Colombia’s Constitutional Court voted down the proposed referendum to allow President Alvaro Uribe to run for a third term, calling the idea “unconstitutional in its entirety.”
Venezuela’s top human rights official criticized a new OAS report which is harshly critical of the Hugo Chávez government. Gabriela Ramírez said rights have actually improved.
The UN International Narcotics Control Board finds an 8% decrease in overall coca production in South America last year—but a 45% increase in Peru.
Indigenous peoples are once again caught in the middle as the Colombian army launches a major offensive against the FARC guerillas in the southern Andean department of Cauca.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced the creation of a new Campesino Militia, which will be under the command of the national Bolivarian Armed Forces (FAB).
Bolivian President Evo Morales appointed 18 judges ahead of the country’s judicial elections, calling the move “the beginning of the decolonization of the judiciary.”
Gubernatorial candidate José Pérez Restrepo in Colombia’s Guaviare department was wounded and three of his bodyguards killed when presumed FARC guerillas attacked his caravan.
Bolivia’s Evo Morales plans to put the coca back in cola with a new coca-infused drink dubbed Coca Colla—the last word being a reference to the country’s Aymara indigenous people.
President Evo Morales signed a decree creating the Bolivian Space Agency, to build and launch a satellite—named for anti-colonial rebel Túpac Katari—with Chinese oversight.
According to the Unitary Workers Central (CUT), 40 union leaders and activists were killed in Colombia during 2009—representing 60% of all trade unionists killed worldwide.
A Colombian prosecutor called on the country’s Vice President Francisco Santos to testify about allegations of collaboration by ex-paramilitary warlord Salvatore Mancuso.
Three of 21 drug suspects arrested in a joint US-Colombian operation are closely linked to Joaquin Guzmán AKA “El Chapo,” Mexico’s most wanted drug lord, authorities say.
