Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez ordered the army to seize control of all rice processing plants in the country, citing the companies’ failure to adhere to price control regulations.
Venezuela and Bolivia condemned US State Department reports on human rights and narcotics that single out the two South American countries, saying Washington has no right to pass judgment.
Unidentified assailants threw an improvised explosive at a community center in La Florida district of Caracas in a pre-dawn attack. The attack comes on the heels of the ransacking of a Venezuelan synagogue.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe restricted the power of the DAS secret police agency to carry out wiretaps in the wake of the surveillance scandal, as his government petitions Washington for more military aid.
Colombian President Álvaro Uribe clashed with the country’s Prosecutor General over the head of state’s proposal to re-criminalize possession of personal quantities of drugs.
In a communiqué, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) took responsibility for the killing of eight people at Río Bravo in the southwestern department of Nariño.
Revelations that Colombia’s Department of Administrative Security illegally listened in on the phone calls of judges, politicians and journalists, prompted the resignation of the agency’s deputy director.
Traditional indigenous authorities in Colombia issued an “ultimatum” to the FARC to return the bodies of slain members of the Awá ethnicity, or face an indigenous “minga” mobilized to confront the guerillas.
Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa expelled two US diplomats on charges of trying to handpick officials of the National Police. Ecuadoran press accounts charge CIA involvement.
On the eve of a London conference on anti-Semitism, Venezuelan Jewish community leader Sammy Eppel accused President Hugo Chávez of leading a state-sanctioned campaign against the country’s Jews.
“The doors of the future are wide open,” Hugo Chávez shouted from the presidential balcony after voters narrowly approved a referendum ending term limits and potentially allowing him to remain in office for life.
Peru’s President Alan García said the government will auction rights to build a new pipeline to connect the massive Camisea gas field in the Amazon region to Chimbote on the country’s north coast.
