Colombia says it is close to sealing an agreement with Washington which would make the country the hub for US anti-drug operations in South America—despite protests that the move is unconstitutional.
FARC guerrilla Gerardo Antonio Aguilar AKA “CĂ©sar” was extradited to the US to face drug charges. “CĂ©sar” guarded hostages including Ingrid Betancourt before his arrest in July 2008.
Peru’s former president Alberto Fujimori admitted at his corruption trial that he paid his spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos $15 million in public funds to quit—but denied “criminal responsibility.”
Gunmen shot Colombian indigenous leader HĂ©ctor Betancur DomicĂł in the northwestern department of CĂłrdoba. More than 1,254 indigenous people have been killed by armed groups in Colombia since 2002.
Former Bolivian "Minister of Cociane" Luis Arce Gómez was deported from the US to La Paz, where he faces 30 years on charges of human rights violations and genocide.
Colombian bounty hunters shot and killed one of three hippopotami which escaped from a private zoo owned by the late MedellĂn Cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar. Animal rights groups protested.
Peru’s government ordered thousands of soldiers into the streets as a paro or series of coordinated strikes against the free-trade policies of President Alan GarcĂa entered its second day.
Peru’s President Alan GarcĂa says his country has become a pawn in a continental “cold war,” alleging Venezuelan and Bolivian involvement in a wave of strikes and protests.
Salvatore Mancuso, ex-commander of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), presented prosecutors with the names of 31 high-ranking military and police officers who collaborated in massacres.
President Evo Morales lashed out at President Obama a day after the US ended trade benefits, saying Bolivia is not doing enough to combat coca cultivation of coca.
Barack Obama held his first meeting with his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe, pledging to move ahead with a Free Trade Agreement—in spite of expressed concerns about ongoing rights violations.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime finds that coca cultivation declined 18% in Colombia last year, while it expanded 6% in Bolivia and 4.5% in Peru.
