats as a major concern, including incidents of hacker attacks and data thefts, U.S. defense officials said.

The three countries, said one official said, want help from the U.S. in hardening their computer networks against breaches and increasing their technological skills. The official said there is a recognition of how vulnerable they are, and they want to learn more about the nature of the threat and how to combat it.

That threat is likely to involve China, which is steadily gaining as a top trading partner and economic developer in South America. It's surpassing the U.S. in trade with Brazil, Chile and Peru, and is a close second in Argentina and Colombia.

Apr 26

Latin American Herald Tribune - During a speech before military officers at Brazil’s Superior War College in Rio de Janeiro, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta committed himself to exerting every effort to facilitate the technology transfer to the giant South American nation

RIO DE JANEIRO – The United States is ready to transfer military technology to Brazil to be able to count the South American country as a strategic ally, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Wednesday.

Panetta, in a speech before military officers at Brazil’s Superior War College in Rio de Janeiro, committed himself to exerting every effort to facilitate the technology transfer to the giant South American nation.

The announcement was a response to the demand made on Tuesday by Brazilian Defense Minister Celso Amorim, who, at a joint press conference with the Pentagon chief, complained that the United States sells military equipment to Brazil but restricts access to the technology that accompanies it.

Panetta, on a South American tour that began in Colombia and will end in Chile, said that – despite the restrictions – the United States between 2010 and 2011 approved about 4,000 export licenses for controlled equipment.

The United States and Brazil have to increase the trade of high technology “flowing in both directions between our two countries,” the U.S. defense secretary said.

Panetta specifically mentioned the case of the 36 F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter jets that Washington wants Brazil to buy from Boeing.

Gethin Chamberlain | Apr 21

The Observer - Logging companies keen to exploit Brazil's rainforest have been accused by human rights organisations of using gunmen to wipe out the Awá, a tribe of just 355. Survival International, with backing from Colin Firth, is campaigning to stop what a judge referred to as 'genocide'

Well, no surprise here. I bet Bush's White House hired most of these clowns:

President Barack Obama came to Colombia seeking to erase an image of the U.S. in Latin America as overassertive Yankees who exploit the region at will. He left with the stereotype reinforced.

The sixth Summit of the Americas that concluded yesterday in the Caribbean city of Cartagena was supposed to focus on trade in the Western Hemisphere. Instead, 11 U.S. Secret Service agents became the center of attention after they were sent home for allegations of misconduct involving a prostitute.

Even dumber than the US secret service agents and military personnel who wouldn't pay their hookers:

Argentina's President Cristina Kirchner has stormed out of the Summit of the Americas in protest against a perceived lack of regional support for her country's claims in the dispute with the UK over the Falkland Islands.

Ed Vulliamy | Apr 15

The Observer - Colombian leader uses Summit of the Americas to call for radical review of international policy on drugs

The government of Colombia pushed on Saturday for the most far-reaching change to policy on drugs since US president Richard Nixon declared war on narcotics four decades ago.

Hosting the sixth Summit of the Americas, for which 33 leaders of the hemisphere's 35 nations – including President Barack Obama – have assembled in Cartagena, President Juan Manuel Santos proposed the establishment of a taskforce of experts, economists and academics to analyse the realities of global drug addiction, trafficking and profiteering, with a view to a complete overhaul of strategy.
...
Last week Colombia announced the results of research which shows that only 5% of profits from Colombia's drug trade remain in the country. Hhundreds of billions of dollars of drug money finds its way, said Rodríguez, into "the distribution networks in the consuming countries, and the international banking system".

The "real value of the drugs", said the ambassador, "is not added in the countries of production, but once the product is moved – mainly to the US and Europe. And it is therefore clear that more must be done to fight international money-laundering of drug profits by the banking community."

Washington | April 9

BBC - Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff has stressed the growing importance of relations with the US after meeting President Obama at the White House.

Ms Rousseff said there was potential to deepen co-operation, particularly in Brazil's booming oil and gas industry.

She expressed concern about expansionist monetary policies in developed countries, saying they were impairing growth in emerging economies.

Jamie Doward | Cartagena, Colombia | April 7

The Guardian - Watershed summit will admit that prohibition has failed, and call for more nuanced and liberalised tactics

A historic meeting of Latin America's leaders, to be attended by Barack Obama, will hear serving heads of state admit that the war on drugs has been a failure and that alternatives to prohibition must now be found.

The Summit of the Americas, to be held in Cartagena, Colombia is being seen by foreign policy experts as a watershed moment in the redrafting of global drugs policy in favour of a more nuanced and liberalised approach.

Otto Pérez Molina, the president of Guatemala, who as former head of his country's military intelligence service experienced the power of drug cartels at close hand, is pushing his fellow Latin American leaders to use the summit to endorse a new regional security plan that would see an end to prohibition. In the Observer, Pérez Molina writes: "The prohibition paradigm that inspires mainstream global drug policy today is based on a false premise: that global drug markets can be eradicated."

Helen Murphy & Brian Ellsworth | Bogota | Apr 2

Reuters - Colombia's FARC rebels freed 10 members of the armed forces held hostage in jungle prison camps for more than a decade on Monday, the last of a group the drug-funded group had used as bargaining chips to pressure the government.

The four soldiers and six policemen were released to a humanitarian mission led by the International Committee of the Red Cross in what the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia have called a gesture of peace.

Wearing olive fatigues and seeming well fed and relatively healthy, the 10 men stepped off a helicopter provided by Brazil after the Marxist FARC freed them in a remote area of southern Colombia.

Smiling and joking with a medic, one soldier left the aircraft draped in the Colombian flag and skipping with joy. Each carried a plastic bag of belongings and one was accompanied by what appeared to be a small pig that had been his pet in the jungle. Another had what looked like a monkey on his shoulder.

Kate Doyle | Washington, DC | March 23

National Secuity Archive -
January 26 marked a watershed in Guatemalan history. That evening, after more than eight hours of arguments from prosecutors and defense lawyers, retired army general Efraín Ríos Montt—the military leader who presided over the most intense and bloody period of state repression in the country’s modern history—was formally charged by Judge Carol Patricia Flores with genocide and crimes against humanity. Ríos Montt now faces the real possibility of a criminal trial. Inside the courtroom on the 15th floor of the Tribunal Tower in Guatemala City, the verdict was met with the mechanical gasp of a dozen camera shutters clicking simultaneously. Downstairs, in the plaza outside the building, hundreds of massacre survivors and families of victims were watching the proceedings on open-air screens. They cheered, applauded, and wept at the astonishing news. (Image: Surizar)

Caracas | Mar 19

AP - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Monday that his government has received word of plans for an attack on his leading rival.

Chavez did not give details but said his government had information of a possible plot against opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles.

"I have information they want to attack Capriles, and we've offered security for his team," Chavez said in a telephone call broadcast live on state television.

The president said the director of the national intelligence agency met with Capriles' team. As for who might be behind such plans, Chavez said, "it's not the government, not at all."

"As a government, we're obliged to get involved in this situation and provide protection to any Venezuelan, and above all in this context," Chavez said.

Without giving details, Chavez said his government believes that "foreign groups or sectors" are behind the plans, the government-run radio station YVKE Mundial reported.

The Venezuelan leader made the remark two weeks after gunfire rang out at a political event where Capriles was meeting with residents of a traditionally pro-Chavez neighborhood. One young man, a supporter of Capriles, was injured in the shooting.

Officials in Capriles campaign didn't immediately return calls seeking comment.

Hmmm, hope he isn't offering up the the police for the protection job..

El Pangui, Ecuador | March 9

Al Jazeera - March is organised by powerful umbrella group that represents natives from around Ecuador.

Hundreds of native Ecuadorans have begun a cross-country march to protest policies by President Rafael Correa they say will result in more mining in the Amazon region and threaten the environment and their way of life.

Thursday’s protests were prompted partly by a recent agreement between Ecuador and China for industrial copper mining in the Amazon's Ecuacorriente Zamora-Chinchipe region.

Caracas | Mar 4

USA TODAY - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez revealed Sunday that a new tumor recently removed from his pelvic region was of the same type of cancer as a baseball-sized growth extracted from that part of his body about eight months ago.

In his first TV appearance in nine days, Chavez said the surgery and follow-up tests showed the tumor was "a recurrence of the initially diagnosed cancer."

He said "the tumor was totally extracted" and noted "the absence of lesions suggestive of cancer neither locally, neither in nearby organs, neither far away … neither metastasis, none of this thanks to God, to the diagnosis and rapid intervention."

The 57-year-old president said he would spend several weeks recovering and then "we are going to do radiation treatment in the area … without discarding other treatment options."

"There isn't fever nor any other sign, neither infection, hemorrhage," he said. He called the post-surgery healing "perfect in relation to the time that's passed, and we are already doing physical therapy."

Arron Daugherty | February 27

Colombia Reports - The UN representative to Colombia said Monday the country's victims law has "holes" because threats and violence against displaced farmers seeking to reclaim land is impeding successful implementation.

The law, officially know as Law 1448, allows victims of violence committed by left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, and state officials after 1985 to claim financial compensation. It also allows for displaced people to reclaim land that was stolen or obtained through intimidation and force by illegal armed groups.

Howland said, "the risk and vulnerability of leaders in the process of land restitution are extremely high, given the criminal interests in properties subject to restitution."

George W Bush may actually have done the right thing in Colombia.

Or maybe it was Obama after all...history will have to be the final arbiter of whether American intervention against the FARC or its later reluctance to get involved ultimately brought the heat down a notch.

It could just as easily be both.

Emilio Godoy | Feb 15

Mexico City(IPS) - Latin America and the Caribbean are discussing ways to step up supervision of the use of nuclear materials in the region and contribute to the creation of more nuclear weapon free zones around the world, on the 45th anniversary of the treaty that banned nuclear arms in the region.

"Disarmament is still our priority" Vera Machado, under-secretary of political affairs in Brazil’s foreign ministry, told IPS. "It is a legitimate interest of nuclear weapon free countries to receive a binding guarantee that the countries that do have them will not use these weapons against them, or threaten to use them."

The official was one of the delegates of the 33 countries attending a conference in Mexico City held to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean, also known as the Treaty of Tlatelolco.

The states party to the treaty agree to prohibit and prevent the "testing, use, manufacture, production or acquisition by any means whatsoever" and the "receipt, storage, installation, deployment and any form of possession of any nuclear weapons."

The anniversary, celebrated on Feb. 14-15 with a commemorative ceremony and international seminar, was also attended by representatives of international bodies and non-governmental organisations from different regions of the world.

The Treaty of Tlatelolco created the Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (NWFZ) in 1967 – the first of the five such zones that currently include 114 countries around the world, in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and the South Pacific.

Guy Adama | Feb 15

The Independent - The US's failure to cut demand for narcotics leaves Central America no choice, says President

The President of Guatemala has floated the prospect of legalising drugs in a bid to stop criminal gangs bringing even more bloodshed to Central America, and will attempt to win regional support for an idea which is likely to face fierce opposition in Washington.

Otto Perez Molina used a meeting with Mauricio Funes, his counterpart from neighbouring El Salvador, to discuss the concept earlier this week. He described it as the only way to respond to America's failure to cut the demand for illicit drugs from consumers. Mr Molina intends to seek support for legalising drugs from other Central American leaders at a summit next month. "We're bringing the issue up for debate," he announced to reporters in Guatemala City. "If drug consumption isn't reduced, the problem will continue."

The decision to explore legalisation comes amid soaring crime rates in the country, which is regarded as prime real estate by Mexican drug cartels competing to shift cocaine from South America, where it is grown, to the US, where most of it is consumed.

Tim Rogers | Managua, Nicaragua | Feb 10

CSM - Bad credit? No credit? No problem!

President Daniel Ortega is putting on his banker’s visor and taking time off from denouncing the evils of savage capitalism to try to raise startup capital for the newly announced Bank of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (ALBA), or BALBA.

The president-turned banking booster told citizens last night that he’d feel a lot better if Nicaragua took some of its $1.7 billion in international reserves out of established banks around the world and put it the trusted care of BALBA, which is almost one week old.

The birth of BALBA was celebrated in Venezuela last weekend during a summit of ALBA nations, a leftist trade bloc founded in 2004 by Cuba and Venezuela as an alternative to US free-trade agreements. The idea behind BALBA is that each member country - Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Bolivia, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines - support the bank to the tune of what each economy can afford.

In Nicaragua’s case, the country is expected to cough up 1 percent of its international reserves, whose purse strings are controlled exclusively by the autonomous Central Bank. Ortega is also asking the Sandinista-controlled National Assembly to pony up $4 million for the ALBA bank.

Ortega said Nicaragua’s international reserves are currently just sitting in banks and not being put to good use through loans. “The most we can say about the reserve banks is that they return us our money, but we can’t make loans,” he said.

Ortega said BALBA will give loans to member states without any conditions to pay for development and social projects - a lending practice that the president thinks will make the bank solid and viable.

“The Bank of ALBA gives us a lot of security because we are talking about a bank that is socialist and just, where we can go to ask for money for productive activities, for social projects, for land titling,” said the self-styled banking lobbyist.

“This will allow us to have a bank that will not put any conditions [on lending]… this is good news because it will allow us to be in better conditions to confront this crisis,” Ortega said. more

Jim Wyss | Caracas | Feb 10

McClatchy/Miami Herald - Henrique Capriles Radonski has taken on President Hugo Chávez from congress, the governor’s mansion and from jail. Now, he’s hoping to continue that fight in the national arena.

On Sunday, Venezuelans head to the ballot box to choose a single opposition candidate to battle Chávez for the presidency in October.

Most polls give Capriles, the governor of Miranda state, a 15 to 20 point lead over his nearest rival in the five-way race.

Wiry and intense, Capriles, 39, has made a name for himself as a hands-on leader with a workaholic streak. During recent flooding, he was photographed in chest-high water helping constituents. At campaign rallies, he has the politician’s knack of making just enough eye contact to satisfy supplicants as he plows through massive crowds.

It’s that energy that he says will allow him to beat the 57-year-old Chávez, who has stepped up his TV appearances as he recovers from an undisclosed form of cancer.

“That horse is tired and this horse is full of energy,” Capriles told reporters recently. “We are going to travel this country from point to point...You win the race on the ground not on television.”