Travel increased in Colombia in 2012

The flow of travel in and out of Colombia increased 17.7 per cent in 2012 compared to 2011, with over 1.4 million more people legally entering and leaving the country at all entry points, El Espectador reported on 19 January, citing figures given by the state migration office. Travellers were numbered at a little over 9.44 million in 2012, just over 1.42 million more than in 2011 and representing the largest number in decades, the Foreign Ministry's Migración Colombia declared. Its head Sergio Bueno Aguirre was reported as saying that just over six million of the travellers were Colombians, and their favoured destinations in numerical terms were the United States (979,230 went there in 2012) Venezuela (475,007), Panama, Ecuador, Spain (187,469) and Mexico (134,748). Migración stated that just under 1.7 million foreigners entered Colombia in 2012, 65.4 per cent of them being tourists. The main groups among these consisted of citizens of the United States (327,721), followed by those of Venezuela (251,475), Ecuador, Argentina, Spain (94,910) and Peru. The capital Bogotá hosted most foreign visitors (907,815) in 2012, followed by the Caribbean resort of Cartagena de Indias (206,846), Medellín (166,407) and Cali (112,313). If travel were an indicator of Colombia's increasing security and prosperity, rising property prices in the capital were another. Colombia's Central Bank observed a 5.1 per-cent year-on-year rise in property prices in Bogotá in the third quarter of 2012, La República reported on 21 January. Observers of the housing market told the daily that while the capital was not for now the setting of a speculative housing bubble, demand for housing currently exceeded supply.

Colombian guerrillas renew attacks, end ceasefire

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) ended their two-month ceasefire on 20 January by bombing power installations in the southern department of Putumayo and exchanging fire with police in several parts of the country. The ceasefire, declared but not strictly respected by the FARC, was intended to act as a fillip to ongoing peace talks with the Colombian government. The broadcaster Caracol reported attacks on a pipeline and a power pole that provoked an oil spill in the former case and a temporary blackout in the latter in three districts of western Putumayo. The police also said they exchanged fire with the FARC that day in the locality of El Placer in that department, Europa Press reported. A police helicopter was fired on by suspected FARC guerrillas just before the end of the ceasefire on 19 January, in the south-western district of Jambaló in the Cauca department. Caracol television showed police firing back with a machine gun from the helicopter, which was taking police reinforcements to the district of Jambaló. The Cauca's police chief Ricardo Alarcón told Caracol that police were re-trained and "exhaustively" prepared for renewed guerrilla actions at the end of the ceasefire; the broadcaster reported that more than 250 policemen were sent to reinforce security in districts in northern Cauca threatened by the FARC, namely Toribío, Jambaló, Caldono. In the northern department of Nariño, the FARC attacked a police station in the district of Tumaco, Caracol reported. Separately, state forces reportedly caught three suspects thought involved in the kidnapping of five mining employees in the department of Bolívar; the action was attributed to the National Liberation Army, the other communist guerrilla force in Colombia. President Juan Manuel Santos announced the captures at a Bogotá press conference on 20 January, observing that two of the detained were minors of unspecified age. He was speaking after an extraordinary security meeting to discuss the response to the end of the FARC ceasefire with the defence minister and army and police chiefs, the broadcaster Caracol reported.

Over 160 suspect policemen held in Mexico

Two police chiefs were among 158 policemen and police employees detained on 18 January in two districts of the north-central state of Durango, all suspected of aiding organized crime, the chief prosecutor of Durango announced. Sonia Yadira de la Garza Fragoso said 110 of the detained were district policemen of Lerdo and 48 of Gómez Palacio, Proceso reported. She said that initial questioning indicated the suspects had assisted criminals by means including providing information and protection or directly participating in criminal acts. In the eastern state of Veracruz, state and federal police detained at an unspecified date a gang of six suspected kidnappers including three policemen, involved in crimes in a zone that included Carlos A. Carrillo and Cosamaloapan, the districts where the policemen worked, Proceso reported on 18 January. A Public Security spokesman for Veracruz Ernesto González Quiroz said the public presentation of the criminal policemen showed "there is no space for impunity in Veracruz, and less so for those public servants obligated to protect citizens." The gang reportedly admitted when questioned to taking part in six kidnappings and acts of extortion and drug dealing. The website cited the Veracruz Public Security Secretary, who heads policing in the state, Arturo Bermúdez Zurita as saying on 18 January that some 2,500 policemen had been dismissed in the state since 2010 for failing "confidence" tests. Another official who vowed to crack down on police corruption on 18 January was Mexico's deputy-interior minister for Planning, Manuel Mondragón y Kalb, who appeared that day before the Senate Public Security Committee, Proceso reported. Mondragón, a former police chief of Mexico City, later told the press he would apply "zero tolerance for corruption, however far it goes, whatever the means and whenever it has to happen. I don't care what is said about this. When I fight corruption I will not tolerate or permit it." Mondragón said three "fundamental" sectors - Mexico's 15 federal prisons, the Federal Police and the police data gathering system (Plataforma México) - were currently undergoing operational scrutiny. Mondragón would head the National Public Security Council (CNSP), a policy-making organ, once approved by the Senate.

Over 20 shot, found dead around Mexico

Some 20 people were reported killed in executions or gun fights with state forces, or found dead around Mexico on 18-19 January, Proceso reported. These included: five suspected criminals killed in a shootout with police and the army on the night of 18-19 January in the north-western district of Mochis in the state of Sinaloa, and six shot dead by troops and police in the district of Puente Nacional in the east-coast state of Veracruz. Thousands of troops and federal policemen have been sent to Veracruz within the Veracruz Seguro operation, in a bid to curb a surge in organized crime there. The operation was recently extended to the Sotavento zone in the state that includes Puente Nacional, the district where troops reportedly came under fire late on 18 January, Proceso reported. The website reported the discovery in Estado de México of the bodies of three men apparently shot to death; they were found on 19 January by a road linking Toluca and Temascaltepec. In addition six bodies were discovered on 18 January in the states of Estado de México, Puebla and Morelos; one of the victims here was found cut into bits, and three in a state of "advanced" putrefaction in the district of Tochimilco in the state of Puebla. Six skeletons or the bones of six people, were found in a house in the west-coast district of Acapulco on 18 or 19 January, the daily El Universal reported.

El Salvador gangs to avoid violence in four districts

Mediators announced the start on 18 January of the second phase of a ceasefire between El Salvador's main criminal gangs, naming four districts as "sanctuary municipalities" that were to be gradually rid of violent crime in following days, Europa Press reported. The ceasefire began in March 2012 and officials believe it has significantly reduced violent crime in El Salvador. The municipalities were named by the army bishop and the former leftist guerrilla Raul Mijango who have been acting as mediators between the state and several gangs. In a communiqué issued on 19 January five gangs promised to respect the four sanctuaries and qualified this as part of a process "whose objective is to fully abandon all criminal activity." They also stated that they would continue to "disarm" and hand over weapons to "facilitators" of the Organization of American States, which is assisting the pacification process in El Salvador, Europa Press reported. They asked the government to design a legal framework for this disarmament. The statement was signed by the gangs MSX3, Barrio 19, Mao-Mao, Máquina and Mirada Locos, while the four districts due to become sanctuaries from violence were named as Santa Tecla, Sonsonate, Llopango and Quezaltepeque, the latter a reputed crime hot-spot, Europa Press reported. El Salvador's La Prensa Gráfica reported on 20 January that the gangs were prepared to extend the ceasefire to 18 other districts, adding however that they had made no commitment to discontinue extortion.

Guerrillas kidnap five in northern Colombia

Five or more people were reported kidnapped in northern Colombia early on 18 January, it was suspected by guerrillas of the left-wing National Liberation Army (ELN), Europa Press reported citing army declarations. The five were employees of a mining or energy company and apparently kidnapped by a group of 25 guerrillas in the southern part of Bolívar, a department whose territory reaches the Caribbean coast. President Juan Manuel Santos was reported as having written on the website Twitter that the army had reacted and the guerrillas were already "within its range." Colombian troops were reported earlier as fighting the ELN in the Boyacá department south of Bolívar, and Europa Press observed the kidnapping followed by a day a gunfight there that killed an ELN guerrilla. Separately Colombia's police chief José Roberto León Riaño was reported as declaring the same day that police thwarted a suspected bid by guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to strike at targets in and outside Bogotá when a two-month ceasefire is to end on 20 January. The FARC declared the unilateral ceasefire last November to coincide with ongoing negotiations with Colombian representatives in Havana. Police discovered grenades and 250 kilograms of explosives as well as diagrams of several installations - the suspected targets - in an unspecified location in the district of La Palma north of Bogotá. León said the find indicated the FARC were planning to blow up three police and military academies in Bogotá and in the district of Sibaté south-west of Bogotá, the broadcaster Caracol reported.

Nineteen reported killed around Mexico

Nineteen people or perhaps more including children were reported killed or found dead, in cases dismembered or beheaded, in incidents around Mexico on 16-17 January, Proceso reported. Two of these were identified as aged 15 and 17 and found shot dead late on 16 January in the northern district of Torreón. The bodies of three other young men were found very late on 17 January in Estado de México, by a road linking Mexico City and Puebla. They had been shot dead, La Jornada reported on 18 January, the daily observed that in total 33 were reported killed in that state during 14-17 January. In the south-eastern state of Tabasco a body was found in a burned car and provisionally identified as belonging to the missing former mayor of the district of Paraíso, Cristóbal Javier Ángulo. A member of the left-wing Democratic Revolutionary Party, Ángulo was mayor from 2010 to 2012 and apparently last seen on 16 January when he drove out of Paraíso toward the city of Villahermosa, Proceso reported. Three suspected criminals were reported gunned down by troops and police in the eastern port of Veracruz. A conservative politician, his wife and three-year-old son were gunned down late on 17 January in the central state of Morelos. Ignacio Domínguez Carranza had been a mayoral candidate of the National Action Party for the district of Tlalquiltenango where he died when armed men fired "hundreds of times" on his home from a convoy of cars, Proceso reported. The state governor deplored the crime and wrote on the website Twitter that the culprits would be punished. The daily El Universal separately reported that a man was killed in Mexico City on 16 January as he resisted a car theft.

President insists security improving in Honduras

President Porfirio Lobo Sosa has insisted that security in Honduras, one of the world's most violent countries, had improved in spite of assertions to the contrary by domestic and foreign observers, the daily La Prensa reported on 16 January. He told pressmen in the capital Tegucicalpa that "everyone feels" security had improved in Honduras even if "there will always be problems," adding that curbing crime was not in any case the task of government. He said he hoped the next government would "keep going, keep working on the security theme and the citizenry has to participate too, everyone must make an effort." He contradicted comments made earlier by his Security Minister Pompeyo Bonilla Reyes who told a local radio station that 800 security cameras placed around the capital had stopped working as authorities owed the equivalent of some five million USD to the firm operating the cameras. Bonilla reportedly declared that the police radio-communication system was also about to be cut off; Lobo dismissed his comments as "a bit dramatic" and said the relevant firm had not "turned off" the capital's security cameras. The government was seeking ways to pay the firm's money, Lobo said. Some of Bonilla's comments were reported by the daily La Tribuna; he was cited as saying that cameras stopped working in early January, and blamed this on the government's cash shortage. According to La Prensa the government had a shortfall in revenues and state employees or some state employees in the health and education ministries but also the armed forces were not paid last December. It reported on 3 January that only about one tenth of a security tax imposed in 2012 to finance policing and security had been spent. The state collected some 857 million Honduran Lempiras (HNL), a little under USD 43 million, between April and 27 December 2012 but only about HNL 80 million had been spent so far, this by the Security Ministry. The tax brought in HNL 90 million in December alone, La Prensa reported. It cited the compaints of members of the business community dissatisfied with paying the tax as well as considerable amounts on private security.

Colombian troops kill guerrilla, arrest two

Troops shot dead a member of the National Liberation Army (ELN) in a gunfight on 15 or 16 January in the district of Pajarito north-east of the capital Bogotá, El Espectador reported. The daily stated that army operations were continuing in the area, in the department of Boyacá. One of the detained was described as a child or teenager of unspecified age, wearing a Colombian army uniform; he was handed over to child welfare authorities. Arms and ammunition were later confiscated.

Ten killed in Mexico, states to boost security

Ten were reported as found dead or gunned down in shootouts and executions around Mexico on 15-16 January. Five of these were killed in the north-eastern state of Tamaulipas, including two cartel suspects shot by the army in Ciudad Victoria. Two others found dead in that city had a written message by them presumably placed by their assassins, alleging they had earlier kidnapped and murdered an army captain. The army confirmed the officer was buried in Ciudad Victoria on 13 January. A message left by the body of another victim found in Ciudad Victoria on 16 January alleged that he had been killed for thieving; authorities suspected he was killed by the Zetas cartel. Other killings that day occurred in the states of Durango and Estado de México and in the west-coast district of Acapulco, Proceso reported. One of the dead was a 16-year-old found with his throat slit in the Valle de Chalco district in Estado de México. A recent surge in killings in Estado de México in central Mexico, prompted authorities to consider deploying troops in its more crime-ridden districts. On 16 January the state's chief prosecutor Miguel Ángel Contreras Nieto blamed the recent surge on a fight between two criminal groups the Familia Michoacana and Guerreros Unidos; their turf war had killed 25 in the preceding 72 hours he said. While there was no "security crisis" in the state he declared, state and federal authorities were discussing the option of deploying troops, Proceso reported. Separately the governor of the eastern state of Veracruz Javier Duarte de Ochoa said state police would take over security in the Sotavento region in the state and specifically the district of Úrsulo Galván following the disappearance of eight municipal policemen there, Proceso reported on 16 January. He was apparently speaking in Úrsulo Galván, whose authorities have asked the state to take over its security. Duarte said state police would be acting in the framework of the Veracruz Seguro operation that has boosted the presence of state forces including troops around the state of Veracruz. He called on residents in the Sotavento zone to remain calm, while citing the operation's possible expansion to more districts. The Veracruz Seguro plan has so far seen increased police and military presence principally in the Veracruz-Boca del Río conurbation on the coast and in several districts with greater criminal activity.

Six women killed in Guatemala

Six women including two girls aged six and 12 were killed or found dead in Ciudad de Guatemala and in the department of Zacapa north-east of the capital on 16 January, the daily Prensa Libre reported. The girls had apparently been strangled to death and were left on a street in their pyjamas at one in the morning. These were some of the victims of the steady trickle of crimes daily reported in Guatemala. On 15 January the mayor of the town of Jutiapa near the frontier with El Salvador was shot dead inside a barber's shop, Prensa Libre reported. The Interior Minister later declared he suspected the assassination to be the work of organized crime. Prensa Libre also reported on 15 January the shooting death of a businessman in the San Miguel Petapa district south of the capital; he was the brother of Rafael Eduardo González Rosales, mayor of San Miguel Petapa in 2008-12. The same day a bus passenger was shot dead by thieves who boarded a bus travelling between Guatemala City and Quezaltenango, Prensa Libre reported. The passenger had refused to hand over his belongings as asked.

Catholicism reported in decline in Nicaragua

A survey carried out in Nicaragua in December 2012 showed the relentless decline of Roman Catholicism in that country between 1991 and 2012 and rise of Protestant Christianity, even if Catholics remained the largest religious community, El Nuevo Diario reported on 16 January. The Nicaraguan firm M & R Consultores carried out the survey for the Public Opinion Monitoring System (Sistema de Monitoreo de Opinión Pública, Sismo), interviewing 1,600 Nicaraguans between 17 and 28 December; the results were said to have a 95-per-cent confidence level and a margin of error of +/- 2.5 per cent. Just over 52 per cent of respondents described themselves as Catholics, compared to the 90 per cent figure for 1991. The survey indicated 30 per cent of Nicaraguans to be Evangelical, while 14.1 per cent said simply that they were "believers" and 0.3 per cent, atheists. A comparative table of the figures obtained in 1991, 1995 and 2005 indicated that the four per cent of Nicaraguans who said they were Protestant Evangelicals in 1991 increased to 15.1 per cent in 1995, a year when Catholics had declined to just under 80 per cent of the population. The latest survey indicated there were more Catholics in cities and in the western part of Nicaragua, El Nuevo Diario reported.

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.

Venezuela has a new foreign minister

Venezuela's bed-ridden President Hugo Chávez Frías appointed the former vice-president Elías Jaua Milano foreign minister on 15 January; the appointment was announced in parliament by the outgoing minister and acting president Nicolás Maduro, the state news agency AVN reported. Jaua who was also made vice-president for political affairs, told Venezuelan television that his "fundamental task" would be to defend and maintain Venezuela's "political stability and unity as well as Venezuela's independence, both on the internal front and the international front," AVN reported. The foreign ministers of Ecuador and Brazil were the first to congratulate him by telephone. The foreign ministry thanked them in a statement also confirming scheduled meeting in coming days between Jaua and the foreign ministers of Colombia and Ecuador, El Universal reported. The nomination was said to have been made by Chávez himself, whose signature was shown on the appointment published in the official gazette the next day, El Nacional reported. This seemed to corroborate declarations that his health was improving; the daily cited the Information Minister Ernesto Villegas as saying that he was "climbing back up the hill." The president underwent surgery for cancer the previous December.

General suspects Colombia's FARC arming amid talks

While negotiating peace with the Colombian government in Cuba, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were thought to have "increased" arms purchases "since the peace process began," Spain's EFE reported on 13 January, citing remarks by the Ecuadorean general commanding troops on the frontier with Colombia. Brigadier-General Fernando Proaño Daza, commander of some 12,000 troops in northern Ecuador, told EFE by telephone that a makeshift "arms workshop" was found in a house on 9 January in the Salado district in the northern province of Imbabura, yielding handguns, ammunition, pieces and related fabrication tools. Proaño said that "since the peace process began, trafficking has increased. We have caught a large quantity of ammunition, armaments and what we can determine is that they made use of this situation to strengthen their situation anticipating what could happen in the future." The FARC declared a two-month ceasefire due to end on 20 January, and Colombian officials were expecting a resurgence of attacks after that. The arms found on 9 January were described as destined for illegal groups, which could include drug traffickers. Separately a former provincial legislator was cited on 10 January as saying that Colombia seemed to be negotiating with no more than 30 per cent of the FARC and that judging by recent clashes, certain FARC military "blocks" were absent at the talks. Sigifredo López, a former hostage of the FARC, said the "so-called south-western blocks" formerly led by the late FARC chiefs dubbed Alfonso Cano and Mono Jojoy were not participating "and the proof is that every day there are clashes in south-eastern and south-western Colombia," El Espectador reported. He did not elaborate. The FARC and government negotiators resumed peace talks in Havana on 14 January.

In days, over 70 reported killed around Mexico

Eight were reported killed or found dead on 15 January in separate incidents in the Mexican states of Coahuila, Estado de México and Chihuahua. Three of these were employees of the Mexican transport ministry reported as missing on 14 January in the northern city of Torreón in Coahuila; they were found dead the next day, apparently "tortured" before being killed, Proceso reported. The review reported the deaths of 41 people around Mexico between 11 and 14 January, including 19 killed in the capital in the 12-14 period. These apparently were distinct from 21 reported killed on 13-14 January in the northern states of Chihuahua and Nuevo León and Estado de México in central Mexico. Five of the dead here were suspected criminals shot by the army in the district of Cadereyta in Nuevo León, Proceso reported on 14 January. On 13 January two were gunned down while driving in the Caribbean island resort of Cozumel, in the state of Quintana Roo; the local governor promised an immediate inquiry and "zero tolerance" for crime on the island, Proceso reported. The same day a mother and her daugher of unspecified age were found shot dead in the district of Tlahualilo in the northern state of Durango, Proceso reported observing that the incident was amid two days of "extreme" violence in that part of the state. Mexico City's mayor reportedly declared on 13 or 14 January that the 19 killings registered in the capital on 12-14 January were unusual but unrelated to drug cartels, and overall security was "assured" in the city. Miguel Ángel Mancera, speaking in the capital, said authorities were investigating and "the instruction I have given very clearly is that there be no impunity...the important point here is that there will be no impunity." Some of the killings occurred in the districts of Iztapalapa and Gustavo A. Madero, where authorities have pursued a disarmament programme intended to reduce killings, Proceso observed.

Almost 40 killed, found dead around Mexico

Some 38 people were reported to have been killed or found dead in presumed criminal incidents around Mexico in the 9-11 January period, Proceso reported on 10 and 11 January, describing the 11th as one of the most violent days since Enrique Peña Nieto's presidency began in December 2012. Eight victims were killed in the northern state of Chihuahua on the night of 10-11 January, while five were found in a mine shaft in the north-central district of Noria de Angeles. Two men and a woman were also shot early on 11 January in a house in Mexico City, considered one of the country's less crime-ridden areas. Late on 9 January, four men aged 18 to 25 were killed in and outside a house in the northern city of Monterrey. Three policemen were among the dead: one was shot dead in the northern city of Tijuana as he left work at six in the morning on 10 January and two the same day in Chihuahua, the capital of the northern state of Chihuahua, Proceso reported.

Mexico has new law to compensate crime victims

President Enrique Peña Nieto promulgated on 8 January a law to establish a system of state assistence and compensation for victims of crime in Mexico, agencies reported. The Victims Law or General Victims Law was ratified in April 2012 but blocked by the last president, Felipe Calderón; Peña Nieto promised when elected in 2012 to bring it to fruition. The law, due to enter into force 30 days after its promulgation, required local, state and federal authorities to aid crime victims by various means including with financial assistance for legal action taken by victims. Authorities assisting victims were to adjust their regulations and codes of practice to the law within seven months of its promulgation. The law's provisions would constitute a new National System of Attention to Victims, CNNMéxico reported on 10 January. This it added would likely replace the existing prosecutor's office attending to crime victims created in 2011 by the Calderón government, known as Províctima (Procuraduría Social de Atención a Víctimas de Delito). The broadcaster observed however that the system's challenge was to ensure its provisions were implemented by local authorities Mexicans often distrust when they do not suspect them of conniving with criminals. Jurists speaking to CNN welcomed the law as a first step toward better justice for crime victims.

Ten killed around Mexico, locals arm against criminals

Ten people were reported killed in presumed criminal incidents around Mexico on 8-9 January, including three gunned down in the northern district of Saltillo and four in the north-western district of Tijuana. Another victim was an employee of the baking firm Bimbo, shot dead while driving a delivery van in the north-western city of Culiacán, Proceso reported on 9 January. On 8 January, police found 10 tonnes of marijuana in a mechanical workshop in Tijuana in the state of Baja California, although stamps on the sealed packets indicated these had previously been confiscated by police or the army. Nobody was arrested and it was not immediately clear why the load was seemingly abandoned or stolen. A police revision that day apparently indicated the load had been confiscated days before in three parts. The drugs formerly owned by the Sinaloa cartel, were handed over to state prosecutors, Proceso reported. The review separately reported that 200 residents of the western district of Ayutla de los Libres have been armed since 5 January and set up road blocks in response to persistent crime. The locals were controlling circulation in and out of Ayutla and declared they would not disarm until criminals had left the area. The governor of Guerrero where Ayutla is located, Ángel Aguirre Rivero reportedly told local media on 8 January that the measure indicated "the citizenry's desperation before organized crime and the lack of response by authorities," Proceso reported. Residents of Ayutla and two nearby districts mobilized on 5 January when a local policeman was kidnapped; the official was rescued and the kidnappers reportedly fled.

Murder rate in Bogotá reported lowest in decades

Bogotá's police revealed on 5 January that there had been 1,281 registered homicides in the Colombian capital in 2012 compared to 1,654 in 2011, and the city now had the lowest homicide rate in decades, RCN La Radio reported. The 23-per-cent reduction corroborated other figures recently given out by authorities. Bogotá's police chief Luis Eduardo Martínez Guzmán said the homicide rate for the city of some seven million residents was now 16.9 per 100,000 inhabitants. This was one of the lowest in Latin America. By comparison Greater Caracas was recently found to have a homicide rate of 122/100,000 inhabitants. Bogotá's security affairs chief Guillermo Asprilla said the "figures show the most successful year" in security terms since 1985, and attributed this to police action and the mayor's policies to curb possession of arms. A measure of the significance of this figure was perhaps in its comparison with Bogotá's homicide rate in 1993 - at a time when communist guerrillas and drug cartels were most active and potent - which was 80.9 per 100,000 inhabitants. Separately President Juan Manuel Santos was to discuss the state of crime in Bogotá with cabinet ministers and members of the Bogotá municipality, at a security council to be held in the north-eastern district of Usaquén. The residential area, described in reports as usually quiet, was recently the setting of gun fights between members of a local drug gang. The security council would examine the homicide figures given by police, and issues including drug trafficking, extortion, and bullying and drug abuse in schools, RCN La Radio reported on 10 January. It was not immediately clear when the council would meet.

Colombian guerrillas say will not renew ceasefire

A spokesman for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) declared on 9 January that the guerrilla army would not renew a 60-day unilateral ceasefire due to end on 20 January, intended to facilitate ongoing peace talks with the government in Havana. The head of the FARC's negotiating team in Havana, the guerrilla dubbed Iván Márquez, said "there will be no extension of the unilateral ceasefire. So far we have not contemplated the possibility. The only possibility would be to sign a bilateral ceasefire," which the Colombian government has so far ruled out, El Espectador reported. He also expressed hope that Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez would soon recover from the cancer for which he was operated last December, so he could "continue to contribute to this peace process as he has done." Chávez was in hospital in Havana. Márquez said that thanks to the president's help "it was possible for this peace table to be held in Havana." Venezuela is thought to have considerable influence with the FARC.

Venezuelan court allows delayed presidential oath

The Constitutional Hall of the Supreme Court of Venezuela ruled on 9 January that the ailing President Hugo Chávez did not have to take the oath of office for another presidential term on 10 January as required - given his physical incapacity - and this was a formality not affecting the "administrative continuity" in the country. Chávez was re-elected as president last October but remains in hospital in Cuba following surgery for cancer last December; the country was being run by a cabinet headed by his vice-president and foreign minister, Nicolás Maduro. Parliament voted on 8 January to allow his absence during treatment, while opponents urged the Supreme Court to declare whether or not this was legal. The court's President Luisa Estella Morales Lamuño declared that while a new constitutional period began on 10 January, "another swearing-in as President-elect is not necessary as there is no interruption in exercising his office...this is a re-elected president, the...re-election is to do with approval of his management," El Universal reported. She said he was outside Venezuela "for his health," with parliament's permission and in keeping with Article 235 of the constitution; that article stipulates that parliament must authorise a presidential absence in Venezuela if this is for more than five days. She said there could be no date now for when Hugo Chávez would be sworn into office, but this would surely happen once he was cured of cancer.

Group would become Mexico's "real" opposition party

Mexico's National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) led by the former presidential aspirant Andrés Manuel López Obrador took formal steps on 7 January toward becoming a party, its members vowing to garner extensive membership and insinuating this would become the main opposition to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Members of Morena (Movimiento Regeneración Nacional) visited the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) in Mexico City to formally notify it of Morena's intention to become a party. It was not immediately clear if this was a mere formality as Morena members have said or if approval was needed. In any case its members seemingly had scant regard for the IFE, which ratified the PRI's bitterly contested election in 2012 after rejecting all cheating allegations. They reportedly laughed when an IFE official welcomed them to the building as the "home of democracy." Mexico's Leftist parties insist the 2012 elections were fraud-ridden. Later addressing an IFE panel, party president Martí Batres Guadarrama denounced the Pact for Mexico signed between the PRI and the two main opposition parties - to ease reformist legislation - as "the PRI's dream and a reactionary utopia" intended to eliminate dissent, La Jornada reported on 8 January. "The PRI does not like democracy, plurality, discrepancy...that pact symbolises...a system of pseudo-governmental parties where everyone has the same opinion, a uniform...political society...but bad news for the PRI, if there is an opposition it is called Morena." He said Morena rejected the "neo-liberal model" and energy-related privatizations likely to be pursued the PRI government. Morena's impact would become apparent in time, and depend on how many members and ultimately votes it can garner. These were expected to be taken from the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), the main Leftist party formerly led by López Obrador. On 8 January López Obrador addressed "hundreds" of supporters in Mexico City's historic central square, where he registered his membership and began a national campaign to win party members. He vowed to defend Mexico's oil as national property and curb tax rises being imposed by the "gang of ruffians" in the government, while affirming Morena's peaceful vocation, La Jornada reported. A post was set up where "dozens" registered their affiliation after López Obrador left. Party president Batres was reported to have said the same day that he expected 1.5 million Mexicans to join the party in 2013, "more than recently registered" for the National Action Party, the main conservative party. He was to present the party's financing plans on 9 January, Excelsior and Notimex reported.

Around 30 reported killed in Mexico

Just under 30 were provisionally reported as gunned down or found dead around Mexico in the period from the evening of 5 to 8 January. Nine including three policemen were reported killed or found dead on 8 December; three of those including a policeman were found in an advanced state of decomposition in the  district of Durango in the northern state of Durango, Proceso reported. The policeman, from the district of Mezquital in that state, was reported disappeared in mid-December 2012. Two policemen were separately shot dead in the northern city of Saltillo and in Mexico City, while two charred bodies were found in a car in the north-western city of Culiacán, all on 8 January. Proceso reported 19 killings on 5-6 January, most of these occurring early on 6 January. One of the victims, found in the western city of Guadalajara, was identified as belonging to the cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación. Two of his brothers were reported arrested in September 2012. Separately on 8 January three teenagers or children and an adult were detained in the western resort of Acapulco with over 14.5 tonnes of "green weed" thought to be marijuana. Interrogations indicated the four were a local gang led by the adult, a 28-year-old dubbed El Chapito, Milenio reported. Police also detained on 8 January a gang of six including a mother and her 22-year-old son in the northern district of Escobedo, all suspected of drug trafficking and the kidnapping and murder of a taxi driver, Milenio reported.

Venezuelan parliament postpones president's oath

Parliament voted on 8 December to allow President Hugo Chávez Frías to formally take office before the Supreme Court after the official date of 10 January, given his physical incapacity to attend a ceremony in Venezuela for now. The Speaker of the National Assembly Diosdado Cabello Rondón told parliament that the 10 January date was not as opposition members alleged "immovable" and there were precedents for a president's late inauguration. The President he said now had "all the time he needs to recover and return to Venezuela" once cured of his illness, El Universal reported. He said addressing the opposition coalition that the government was functioning and the socialist regime united, "only the opposition is not functioning...the day something happens, [the vice-president] Nicolás [Maduro] and I will be here together. I don't know if you will all be together." Cabello was sworn in as Speaker on 5 January for 2012-13; he expressed satisfaction at the 8 January session that no opposition legislators had been included in the parliamentary presidium, as "there would surely have been a coup." A lawyer and constitutional specialist separately told Globovisión, a broadcaster critical of the regime, that he considered the vote "contrary to the constitution" and inapplicable beyond 10 January when the present constitutional period ended. José Vicente Haro said the acting president Nicolás Maduro and ministers should step down on 10 January, after which date they could be no more than a de facto government, Globovisión reported. Venezuela's Prosecutor-General Luisa Ortega Díaz was however cited as saying that day that a new constitutional period was not to be confused with a presidential mandate. She said "the mandate is one thing and the constitutional period another," and "the President can thus not take office on 10 January," Globovisión reported. She said parliament should however convene that day to start the new constitutional period. Hugo Chávez was elected to a new presidential term on 7 October. Ortega said that in spite of his resurgent illness and temporary absence, there had been no "power vacuum" in Venezuela as the opposition alleged.

Presidential absence fuels tensions in Venezuela

Hugo Chávez Frías was to be sworn into a new presidential term in Caracas on 10 January but it was very unlikely he would, as he reportedly remained under close medical care following surgery for cancer in December. Opposition forces in Caracas have increasingly urged Venezuela''s socialist regime to inform Venezuelans of the president's state but also respect constitutional stipulations in case of the president's unexpected incapacity. The opposition's position was that the current parliamentary speaker,  Diosdado Cabello, was to take over provisionally and prepare for general elections. The Democratic Coalition Table (MUD, Mesa de Unidad Democrática) wrote to the Organization of American States (OAS) to state its concern about the "alteration of the constitutional order" if this did not happen on 10 January, posing it stated a threat to the "democratic order," Agence France-Presse reported on 8 January. Officials have said Chávez could be sworn in later as this was merely a formality; the country was currently administered by the Vice-President and Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro. The MUD wrote there is "absolutely no room for the interpretation that would alllow the...act to be postponed to an unspecified time." The governor of the state of Miranda and former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles separately told a press conference on 8 January that the Supreme Court must clarify the correct interpretation of who should be president on 10 January and the matter could not be left to the government. He said "I don't know what the magistrates...are waiting for. A conflict is presently being envisaged in Venezuela that is undoubtedly constitutional; institutional bodies must respond to this conflict," Globovisión reported. It was not immediately clear where he was speaking. "The country is expecting a way out...a clear interpretation of what this constitutional text says," he said, holding out a booklet before his audience. He asked American presidents not to come on 10 January and fuel the "political game" inside Venezuela, meaning attend a ceremony where Chávez was absent. Capriles wondered aloud why officials were not telling Venezuelans about the president's condition 48 hours before his inauguration, and implied they were lying in this respect. He could not understand he said why they found it "so difficult to speak truthfully," however "harsh" that truth was.

Over 25 reported killed around Mexico

More than 25 were reported killed or found dead around Mexico on 3-5 January in incidents presumed linked to drugs and cartels; 12 of the victims died on 4-5 January in the northern state of Chihuahua, the review Proceso reported. Of the 12, six were killed in the districts of Valle de Zaragoza and Delicias on 5 January and six, identified as relatives of the mayor of Balleza in Chihuahua, on 4 January. The latter were initially declared to have died in a car crash as all six were found next to a car by a road in Cabeza de Venado south-west of the district of Parral; after relatives insisted this had been a "multiple execution," investigations began, which revealed the six had been "tortured" and beaten to death. Two of them were apparently kidnapped on 3 January and were sought out by four relatives who were killed with them, Proceso reported. The former district police chief of Balleza was in turn arrested on 4 January and was to be prosecuted on kidnapping and murder charges, Proceso reported. He was dismissed in January 2012 after being accused of kidnapping and killing a shopkeeper, but fled; he was arrested after returning to Balleza. Two men were shot dead in a bar late on 4 January in the northern city of Torreón - a day after three were shot in another bar in that city - while four were shot dead in a house in Zapopan in the western state of Jalisco early on 5 January, Proceso reported. It reported five other killings on 3-4 January in the states of Morelos, Durango, Nuevo León and Guanajuato. Also on 5 January authorities in the north-central state of San Luis Potosí publicly presented 13 detainees identified as members of the Gulf Cartel thought to have been active in criminal activities in various districts of the state, Proceso reported, citing the regional daily Pulso. Arms, ammunition and communication items were reportedly taken from them.

Officials see fall in murders, extortion in El Salvador

The office of the Prosecutor-General of El Salvador issued a report on 27 December observing a dramatic fall in reported murders and extortions in 2012, attributed in the former case to a truce between gangs that began in March and to police action. The head of the Anti-homicide Unit at the prosecutor-general's office Oscar Torres told the press that day that there were 2,517 registered homicides in the country from 1 January to 19 December, 1,728 cases less than in the same period in 2011, El Salvador's El Mundo reported the next day. Torres said that 2,573 arrest warrants against murder suspects had led to 1,703 arrests and ultimately, to 922 convictions. The officer dealing with extortions at prosecutor-general's office, Allan Hernández, separately cited a 10 per cent drop in reported cases of extortion, presumably in the same period, and a 40-per-cent increase in related convictions. He said however there were no figures or any "real documented form" to show a direct link between this and the gangs' ceasefire. Salvadorean authorities have in recent months expressed satisfaction at the apparent fall in violent crime in the country even though certain critics intermittently insist many crimes go unreported. The recent homicide figures were deplorable compared to those of Costa Rica, where the local Red Cross reportedly counted 211 killings in 2012. But they were better than those of the most crime-ridden Latin American states like Venezuela or Honduras where 50 or so were reported killed over Christmas. No killings were apparently reported during the 22-30 December period in El Salvador, with police counting 33 deaths in car crashes or drownings.

Venezuelans pray for ailing leader's recovery

At the close of 2012 many Venezuelans prayed for the recovery of President Hugo Chávez Frías, apparently in a fragile state following a recent operation for a recurring cancer, while officials issued messages to dismiss rumours of his deterioration. Venezuela's Science Minister Jorge Arreaza Monserrat wrote on the website Twitter that the president had spent "a quiet and stable day in the company of his children" on 31 December and Venezuelans should disbelieve "malicious rumours" to the contrary. On 30 or 31 December, an oecumenical mass was held at a church in Caracas for Chávez, while residents gathered in the Plaza Bolívar to sing for the president, the state news agency AVN reported. Chávez followed the service on television from Cuba where he was operated, according to the Venezuelan communications minister Ernesto Villegas; on 30 December he urged unspecified critics not to "play" with the president's health by spreading rumours on websites like Twitter. It seemed improbable that Chávez could return to Venezuela to be officially sworn in for another presidential term on 10 January as scheduled; Vice-President Nicolás Maduro most recently described his physical state as "delicate." The Colombian broadcaster Caracol separately cited a physician José Rafael Marquina as saying that the recent surgery had been an "absolute failure" and that "Cuba does not have enough experience to treat" the president's "unusual cancer;" he said he believed Chávez was "very probably" living his "last days." It was not immediately clear if Marquina's assertions were based on reliable information, but Caracol described him as "known" to have previously revealed "privileged information" on the president's health. He told Caracol on 31 December that he did not believe rumours of Venezuelan officials concealing the president's death while preparing opinion for the news, observing that already "the country and the world are prepared for the death of Chávez."

Over 530 were killed in Caracas in December 2012

The Bello Monte forensic facility in Caracas was reported to have received 15 bodies - of presumed victims of criminal incidents in the capital - in the 12 hours from six in the evening on 30 December to six in the morning the next day, the broadcaster Globovisión reported on 31 December. It qualified the figures given by the morgue as unofficial but the movement of bodies into the morgue is reported in Venezuelan media and apparently considered a daily gauge of the state of violence in Caracas, which has the highest homicide rate in Venezuela. Citing the morgue's figures, Globovisión gave 532 as the number of violent deaths in Caracas in December 2012.

Killings reported across Mexico end of year

The review Proceso reported 15 or more criminal executions across the country on 30-31 December observing that "the last day of the year ended like the preceding 364 days: drenched in blood." Six of the fatalities were in the central Estado de México, with two people shot to death and four found decapitated. Five were found dead on 30 December in the district of Balleza in the northern state of Chihuahua, while two men were shot dead on 30 or 31 December in the district of Gómez Palacio in the state of Durango, Proceso reported. The website reported gun attacks on police and judiciary installations in Durango on 29-30 December, without casualties. Two gunmen were shot dead by police in the Mesa del Seri locality outside the north-western city of Hermosillo, on 30 or 31 December. In the district of Buenaventura in Chihuahua, members of The Zetas drug cartel recently murdered four women they had kidnapped, throwing their bodies into a ditch, Proceso reported on 31 December, citing declarations by the Chihuahua prosecutor's office. The ditch was found after marines arrested on 30 December four purported Zetas in the northern city of Monclova who also revealed a safe house holding three or four more hostages and an arsenal including assault rifles, hand grenades and ammunition. The hostages told police they too were to be murdered.

Army reported bombing guerrillas in northern Colombia

The Colombian armed forces were reported to have struck at the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in rural areas of the northern department of Antioquia on 31 December, with differing figures given for purported casualties. Army and air-force units bombarded positions or a camp belonging to the FARC's Fifth Front in or near the district of Chigorodó; 13 guerrillas were provisionally counted as killed according to the broadcaster Caracol although RCN La Radio reported three fatalities. The armed forces reportedly remained cautious about President Juan Manuel Santos's count of 13 deaths written on the website Twitter, before troops had arrived to verify the scene. RCN cited a senior air-force officer General Hugo Acosta Téllez as saying that searches following bombardments had yielded armaments; he said the raid could prove fatal to the Fifth Front, which he added had few guerrillas left in its ranks.

Nine shot dead "at party" outside Medellín

Media reported the assassination of nine people in a country house south of the city of Medellín in northern Colombia on 31 December. Police were investigating the victims' identities but suspected the killings to be related to drug trafficking, RCN La Radio reported. One of the dead was identified as "possibly" a drug trafficker or head of the criminal gang known as the Oficina de Envigado, the broadcaster Caracol reported. The dead were found in a country house in the district of Envigado; neighbours reportedly told police they had heard nothing but the sound of loud music at the house. Several violent crimes were reported around the country in the closing days of 2012. RCN reported the shooting deaths of four people in the south-western city of Cali on 28 December, including of a child or teenager of unspecified age and a boy aged 19. A 16-year-old boy was stabbed to death in the northern city of Bucaramanga on 29 December as he resisted a bid by two thieves to steal his cap, Caracol Radio reported. The same day a man was shot to death in a "public establishment," perhaps a bar, in Cúcuta north-east of Bucaramanga, Caracol reported.

A dozen killed around Mexico

About a dozen people were killed or found dead in recent days in apparent criminal incidents around Mexico. Six of these were found dead in several districts of the central Estado de México on 30 December, Milenio reported. The daily reported a shooting death in Mexico City on 30 December and another late on 29 December in the northern city of Monterrey. That victim was shot dead after armed men burst into a house party; 11 were injured in that attack, Milenio reported. Three were found dead on 28 December in the Sierra Tarahumara, the somewhat lawless countryside of the northern state of Chihuahua, including a 16-year-old apparently shot in the neck. Four others were injured in gun attacks in two different parts of the state that day, Proceso reported. State police separately arrested eight men including a municipal policeman on 28 December in the north-western city of Ciudad Obregón; they were caught while driving with a private arsenal including AK-47 assault rifles, Proceso reported, citing Notimex. Five suspected kidnappers were arrested on 30 December in the north-eastern city of Nuevo Laredo, apparently while planning to kidnap a local businessman who called police to say he had been followed for days. Arms, ammunition and hand-grenades were confiscated from the gang that included a 15-year-old; police said the group confessed to having carried out several kidnappings in the area, Milenio reported.

Body saw violent crimes increase in Venezuela

All manner of crimes increased in Venezuela in 2012 according to the private body Observatorio Venezolano de Violencia, which estimated in its latest report a total of 21,692 killings in 2012 or homicide rate of 73 per 100,000 inhabitants, Colombia's RCN La Radio reported on 27 December. The body's director told RCN radio that the figure represented an eight to 10-per-cent increase compared to 2011. The Observatorio concluded in its 2012 report that Venezuela was now one of the most violent of countries, in spite of "valuable" measures taken by the socialist government to curb crime. Its director Roberto Briceño-León said there had been a "sustained" increase in crimes since 1999 when he said Venezuela had a homicide rate of 19 per 100,000 inhabitants. He said "Venezuela is currently the most violent state in Latin America...a position of dubious honour it shares with Honduras, to some extent with El Salvador, but it has been a process of continuous growth when this has diminished in Colombia." A summary of its report cited the Venezuelan states with the highest homicide rates as the Capital District including Caracas, with 122/100,000 followed by the state of Miranda with 100/100,000 and Aragua south-west of Caracas with 92. The lowest homicide rates were seen in the southern and western states of Amazonas and Mérida, with 42 and 41/100,000. The report observed however that violence had spread to all parts of Venezuela; "killings increased in houses and on the streets. Assassinations have become the means of committing crimes against property, a mechanism for resolving personal disputes or between neighbours and a form of implementing private justice." The body noted a "loss of respect for police authority" manifest in the figure it cited of one policeman or police official killed every day in Venezuela in 2012. Authorities it stated counted 583 kidnappings - as these were reported - but there were "thousands that are not reported. Kidnapping stopped being a crime aimed at the rich and affects middle-class and working families." Kidnappers it added, were now more competent and flexible.

Mexican troops gun down traffickers, bodies found

Mexican soldiers shot dead at an unspecified date five men identified as members of The Zetas drug cartel, in the district of Córdoba in the east-coast state of Veracruz, the daily Milenio reported on 27 December. Three cars, arms and a rocket launcher were confiscated after the shootout. State authorities identified one of the killed as the Zetas' chief in the Córdoba district, a man dubbed El Pokemón. Authorities in the northern state of Nuevo León presented five detainees on 27 December also identified as Zetas and suspected as involved in at least 22 killings as well as drug dealing in northern Nuevo León, El Universal reported. They were detained in the district of Anáhuac; the state security spokesman Jorge Domene Zambrano said the gang's victims were mostly thought to be members of the rival Gulf Cartel whose bodies were burned on local ranches forcibly taken over by the gang. Ten bodies were separately found in graves in the north-central state of Zacatecas on 26 December; three were found in a secret grave in the locality of Sauceda de la Borda north of the city of Zacatecas, after neighbours called the police for the putrid smell, Milenio reported, citing Notimex. Seven were found further north in the district of Miguel Auza, El Universal reported.

Former president deplores mayor's "experiments" in Bogotá

Colombia's former president Ernesto Samper accused Bogotá's Leftist mayor Gustavo Petro on 27 December of "destabilizing" the capital and dividing its residents while experimenting with his socialist "booklet at the city's expense," RCN La Radio reported. Petro, a Leftist politician and briefly a Marxist guerrilla in the 1980s, became mayor in January 2012 and has followed an agenda to recuperate municipal prerogatives. Samper, a president in the 1990s, alleged on RCN radio that Petro was using the city to "set up a national project of a socialist nature." The mayor has been criticized for his plans to have the city retake full control of rubbish collection, previously contracted out. The ill-prepared transition and dearth of vehicles led to the accumulation of trash in the capital's streets for several days as the new system began technically on 18 December. Samper dismissed the scheme as Petro's "whim," adding "it is like returning to the 50s and 60s. That is returning to Soviet Stalinism. The city has gone back 25 or 30 years." On 25 December, the city's new waste-management firm Aguas de Bogotá reduced the number of districts where it would collect waste - having insufficient vehicles - and agreed to re-distribute zones to private firms formerly involved in cleaning, Lime, Atesa, Aseo Capital and Ciudad Limpia, "in principle for a month," the broadcaster Caracol reported. Meanwhile 25 used waste-collection and cleaning vehicles imported from the United States were in the port of Cartagena and might remain there until January 2013 as importation legalities were being checked and vehicles disinfected, El Tiempo reported. Some vehicles were reported to have potentially hazardous plant and trash residues. The Bogotá government signed contracts on 7 and 13 December to import 160 trash-collection vehicles for Aguas de Bogotá, El Tiempo stated. Separately Colombia's director of public prosecutions (Fiscal-General) Eduardo Montealegre Lynett was reported as stating that his office had begun a "preliminary investigation" to discern possible legal violations in the trash-collection plan. Montealegre said "I have designated a very senior official to evaluate the complaint lodged against the mayor and determine whether or not the actions attributed to the mayor of Bogotá have criminal relevance," Caracol radio reported on 27 December. The state prosecution service would also look for contractual irregularities and environmental violations and state its decision in January, he said.

Fewer cited killed in Colombia at Christmas

Police chief José Roberto León Riaño told RCN La Radio on 26 December that Christmas killings in Colombia dropped 30 per cent this year compared to the 47 counted as killed in 2011, apparently confirming the decline in crimes officials commented on earlier in December. In Bogotá, the mayor Gustavo Petro said there were three killings in the capital on Christmas Eve, down from 16 for the same day in 2011, the broadcaster Caracol reported. He said there were 65 reported homicides in Bogotá in December from 1 to midnight on 24 December, compared to 148 for the same period in 2011. Christmas was however marked by numerous people being burned by firecrackers or hurt in street fights; police reportedly intervened in more than 4,500 scuffles or fights on 24 December. In the northern city of Medellín, authorities counted about 1,000 fights on 24 and 25 December, mostly following drinking and street celebrations, Caracol television reported.

Colombian officials wary of weakened FARC, ELN

The Colombian defence ministry found in mid-December that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the guerrilla force that has battled the state for decades, now had fewer than 8,000 members, compared to about 20,000 some 12 years ago, El Espectador reported on 26 December. A ministry report found that the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN) had fewer than 1,500, down from about 4,000 operatives in 2002; it attributed the fall to sustained military action. The report stated that in 2012 Colombia reduced FARC numbers by just under 18 per cent compared to 2011 and just under 22 per cent for the ELN. FARC spokesmen have on occasions insisted the state cannot defeat them and has been forced to initiate negotiations. Colombia's police chief José Roberto León Riaño separately told RCN Radio on 26 December that he feared the FARC were preparing a "terrorist wave" in 2013 and had not respected a unilateral two-month ceasefire purportedly begun on 20 November. Police he said observed that the FARC had in preceding weeks acquired "explosives, war material, most probably to prepare a terrorist wave when the ceasefire," for which he said police were also preparing. The army commander General Sergio Mantilla Sanmiguel concurred, speaking to RCN Radio on 24 December; he said "the FARC are arming...searching and storing" but also making explosives "to attack the population," El Espectador reported. This "is not a serious ceasefire" he said, observing that "they look like they will begin to launch indiscriminate attacks in January." Mantilla put at 1,500 the number of rebels of both armies arrested in 2012.

Fifteen or more killed around Mexico

In the northern district of Morelos near the US frontier, troops shot dead three suspected criminals early on 25 December after they were said to have come under gunfire, Proceso reported. They found arms and ammunition including grenades and a launcher from the Dodge estate car whence shots had reportedly been fired. In the north-western state of Sinaloa gunmen dressed in paramilitary-type uniforms searched houses in the district of El Platanar de los Ontineros on 24 December, looking for individuals written on their execution list; they found and shot dead nine, Proceso reported citing the local mayor's comments to the newspaper El Noroeste. According to Proceso the locality is next to what is termed locally a "Fear zone" (Zona de miedo) in the state, which includes the districts of La Cieneguilla, El Tiro, Zaragoza, Aguacaliente del Zapote and El Llano and where presumably criminals do as they please. Five decapitated bodies were found in a locality near the frontier of the western states of Jalisco and Michoacán on 24 December; four were identified as those of policemen of the district of Pihuamo in Jalisco reported as kidnapped on 23 December. The bodies found in the locality of Los Naranjos had been burned, Proceso reported. It also reported that a Federal policeman was found "executed" and burned outside the north-central city of San Luis Potosí on 25 December. He had been reported as last seen at a house party on 22 December. In the west-coast district of Zihuatanejo, people found a man hanging from a bridge early on 25 December, Proceso reported.

Over 50 killed in Honduras over Christmas

Over 50 people were reported killed in violent incidents across Honduras on Christmas Eve, while the capital's Escuela hospital received a steady stream of injuries from guns, knives and machetes, agencies and press reported citing police and hospital sources. A police spokesman told EFE agency that 30 were known to have died in acts of violence on 24 December and 11 in car accidents, while remaining deaths were to be investigated. Forty four people were admitted to the emergencies wing of the Escuela hospital in Tegucicalpa between Christmas Eve and midday on Christmas Day, El Heraldo reported on 26 December, observing that most were effectively drunk. Among them 28 had been injured by handguns and 16 by knives or machetes. La Prensa cited police as counting 52 violent deaths and 73 injuries across the country, though it was not immediately clear if this included part of Christmas Day. Of the victims of crimes, 24 died in San Pedro Sula and its environs, La Prensa reported on 25 December. One of these was the lawyer Juan Antonio Romero Rodríguez, shot in San Pedro on 24 September by two men who stopped his car. The website Proceso Digital observed this was the second killing of a lawyer in recent days, in a country where lawyers are frequently targetted for elimination. It reported the killing on 20 or 21 December of the lawyer José Ramon Logos and a client in the northern city of El Progreso, both shot as they left a courtroom.

Guatemalan prosecutor, six more killed in ambush

Seven people including a public prosecutor were shot dead while driving in north-western Guatemala on 23 December, in an attack suspected to be the work of a drug cartel, the daily Prensa Libre reported. The attack occurred in the San Pedro Necta district in Huehuetenango, the department bordering Mexico; the cars were burned. Of the victims three were identified as the district prosecutor of Chiquimula in eastern Guatemala Irma Yolanda Oliveras, an employee of the social works department of the First Lady's Office (SOSEP) and a businessman named as Luis Antonio Palacios, the Interior Minister was reported as saying. The group was returning in two armoured cars from the inauguration of a hotel belonging to Palacios in the district of La Mesilla in Huehuetenango, or going to La Mesilla as other reports suggested. It appeared the district prosecutor was for some time a target of criminals, possibly of The Zetas cartel whose activities she was tasked with investigating. Prensa Libre cited Guatemala's Prosecutor-General Claudia Paz y Paz as recently commenting on persistent threats to prosecutors in frontier districts like Chiquimula. Police reportedly arrested in August suspected members of the Zetas thought to be planning the assassination of the Chiquimula district prosecutor, though reports did not immediately clarify if she was that prosecutor.

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.

Dozens killed around Mexico, head left at mayor's house

Twenty six or more people were reported killed or found dead in the states of Jalisco, Michoacán, Zacatecas and Sinaloa on 23-24 December in criminal executions and gun battles, these including a dozen policemen shot dead by gangsters, Proceso and El Universal reported. In one incident, three policemen were shot dead in Ayotlán in Jalisco, in a gun fight with 40 armed men who drove into town in a caravan of 10 cars; the gang had earlier fired on police in nearby Degollado, with no fatalities. Nine policemen from the district of Briseñas in Michoacán were killed in that state on the night of 23-24 December, as their patrol came under fire from criminals, El Universal reported. It counted 11 victims of crime in Michoacán that night. It separately reported that six people were shot or found dead on 23 December in the districts Cósala and Culiacán in the north-western state of Sinaloa. A man was shot dead on 23 December in the north-central city of Zacatecas, El Universal reported the police as saying. In the northern city of Torreón, five dismembered bodies were found at the back of a car late on 21 December, Proceso reported on 22 December, citing the local daily Vanguardia. An unspecified message was found by the bodies. A 25-year-old woman was killed in the north-western city of Chihuahua as she sought to protect her four-year-old child from shooting between a suspect and police, Proceso reported. She was driving by the spot where a man began shooting from his car at a Federal police car. On 22 December, a severed head was left at the entrance of a house belonging to the mayor of El Arenal in the western state of Jalisco, with a message from a criminal gang, Proceso reported, citing the weblog narco.com. The mayor, Alejandro Ocampo Aldana, is a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party and began working in October; the head belonged to a man reported kidnapped on 20 December in the village of Huaxtla. The message was signed by the Alianza de sangre empresa NX (Blood Alliance Enterprise NX) and directed at drug cartels competing in this area The Zetas, the Jalisco Nueva Generación and a gang called Los Sandoval, Proceso reported.

Mexican policemen held for "torture," mayor beats neighbours

Three Mexican policemen from the northern frontier city of Juárez were detained at an unspecified date, accused of beating two detainees and sodomizing one of them with a baseball bat or similar item so he would confess to selling drugs, Proceso reported on 23 December, citing the Juárez daily El Diario. Five policemen were facing charges relating to the incident, which occurred last May, although two had fled, the dailies reported. The plaintiffs had been stopped by police while riding one or two motorbikes; after initial questioning they were taken to a building for more vigorous interrogation: this included beatings and for one detainee, being forced to swallow bullets covered in urine and sodomized with a bat. The two apparently had their heads doused in liquor and were later taken to a local judge and reported for drinking in public. The policemen were ordered detained on 17 November and presented before a judge on 23 December. In the state of Morelos south of Mexico City, the mayor of Tlaltizapán had police beat two of his neighbours after they complained about police cars parked outside their house, Proceso reported on 22 December, citing Mexico's Notimex. When a female neighbour complained to the mayor he ordered policemen to arrest her, while another neighbour who intervened was beaten by police in front of relatives including children. The family later complained to the National Human Rights Commission, which publicized the incident in a communiqué and wrote to the municipality. It was not immediately clear if the mayor faced prosecution.

Over 35 shot dead around Mexico

Over 35 were killed in criminal "executions" and shootouts between gunmen and state forces around Mexico in the 19-21 December period. Of these 14 were reported dead on 19-20 December, including a 22-year-old who died in a shootout with the army on 20 December in the northern state of Chihuahua. Five bodies were found that day by a road in the north-central state of San Luis Potosí, with unspecified messages left beside them from one of the drug cartels, Proceso reported. Authorities in the east-coast state of Veracruz declared that troops and police shot dead on 20 December a man identified as Jesús Daniel Vargas Ramírez - El Popeye - head of The Zetas cartel in the district of Cardel or José Cardel in Veracruz, Proceso reported. The website counted at least 22 victims of criminal and related incidents from late 20 to 21 December. These included: 10 people including five teenagers killed in the northern district of Monterrey late on 20 December, and seven or nine shot dead in and around the western resort of Acapulco, including a journalist and a court official. On 21 December, authorities of the northern state of Nuevo León presented eight detainees identified as members of the Zetas cartel thought involved in the murder of 11 policemen including a police chief in 2011, Proceso reported. The state security spokesman Jorge Domene Zambrano declared that the eight were thought to have kidnapped then executed the police chief of Apodaca and 10 colleagues, in the district of Benito Juárez in April 2011, and were suspects in several murders in 2012. They were detained at an unspecified time in December.

Colombians debate land use, to aid peace talks

A three-day meet in Bogotá to gather Colombians' opinions on land use, and planned earlier to complement peace talks between the state and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) concluded on 19 December with some 400 proposals to be sent to negotiators in Havana. The Forum on Integral Agrarian Development organized by Colombia's National University and the United Nations in Colombia, was attended by some 1,200 delegates from 15 civilian sectors nationwide. Opinions, compilled by UN rapporteurs, were to reach Havana before 8 January when negotiations were to resume. Land ownership is a key theme in negotiations. Spain's ABC newspaper observed on 20 December that a little over one cent of proprietors owned over 50 per cent of Colombian lands, and ownership had been a detonator of the ongoing conflict. One group absent at the forum however was the National Federation of Cattle Farmers (Federación Nacional de Ganaderos, Fedegan), whose president termed unhelpful the airing of numerous "antagonistic" positions on land use, ABC reported on 19 December citing news agencies. Another website cited the Fedegan president as saying that his association refused to condone "executioners," meaning the FARC. Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos said in a radio interview that Fedegan's absence and failure to "at least send proposals" made "no sense," but admitted cattle farmers had suffered from guerrilla activities in past decades. The Fedegan's president he said, had "very clearly and from the start been critical of a rapprochement with the FARC," a posture he said was "valid."

Nicaragua convicts Mexican "pressmen" on drug charges

A Nicaraguan court convicted on drug-trafficking and related charges on 19 December 18 Mexicans detained on 20 August 2012 after they entered Nicaragua parading as employees of the Mexican broadcaster Televisa. Over nine million USD and cocaine traces were found in some of the six vehicles they drove displaying Televisa logos; Televisa has denied they were employees. The 18 were found guilty of drug trafficking, money laundering and membership of criminal organizations, CNN reported citing Mexico's Notimex. Prosecutors asked for the maximum 30 years sentence envisaged for the charges but the presiding judge Edgard Altamirano was to issue a sentence on 18 January 2013, Nicaragua's La Prensa reported. Toward the close of the trial on 18 December, police testimonies indicated that a woman identified as head of the group had repeatedly telephoned a number identified as belonging to a vice-president of Televisa, Spain's EFE reported. Members of the Economic Investigations Directorate at the Nicaraguan police testified that Raquel Alatorre Correa dialled a Mexican number, said to belong to Televisa's Amador García Estrada, between 25 July and 24 August. The group also carried letters apparently signed by García although Nicaraguan prosecutors were waiting for the executive to send them a sample signature in January for verification. EFE cited a prosecutor as saying that Televisa had formally asked Nicaraguan justice to investigate whether or not someone inside Televisa had signed  letters for the group.

Eight reported killed around Mexico, policemen sacked

Eight were reported killed in presumed criminal incidents around Mexico on 17-19 December, including a "Venezuelan model" and two policemen whose bodies were found in a burned vehicle, Proceso reported. The policemen were found in the district of Salvador Escalante in the western state of Michoacán; one of them it was thought could be the police chief of Santa Clara del Cobre, south-west of the city of Morelia in Michoacán. The brother of a prominent local businesswoman was also found dead in a ditch south of Morelia. On 17 December, four suspected kidnappers shot dead a businessman in the locality of Villa Seca outside Toluca de Lerdo in Estado de México, as he resisted being forced into a car. A 24-year-old girl identified as Venezuelan model Daysi Yeniree Ferrer Arenas, was found dead on 18 December in the western city of Guadalajara; she had been shot in the head three times. Authorities raised to 23 the number of deaths from rioting and a failed attempt on 18 December to break out of a prison in the state of Durango. The state's Public Security chief Jesús Antonio Rosso told Milenio newspaper that nine guards and 14 inmates had died in violence that erupted in the prison in Gómez Palacio. On 19 December, 125 policemen in the northern state of Coahuila were relieved of their duties and banned from working in the security sector after failing "confidence tests" designed to establish their probity and professionalism, the state's Public Security chief told Milenio Televisión. Many Mexican policemen have the worst reputation with the public, for suspected corruption and ties to criminals. Gerardo Villarreal said these could not be recruited elsewhere in Mexico and the state would decide whether or not more policemen would be dismissed in 2013.

Officials see fewer murders, crimes in Bogotá

Murders and "high impact" crimes were said to be continuing a downward trend in Bogotá, with a reported 29 per cent drop in homicides in November 2012 year-on-year, city officials declared on 13 December. There appeared to be 104 homicides in Bogotá in November 2012 - compared to 147 in November 211 - and this was the lowest figure in 10 years, the capital's police chief General Luis Eduardo Martínez Guzmán stated, while speaking at a presentation with the Bogotá Government Secretary or security chief Guillermo Asprilla Coronado. Martínez gave 1,143 as the number of homicides registered so far in 2012, 22 per cent below 1,460 homicides for either the same period in 2011 or all of 2011. Homicides registered for the first 13 days of December were reported to have dropped 59 per cent compared to same time in 2011, December being termed "historically" the most violent month. Asprilla said "we have the homicide phenomenon under control in Bogotá. Our objective is to take the figure to a single digit." Other figures given for the first third of December 2012 were: a 46-per-cent drop in car thefts compared to the same time in 2011, a 30-per-cent fall in personal thefts or muggings and a 47-per-cent drop in shop thefts. On 18 December the prosecutor-general's office ruled that Asprilla be dismissed from his post and banned from public office for 12 years after investigations indicated a conflict of his private interests and public duties, the broadcaster Caracol reported. As Bogotá Government Secretary Asprilla is in charge of security and justice policies among other duties and is effectively a deputy-mayor; he was the acting mayor in in June 2012 when Mayor Gustavo Petro fell ill. But apparently he remained to date an attorney to plaintiffs who have taken the municipality to court after the explosion of a trash heap in 1997; damages could be paid for that. He has said he did not hide his legal activities and withdrew from the case after entering the city council, El Tiempo reported. Asprilla was reportedly to continue working while appealing the ruling.

Two FARC rebels killed in southern Colombia

The Colombian army killed two rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) during gun battles in the southern department of Caquetá, at an unspecified date, the daily El Espectador reported on 18 December. The guerrillas were killed in a rural part of the Solano district; the army declared operations were continuing in the zone. One of Colombia's senators was separately reported as urging the states guaranteeing the current peace talks between the FARC and the state to press the FARC to release child soldiers, whom she described as "kidnapped for the war." Norway and Cuba are acting as guarantors of the talks and Venezuela and Chile are "accompanying" them, though Venezuela and Cuba's socialist regimes likely enjoy greater influence with the FARC. Gilma Jiménez Gómez a senator of the Green Party, recently said that "if the FARC do not return underage recruits, which means kidnapped for the war, the process will be illegal...and immoral," El Espectador reported on 18 December without dating her remarks. She said "recruiting" children in the FARC was a euphemism for kidnapping. It was not clear if the subject was to be specifically discussed during talks in Havana, while no figures were given for the number of children in the FARC's ranks. Jiménez formerly headed the social welfare department at the Bogotá municipality; she was elected to the Senate for four years in 2010, El Espectador reported.