Monday 5 November 2012

Other Colombian rebels urged to start peace talks

The president of the Colombian Senate Roy Barreras Montealegre urged the rebel National Liberation Army (ELN) on 3 November to start talking to the state "soon," emulating the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and help end decades of civil conflict in the country. His comments, made in Pasto in the south-western Nariño department, followed the ELN's own recent proposals about possible talks. Barreras suggested separate talks with the ELN as they were part of a "different story" and had differing interests from the FARC, El Espectador reported. The ELN are Colombia's second guerrilla force in terms of numbers. Barreras was attending an event in Pasto to collect citizen's opinions on negotiations with the FARC. He said addressing the FARC that Colombians wanted an end to kidnappings before their could be peace; "we want a peace without traps. I especially hope before agreements are signed in coming months that there will be no more kidnappings nor children recruited by the guerrillas," he said. On 5 November Colombia asked Pope Benedict XVI to bless the incipient peace process with the FARC. The request was made by the new ambassador to the Holy See, Germán Cardona Gutiérrez, while presenting his credentials to the Supreme Pontiff, El Espectador reported. "Fierce fighting" was reported in contrast on 4 November between Colombian troops and the FARC, in the south-western district of Corinto. Five including an eight-year-old child were injured as gun shots and mortar fire were exchanged in hilly country around the town of Corinto in the Cauca department, the broadcaster Caracol reported. The army said one guerrilla was captured and another surrendered.

Cartel suspect detained in Mexico, four killed

Four men were found dead in eastern Mexico on 4 November with indications they had been "executed" by a cartel or gang, Proceso reported. Their bodies were found outside the town of Tierra Blanca with heads covered, hands tied and showing "signs of torture," the review reported. Authorities were reported that day to have made several arrests around Mexico. On 1 November soldiers arrested a suspect identified as "one of the most important" members of the Sinaloa drug cartel, Mexico's leading cartel though challenged by rivals, Proceso reported on 4 November. Jesús Alfredo Salazar Ramírez - El Muñeco (Doll) - was stopped in Huixquilucan in the Estado de México state. He headed Los Salazar, a gang said to be part of the Sinaloa cartel, and was sought for his suspected in role in "numerous" executions around northern Mexico and in the capital, including of the anti-crime activist Nepomuceno Moreno Núñez in November 2011. A Texas court had separately issued an arrest warrant for him, for charges of criminal association and drug trafficking. On 3 or 4 November police arrested three Guatemalans "wearing military uniforms" thought to have participated in "one of the shootouts" reported on 3 November in the northern city of Reynosa, Proceso reported. They were detained after they began shooting at a police patrol near their purported hideout; arms, ammunition and hand grenades were found in the house. Proceso reported another shoutout in Reynosa on 4 November, in a shopping centre and apparently without casualties.