The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) released the last 10 members of the security forces they were holding captive—but over 400 civilians remain held in the guerillas’ jungle camps, receiving less priority from the government.
A Colombian judge overturned the conviction of FARC commander “Grannobles,” finding he could not be held responsible for the deaths of civilians in a Colombian air force strike on a village where he killed captive soldiers.
Colombia’s armed forces boast of wiping out FARC guerilla forces on the eastern plains, winning international coverage. But ongoing paramilitary terror against campesinos seeking restitution of usurped lands gets no coverage outside Colombia.
Peru’s Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa addresses an elite right-wing confab in Lima, intoning against the threat of “populism” and warning that “the radical left has found in ecology a new banner.” He also boasts that he has no cell phone.
On World Water Day, the “March for Water, Life and Dignity,” more than 1,000 strong, reached Ecuador’s capital after a two-week, 700-kilometer cross-country trek to oppose plans for large-scale mining projects on indigenous lands.
Some 500 prisoners in several of Colombia’s facilities have initiated an indefinite hunger strike. The strikers are mostly imprisoned FARC guerillas who demand that they be recognized as “political prisoners of war and conscience.”
Both attacks by guerillas and road blockades by peasant protesters have slowed progress on Colombia’s new Bicentenario pipeline, slated to be the country’s biggest and extending into remote territory in the conflicted eastern lowlands.
Peru’s government sent a protest note to Chile, claiming an unauthorized incursion by Chilean troops into its territory—as the International Court of Justice at The Hague scheduled oral arguments in the border dispute case between the countries.
The US International Narcotics Control Strategy report has harsh words for Peru, lamenting the country’s “slow advance” in coca eradication. Bolivia’s Evo Morales meanwhile brandished a coca leaf at the annual UN anti-drug summit in Vienna.
The former head of Peru’s National Water Authority, Abelardo de la Torre, warned that the country faces at least 70 social conflicts related to control of water, and that these are likely to worsen if urgent action is not taken to address them.
Peru’s President Ollanta Humala announces a deal with the Camisea consortium to assure that Block 88 gas will be used for domestic consumption—even as the consortium began fulfilling its long-delayed export contracts.
The Bolivian government declared three days of mourning for union and leftist leader Domitila Barrios de Chungara, who led the mass hunger strike that brought down dictator Hugo Banzer Suárez.
