Barack Obama and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos agreed to a deal on the Andean country’s labor conditions, clearing the way for the pending Free Trade Agreement.
The San José de Apartadó peace community in the Colombian region of Uraba has received an ultimatum from local paramilitary groups to leave the area or face extermination.
Ecuador’s government declared US ambassador Heather Hodges “persona non grata” and expelled her from the country in response to a cable released by the Wikileaks whistle-blower web site.
Peru’s government announced the cancellation of a planned copper mining project in Arequipa after three protesters were killed this week.
Brazil signed an agreement with Bolivia to fight cocaine production and trafficking, replacing assistance formerly provided by the US DEA, which was ejected from the country by President Evo Morales in 2008.
Over 41,000 Colombian judicial workers demonstrated in downtown Bogotá to protest the murders of judicial officers. The protest was called after the murder of Judge Gloria Constanza Gaona.
Hours after the government concluded the restitution of some 63,000 acres of usurped lands to Afro-Colombian communities in ChocĂł department, illegal armed groups raided and burned several acres of crops.
The UK confirmed the arrest of a Peruvian national on suspicion of crimes against humanity as a member of the Shining Path. He is being held under the Coroners and Justice Act, which allows prosecution for war crimes by nonresidents.
Venezuela’s highest court ordered union leader RubĂ©n González released just two days after a judge sentenced him to seven and a half years for instigating a job action and blocking a highway.
Following the success of coca eradication efforts, the FARC and right-wing paramilitaries are in a deadly struggle for control of outlaw gold-mining operations in Colombia’s jungles.
The foreign ministers of Colombia and Venezuela met in Caracas to improve bilateral relations—as the militarized and oil-rich border zone was shut down by indigenous protests.
Colombian “neo-pramilitary” groups containing former armed forces personnel were able to infiltrate the state by exploiting past military connections, according to a WikiLeaks cable.
