Venezuela’s economic growth is at a virtual stand-still, as the price of oil has dropped from an average of $87 per barrel last year to an average $42 per barrel so far in 2009.
A total of nine people have been kidnapped in Colombia by victims of pyramid schemes trying to recoup their losses. Kidnappings rose in Colombia in the second half of 2008, as the pyramids collapsed.
Colombia’s second largest guerrilla army, the National Liberation Army (ELN), asked the rival Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to end hostilities between the two groups.
Colombian President Álvaro Uribe named armed forces chief Gen. Freddy Padilla as his new defense minister. Padilla was named by rights groups as a likely overseer of army-paramilitary collaboration.
The Bolivian Senate announced an impeachment trial for Chief Justice Dr. Eddy Walter Fernández over his refusal to hear a genocide case against ex-president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.
Venezuelan soldiers raided a property belonging to Guillermo Zuloaga, president of the opposition Globovisión network, amid a confrontation between the station and President Hugo Chávez.
Colombian security forces arrested 112 suspected members of the paramilitary arm of the Norte del Valle Cartel in an area of Chocó department near the border with Panama.
The Colombian Senate approved a proposal to hold a referendum on amending the country’s constitution to allow a third term for the hardline President Alvaro Uribe.
The Bolivian Supreme Court of Justice opened the trial of fugitive ex-president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada in connection with the deaths of 63 protesters in October 2003.
Venezuela’s government sent troops to “temporarily” seize a pasta factory owned by US food giant Cargill, having found it guilty of violating price controls.
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez sent troops to take over companies that provide services for the oil industry. “This is a revolutionary offensive,” he told workers near Lake Maracaibo.
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez defied the request of his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe to help catch FARC guerrillas that apparently fled to Venezuelan territory after a deadly battle.
