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 GarcĂa 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.
Bolivian President Evo Morales flew to Moscow to discuss cooperation in the energy sector—just as a scandal involving bribery and murder is shaking the state hydrocarbons company YPFB.
The corporate media are using the Caracas synagogue attack as an opportunity for a torrent of Chávez-bashing—while the populist leader’s supporters are jumping on the Mossad conspiracy bandwagon.
Colombian labor leaders testified before the US House Education and Labor Committee that killings of union members jumped by 25% in the Andean nation last year, and few of the cases have been investigated.
FARC guerillas are accused in a massacre of 17 members of the Awá indigenous people in a jungle region in Colombia’s south. Ten more Awá were killed days later as they fled the scene of the first attack.
Colombian lawmaker Sigifredo LĂłpez and former governor Alan Jara, freed from seven years in captivity by the FARC guerillas, had harsh words for both their ex-captors and President Alvaro Uribe.
The arrest of a synagogue security official in the attack on the Jewish temple in Caracas, Venezuela, has the conspiracy set abuzz with talk of a “false flag” operation.
President Hugo Chávez condemned the attack on Caracas’ main synagogue—but warned it was being used to fan unrest ahead of a referendum next week on his bid for unlimited re-election.
