Colombians reelect their President

Juan Manuel Santos Calderón was reelected on 15 June as President of Colombia with just under 51 per cent of all votes cast, and vowed to pursue peace talks with the country's two communist guerrilla forces to end decades of civil war. With just over 99.2 per cent of votes counted late that day, the state registry counted 7,776,200 votes for Mr Santos and 6,881,490 for his conservative rival, Óscar Iván Zuluaga, El Colombiano reported. The daily observed that the President won a clear victory in the capital Bogotá and in northern regions on the Caribbean coast. The broadcaster Caracol provided a colour-coded map of the country, indicating the two candidates' respective votes in different departments. While the defeated candidate congratulated the President, his ally and mentor, the former president and Senator-elect Álvaro Uribe, alleged there had been fraud. He said in Medellín that the victory was the result of the "biggest fraud in history" including monies being given out to local officials, mayors and parliamentarians as incentives or to hand out to voters. In unspecified cases Mr Uribe said, communist guerrillas had threatened to kill those voting for Zuluaga, the broadcaster Caracol reported. Like similar electoral fraud claims on the American continent, his claims would be difficult to prove. Foreign dignitaries and heads of state swiftly congratulated the President in any case and wished him well in his efforts to end conflict in Colombia. Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro, whose government is aiding the Colombian peace talks, said the choice on 15 June had been between "peace and no peace" and Colombians had "clearly taken the path of peace," Caracol reported.

Venezuelan President says "plot" against him hatched in United States

Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro insisted on 26 August that the arrest of two Colombians allegedly sent to assassinate him indicated that a plot was being hatched in the United States, and asked President Barack Obama whether he was ignorant of such machinations or involved. Mr Maduro made his remarks after a children's sporting event in Caracas; he said the Government had "coherently" reported on the plot's origins and President Obama would be "the first" not to know about it if he did not, the official AVN news agency reported. "Is President Obama so weak that they take decisions for him...to kill a Latin American head of state without his knowing?" he asked. Or was he too weak to prevent them he asked again, or "has he decided to physically eliminate me?" Officials earlier cited former US diplomats or officials of past Republican administrations, as well as Colombia's former president Álvaro Uribe, as elements allegedly involved in this and previous "plots." Mr Uribe rejected the latest, "infamous" charges; he said "the Venezuelan dictatorship should permit that country to recover democracy and repeat the elections as the last ones were a fraud," Europa Press reported on 27 August, citing comments he made on television. He was referring to Venezuela's April presidential elections. Mr Maduro said killing him would provoke a civil war and that he had observed "extreme nervousness" among the opposition in spite of its bid to "trivialise" the affair. "I have no doubt the main leaders of the fascist Right agree with this type of incident," he said. The country's leading opponent and former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles dismissed the allegations as a "tale," speaking in public on 26 August. He also wrote on the website Twitter that this was another "distraction" intended to "cover up for insecurity, the hospital crisis, shortages, inflation, corruption." The President he wrote had a "record" number of such plots; "of the 11 conspiracies Maduro has denounced, four were to assassinate personalities. He does not know how to cover his incompetence," El Universal reported, citing Mr Capriles's comments on Twitter.

Colombian Ministry says Venezuela was informed of opponent's visit

Colombia's Foreign Minister said on 12 June that President Juan Manuel Santos had previously informed his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolás Maduro of a planned meeting on 29 May with Venezuela's leading opponent Henrique Capriles, which provoked the public ire of Venezuelan authorities. Opposition forces led by Mr Capriles refused to recognize President Maduro's election last April and the government has since accused them of plotting against the state, allegedly with the help of Colombian conservatives. The visit triggered a recent deterioration of ties between the two states although Colombia has given a muted response to incendiary declarations made in Venezuela. Colombia's Foreign Minister María Ángela Holguín said in a radio interview on 12 June that "the two presidents spoke days before" the visit to Bogotá wherein Mr Capriles met with the President and parliamentarians. She said she did not know what Maduro had said in response, Radio Santa Fe reported. Among charges recently made in Venezuela was that members of its opposition had bought warplanes in the United States, presumably to attack Venezuelan territory. On 10 June the Interior Minister separately revealed that the Government had foiled a plot by "paramilitaries" to assassinate President Maduro. Miguel Rodríguez Torres said nine Colombian citizens were detained on 9 June as they sought to enter Caracas, allegedly as part of a "plan orchestrated in Colombia to assassinate President Maduro and destabilise the Venezuelan government," CNN reported on 10 June, citing a Venezuelan state television report. Mr Capriles dismissed the allegations on 11 June another of the "follies" the Government was "inventing" to distract opinion from Venezuela's problems, Europa Press reported, citing Capriles's comments to an opposition programme.

American trade block ends summit in Cali, Costa Rica to join

The Seventh Summit of the Pacific Alliance (Alianza del Pacífico) of four Latin American states ended in Cali, Colombia on 23 May, with leaders confirming their resolve to remove tariffs on 90 per cent of traded goods and introduce a single tourist visa for all members, media reported. The block also accepted Costa Rica as its fifth member, though its membership would not be formalised before June 2013. Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos, the summit host, told the press in Cali that from 30 June when the Treaty would come into effect, tariffs would be removed from 90 per cent of goods traded between Colombia, Peru, Chile, Mexico and imminently Costa Rica, Spain's EFE agency reported. Tariffs he said would be removed on the remaining 10 per cent of goods, subject to a different timetable and conditions. Another of the summit's decision was to introduce a single visa for travellers visiting the five member states, the Visa Alianza del Pacífico. This Santos said, was the "fast and efficient" way to boost visits to member states' "many tourist attractions," CNNMéxico reported. The Alliance's new member in principle Costa Rica was to overcome certain legislative and administrative stages before becoming a full member, Costa Rica's La Nación reported on 24 May. Its President Laura Chinchilla was cited as saying that she was in a hurry to "leave this done," before she was to leave office in a year, for which reason she had asked members to hasten its adhesion. She signed on 22 May a free-trade treaty with Colombia, which the Costa Rican parliament was to debate and approve alongside an adhesion treaty to the Alliance, La Nación reported. The daily observed that Alliance nations currently represented "214 million potential customers," 55 per cent of the region's trade and about a third of Latin America's Gross Domestic Product or sum of goods and services produced in a given period.

Ministers change in Peru, court orders Lima mayoress dismissed

Rafael Roncagliolo resigned on 15 May as Peru's foreign minister, ostensibly for health reasons, to be replaced by the outgoing justice minister Eda Rivas Franchini who became Peru's first female Foreign Relations Minister, media reported. Officials denied charges that the change was for Roncagliolo's badly-received observations about the results of the 14 April presidential elections in Venezuela. The Peruvian Prime Minister Juan Jiménez Mayor dismissed as calumny on 16 May allegations that Venezuela had pressured Peru to drop Roncagliolo, La República reported, citing news agencies. Eda Rivas, who was Minister of Justice since 23 July 2012, was in turn succeeded by her former deputy-minister Daniel Figallo Rivadeneyra. Both stressed no policy changes were presently envisaged in their ministries. Mr Figallo commented to Perú TV on 16 May about the issue he would soon have to handle: the decision on whether or not to pardon the jailed former president, Alberto Fujimori Fujimori. Fujimori was jailed in 2009 after being convicted of charges relating to killings and rights abuses while he was President in 1990-2000. The state waged war at that time on the Maoist Shining Path rebellion. Fujimori's children formally requested on 10 October 2012 that he be freed on health grounds, following several surgeries for cancer, most recently on 21 August 2012, Europa Press reported on 16 May. Figallo said a report on the dossier would be ready by the end of May. Separately, a Lima court ordered dismissed the Lima mayoress Susana Villarán de la Puente for thrice ignoring an order to remove obstacles placed before one of the city's markets, Europa Press reported on 17 May. The issuing judge Malzón Urbina told a radio interview that Ms Villarán must leave office immediately even if she appeals the decision. The municipality decided last October to shut the La Parada market, placing cement blocks to bar access to the premises. Urbina told Radio Programas del Perú that Villarán "was given three opportunities" to implement an "order to remove the cement blocks from La Parada...I have restricted myself to implementing the provisions of...Article 8 of the Procedural Code, which states that if there is failure to implement, the judge orders a dismissal," Europa Press reported.

Nicaragua said may want more of Colombian seas after Hague ruling

Nicaragua's representative before the International Court at The Hague told media on 11 May that his country had a right to claim more of Colombia's seas following a Hague Court ruling in 2012 that advanced Nicaragua's Caribbean frontier at Colombia's expense. The 19 November ruling provoked fury in Colombia and its President declared Colombia would in the future cease to submit to the Court's arbitration over frontiers; it seemed however not to have satisfied Nicaragua. Agencies cited the diplomat Carlos Argüello as saying that the November ruling - which ceded to Nicaragua 70,000 square kilometres of sea territory to delineate the states' disputed frontier - had not denied Nicaragua the right to push out its frontier to 200 miles or further on the offshore continental platform. The daily El Espectador interpreted his comments on 12 May as implying that Nicaragua believed it should hold the entire continental platform, which Argüello said was merely to be measured to establish the correct frontier line. Argüello said President Daniel Ortega would decide in following days whether or not Nicaragua would pursue its claim and when, the daily El Colombiano reported on 13 May. It was not immediately clear if Argüello was speaking in the Netherlands or Nicaragua. He stressed this was not a new claim but a logical interpretation of international laws and the 19 November ruling, Spain's EFE agency and ABC reported. Colombia had yet to formally accept or implement the court's instructions any case. A Colombian legislator said on 12 May that the only thing President Ortega should earn was that Colombia formalise its refusal to implement the ruling. Senator Alexandra Morena Piraquive of the small MIRA party and a member of a parliamentary committee that advises the President on foreign affairs, said Nicaragua was "daring" and "disrespectful" of international law, for not giving Colombia time to have the 19 November ruling reviewed. She said Colombia should "take a political posture" and "confirm" it would ignore the ruling, Caracol radio reported.

Venezuela recalls envoy from Lima over minister's "meddling" comments

President Nicolás Maduro recalled Venezuela's ambassador in Lima for consultations after Peru's Foreign Minister proposed the regional association UNASUR should ask Venezuela to talk with domestic opponents over the disputed results of the 14 April presidential elections, agencies reported on 3 May. Maduro described Foreign Minister Rafael Roncagliolo's proposal as "interventionist," adding he would phone President Ollanta Humala to check whether or not this was Peru's official position, Spain's EFE reported. This was one of several verbal exchanges Venezuela's socialist government was having with foreign states and personalities over elections whose results the opposition coalition has rejected. Roncagliolo "has not consulted with Venezuela over what he has just stated. Please, not like this. You cannot state opinions on Venezuela...I do not accept this lack of respect for Venezuela's political and democratic process," Maduro declared. He said Roncagliolo had with the comments made "the mistake of his life." Venezuela's opposition welcomed the proposal however and declared the government was "going the wrong way" in its foreign relations. The Table of Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition stated its support in a communiqué that described Maduro's as a "Crafty Government," El Universal reported on 4 May. The government's management of its foreign relations it stated, "is very much going the wrong way" and the aggressive language it was now using with foreign parties "is not giving any benefits to this government of precarious legitimacy." Roncagliolo's proposals were not a "lack of respect to Venezuela. This is the responsible attitude governments adopt when they believe in democracy as a space for dialogue, tolerance and respect for opponents." Peru's former president Alan García also wrote on the website Twitter on 4 May that the incident was a "great opportunity" for Peru to distance itself from "Maduro's dictatorship" and forget the example of the left-wing ideology led by the late Hugo Chávez," Peruvian dailies reported. The incident followed similar harsh words Maduro addressed to Spain's Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo on 2 May. García-Margallo proposed on 29 April that Spain could mediate between Maduro and the opposition to reduce tensions in Venezuela, Spain's El País reported; Maduro told him to "take his nose out" of Venezuela's affairs.

Conservative becomes Paraguay's President

Paraguayans voted in Horacio Cartes of the conservative Colorado party as president on 21 April, in general elections expected to end the diplomatic isolation provoked by parliament's dismissal in 2012 of the elected, Leftist president, Fernando Lugo. the Liberal candidate Efraín Alegre was runner-up while Aníbal Carrillo, candidate of the Frente Guasu formation of former president Lugo obtained a small percentage of votes, Europa Press reported. Unasur - the Union of South American Nations - recognized the results and Cartes reportedly began contacts to hasten Paraguay's return to the southern trading block Mercosur, from which it was excluded after Lugo's dismissal. Venezuela's socialist President Nicolás Maduro spoke by phone to Cartes, discussing Paraguay's return to Mercosur and a normalization of bilateral ties, Europa Press reported on 24 April. The two states effectively severed ties after Lugo's fall, while their deteriorating relations recently degenerated into bitter verbal exchanges between Venezuelan officials and Paraguay's provisional government led by the conservative Federico Franco. Franco was to hand over power on 15 August, Europa Press reported. Cartes meanwhile named a transitional government team that included: Juan Carlos López Moreira, a businessman and close associate as the team's general coordinator, Leila Rachid Lichi, Paraguay's foreign minister in 2003-6, in charge of foreign affairs and the former Central Bank governor Germán Rojas Irigoyen as a provisional economy minister, ICN Diario reported on 24 April.

Foreign politicians drawn into Venezuelan polls, minister calls Paraguay's leader scum

The candidates in Venezuela's 14 April presidential elections have begun to use some blunt talk that may yet become ruder even than words traded in the 2012 campaign between Henrique Capriles and Hugo Chávez. Rudeness was also evident in Venezuelan reactions to foreign politicians' recent comments about Venezuela and its leaders. On 4 April Venezuela's Foreign Minister said he was "obliged to respond" to comments made about Chávez by Paraguay's President Federico Franco, qualifying Franco as "human and political scum." Speaking on TeleSur, Jaua contrasted the late president's "moral and human stature" with "the human and political scum President Franco signifies," but regretted that Franco "is not the last human and political scum who will be able to offend and attack the memory of that historical giant," Europa Press reported. The two states have minimal ties, and Franco recently called Chávez's death a miracle. Another conservative critic of Venezuela was the former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe Vélez, who has several times accused Venezuela of backing Colombia's two communist guerrilla armies. He wrote on the website Twitter on 30 March that Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro had "raised the tone" by calling his opponents the "heirs of Adolf Hitler" and there was "no limit" to his cynicism; Maduro replied on Uribe's account, asking him if he should have called them "your heirs." Uribe then wrote that Maduro's "partners" - Colombia's communist FARC guerrillas - chain "hostages to wire fences like Hitler," Bogotá's Radio Santa Fe reported on 31 March. Foreign Minister Jaua praised Maduro's response to the "genocidal" Uribe, the website Noticia al Dia reported. Brazil's former president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva separately upset the Venezuelan opposition after stating support  for Maduro on 3 April. Lula told a Uruguayan daily that while not as charismatic as Chávez, Maduro was "an extraordinary human being...who I think is totally prepared" to govern as his predecessor, Globovisión reported. "I think he will win the elections and will govern," Lula said. The Venezuelan parliamentarian Maria Corina Machado called his "rude intervention" the next day "grotesque and unacceptable," and said Lula had become Maduro's "salesman" and "electoral agent." Machado is the foreign affairs spokeswoman on the Capriles election team. His comments Machado said, did not so much befit a former statesman as "a merchant." She said "someone who is unaware of the reality of our country and ignores the problems Venezuelans have to deal with every day has no right to state opinions. We wonder if Maduro has spoken to Lula of the dead taken to the morgues every day, the product of [crime] violence, under the complicit gaze of this government," Globovisión reported on 4 April. Venezuela's opposition has repeatedly accused the regime of neglecting the problem of crime.

Venezuelan leader says Hugo Chávez blessed him through a bird

In what is perhaps a modern, socialist, equivalent of an apotheosis, Venezuela's President and presidential candidate Nicolás Maduro has not shirked from linking his deceased predecessor to celestial affairs, first comparing his followers' grief for the death of Hugo Chávez to that of the Apostles for Christ, and now saying Chávez blessed him through "a tiny little bird" hovering over him on 1 or 2 April. This followed from a short cartoon he had placed on the Internet showing Chávez, who died of cancer in March, flying to Heaven as a bird, CNN reported on 2 April. Maduro made the comments on 2 April while addressing a crowd in the western district of Barinas at the start of the campaign for the 14 April elections. He said "a little bird" flew into a chapel where he was praying alone in the nearby district of Sabanetas, and flew three times above him, which he interpreted as a blessing from Chávez ahead of the polls, El Nacional reported. It seems however that credulity is not what it used to be, as the opposition candidate Henrique Capriles has accused him of lying several times in recent months. There were no immediate reports of his reacting to the claims although Capriles vowed on the website Twitter to shortly inform voters of an unspecified but "very grave" matter relating to the elections, Globovisión reported on 3 April. The candidates began moving around Venezuela as the short campaign period began; Capriles was in the eastern district of Maturín in Monagas on 2 April, although reported earlier as starting his campaign in Barinas where the presidential party was gathered. In Maturín he criticized again the regime's largesse with Venezuelan petrodollars, telling a crowd "you know how oil resources are given away...used to present ambulances and police patrol cars to other countries, and give them light bulbs. Is that because nothing is needed any more in any neighborhood of Monagas? I think a lot is missing," Globovisión reported on 2 April. Separately on 3 April, the conservative president of Paraguay - which cut ties with Venezuela in 2012 - said he considered Chávez's death "a miracle" for the harm he had done to Paraguay. Venezuela was one of several American countries to isolate Paraguay after parliament sacked its Leftist president, Fernando Lugo; Paraguay was notably excluded from regional trading blocks. Federico Franco Gómez told a business gathering at the Ritz hotel in Madrid that "for me it is a miracle Mr Chávez should have disappeared from the face of the earth...yes, because he greatly harmed my country...Paraguay is not a territory for Bolivarian ideas," Europa Press reported. He accused Chávez of complicity in killings and kidnappings for having given asylum to a small militant group, the Paraguayan People's Army (El Ejército del Pueblo Paraguayo). Paraguay is to hold general elections in April 2013.

Qatar's ruler brings delegation to Peru

The Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, arrived in Lima on 13 February, heading a senior delegation that would discuss trade and investment with senior officials including President Ollanta Humala, the website peru21 reported. The foreign ministry earlier described the visit as among the "auspicious results" of the summit of Arab and Latin American states held in Lima in October 2012. The government newspaper El Peruano stated in an opinion piece on 14 February that Peru signed in October 2012 a framework agreement on trade and cooperation with the Gulf Cooperation Council including oil-producing Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf. Qatar it observed had billions of dollars to invest in "safe markets with a stable and reliable economy like that of Peru" while Peru needed markets for exportations, particularly of food and farming products needed by Qatar, a state with little agriculture and much expendable income. This was reportedly the first state visit to Peru by a head of state from the Arabian peninsula, according to El Peruano. The Emir was also to visit Colombia and Ecuador.

Pacific block to lift tariffs on most goods

Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico, member states of the Pacific Alliance trading block, were to agree before 31 March on removing tariffs on 90 per cent of their traded products and gradually reduce tariffs on remaining goods and services after that, Chile's President Sebastian Piñera announced in Santiago de Chile on 27 January. The four states' presidents were attending the summit of Latin American States and the EU (Cumbre Celac-EU) concluding that day. The states were also to set rules to define the origins of traded products and regulate access to their markets and investment flows. Piñera said the block was the "most important and profound integration process in Latin American history." The annual value of exportations was placed at USD 500 billion and the four countries currently provided a market of some 215 million people, the website peru21 reported. The Alliance formed in 2011, is to hold a summit in Cali in 2014. Beside the four members several states have the status of Observers; Costa Rica was reportedly to become the next member. Separately Colombia and Peru signed a free trade agreement with the European Union expected to enter into force in the first half of 2013, Peru21 reported. This has been ratified in Peru and is to be ratified in Colombia.

Mexico to change ambassadors in Cuba, Canada

Mexico was to recall two ambassadors sent to Cuba and Canada by the previous conservative government and replace them with appointees closer to the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and its foreign policy postures that included better ties with Cuba's communist regime. The Leftist former governor of the state of Michoacán Lázaro Cárdenas Batel was to become ambassador in Cuba, replacing Gabriel Jiménez Remus, while a veteran diplomatist and former deputy-foreign minister Julián Ventura Valero would replace Francisco Barrio as ambassador in Canada, La Jornada reported on 28 January. The daily observed that good ties with Cuba characterised the foreign policy of PRI governments and that these deteriorated in the presidencies of Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón of the National Action Party. Cárdenas is a member of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) and son of its founder, the former Mexico City mayor Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano; his grandfather was Lázaro Cárdenas del Río, President in 1934-40. In spite of initial protests against the 2012 general-election results and allegations of fraud against the PRI, the PRD has moved closer to the new government and signed the Pact for Mexico proposed by the PRI, designed to ease legislation. La Jornada cited unnamed foreign ministry sources as describing the appointment as a "gesture of friendship" to Cuba. Media carried pictures of a meeting in Santiago de Chile on 27 January between President Enrique Peña Nieto and Cuba's Raul Castro Ruz, on the sidelines of the summit of Latin American states and the EU. Unspecified sources cited by La Jornada stated that Mr Castro congratulated President Peña at the meeting on the PRI's return to power in 2012 and observed Cuba had had better relations with Mexico when the PRI governed; the PRI and Cuba's current regime coincided from the 1960s to 2000.

Tourism, trade growing between Cuba and Peru

Cuba's ambassador in Peru put at 19,000 the number of Peruvians who visited her country in 2012, 34 per cent more she said than in 2011, Peru's official paper El Peruano reported on 16 January. Juana Martínez said she hoped some 25,000 Peruvians would visit in 2013. Bilateral trade however remained "reduced" she said, worth 16 million USD that year and consisting mostly of trade in pharmaceutical products, unspecified services and rhum. She added that the legal framework for increased exchanges and cooperation now existed within documents signed in Cuba during an undated but "recent" visit by President Ollanta Humala. She blamed the limited bilateral trade on sanctions the United States has imposed on Cuba. Peru's growing economy was increasingly creating a prosperous middle class with potentially the spending and travel habits of Europeans or North Americans. The economy was reportedly growing at a rate of six per cent or more; the investment firm BlackRock recently termed it the second Latin American country in terms of investment security, after Chile, El Peruano reported on 16 January.

Mexico confirms new ambassador to Brazil

The Mexican Senate confirmed on 20 December the nomination of the former president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) Beatriz Paredes Rangel as Mexico's new ambassador to Brazil, CNNMéxico reported. Paredes, one of Mexico's more familiar politicians and usually depicted in colourful ethnic attire, ran as the PRI's candidate to become mayor of Mexico City in the July 2012 general elections; she was soundly beaten by the Leftist candidate and current mayor. She was governor of the state of Tlaxcala east of the capital in 1987-92, Mexico's ambassador to Cuba in 1993-4, president of the PRI in 2007-11 and a member of parliament from 2009 to 2012 among other positions. Brazil has welcomed her nomination. The PRI also changed its president in December after Pedro Joaquín Coldwell stepped down to become the Energy minister. César Camacho Quiroz was on 11 December voted in as the new party president as the PRI changed its presiding board or National Political Council, El Economista reported. Camacho later told CNN in Mexico that the party must "efficiently" back President Enrique Peña Nieto's promised reforms and "find a better way of connecting with" civil bodies, the party's website reported on 22 December. He said nevertheless that close ties should not lead to a merging of or confusion between the government and the party whence the president emerged. Camacho was a former senator and former governor of the State of Mexico, of which Peña Nieto was also governor. He was to be the PRI's president until March 2015. Yvonne Ortega Pacheco, a pregnant single mother and former governor of the state of Yucatán, became the party Secretary-General for the same period. This was the second most important post in the party; both positions were uncontested, CNN observed.

Hugo Chávez stirs emotions, sympathies in illness

Moved to tears by his own words or by circumstances, Venezuela's acting president Nicolás Maduro reiterated in public on 10 December the enduring loyalty of Venezuelans to President Hugo Chávez, who was in Cuba for treatment of a resurgent cancer. Maduro was shown speaking to a crowd of supporters, many also in tears, at the inauguration of a cable-car line in Caracas; on 8 December Chávez handed him his powers for his "temporary absence," though opposition politicians were demanding by 10 December that the public be told of the president's state of health. Certain opposition members, and the US State Department, urged that constitutional provisions be respected in case of a power transition, Globovisión reported on 10 December. This meant general elections must be called if Chávez were unable to return to work. Vice-President Maduro prayed for recovery however and said "Chávez has a people, he has us and will have us for ever in this battle from victory to victory," EFE reported. Messages of encouragement and sympathy were emitted by American governments of all persuasions; Ecuador's Rafael Correa was visiting him in Cuba. In Argentina, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner recalled speaking in Buenos Aires in 9 December that Chávez had helped "Argentina when nobody was helping it," and asked God to "give him back" his health, Venezuela's El Universal reported. The daily observed on 11 December that the illness was of particular concern to Nicaragua's Sandinista regime, a recipient of generous financial help from Venezuela since 2007.

Nicaragua, Colombia in peaceful standoff over sea frontier

Reports indicated Colombian ships remained present in Caribbean waters which the International Court at The Hague recently ruled Colombia should cede to Nicaragua to settle a border dispute; it was not immediately clear if Colombia was simply ignoring the ruling. Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos said after the 19 November decision that Colombia would use all peaceful means to defend the rights of citizens living in islands and cays now surrounded by Nicaraguan waters, and he and Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega agreed on 1 December not to resort to force. Ortega told a military gathering in Managua on 5 December that Nicaragua would not seek UN help against "Colombian frigates" in its territorial waters but use "communication," the broadcaster Caracol reported, citing EFE.  Which resolution could the UN Security Council issue, he asked? "You only need a country to put a veto and there is no solution there," he said, adding there was no hostility now and the two navies maintained communications that were "serene, serious, without aggression." He was separately reported as saying, perhaps at the same event, that he had reassured Santos about his concerns over the fate of the Flor de Mar nature reserve now mostly inside Nicaraguan waters. Ortega said he promised Santos permits would not be given to explore oil in the UNESCO-listed biosphere reserve and that Colombians living in the San Andrés Archipelago would still be allowed to fish in Nicaraguan waters, Portafolio reported on 6 December, citing agency reports.

President voices Colombia's anger at Hague ruling

President Juan Manuel Santos said in Colombia on 29 November that he was "shocked" and "deeply hurt" by the recent ruling by the International Court at the Hague that ceded chunks of its sea territory to Nicaragua to settle a border dispute. He told a policy event in the northern town of Apartadó that the ruling had hit Colombians' "morale" but vowed to use all legal means to ensure it "does not harm" their rights. This he said he would do peacefully but "firmly," without "shouting" at Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega, whom he was scheduled to meet informally on 1 December, El Tiempo reported on 29 November. Colombia has reportedly engaged lawyers to design a plan of response to the ruling. Santos said separately in Bogotá that day that Colombia would not implement the ruling until the rights of Colombians living in the San Andrés Archipelago - the islands now effectively surrounded by Nicaraguan waters - are assured. Colombia already announced it would leave the Bogotá Pact treaty that gave the Hague Court authority to arbitrate between American states, though it remained bound by its provisions for another year. President Santos was expected to meet with Daniel Ortega in Mexico City as both were to attend the formal handover of presidential powers on 1 December. The decision to leave the Pact was criticized by certain observers in comments published by the daily El Espectador on 29 November. The jurist Fabián Augusto Cárdenas told the daily that Colombia could still be "taken to court" in disputes for another year "when the withdrawal comes into effect. In fact the cases that were already before the court will continue their ordinary course." An example was given by Ecuador's foreign minister, who was cited as saying that Colombia's departure from the Pact would not affect Ecuador's ongoing legal action over the effects on its people and territory of chemical fumigation of coca plantations in Colombia, near the frontier. The daily also cited jurist Mauricio Herdocia Sacasa as saying that while other states could not in the future force Colombia to accept arbitration in disputes, it too would be unable to take them to court. "Whoever shuts the door to others is doing the same to himself, in a world where there is always conflict and there will always be more powerful countries that will seek to impose their will. The Bogotá Pact is the innocent victim of this dispute," he said.

Colombia leaves arbitration treaty after court ruling

Reflecting Colombia's anger at a 19 November ruling by the International Court at the Hague that ceded part of its sea territory to Nicaragua, President Juan Manuel Santos announced on 28 November that Colombia would leave the 1948 Bogotá Pact that gave the Court authority to arbitrate in frontier disputes. Santos made the announcement at gathering of coffee growers who cheered him, and said the decision was to prevent a repetition of such a ruling. He said this did not mean Colombia was no longer committed to peacefully resolving such disputes as the Pact demands of signatories, but that in keeping with "the highest national interests" land and sea frontiers should be set by treaties "as has been the juridical tradition in Colombia," RCN Radio reported on 28 November. The ruling had meant to settle a dispute over sea frontiers, but considerably reduced access to rich fishing waters for inhabitants of the San Andrés Archipelago, a range of islands and dependent cays belonging to Colombia, which in some cases would become surrounded by Nicaraguan waters. There was also concern in Colombia that Nicaragua would later explore and drill for oil in some of the waters given it, which are now a protected natural zone. Santos said Colombia "denounced" the treaty before the Organization of American States on 27 November, which effectively meant it was leaving. The pact or American Treaty on Pacific Settlement, which entered into force in 1949 and was ratified by 15 American states, foresees a range of diplomatic and legal means for resolving disputes, including arbitration by The Hague. The decision apparently did not affect Colombia's obligation to respect this ruling and its formal departure would be in a year. But the broadcaster cited Vice-President Marcelino Garzon as saying that "an understanding and agreement" was now needed between Colombia and Nicaragua that would "favour the fishing population." He said the dispute was now "in the hands of the United Nations."

International court issues ruling in Caribbean dispute

The International Court at the Hague issued its ruling on 19 November to settle a maritime frontier dispute between Colombia and Nicaragua, recognizing some of each country's territorial demands but disappointing Colombia by giving Nicaragua portions of the Caribbean it had hitherto administered. The ruling was to settle a dispute over territory thought rich in oil and fishing resources. Nicaragua was given two chunks of water east of the vertical Meridian 82 line, while Colombia retained sovereignty over seven disputed islets dependent on the San Andrés Archipelago including two now surrounded by Nicaraguan waters, El Colombiano reported on 19 November, showing also a map of the delineation. The area conceded to Nicaragua was 531 square kilometres while only 65 were given to Colombia, Spain's El País reported. Colombia had sought all waters east of Meridian 82 and its president said the court should have confirmed texts signed in 1928 and 1930 that set that as the frontier. Nicaragua had in turn sought a frontier line more to the east, running north-eastward and including Colombian waters as well as the disputed cays. While Nicaragua hailed the ruling as a victory, Colombian politicians expressed grief and there was no immediate consensus on how to respond. President Juan Manuel Santos said on 20 November that Colombia would do all it could to defend its rights, while Colombia's representative before the Court, Julio Londoño, said the government would study the ruling before deciding on a course of action. Foreign Minister María Ángela Holguín, apparently faced with considerable criticisms, said in San Andrés on 20 November that she was ready to resign if that "appeased" the people of the San Andrés department, but that this was no time to be looking for scapegoats, El Espectador reported.