More than three years after a brutal massacre of two families in the Peace Community of San JosĂ© de ApartadĂł, Colombian prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 15 Army soldiers for participating in the killing and for terrorism. (FiscalĂa press release,… Read moreColombia: soldiers arrested in Peace Community massacre
Seven Peruvians—Arminda Valladares Saba, Melissa RocĂo Patiño Hinostroza, Guadalupe Alejandrina Hilario Rivas, Maria Gabriel Segura, Carmen Mercedes Asparrent Riveros, Roque Gonzáles La Rosa and Damaris Velasco Huiza—remain in detention following their arrest late last month on the border with Ecuador… Read morePeruvians detained under terror law for attending Bolivarian meeting
Even we are frankly astonished by the depth of cynicism to which the Wall Street Journal has sunk this time. A March 25 editorial, entitled “A FARC Fan’s Notes,” touts (dubious) claims that the computer recovered from Colombia’s (illegal) March… Read moreWSJ terror-baits free trade opponent
At least two people were killed and 12 wounded on March 22 in Peru’s northeastern Loreto department in clashes between police and mostly Achuar indigenous workers who had been occupying installations on the Pluspetrol Norte oil company’s lot 1AB since… Read morePeru: indigenous seize oil field
Colombia has asked Mexico to investigate ties between Mexican citizens and the FARC guerrillas after four Mexicans were found among the dead in Colombia’s March 1 strike on a rebel camp in Ecuador. In disclosing the request, Mexico’s Exterior Secretariat… Read moreMexico to probe FARC link
Following litigation against Chiquita Brands International for its payments to Colombia’s right-wing paramilitaries, the families of five missionaries and lay workers with the Florida-based New Tribes Mission killed by the FARC guerillas in 1994-5 have filed suit against the company… Read moreChiquita sued over FARC payments
More than two weeks after Colombia's military incursion into Ecuadoran territory to take out Raul Reyes, a top-ranking leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), voices are being raised about possible US complicity or direction in the hit…. Read moreColombia: US hand in Raul Reyes hit?
We’re surprised the right-wing blogosphere hasn’t yet accused the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) of being behind the revelations of gubernatorial hanky-panky-for-pay in New York state. Among the now-shamed Elliot Spitzer‘s many enemies is Richard Grasso, the former NY… Read moreSpitzer scandal: FARC’s revenge?
Colombian trade, industry and tourism minister Luis Guillermo Plata was in New York on March 8 to push the Free Trade Agreement (FTA, or TLC in Spanish). Accompanied by Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY) and other officials, Plata participated in a… Read moreNew Yorkers confront Colombian trade minister on FTA
The leaders of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela formally ended their dispute March 7 with handshakes and embraces at the 20th Rio Group Summit in the Dominican Republic, approving a “Santo Domingo Declaration,” which condemns Colombia’s March 1 cross-border raid in… Read moreFrom war fever to schmoozing: Andean crisis resolved?
In its 2007 Annual Report, released March 5, the International Narcotics Control Board called on the governments of Bolivia and Peru to ban coca chewing, as well as its sale or export. The indigenous people of the Andes have chewed… Read moreBolivia, Peru resist international pressure on coca
Iran plans to open a television station “for all of Latin America,” to be based in the coca-growing ChaparĂ© region of Bolivia, President Evo Morales announced at a gathering of cocaleros after his re-election as president of Bolivia’s coca-growers union…. Read moreIran to launch TV station in Bolivia’s coca country
