Indigenous leaders from the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) ended a three-day meeting in La Paz Dec. 19 with a call for international unity in the struggle against neoliberalism. Delegates from Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia denounced the privatization of… Read moreBolivia hosts Andean indigenous summit
A dynamite charge was set off in the early hours of Dec. 18 in front of Radio Atlántica, a station owned by Guido Guardia, an opposition senator in the eastern Bolivian city of Santa Cruz, leaving a sizeable crater and… Read moreBolivia: opposition radio station attacked
On Dec. 10 human rights organizations in Latin America celebrated the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by holding ceremonies, staging protests and issuing reports on the situation in their countries. The Venezuelan Program… Read moreLatin America: groups mark Human Rights Day
The Colombian human rights organization CODHES has released a new analysis, entitled “The numbers do not add up,” challenging the government’s statistics of claimed successes against illegal armed groups (principally the FARC). The armed forced claim some 114,000 killed, captured… Read moreColombian army’s “numbers don’t add up” in war on FARC
Enrique Portocarrero, dubbed “Captain Nemo” in Colombia, is accused of building up to 20 fiberglass submarines for narco-traffickers to haul cocaine to Central America and Mexico. Following a three-year investigation involving US and British intelligence, Colombia’s Department of Administrative Security… Read moreColombia’s “Capt. Nemo” faces trial
Calling continued payments “immoral” and “illegitimate,” Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa followed through on pledges to default on the country’s foreign debt Dec. 12, announcing his government will not make a $31 million payment due in two days on the 2012… Read moreEcuador announces default on “illegitimate” debt
Colombia extradited top kingpin “Don” Diego Montoya, 47, to the US Dec. 12, where he faces charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and murder. Officials say he exported tons of cocaine and was responsible for killing at least 1,500 people… Read moreColombia extradites Valle Cartel kingpin
About 20,000 peasant families in La Paz department have been affected by drought for months, the Bolivian Information Agency reports. If there is no rain in the next 30 days, there will be a massive loss of livestock, warned Victor… Read moreBolivia: drought hits campesinos hard
Bolivian President Evo Morales, defending his decision to expel the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), said the agency was actually involved in the drug traffic, and “did not respect the police, or even the [Bolivian] armed forces.” Announcing that the… Read moreDEA complicit in Bolivia coke trade: Evo
Unions and social organizations held a commemoration Dec. 6 at CiĂ©naga, in the Colombian Caribbean coast department of Magdalena, marking the anniversary of the 1928 “Masacre de las Bananeras,” carried out by the army against hundreds of striking workers of… Read moreColombia: survivors remember “Bananera Massacre”
On Dec. 2 Venezuelan interior and justice minister Tarek El Aissami announced the arrest of Julio Cesar Agrinzones (also given as “Arguinzones”) Romero the night before on charges of killing three leftist Venezuelan unionists—Richard Gallardo, Carlos Requena and Luis Hernández—the… Read moreVenezuela: who killed Aragua unionists?
Efforts by the US to fight its own financial crisis may cut Latin American governments off from access to credit at a time when they need an estimated $250 billion for financing their 2009 budgets. The US has been issuing… Read moreLatin America: US deficit squeezes credit
