Gang suspects held around Colombia, Anglican priest shot in Bogotá

Colombian authorities reported on 11 June arrests in different localities of 17 suspected members of the Rastrojos, one of the country's leading criminal gangs; they were to be charged with conspiracy to murder for presumed criminal activities that included killings, Radio Santa Fe reported. Thirteen of the suspects were detained in the district of Arjona in the northern department of Bolívar, the remainder in the departments of César and Norte de Santander, the broadcaster reported. Police also announced the arrest of the suspected head of another national gang Los Urabeños for the western port of Buenaventura, a suspect dubbed La F, El Colombiano reported on 11 June. The suspect was sought on homicide and related charges; he was caught in the city of Cali where he reportedly ran operations that included shipping drugs along Colombia's Pacific coast, and gold mining. Colombian media reported several killings in the capital and in Medellín. In south-western Bogotá, an Anglican priest and his lawyer were shot dead early on 11 June in what was initially reported to be a robbery. The victims were alternately said to have been shot in their car, which two gunmen stopped as it drove toward the district of Villavicencio at four in the morning, or taken away and shot in the district of Kennedy in the capital, Caracol radio reported. In Medellín, three men - one aged 17 - were shot dead late on 9 June by gunmen said to be wearing police uniforms, while six at least were shot dead on 8 June around the department of Antioquia that includes Medellín, El Colombiano reported. Homicides in Medellín were reportedly continuing an upward trend compared to 2012; the Antioquia security affairs chief Arnulfo Serna Giraldo said there were 503 homicides in Medellín from the start of 2013 to 9 June, compared to 499 for the same period in 2012, El Colombiano reported.

Colombian police detain guerrilla captain, crime gang held in northern Bogotá

Colombian police declared on 6 June they had detained a field commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), as he headed to a meeting with another FARC chief in the locality of Páramo de Sumapaz south of the capital Bogotá. The guerrilla dubbed Jaime was associated with the kidnap in 2000 of the journalist Guillermo Cortés and identified as a 25-year veteran of the FARC; he was to face sedition-related charges, Radio Santa Fe reported on 6 June. Police also caught a suspected paramilitary or former paramilitary, a man dubbed Farid, in the district of Puerto Concordia south-east of Bogotá, Radio Santa Fe reported. The detained, a suspected member of a group called Libertadores del Vichada, was thought involved in killings and extortions from traders and livestock formers in the departments of Casanare and Meta south of Bogotá. In the district of Suba north-west of Bogotá, police reported the arrests of 14 members of a local gang called the Boyacos, involved in extortion and drug dealing among other "selective" activities, Radio Santa Fe reported on 6 June.

Bogotá taxis to boost security with "panic alarms"

Devices activating "panic alarms" are to become available to taxis in Bogotá, anticipating possible emergencies like attempted assaults and to protect drivers and passengers from crime, media reported on 4 June. Fear of theft and violence haunts both taxi drivers and passengers in many Latin American cities, and police in Bogotá have advised residents not to hail a taxi on the street, especially at night. It is difficult to determine who fears whom more. The panic button activates technology that instantly alerts the police and the taxi authority in the capital, and is already installed in 480 taxis in Bogotá, Caracol radio reported on 4 June, citing comments by the capital's Government Secretary or security affairs coordinator, Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo. The "button" appeared to be in an application called Digital Plus, which could be downloaded freely onto mobile telephones or similar devices; once activated the alarm would send the taxi's car number, the number of the mobile phone activating the "panic button," and the driver's mobile phone number, according to the Colombian daily Vanguardia Liberal. The system would also allow passengers to call a taxi whose movements were subject to a satellite monitoring system, the broadcaster RCN reported on 4 June, adding that the Digital Plus system was devised through an agreement between some 2,000 taxi drivers, the Bogotá Municipality and the police. Secretary Jaramillo was cited as saying there were some 50,000 taxi drivers in Bogotá.

Honduran gangs offer to stop violence, lead ordinary lives

Leaders of the two main criminal gangs in Honduras - Mara Salvatrucha or MS13 and the Barrio 18 or M18 - publicly apologised on 28 May for any harm their groups had done to Honduran society and asked the state to help them move on from a life of crime, in a step echoing the gangs' ceasefire in El Salvador that has reduced violent crime there since March 2012. Honduras is currently one of the most violent countries in the world and authorities recently admitted its police and judiciary could barely cope with criminality. Gang spokesmen stated their resolve on 28 May to end this violence, at a press conference organised in prison in the northern city of San Pedro Sula, attended also by the two chief mediators, the Auxiliary Bishop of San Pedro Sula, Rómulo Emiliani, and the Secretary of Multidimentional Security at the Organization of American States (OAS) Adam Blackwell. According to the Honduran website Proceso Digital the ceasefire consisted for now in a total end to criminal violence across the country but not to extortions, which remained as elsewhere in Central America the chief source of money for such gangs. The Maras also pledged they would suspend recruitments, La Prensa reported. Reasons given by spokesmen for the apparent contrition or change of heart included the state's retaliatory violence against gang members and their relatives, the Maras' social ostracism and deplorable reputation and a desire to offer their children a better life. Honduran President Porfirio Lobo was cited as saying the state would give all necessary support to the ceasefire and the "efforts" being made by mediators. He said he spoke by telephone on 27 May to the Auxiliary Bishop who warned him the ceasefire would not be easy to maintain; but Mr Lobo stated his belief that the ceasefire was "for the best," even if the state did not envisage abandoning its capacity to fight crime with force, Europa Press reported on 29 May, citing the President's comments to the press in Tegucicalpa.

Colombian troops gun down FARC guerrilla who killed minister in 2001

Troops shot dead in northern Colombia the presumed fighter of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) Cécil Rodríguez Sánchez - Amaury - sought for his suspected role in several killings of policemen and of the country's minister of culture in 2001. Amaury, described as a "finance" and extortion agent for the FARC in the northern department of La Guajira, was killed in an undated gun fight in the countryside of the district of Maicao near Venezuela, though authorities believe he was injured during shooting that followed a FARC ambush of police cars in La Guajira on 23 May, Caracol radio reported on 28 May. The guerrilla was sought for his role in the massacres of 10 policemen in Patillal in the department of César in 1995 and other unspecified killings in the César, La Guajira and Magdalena departments, Caracol reported. Another of his victims was Colombia's late minister of culture Consuelo Araújo Noguera, whom Amaury reportedly had kidnapped and later executed in 2001. In separate incidents in the south-western department of Cauca suspected FARC fighters were reported to have burned transport vehicles and shot at a lorry travelling on the Panamerican highway, and shot at a military patrol and the police station in the district of Mondomo on or just before 28 May, Bogotá's Radio Santa Fe reported. Casualties were not reported in these incidents.

Police count over 150 criminal deaths around El Salvador in May

El Salvador's National Civil Police (PNC) counted 151 homicides or violent deaths in the country from 1 to 25 May, an average of six a day that indicated a slight decline through that month, the Salvadorean daily El Mundo reported on 26 May. Police put the average daily homicides rate at the start of May at 8.5, the daily reported. Official figures cited in past months have indicated a decline in violent crime since the start of a 2012 ceasefire between Mara street gangs and their stated pledge to gradually disarm. According to the PNC's acting head Mauricio Ramírez Landaverde there was a 40 per cent drop in homicides for the first five months of 2013, or 844 from 1 January to 25 May compared to 1,357 for the same period in 2012, El Mundo reported. He attributed this in part to greater police presence in areas where gangs were more active and to the selection so far of 10 districts around the country where gangs have pledged to desist from violence. Police declared however that car break-ins and thefts had increased in May 2013, according to complaints filed. The PNC declared there were 1,298 complaints to police over cars broken into or stolen between 1 and 19 May, compared to 1,128 complaints for that period in 2012, El Mundo reported on 26 May. Not all public figures in El Salvador are convinced by the Mara gangs' pledge to disarm, the country's director of public prosecutions recently calling their ceasefire a "sham" that allowed them to continue their criminal activities. Another critic was an aspiring candidate of the right-wing ARENA party for presidential elections due in February 2014; he urged the state on 24 May to make pacts with citizens not criminals. The government of President Mauricio Funes has denied it has made a pact with the Maras. Norman Quijano said he would not support "the pact made with criminals" if he were elected President, and urged instead a "Citizens' Alliance" (Alianza Ciudadana), the website lapagina.com reported. He said his plan was "basically about taking the side of citizens, of victims," and contrasted it with the "government's evident failure to stop the crime wave." The website cited an earlier poll that gave ARENA (Alianza Republicana Nacionalista) a slight lead in voting intentions. President Funes has in turn called Quijano ignorant and warned him that allegations made in some of his campaign publicity on the state making a pact with gangs were defamatory. Mr Funes was cited as saying on 25 May that Mr Quijano's chance of registering his candidacy could be jeopardised if the state were to prosecute him for calumny, lapagina.com reported.

Colombian troops capture FARC guerrillas, gang chief

Colombian authorities caught in recent days two suspected commanders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in operations in western and south-western Colombia. One, the presumed guerrilla dubbed Arquímedes or Alquímedes, was identified as the deputy-head of the Jacobo Arenas Mobile Column whose commander was shot in early May and described as "one of the army's main targets in south-western" Colombia since then, Caracol radio reported on 24 May. Arquímedes, said to coordinate guerrillas in eight districts in the northern part of Cauca, was caught early on 24 May near a bridge on the border between the Cauca and Valle de Cauca departments. Soldiers and intelligence agents caught in the western department of Risaralda another suspected FARC member named as José Eniller Lengua Gañán, Caracol radio reported on 25 May. The detained was described as in charge of 21 fighters from the FARC's Aurelio Rodríguez Front and engaged in extortion in Risaralda. In the west-coast district of Istmina in the department of Chocó, police caught early on 24 May a suspected gangster and former paramilitary dubbed Guacharaco, described as a member or head of a gang called Águilas Negras or Renacer, Caracol radio reported on 25 May. The suspect was sought for his suspected role in crimes including killings and extortions in Chocó; his group was said to be working with the gang Los Urabeños to exclude another gang the Rastrojos from control of drug routes in Chocó, Caracol reported.

Colombian, FARC envoys reach agreement on land as part of peace talks

Representatives of the Colombian state and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) reached an agreement on land use and distribution in Colombia, the first and a key part of talks being held in Cuba to end decades of internal conflict, agencies and press reported on 27 May. The two sides were to resume talks on 11 June and start discussing the second theme of talks, the FARC's possible participation Colombian public life if peace were attained, Reuters reported, citing the communiqué issued by the sides in Havana. The document stated that both sides had agreed on what would become "the start of radical transformations in Colombia's rural and agricultural reality, with equity and democracy. It is centred on people, the small producer, access to and distribution of land, the struggle against poverty, stimulus to agricultural production." Land use and ownership was a cause of extreme social tensions that provoked civil conflict in the 20th century and led to the FARC's creation in 1964. Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos wrote on the website Twitter that "we really, truly celebrate this fundamental step in Havana toward a full agreement to end half a century of conflict. We shall continue with prudence and responsiblity," Reuters reported. Colombia's Radio Santa Fe observed on 27 May that this and any agreement reached in Havana would only take effect once the sides reach a comprehensive and definitive agreement on all parts of their agenda. The land agreement's provisions included helping peasants with no land or insufficient land buy more with the help of a Land Fund for Peace (Fondo de Tierras para la paz), Radio Santa Fe reported.

Ecuador's President begins second "and last" term

Rafael Correa Delgado began on 24 May his second term as President of Ecuador in ceremonies attended by foreign dignitaries and some heads of state, and after saying he would not aspire to a third term, agencies reported. The official website El Ciudadano observed that the Government would seek in the 2013-17 term a "qualitative leap" in Ecuador's productive model to turn the state from an exporter of raw materials to one of added-value goods including oil-derived products. The new Vice-President Jorge Glas Espinel was expected to coordinate the implemention of these and other policies in "strategic" sectors. He would replace Lenín Moreno Garcés, the outgoing vice-president who sought not to show emotion while given a standing ovation by the assembly at the event. Leaders who attended Correa's inauguration were the presidents of Bolivia, Chile, Honduras and Venezuela; the Prince of Asturias represented Spain and Vice-President Amado Boudou Argentina, while Mexico sent its foreign minister, José Antonio Meade, El Universo reported. In contrast with other Leftists leaders of Latin America, Correa earlier ruled out running for a third presidential term in 2017, saying it would be a "failure" if his movement the Alianza PAIS (Patria Altiva i Soberana) could not designate a successor. Even in that case he said he would not repeat as President; he would apparently seek work as an academic in Belgium, the homeland of his wife, Perú 21 reported on 23 May. He was cited as saying that "we have worked these years to be as unnecessary as possible. We are all necessary, but nobody should be indispensable." Voters elected Correa with a clear majority in general elections on 17 February 2013.

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.

Falling crime figures make Suba one of Bogotá's safer districts

The Bogotá Government Secretary Guillermo Jaramillo Martínez reported a drop in killings and other "high-impact" crimes in the district of Suba in northern Bogotá in May, showing he said how authorities had made good their pledge to further curb crime in what seemingly has become one of Bogotá's safer districts, the Secretary's webpage reported on 23 May. Jaramillo coordinates the capital's security policies and is effectively a deputy-mayor. Police figures showed a 32 per cent drop in all "high-impact" crimes in that suburb in the period 7-21 May compared to the same period in 2012, and specifically a 25 per cent drop in homicides, a 39 per cent drop in house thefts and 22 for muggings for the same periods. Both police and the Government Secretary attributed this to actions undertaken since a security meeting held in Suba on 6 May, attended by officials including the President, the Minister of Defence and the Mayor of Bogotá. That meeting observed an established downward trend in crime in Suba, which was desribed as having over one million residents and a homicide rate for 2012 of 6.3 per 100,000 inhabitants. The Municipality cited an average homicide rate of 13.8/100,000 for all of Bogotá.

Armed locals infuriated by army arrests in western Mexico

While locals in the Tierra Caliente zone of the state of Michoacán in western Mexico have welcomed the arrival of federal forces to impose order in the crime-ridden state, tensions emerged on 22 May as self-defence groups or the "community police" of local residents fiercely resisted initial bids to disarm or disband them. Media reported that the arrest of four members of the self-defence group outside the district of Buenavista Tomatlán that day provoked a veritable little revolt, with hundreds marching out with machetes and sticks to block the road between Buenavista and nearbly Apatzingán. Here a standoff between the crowd and federal troops led to heckling and to 28 soldiers and a general being detained for hours until the four were released, Agence France-Presse and the daily Milenio reported on 23 May. In spite of the shouting and evident anger among locals, Milenio's correspondent observed that a measure of cordiality was restored when the soldiers were allowed to move later in the afternoon. The self-defence groups - which have emerged in other parts of Mexico - were a reaction in this part of Michoacán to the depredations and extortions of the cartel Caballeros templarios. France-Presse cited the Mexican interior minister Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong as saying on 22 May that with the army present people no longer had a reason to bear arms, and the army would detain those found armed without good reason. The local population clearly was not satisfied with such words; AFP cited an unnamed member of one local self-defence group as saying that locals expected the army to finish off the Caballeros templarios for good, and locals would even show them where these were "hiding." In another local district, Coalcomán, a "community policeman" told AFP that people had most recently formed the community police there as they were tired of paying extortion money to the templarios, and would remain on guard "until we see results." La Jornada reported on 23 May that army spies would be working in 11 districts of Michoacán in tandem with the deployment of troops; their objectives would be to help find and detain gang chiefs and check the veracity of reports of gangsters' deaths.

Colombia and Costa Rica sign trade treaty ahead of summit

Colombia and Costa Rica signed a free-trade treaty on 22 May paving the way for trade between them worth an annual 400 million USD, and considered a prelude to Costa Rica's entry into the Pacific Alliance free-trade block, Caracol radio reported. The document was signed in Cali by presidents Juan Manuel Santos and Costa Rica's Laura Chinchilla and would benefit sectors like pharmaceuticals and beauty products, pesticides and dairy products, Caracol reported. Colombia was hosting on 23 May the Seventh Summit of the Pacific Alliance that presently includes Colombia, Chile, Peru and Mexico. Heads of states who arrived in Cali on 22 May included the presidents of Guatemala - a candidate for entry - Chile and Mexico, while the prime ministers of Canada and Spain were expected on 23 May. Some 400 businessmen and representatives of industries from 14 countries were also expected, Cali's El País reported on 22 May.

Mexican army said to have "restored order" in crime-ridden Michoacán

The daily Milenio reported on 22 May that five days sufficed for the army to impose a measure of peace and security to the violent state of Michoacán in western Mexico, where armed locals had in recent months faced off criminal gangs but also harrassed local authorities suspected to be collaborators with crime. The daily observed that in three districts, Buenavista Tomatlán, Tepalcatepec and Coalcomán, the army retored order without firing a shot, while no violence related to organized crime, "ordinary" murders, marches or protests were reported through 16-22 May. On 16 May the Mexican Government sent General Alberto Reyes Vaca to Michoacán where he was to be the state's Public Security Secretary, with extraordinary powers being drawn up to give him command of local and state police bodies as well as thousands of troops and federal policemen sent to Michoacán to stamp out crime. Certain mayors who had fled their districts as armed local stormed municipal buildings were considering returning to their offices. Locals were however cited as saying that while the self-defence groups would not interfere with army operations they would retain their arms, fearing the return of the cartels once soldiers leave. Mexico's interior minister, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, said in the state capital Morelia on 21 May that federal troops would remain in Michoacán until there was peace in the state, and vowed there would be no "ceasefire or pact with organised crime," La Jornada reported. He was speaking after a meeting of the federal Security Cabinet attended by senior officials including the provisional Governor of Michoacán Jesús Reyna García, the Prosecutor-General of the Republic Jesús Murillo Karam and the Navy and Defence ministers. Osorio said the Government would build a new army base in southern Michoacán and invest money in social programmes and training for the state's police forces. La Jornada separately reported on 22 May that the Government had sent 2,500 soldiers to the state in preceding days; these were to undertake a range of security-related tasks.

Army sent to fight crime in western Mexico

The Mexican government sent about 1,000 army and navy troops on 19 May to the worst parts of the crime-infested state of Michoacán, gripped in recent months by criminal violence and a state of near-war in parts between drug cartels and armed residents. The troops were sent to the sector called Zona Caliente where they were to patrol some of the most troubled districts, namely Buenavista Tomatlán, Coalcomán, Apatzingán and la Ruana; food and supplies had to be taken to districts that have effectively faced siege conditions from gangs in recent months, El Informador reported on 20 May. It observed that in several districts the local population had expelled local authorities including police suspected to be collaborating with crime. This may have been the case most recently with the district of Coalcomán where armed men almost lynched several municipal policemen. In La Ruana residents lined the main street into the town and cheered soldiers as they drove in, Milenio reported on 20 May. Supplies had to be taken to that town, which was described as besieged so far by the cartel Caballeros Templarios, reported to be reacting to townsmen's decision to arm against crime. The leader of the local "community police," Hipólito Mora, agreed to suspend street patrols and let soldiers take over security in La Ruana, but stressed his group would not disarm but resume patrols if and when troops leave, Milenio reported. Michoacán's provisional state governor Jesús Reyna described the arrival of troops on 19 or 20 May as intended to restore normality to the state, which he declared was not in a "state of war," Proceso cited him as saying. The daily Provincia reported separately on 21 May, citing unnamed military sources, that some 5,000 federal forces may have been sent to the state in recent days including soldiers, marines and federal policemen.

Colombian army shoots FARC captain, pipeline blown up

The Colombian army shot dead at least two guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in undated operations in the northern district of Hacarí, including one identified as a close collaborator of the FARC's supreme chief Timochenko, Bogotá's Radio Santa Fe reported on 20 May. The dead were provisionally identified as the guerrilla dubbed el negro Eliecer, head of the Antonio Santos mobile column, and his presumed partner, a female guerrilla dubbed Tatiana who acted as the column's "accountant." El negro Eliecer was also known as the "terror of Catatumbo," a reference to his presumed area of activity, the district of Catatumbo in Norte de Santander. The newspaper El Colombiano cited him as involved in the massacre in 2004 of 30 peasants in the locality of La Gabarra in Norte de Santander, but also of 17 soldiers at an unspecified date. The Ministry of Defence separately reported on 17 May that three purported members of Front 57 of the FARC surrendered to the Navy that day, in the northern and western departments of Antioquia and Chocó. Two of them were women of whom one, a 24-year-old, had joined the FARC at the age of 14. In southern Colombia, crude oil spilled into the countryside after two sections of the TransAndino pipeline were blown up in attacks attributed to the FARC, Radio Santa Fe reported on 20 May. The pipeline was blown up in one section between the districts of San Miguel and Orito in the Putumayo department, and near the district of La Hormiga in that department, near Ecuador's frontier. Operatives of the firm Ecopetrol were sent to the area to clear the mess and the firm stated it had stopped pumping into the pipe, which takes oil to the Pacific coast, the broadcaster reported.

Salvadorean Court orders minister, police chief dismissed

The Constitutional Affairs Chamber of El Salvador's Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) declared as unconstitutional on 17 May the earlier appointments of the Minister of Justice and Public Security and the National Civil Police chief for being soldiers, obliging President Mauricio Funes to replace them with provisional appointments. The outgoing Justice Minister David Munguía Payés adopted a supportive attitude in preceding months toward the ceasefire declared between Mara gangs in March 2012 as a first step toward their disarmament, and the gangs were reported to have expressed displeasure with the court order, El Salvador's El Mundo reported. Mr Funes named the deputy-minister of justice Douglas Moreno as acting justice and security minister, and named the deputy police chief Mauricio Ramírez Landaverde to replace the outgoing head of the National Civil Police General Francisco Ramón Salinas Rivera, El Mundo reported. The Chamber ruled that an agreement signed by the executive branch in November 2011 naming Munguía minister had violated the principle of the separation of national defence and policing duties pursuant to Article 159 of the Constitution. It also declared unconstitutional an agreement of January 2012 that led to the outgoing police chief's appointment, pursuant to Article 168 of the Constitution requiring a civilian to run the National Police. A former public security minister separately told the daily El Diario de Hoy that the reshuffle should not per se reverse the ceasefire with the Mara gangs, which depended on the gangs and any agreement they had with the government, the website elsalvador.com reported on 18 May. The former minister Francisco Bertrand Galindo said the "future of the ceasefire between the gangs depends on the gangs, we have nothing to do there. Now the future of the Government's ceasefire with the gangs depends on the real terms the Government negotiated with them, the problem is we do not know these terms," elsalvador.com reported.

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.

Mexican police arrest "community policemen," two found hanged in western Mexico

Two men were found hanging from a bridge in the district of Buenavista Tomatlán in the western Mexican state of Michoacán on 14 May, in a suspected execution by one of the drug cartels, Proceso reported on 15 May. The two had been shot in the head and a message was left hanging on the bodies; they were provisionally identified as possible members of the local self-defence group or community police. Residents of rural districts in several parts of Mexico have formed such groups in a bid to fight criminal activities; Proceso observed that the community police in Buenavista and several districts of Michoacán were confronting one of the main cartels, Jalisco Nueva Generación. Municipal police separately detained in Michoacán on 15 or 16 May 12 members of the self-styled community police as they travelled on the road between Los Reyes and Peribán, Milenio reported. Firearms including assault weapons were confiscated and the men were handed over to the army; the Public Ministry had yet to formulate charges against them, the daily reported. Also in Michoacán, some 100 "heavily armed" men "stormed" the municipal government of the district of Coalcomán on 15 May, firing shots inside and taking hostage seven municipal policemen, La Crónica de Hoy reported. The group was also said to have briefly taken hostage and threatened the district mayor. The policemen were later dragged out into the town square where, according to the daily "they were apparently going to execute them," although the army arrived and freed the policemen. A spokesman for the Michoacán state government later identified the gunmen as members of the self-defence group or community police of the Tepalcatepec district north of Coalcomán. The report did not immediately clarify the fate of the armed group.

Colombian President delighted with results of year in trade pact with US

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said in the northern port of Cartagena on 15 May that a year after the application of a free-trade pact with the United States, Colombian exportation to the United States had risen and 775 firms made the United States their first export market. These firms "exported to the United States for the first time," a year after the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (CTPA) began, when they "had not exported any product between 2010 and 2012," the Presidential website reported on 15 May. Mr Santos observed on an 18-per-cent rise in exports of farming products excluding coffee and flowers - two of Colombia's best known and established exports - while 200 products arrived in the United States for the first time, most notably he observed, exotic fruit, but also ceramic tiles, packaging machines, stainless steel sinks and sowing machines. "Behind this are more jobs for Colombians...if this is how we did in a year of global contraction, imagine what we can achieve in a stabilised global economy." He said agro-industrial exports to the United States rose 5.7 per cent that year and industrial exports 6.2 per cent, providing "many motives for us to feel optimistic."

Thirteen shot around Mexico, passenger bus robbed

Thirteen at least were reported killed or found dead in presumed criminal incidents around Mexico on 11-13 May. Seven were shot dead on 12-13 May in the states of Guerrero, Sinaloa and Nuevo León in western, north-western and northern Mexico, including a municipal police official shot at home late on 12 May, Proceso reported. Assassins shot dead Raúl Valladares Díaz the deputy-police chief of San Miguel Totolapan in Guerrero, while he was having dinner with his family. The other victims were "four young men" shot early on 13 May by a dam outside the city of Culiacán in Sinaloa, and two men found dead in a car some 40 kilometres east of the city of Monterrey, with hands and feet tied, Proceso reported. The review separately reported six killings on 12 May in the northern state of Coahuila, in incidents in the districts of Saltillo and San Pedro de las Colonias outside Torreón. Three of the victims were aged between 15 and 17 years. In Chihuahua, masked bandits robbed a passenger coach travelling to the northern city of Juárez early on 13 May, stopping the bus near the district of Villa Ahumada. Passengers were relieved of all valuable belongings but nobody was hurt, Proceso reported. On 14 May the firm Marsh Brockman touted a "unique and innovative" insurance product designed to cover losses derived from the actions of organized crime, Mexican media reported. The product - launched in January 2013 and aimed at domestic and foreign firms working in Mexico - compensates policy-holders up to 25 million USD for damages caused by the acts of organized crime or terrorism and sabotage, Milenio reported. The daily cited firm spokesman Julián Abraham González as saying that this was better than similar products in certain other states, which only covered losses from terrorism.

Colombia catches gang suspects, Police count fewer Bogotá murders

The army caught nine suspected members of criminal gangs in operations in northern Colombia, including six suspected members of one of the main trafficking and killing outfits, the Urabeños, Caracol radio and the EFE agency reported on 13 May. The six suspected Urabeños were caught with firearms and hand grenades in a rural part of the district of Caucasia in the Antioquia department and were to be charged with illegal arms possession and trafficking. Two were identified by their pseudonyms El Fiscal and Finura and described as former paramilitaries. Troops separately caught in the district of Zaragoza three suspected members of another gang Héroes del Nordeste (North-east Heroes), including their purported chief in that district, EFE reported. In the capital Bogotá, police launched an operation on 8 May against mobile phone theft and street crime in which they detained six suspects including a purported head of a thieving gang active in one of the city's main avenues, the website of the Bogotá Government Secretary reported on 10 May. The detainee, a man dubbed Caricortado (Scarface), was described as a veteran thief of mobile phones and previously detained four times but later released for being underage. The city's Government Secretary who coordinates security policies, Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo Martínez, said police were focusing on mobile thefts as killings had declined in Bogotá but persistent mobile thefts "generate a sense of insecurity among people." Police also confiscated 1,000 knives or sharp instruments and detained five suspected street dealers, the Government Secretary reported. The Bogotá police chief said police counted 380 homicides "so far this year," 76 cases less than the 456 homicides counted for the same period in 2012, Caracol radio reported on 13 May. General Luis Martínez Guzmán cited the neighbourhoods with most killings as Ciudad Bolívar and Usme in southern Bogotá and Bosa in the west.

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.

El Salvador prosecutor denounces gangs' "false" truce

El Salvador's chief prosecutor (Fiscal-general) Luis Martínez qualified as "false" and non-existent on 8 May the year-long truce agreed on by the Mara street gangs, accusing them of pursuing their violent activities and apparently contradicting officials' assertions that the truce had reduced crime. Martínez told the press in San Salvador that the truce "has never existed" as the victims cited in the press were members of the public, not "these lazy gangsters who only steal, extort and murder," Agence France-Presse reported. The agency observed that the comments followed authorities' recognition that violent crime had recently risen in El Salvador: Police registered "more than" 45 homicides "in the first few days" of May, El Salvador's Dario Co Latino reported on 9 May, and authorities suspected gangs were involved in some or most of these including the recent killing of a family of four in Zacatecoluca, south-east of San Salvador. "Criminal, violent, merciless...actions are the cause of social violence" and cause "pain, grief and bankruptcy" to Salvadorean families, he said. The Justice and Security Minister David Munguía however was reported as telling an interview or programme on 7 or 8 May that violent crime had several causes including "social violence." The Security Ministry stated on its website on 9 May that the rise in homicides in early May did not constitute a trend. The Minister attended on 8 or 9 May the inclusion of a ninth district in El Salvador - Nueva Concepción - among districts declared free of violent crime as part of the gang truce; the government was to spend 33 million USD in these districts to re-integrate gang members into civilian life, El Salvador's Diario Co Latino reported. On 9 May the Justice and Security Ministry stated on its website that April was the least violent month since the Maras' truce began in March 2012, with police counting 144 homicides compared to 156 in April 2012. It added that in the first four months of 2013 there were 695 homicides, compared to 1,225 counted for the same period in 2012.

Venezuelan President travels to boost trade, denounces "fascist" opponents

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro told a gathering of left-wing activists in Buenos Aires on 8 May that his country was seeing the resurgence of a "fascist-style" opposition that had allegedly resorted to violence when rejecting the results of the 14 April presidential elections. He was referring to parties in the Table of Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition led by the former candidate Henrique Capriles Radonsky. Maduro began on 7 May a tour of Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil, intended he said to "strengthen food sovereignty" and replenish Venezuela's food reserves, El Nacional and Globovisión reported on 6 May. In Argentina he accused unspecified opposition groups of attacking Cuban medical centres in Venezuela after the elections, El Universal reported on 8 May. The conservative forces emerging in Venezuela he said, had "clear fascistoid signs," and were "intolerant" and hostile to "brother nations" like Argentina and Cuba, key allies of Venezuela's socialist regime." Where he asked "has anyone seen a political current challenging political elections just before attacking Cuban doctors providing a service" to Venezuelans? Venezuela's opposition was "anti-Latin American" and would "immediately" leave regional associations like Mercosur "if they had power," he told activists gathered in a stadium. Maduro denied in Montevideo, Uruguay, on 7 May that the opposition was being harrassed and said "all political currents have full liberty in Venezuela." He signed 10 accords with Uruguay before going to Argentina, where he signed 12 agreements on 8 May intended he said to eliminate "the severe shortages we have had and have, among other reasons for sabotage," Venezuela's AVN news agency reported.The agreements also envisaged joint food production and farming ventures in Venezuela, and trade and exchanges in areas of energy, media and technology.

Extortion rife in Honduras as government "fails" on security

The Honduran daily La Prensa reported on 7 May on the apparent ease with which street gangs extort money from thousands of businesses and individuals in Honduras - even the Church - raking in the equivalent of over 62 million USD or over 47 million euros a year to finance their organizations. It observed in a separate report on 6 May that certain observers estimated extortion could be earning the gangs twice that amount annually, though this was difficult to measure as most acts of extortion went unreported. Those forced to pay include bus drivers, taxi drivers, shopkeepers, owners of stalls and kiosks and businessmen from whom money was demanded in person or by phone; money was paid in forms including cash, bank transfers and re-charged mobile phones. In Tegucicalpa, members of the Mara gangs were said to collect money in the capital's 16 covered food and grocery markets, and in bus and taxi stops and small shopping centres. In the northern city of San Pedro Sula - one of the most violent cities in the Americas - likewise "all taxi and bus stops" pay, the daily observed. The country formed a National Anti-Extortion Force (Fuerza Nacional Antiextorsión) in March 2013, but the daily observed many individuals did not report extortion, fearing reprisals from gangsters who might or might not be caught and punished. La Prensa cited a driver from San Pedro Sula as saying that "members of the Maras and gangsters have killed hundreds of bus drivers, assistants and taxi drivers since 2009. We do not report because you do not know if the person you are reporting to is part of the extortion or a hired killer." A study cited claimed that some 17,500 small businesses closed in 2012 under the pressure of extortion, La Prensa reported on 6 May. Separately a coalition of Honduran rights bodies concluded on 7 May that the government of President Porfirio Lobo Sosa had failed to assure public security since taking power in 2010, in spite of its pledges, actions and claims. The Human Rights Alliance (Alianza por los Derechos Humanos) including several rights bodies held a press conference that day and issued a communiqué to denounce this failure, but also the alleged complicity of certain officials, which assured the impunity of criminals, EFE reported.

Army reports desertions from Colombia's ELN, FARC guerrillas

The army reported a total of 20 desertions from Colombia's two guerrilla forces the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in the days 4 to 6 or 7 May, the most recent defections being of seven ELN fighters and two from the FARC, the broadcaster Caracol reported on 7 May. The ELN guerrillas - four of them aged between 14 and 17 years - surrendered to the army in the district of Bagadó in the west-coast department of Chocó, handing over assault rifles and ammunition; the three adults among them were identified as junior chiefs and an operator of the ELN's radio station, Occidente Rebelde. The two FARC fighters surrendered in the district of Vigía del Fuerte in the northern department of Antioquia. Authorities attributed the desertions to military "harrassment" of guerrillas and to the alleged mistreatment of the guerrilla rank-and-file by superiors. The ELN separately issued a communiqué stating conditions to hasten the release of a Canadian hostage held since 18 January, Jernoc Wobert, Caracol radio reported on 8 May. The ELN urged the government to revoke mining concessions given to firms in the south of the department of Bolívar, northern Colombia, and restore "these Titles to their legitimate owners, who are the traditional miners in that zone." The communiqué stated that five were killed on 22 April when the ELN fought a gun battle with a "paramilitary group" trying to rescue Wobert in the district of Montecristo in southern Bolívar, Caracol reported.

Army extends firearms ban in Bogotá, shown to cut murder rate

The army extended through May a firearms ban imposed in the Colombian capital Bogotá at the mayor's request, which officials believed had led to a comparative reduction in homicides, the Bogotá city government reported on 2 May. The ban apparently in force from 1 February to 29 April 2013 affected civilians and legal entities and was renewed from midnight on 2 May to midnight on 30 July 2013; the first such ban was imposed from 1 February to 29 April 2012, the office of the city's Government Secretary coordinating security affairs reported. Figures seemingly indicated a link between banning guns and fewer homicides: there were 166 reported homicides using guns in Bogotá from 1 February to 29 April 2013, down from 196 for the same period in 2013, and in contrast with 232 homicides cited for 2011, presumably for the same three-month period that year when there was no ban. The report stated that in the February to late-April period, police caught 40 suspects in flagrante delicto and 212 whom courts had ordered detained in relation with homicides. Hundreds of guns were also confiscated or handed in since 2012, the municipality stated. The ban did no apply to the armed forces, members of the diplomatic corps, registered security personnel and officials of the judiciary. Separately, police said they had detained 1,466 people in Bogotá so far in 2013 for stealing mobile telephones or related devices, RCN La Radio reported on 7 May. Police most recently detained eight suspected of selling stolen mobile devices in the districts of Fontibón and Kennedy in south-western Bogotá; in all 3,940 stolen devices were recovered this year, RCN radio reported.

Colombian army kills FARC guerrillas, politician shot

Troops shot dead seven fighters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and arrested another in fighting on 4-5 May in the south-western Colombian department of Nariño, agencies reported, citing army declarations. The armed-forces commander for south-western Colombia General Leonardo Barrero Gordillo said the fighting was against the FARC's Front 29 in the locality of Leyva, on the frontier between the departments of Nariño and Cauca, Spain's EFE reported on 5 May. Barrero described this as the "fourth blow" this year against Front 29, which he said had lost 58 men in 2013 in deaths, arrests and desertions. In separate incidents a member of a Christian political party and a land claimant were killed in the northern departments of César and Antioquia. The Minister of Agriculture Juan Camilo Restrepo Salazar condemned on 5 May the killing that day of Iván Restrepo García, one of the many Colombians reclaiming properties from which they were expelled in past years, in areas of Colombia affected by conflict or insecurity. Land grabbers in such cases were generally suspected to be paramilitaries, gangsters or communist guerrillas. The government has begun a programme to restore such lands and Restrepo was reportedly registered as claimant to a plot of land in the Bello district in Antioquia. He was shot in his house there, in spite of unspecified protective measures given him by the state, RCN La Radio reported. The Minister wrote on the website Twitter that land restitution policies would continue "with determination" in spite of "sharpshooters" and "regardless of who the despoiler was," RCN radio reported. Unidentified gunmen also shot dead Gustavo Briceño, a member of MIRA (Movimiento Independiente de Renovación Absoluta), a small, independent party, at an unspecified date in Valledupar in César. Briceño was a pre-candidate for Senate elections in 2014, Agence France-Presse reported.

Police find indigenous family not "massacred" in northern Colombia

Authorities of the northern Colombian department of Antioquia dismissed after investigations the recent claim made by a young man that seven close relatives had been murdered by gunmen, initially suspected to be of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia operating in the Tarazá district; a regional official said the plaintiff Luis Albeiro González was mentally disturbed. Antioquia's Government Secretary Santiago Londoño Uribe said the man's mother, said to have been killed on 2 May, was found in the district of El Bagre in Antioquia where she has lived for some time, Caracol radio reported on 5 May. She told authorities investigating her son's claims that her husband - also supposed to have been massacred - died 20 years before.

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.

Venezuela's Maduro says Colombian statesman involved in murder plot

Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro said in Caracas on 3 May that plans were being made in the United States and Colombia "to destabilize Venezuela and make me physically disappear," naming Colombia's former conservative president Álvaro Uribe Vélez as one of those plotting to have him killed. There was "evidence and sufficient elements to think there are plans guided from Miami...by Roger Noriega and from Bogotá by Álvaro Uribe to make me physically disappear. Uribe is behind a plan to assassinate me," he told a gathering of subway employees in Caracas. In March, Maduro alleged that Noriega, a senior diplomat of the administration of President George W. Bush, was planning to assassinate the opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles. Maduro said Uribe is "a murderer and we also know that sectors of the Venezuelan Right are in touch with him. They say if they get me out of the way, chaos will reign in Venezuela, but they will not succeed, this won't happen," the AVN agency reported.  The opposition formally rejected the results of the 14 April elections and Maduro's election as president, also accusing his government of starting to suppress dissent and opposition. Uribe said in Colombia that the only response to Maduro's "immature" charges was to repeat Venezuela's elections, EFE and other agencies reported on 3 May. Maduro, he wrote on Twitter, was heading a "dictatorship headed by fraud and violence." Maduro's statements followed reports of some opposition legislators travelling to Colombia for talks and to denounce an apparent assault on opposition lawmakers in Venezuela's parliament on 30 April. Those attacked included María Corina Machado, foreign affairs spokeswoman in the Capriles campaign team, Colombia's Caracol radio reported on 1 May. The scuffle erupted after socialist members obstructed opponents from speaking at the podium.

Colombian rebels may have massacred family, 11 surrendered to army

Members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were alleged to have massacred a family of seven in the northern department of Antioquia on 3 May or before, Colombian media reported, citing the declarations of a 19-year-old family member who said he had survived. Authorities were trying to ascertain the veracity of the incident, said to have occurred in the countryside of the district of Tarazá and initially attributed to Front 18 of the FARC, active in that area. The victims were provisionally identified as a couple, three of their children, an uncle and his son, RCN La Radio and El Espectador reported on 3 May. It was difficult to verify the survivor's declarations that day as he was reluctant or unable to precisely locate the incident described and initially refused to board a helicopter, RCN radio reported. Separately President Juan Manuel Santos reported on 3 May that 11 fighters of Front 57 of the FARC including their chief - a guerrilla dubbed Marlon - had abandoned the FARC at an unspecified date in Acandí in the western department of Chocó. Speaking in the northern district of Apartadó, Santos said that thanks to ongoing army operations in north-western Colombia, 64 FARC fighters had been "neutralised" - 24 of them being killed - and 11 deserted. He cited a message issued by Marlon declaring that the defectors wanted a new life "as ordinary citizens" and that "this war makes no sense because the chiefs have no ideology," Colombian public radio reported. Santos said the army must maintain its "harrassment" of the FARC in spite of talks in Cuba, "every day and every week and every month." He thanked Panama for collaborating against the FARC on its frontier. Colombian officials and the FARC concluded on 3 May an eighth round of talks in Cuba, "advances" were said to have been made but talks were not progressing fast enough, Colombia's chief negotiator reportedly declared.

Venezuelan opponents denounce "persecution" after presidential polls

Venezuela's opposition politicians denounced as political persecution the arrest and indictment of the government opponent and former army general Antonio Rivero, whom a colleague qualified as the first political prisoner of the government of President Nicolás Maduro. The arrest came amid persisting tensions for the opposition's refusal to accept Maduro's re-election on 14 April, and followed violent protests in parts of the country on 15 April. Authorities detained Rivero, a leader of the Popular Will (Voluntad Popular) party in the opposition coalition Table of Democratic Unity (Mesa de Unidad Democrática, MUD), on 27 April; his party leader Leopoldo López denounced this as "illegal, unjustified and illegitimate" writing on the website Twitter, and stated it was a step toward banning anti-government parties, Europa Press reported. The former presidential candidate and MUD leader Henrique Capriles denounced the arrest on 29 April as a bid to intimidate Venezuelans, Globovisión reported. On 30 April Rivero was charged with inciting hate and criminal association for his alleged role in protests that followed the 14 April elections. Rivero was said to have begun a hunger strike and was being held at his own request in the premises of the state security agency SEBIN (Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia Nacional), Europa Press reported. Leopoldo López and Capriles have also been warned they may be held, allegedly for inciting protests. Speaking earlier of the reasons for his arrest, Rivero told the broadcaster Globovisión on 26 April that the government had "taken out of context" declarations he made to opposition activists, which were filmed, and used them to accuse him of publicly inciting hate. He said he had explained to activists on 15 April how to bang pots and pans in protest and how to protect themselves if attacked, adding that Capriles had instructed followers to eschew violence, Globovisión reported on 27 April.

Electoral body to start partial "audit" of Venezuelan polls

Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE) was preparing on 29 April a partial audit of votes cast in the 14 April presidential elections, in spite of stating earlier that this would likely not overturn the results and re-election of President Nicolás Maduro, which the opposition has firmly contested. The former opposition candidate Henrique Capriles alleged there had been electoral fraud and has demanded a full recount of votes. The CNE was to audit between 6 May and 4 June a random selection of ballot boxes from the 46 per cent of voting stations not audited automatically on 14 April, the daily El Universal reported on 28 April, citing comments by the CNE head, Tibisay Lucena. This was apparently an expanded audit to which the authorities had agreed, though the opposition remained dissatisfied, having demanded an audit with all documents evidencing the voting process including lists of those who voted, El Universal reported. The opposition coalition Table of Democratic Unity (MUD) decided on 28 April that its technicians would not attend the start of the random audit, suspecting authorities did not want a full verification using voter lists and fingerprints. A MUD spokesman said the opposition had specific evidence of irregularities required to back any legal challenge it might launch against the elections, El Nacional reported on 29 April.

Venezuela's Capriles says state "stole" elections, writer chides "complicit" neighbours

Venezuela's former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles Radonsky accused the socialist government of President Nicolás Maduro of "stealing" the 14 April elections, a bitterly fought contest whose results the opposition had yet to accept. The Table of Democratic Unity (Mesa de Unidad Demócratica, MUD) led by Capriles has demanded a recount of all votes and Capriles said on 24 April that the opposition would not settle for less. "We won't let them mock us, we will not accept a partial audit or some absurdity, and if there is no response we shall tell the country what our next steps will be," El Nacional reported. He said to the government, "you stole these elections...and you are the ones who must explain to the world what hapened." He accused the government of intimidating opinion, citing in particular a video of the Venezuelan Labour Minister Ricardo Molina posted online, wherein he seemingly threatens to dismiss civil servants who voted for the opposition. Molina later said his words were taken "out of context, they always do this." One Venezuelan academic claimed on 25 April that public-sector employees were indeed being dismissed, apparently for having voted for Capriles. Ligia Bolívar, director of the Human Rights Centre at the Andrés Bello Catholic University (Ucab) in Caracas said "there is a disconcerting and massive situation of dismissals of civil servants for exercising the right to vote;" she suggested state agents had tapped people's telephones and were also checking what people had scribbled on websites like Twitter and Facebook, Globovisión reported. Separately, the Peruvian novelist and Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa rebuked Latin American leaders for rushing to recognise the new Venezuelan government, calling them "accomplices against the Venezuelan people," EFE and other media reported on 23 April. Spèaking to the Brazilian publication Epoca, Vargas Llosa urged regional leaders not to legitimize "a possible electoral fraud" by attending Maduro's inauguration. Maduro was duly sworn in as president on 19 April before foreign officials including all Latin American presidents bar those of Chile, Ecuador and Paraguay. The latter presently has no ties with Venezuela. Vargas Llosa singled out Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff in this "deplorable" act of recognition, but said "she is not the only case." He observed that the close results and transfer of millions of votes to the opposition in spite of the government's "disproportionate" resources "clearly" meant Venezuelans were turning against the socialist ideology of late President Hugo Chávez.

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.

Seven die in post-election protests in Venezuela

Seven were reported to have died in protests in Venezuela on 15-16 April, which followed the refusal of the opposition to recognize Nicolás Maduro's proclamation as the newly elected President and his apparent refusal to order a recount of votes. The chief prosecutor of Venezuela Luisa Ortega identified one of the dead as a policeman and said 135 people were, Spain's RTVE and agencies reported. Maduro blamed the violence on "fascist mobs" and the opposition candidate Henrique Capriles accused Maduro of ordering the violence to avoid a recount. Maduro declared on 16 April that he would not permit protests scheduled for 17 April and a planned march in Caracas toward the National Electoral Council (CNE), which oversaw the elections. He said "you will not go to central Caracas to fill it with death and blood. I will not allow it. Do what you want to do. I will use a firm hand with fascism and intolerance...if they want to overthrow me let them come. I am here with the people and the" army, Globovision reported. The Speaker of the National Assembly Diosdado Cabello blamed five opposition politicians including Capriles for the deaths and indicated they could be taken to court. A "small, fascist group" he said was trying to undermine "order," Globovision reported on 16 April. Maduro was to be sworn in as President on 19 April, the state news agency AVN reported.

Maduro proclaimed Venezuela's President in spite of recount calls

The National Electoral Council (CNE) declared Nicolás Maduro Moros to be the newly elected President of Venezuela on 15 April in spite of the opposition's calls for a recount of votes for alleged irregularities; it unclear if this would happen. The CNE declared that with 99.17 per cent of votes counted, Maduro won 7,559,349 or 50.75 per cent of votes cast and his rival Henrique Capriles Radonsky 7,296,876 or 48.98 per cent of votes, Spain's El País reported on 15 April. The opposition was reported to have denounced 3,000 or more irregularities at polling stations. One of five directors of the CNE identified as not attached to the socialist regime, Vicente Díaz, had earlier said there should be a recount although an electoral tribunal had to authorise this, El País wrote. While Leftist states friendly to Venezuela's regime swiftly recognised Maduro's apparent victory, other observers from the United States and Spain to the Secretary-General of the Organization of American States José Miguel Insulza, were cautious about results. Venezuela recalled its ambassador in Madrid for consultations after Spain's Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo commented that "one has to wait and see who the winner is," Europa Press reported on 15 April. Foreign Minister Elías Jaua said "there is a winner here, Nicolás Maduro won the Presidency...as the National Electoral Council has dictated." He reportedly deplored Insulza's stated support for the vote-count demanded by Henrique Capriles. Separately the Speaker of parliament Diosdado Cabello declared he would call for an inquiry against Capriles on 16 April for alleged complicity in disorders reported in Venezuela late on 15 April. Two at least died in the protests, which erupted in several Venezuelan states after Mr Capriles rejected the election results, Europa Press and Venezuelan media reported. Maduro warned Capriles "a majority is a majority...whoever seeks to harm the majority is trying to launch a coup," Europa Press reported on 16 April.

Over 50 reported killed, found dead in Mexico over weekend

At least 52 were reported killed or found dead in apparent criminal incidents around Mexico over 12-14 April, media reported. Of these, at least 23 bodies were reported found in the states of Coahuila in northern Mexico, Guerrero on its western coast and Quintana Roo on the Caribbean coast through 13-14 April. These included eight bodies found in Cancún on 14 April and 10 shot in incidents in Torreón in Coahuila, CNN reported. Authorities in Cancún suspected the eight may have been killed in a house gangsters used as a body "dump" where four suspects including a 15-year-old boy were found drinking and taking drugs. They were said detained. The 23 also included the bodies of five men aged 25-35 years, found tied in the district of Atoyac de Álvarez in Guerrero, and apparently totured then executed. A message left by them, signed by one of the cartels the Caballeros Templarios, alleged they were "kidnappers and blackmailers." Atoyac is one of the districts in Guerrero where locals have turned to community policing. The review Proceso separately counted 14 presumed victims of crime for 12 April, and 14 at least appeared to have been shot or found dead on 13 April in the northern states of Durango, Chihuahua and Tamaulipas, Proceso and Milenio reported. The latter group included four dismembered, decapitated bodies found on a road in Tamaulipas on 13 April, Proceso reported, and a woman shot dead and found on 13 April in Ciudad Victoria in Tamaulipas. A note left beside her alleged she was an informant of the Defence Ministry, Proceso reported. Separately, a communiqué issued by Mexican authorities counted 1,101 homicides linked to federal offences in the 31 days of the month of March, which exceeded detentions, Proceso reported on 12 April. Victims included 40 state agents killed during service and 25 civilians thought killed by mistake, a communiqué signed by the interior ministry, the Prosecutor-General's office and the Defence and Navy ministries stated. Its figures were compiled by the National Centre for Planification, Analysis and Information to Combat Crime, CENAP (Centro Nacional de Planeación, Análisis e Información para el Combate a la Delincuencia), a body attached to the office of the Prosecutor-General of Mexico. The authorities stated that over 138,000 kilograms of cocaine were seized that month among other illegal substances, and 957 individuals detained.

Venezuelan president declared re-elected, opposition wants recount

Nicolás Maduro Moros was declared winner - by a narrow margin - of Venezuela's 14 April presidential elections, although his rival Henrique Capriles Radonsky said he would not recognize the results until every single vote was recounted. The head of the National Electoral Council (CNE) Tibisay Lucena declared that evening that with 99,12 per cent of votes counted, Maduro had won 7,505,338 or 50,67 per cent of all votes cast, and Capriles 7, 270,403 or 49.07 per cent of votes, Europa Press and Le Monde reported on 15 April. She said 78.71 per cent of electors had voted and insisted the CNE only declared results when "an irreversible trend" was evident. Capriles told a press conference in Caracas soon after Lucena's declarations that it was Maduro who had lost and he would not recognize results "until every vote is counted," Europa Press reported. He urged the CNE that "every ballot box be opened and every vote of the Venezuelans counted, one by one, manually, to corroborate the figures presented by the electoral authorities." He denied reports he had made any pact with Maduro, saying "I do not make pacts with lies or corruption. I do not make pacts with those I consider illegitimate." Several heads of states and foreign politicians, mostly of the Left, congratulated Maduro. An official of the CNE Vicente Díaz declared there would be re-count of all ballots for the narrow difference in candidates' votes this time, in contrast with a recount of 53 per cent of votes in previous polls, CNN reported on 14 April.

More locals join community police in western Mexico

One hundred and six local residents were sworn in as new members of the community police of the district of Tixtla in Guerrero on Mexico's Pacific coast, in another sign that such self-defence groups, which have appeared in several parts of Mexico, were staying for now in spite of authorities' displeasure. The recruits included women and had already engaged in local policing for two months several localities of Tixtla, La Crónica de Hoy reported on 14 April, citing declarations from a regional coordinating body CRAC (Coordinadora Regional de Autoridades Comunitarias). The CRAC general-coordinator Eliseo Villar Castillo said "the project of community security and justice" was consolidating itself in parts of Guerrero, where such groups rose to prominence, namely the Costa Chica and inland and central parts of the state. Their aim he said was not to defy the authorities, but he observed locals were tired of the state's apparent inability to check crime. La Crónica separately reported shooting on 13 April between self-defence groups and suspected criminals, in the district of Buenavista Tomatlán, in the state of Michoacán north-west of Guerrero. The army intervened and was fired on though it was not immediately clear who fired on troops nor whether or not anyone died, La Crónica de Hoy reported. On 10 April, President Enrique Peña Nieto said self-defence groups were illegal and his "democratic" government could not tolerate them, Excelsior reported. Peña Nieto said, speaking in Japan, that "beyond what these groups may call themselves, the possible practices they may resort to intending to take justice into their hands are activities going beyond legality, which my government will have to fight." Authorities in Guerrero announced on 13 April that community policemen found outside their designated localities with arms would be detained; this apparently was in part a response to self-defence groups' support for recent teachers' protests in Guerrero. The decision was taken by the Guerrero Coordination Group including municipal and state authorities, the armed forces and state and local police, Excelsior reported on 14 April.

Businessman shot dead outside general's house in Honduras

A businessman was shot dead in his car in Tegucicalpa on 12 April, outside the home of the head of Armed Forces Joint Command René Osorio Canales, Honduran media reported. The victim was identified as the owner of a chain of motels in the capital, and his killers chased him by car to the spot where he was shot repeatedly, the website Proceso Digital reported. This was one of the homicides most recently reported around the country, many or most of which appeared to be executions. Other victims of crime included a three-year old boy shot dead by a stray bullet from a shootout between police and criminals in the northern city of San Pedro Sula, and two boys aged 15 and 22 years, dragged from their homes outside the capital, blindfolded and shot, Proceso Digital reported. The bodies of three executed men were also found in plastic bags in San Pedro Sula on 9 April; two of them were tattooed and all three were strangled to death, La Prensa cited coroners as saying. The report did not specify if the tattoos indicated the victims' affiliation to a gang. On average 20 people were thought to have died daily in criminal incidents in Honduras in the first three months of 2013, Proceso Digital reported, citing the Observatorio de Violencia affiliated to the National Autonomous University of Honduras.

Chief prosecutor says Honduras overwhelmed by crimes

The head of the state prosecution service in Honduras (Fiscalía-General) told parliament on 10 April that 80 per cent of homicides went unpunished as the state was unable to investigate them all, while one of the country's crime observers said over 80 per cent of those killed in Honduras were shot dead. The chief prosecutor of Honduras Luis Rubí told Congress "the country is not prepared for this criminal wave and is totally overwhelmed. Investigating organs do not have the capacity to respond...we are faced with an 80-per-cent impunity in Honduras," the daily El Heraldo reported. Rubí was one of several officials summoned to parliament to account for the country's exceedingly high crime rates. Others who appeared were the Security Minister Pompeyo Bonilla, the national police chief Juan Carlos Bonilla and the jurist Eduardo Villanueva, a presidential appointee tasked with coordinating the purging of the police force of corrupt or criminal elements. Police chief Bonilla said investigations were "in a state of collapse." Separately 70-80 senior police officials including Bonilla may sit through confidence tests applied to other policemen in recent months, as part of President Porfirio Lobo's police purge and after Police agreed their chiefs should take the tests, El Heraldo reported on 11 April. The daily cited the jurist Villanueva as saying that the tests were being planned and could begin in a month. One of the country's crime and rights observer bodies separately revealed in a recent report that 84 per cent of homicides in Honduras were caused by firearms and that someone was shot dead there every 87 minutes, El Heraldo reported on 9 April. The National Commission for Human Rights (Conadeh, Comisionado Nacional de Derechos Humanos) urged legislation and effective mechanisms to reduce more than 650,000 illegal firearms it estimated were circulating in the country. The Conadeh's report counted 20,515 violent deaths in Honduras in the 2010-12 period, presumably from the start of 2010 to the end of 2012, of whom 17,190 were shot to death.

Opposition supporter killed in Venezuela as presidential campaigns close

A campaign coordinator for the opposition candidate in Venezuela's 14 April presidential elections was kidnapped on 8 April and later found dead, while masked men on motorbikes attacked opposition supporters after an event on 10 April, injuring 14, media reported. There was to be no more campaigning or publicity after 11 April. Juan Aranda was a coordinator for the liberal candidate Henrique Capriles Radonsky in Pedro María Ureña in the eastern state of Táchira. The killing was being investigated, although the opposition's local campaign chief Alejandro García said he suspected it was politically motivated. Relatives declared that Aranda and colleagues had earlier crossed a group of government supporters while campaigning locally but no incident had occurred, Colombia's Caracol radio reported on 10 April, citing Venezuela's El Universal. The daily separately reported an attack on opposition supporters after a campaign gathering in the nothern district of Mérida on 10 April. Masked men riding bikes began pushing and beating Capriles supporters as they left a gathering, and police were said to have done nothing, Europa Press and El Universal reported. One witness of the attack was the Archbishop of Mérida Baltazar Porras Cardozo, who observed that police let him know they had been ordered not to intervene against those "wearing red." Capriles told the BBC in Caracas on 10 April that - in spite of a contrary impression among observers - he believed he could win the presidency on 14 April as he was now a "national leader" competing against "a very bad candidate," the Acting President Nicolás Maduro. Capriles lost to Hugo Chávez in the elections of October 2012, but he told the BBC he won 45 per cent of votes then "with less than this force," presumably referring to his current support. He suggested the government could not garner more than six million votes without Chávez, while "my take-off point is seven million votes." Should he win, he said, he would seek to work with, not confront, state institutions he said were currently run by "partial" figures and government appointees. He deplored the "fear" he said government propaganda was sowing, as it sought to "make many people believe they will lose something if Capriles wins. They will lose nothing."

Murders said increased in Medellín in 2013, two gangsters caught

State coroners counted 295 homicides in Medellín, Colombia, in the first three months of 2013, that is 40 cases or 15,7 per cent more than for the same period in 2012. The city in north-western Colombia was the setting of police raids and increased police presence in late March against a surge in violence, which authorities said more than halved crime within days. A report issued by the country's Legal Medicine authority counted 90 homicides in the city in January 2013, 101 in February and 104 in March, Caracol radio reported on 8 April. Its report cited the 13-San Javier and Candelaria "communes" as the most violent neighbourhoods respectively with 50 and 45 killings for the period cited. In total it counted 5,231 violent deaths in Medellín from 2010 to the end of March 2013. The security affairs chief for the Medellín city government, Arnulfo Serna Giraldo, commented on 8 April that there were 17 homicides in Medellín in the first week of April, three fewer than for the same period in 2012, adding that he observed a downward tendency in homicides that month. "The projection has diminished. The aim was to end the year with a 52-per-cent reduction but we are at 47 per cent if the trend continues," Medellín's El Mundo reported on 8 April. Recent police operations he said had focused most on the comuna San Javier or 13. "Our greatest concern is to reduce homicides in the city and we shall work so these diminish by the end of the year," he said. Authorities separately reported the capture on or before 6 April of two suspected members of the Rastrojos gang in the departments of Valle de Cauca and Caldas in western and central Colombia, the broadcaster Caracol reported. The detained were identified as a deputy-head of the Rastrojos in the Valle de Cauca, a man dubbed el Choricito (Little sausage) caught in the district of Viterbo, and a gang "nurse" dubbed Alex caught in Trujillo in Caldas. El Choricito was thought to be in charge of drug trafficking in the northern part of Valle de Cauca, but also ordered "assassinations, extortions, kidnappings and disappearances," Caracol reported, citing the findings of a special gangs court.