Coca growers gathered in cities across Bolivia to hold peaceful demonstrations in support of their government’s proposed amendment to the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.
The Pentagon is moving ahead with plans to expand military bases in Colombia—despite a ruling by the country’s Constitutional Court striking down the base agreement with Washington.
Peasants blocked roads to protest mining plans in Peru’s central Andean region of Ancash, as presidential candidate Alejandro Toledo pledged a tougher hand on the mineral sector.
Colombian authorities brought charges against a Maj. Juan Carlos Del RÃo Crespo and four other troops in the slaying of a campesino family in another “false positives” case.
Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez dismissed charges that he is moving towards dictatorship with his special powers to rule by decree, accusing OAS head José Miguel Insulza of serving the “empire.”
Spanish prosecutors charge that an ETA operative in the Venezuelan government arranged for the Basque separatist group to provide computer training for Colombian FARC guerillas.
Peru’s army has released a report contradicting the findings of the official truth commission on the 1980-2000 dirty war, absolving the armed forces of systematic atrocities.
A 2009 US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks reports that Peru’s new military head Paul da Silva was involved in narco-corruption, a charge that the general adamantly denies.
Bolivia‘s state energy company YPFB last month awarded Argentina‘s Astra Evangelista SA a $160 million contract to build a natural gas processing plant at in Rio Grande in the eastern province of Santa Cruz. The plant, due to come online… Read moreBolivia seeks Southern Cone energy integration —despite corruption scandals
Following a wave of angry protests across the country, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales revoked a decree that lifted fuel subsidies and caused price hikes of up to 82%.
Bolivian prosecutors brought charges against 39 people over an alleged plot to assassinate President Evo Morales and launch an armed rebellion last year.
Under pressure to address the ongoing wave of targeted assassinations in Colombia, President Iván Duque for the first time spoke before the National Commission to Guarantee Security, formed by the previous government to address continuing violence in the country—which has only worsened since he took office last year. Duque said 4,000 people are now under the government's protection program for threatened citizens. But his office implied that the narco trade is entirely behind the growing violence. Interior Minister Nancy Patricia Gutiérrez told the meeting: "This great problem is derived from the 200,000 hectares of illicit crops that we have in Colombia." However, it is clear that the narco economy is but part of a greater nexus of forces that fuel the relentless terror—all related to protecting rural land empires and intimidating the peasantry. (Photo via Contagio Radio)
