In a minga (popular mobilization) called in response to growing violence on their territories, some 10,000 indigenous residents of Colombia’s Cauca department marched 140 kilometers between the towns of Santander de Quilichao and Corinto July 23-4. On July 19, Corinto… Read moreColombia: indigenous march against violence in Cauca
Traditional indigenous authorities in Antioquia department protested that three residents of the Embera Eyabida reserve were killed by members of the FARC’s Front 18.
Community leaders in Vistahermosa, Meta department, reported the disappearance of a local campesino. A strong presence of the Ăguilas Negras paramilitary is reported in the zone.
Venezuelan President Hugo ChĂĄvez accused neighboring Colombia of an “unfriendly gesture” towards his country with its plan to host permanent US military bases.
US production of marijuana now equals that of Colombia, according to the annual report of the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
A videotape that appears to link Colombia’s FARC guerillas to President Rafael Correa of Ecuador was broadcast on Colombian TV. Correa rejected the claims as “idiocies” and “barbarities.”
Venezuela’s former defense minister Italo del Valle Alliegro faces charges over his role in violent repression of the protests in Caracas in 1989, an affair today known as the “Caracazo.”
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 Americaâdespite 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 quitâbut 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.
