Indigenous communities in Colombia’s Cauca department issued a statement calling upon all armed fighters to leave their territory, following clashes that left many civilians dead.
Anti-labor violence is again reaching a peak in Colombia, with four education workers assassinated in the northern coastal department of Córdoba since January.
Through a satellite link from a US prison, former Colombian paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancuso told his country’s Supreme Court that his illegal forces supported Álvaro Uribe’s election in 2002.
Two Colombian soldiers, Sgt. Pablo Emilio Moncayo and Pvt. Josué Daniel Calvo, returned to their hometowns following their release by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Sendero Luminoso, thought to be confined to a small pocket of high jungle known as the Apurimac-Ene River Valley, launched an attack on a coca-eradication team in the Upper Huallaga Valley.
In a case sensationalized by the Bolivian press as a crackdown on a “Norwegian Cartel,” two Norwegians were sentenced on charges of attempting to smuggle 22 kilos of cocaine out of the country.
The five ex-military chiefs who made up the Bolivian High Command in 2003 were cited for the apparent destruction of Armed Forces documents related to “Black October” violence of that year.
Otto Reich was among those who gathered at the Rayburn House Office Building to complain about the “deteriorating democratic system” in Bolivia under leftist President Evo Morales.
Strikes and protests against the Bolivian government’s wage hike offers this week marked a break by organized labor with the leftist government of President Evo Morales.
On a tour of Colombia and Peru, Defense Secretary Robert Gates voiced support for the US-Colombia FTA and hailed Bogotá as a human rights example for the region that Lima should emulate.
Ecuadoran police fired tear gas at indigenous protesters gathered outside the National Assembly building in Quito to oppose a water resources bill that they say favors mining companies and agribusiness.
While May Day marchers in Ecuador generally supported the government—and those in Colombia opposed it—Venezuela saw separate marches by supporters and opponents of Hugo Chávez.
