Fourteen killed around Mexico

Fourteen people including five women and a teenager were killed around Mexico on 29 October in incidents mostly thought related to organized crime, Proceso reported. The dead included a woman gunned down outside a supermarket in Guachochi in the northern state of Chihuahua, in a scene likely seen by her three-year-old son who was sitting in a car nearby. Two women and a 13-year-old boy were gunned down in a beer shop in Guadalupe near the northern city of Monterrey. Soldiers also shot dead a gunman as they took over a ranch in the western state of Michoacán thought to belong to a presumed leader of the criminal gang Caballeros Templarios, Enrique Plancarte Solís or Kiki. Suspected gang members fled the estate, where an unspecified amount of arms and cash was found. In the west-coast resort of Acapulco, four or more armed men apparently sought to burn down a hotel after they entered pretending to be guests, Proceso reported on 29 October. Two entered the kitchens of the Costa Linda hotel on the coastal Miguel Alemán boulevard and started a fire with fuel, before the group fled. Staff put out the fire.

FARC attack kills six policemen in Colombia

Suspected members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) attacked a police post in western Colombia on 29 October, killing six members of the highway police, media reported. The attack with gunfire and explosives took place on a road between the districts of Puerto Tejada and Villarica in the north of the Cauca department, and was suspected to be the work of the FARC's Sixth Front, El Colombiano reported on 30 October.

Salvador Allende's granddaughter now a mayor in Chile

Veterinarian, socialist and granddaughter of Chile's ill-fated president of the 1970s Salvador Allende, Maya Fernández Allende became on 28 October the mayor of the Ñuñoa commune or municipality in the Santiago Metropolitan zone, ousting a right-wing opponent during nationwide municipal elections. Her opponent Pedro Sabat Pietracaprina had been mayor since 1996, and lost by 92 votes to Fernández who won 44.9 per cent of votes cast, Agence France-Presse reported. France-Presse cited the academic Mauricio Morales as saying that such results were influenced by student protests in 2011 against the conservative government's education policies; these were especially vibrant in larger districts like Ñuñoa, where he said Sabat had responded with force, ordering police to dislodge several schools or colleges occupied by protesting students. Fernández reportedly expressed support for students. She admitted her family name may have influenced her votes, "but I do not know how much." Allende committed suicide on 11 September 1973 during a violent coup undertaken by the armed forces. Fernández's mother Beatriz Allende Bussi - a physician like her father - left Chile for Cuba where she too killed herself in 1977. Sabat's daughter Marcela Sabat Fernández, a member of the conservative Renovación Nacional coalition, represents the Ñuñoa and Providencia constituency in the lower house of parliament. She was reportedly the youngest member of the chamber.

Chile's Left advances in municipal polls

Chile's President Sebastián Piñera Echenique deplored the low voter turnout in the 28 October elections for 345 municipalities, which handed his left-wing opponents a relative victory and may herald their success in the general elections of November 2013. The officialist Renovación Nacional lost important municipal governments like Concepción or inside the Santiago conurbation, and cabinet changes were expected as the government began to plan its strategy for 2013. Renovación won 37.47 of votes cast and the center-left Concertación 43.1 per cent, Reuters reported on 29 October, also qualifying the unprecedented abstention as the government's "second defeat." The head of the Electoral Service Juan Ignacio García said early that a lower turnout was normal in municipal polls, and anticipated the usual 15 per cent abstention rate to rise to 40 per cent this time, EFE reported. In turned out to be 60 per cent or over, with Dpa reporting on "dozens" of polling stations where nobody voted. Piñera, president since 2009, said on 28 October that many "exercised their right not to" vote but that this was "an alarm signal for democracy" in Chile. The "voluntary vote means respecting the freedom of citizens, but liberty also means duties," he said, stating nevertheless that "we have very carefully listened to the message" of this abstention. Changes in election laws in 1990 allowed citizens not to vote, while automatic voter inscription placed the number of registered voters this year at 13.4 million, EFE reported. The president was expected to partially reshuffle his cabinet before or around 11 November, as the media named two ministers as possible presidential hopefuls. By law, any minister wanting to run in the general elections of 17 November 2013 must leave office by 16 November this year if running for a legislative seat, or a little later if seeking the presidency, EFE reported.

Colombian leaders voice divisions at party congress

Colombia's present and last presidents made a public display of their differences on 28 October, alternately defending and attacking the latest round of peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Both justified their records and aspirations for Colombia as they addressed supporters in the conservative Partido de la U, gathered in Bogotá to elect new party directors. The former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez reiterated his criticisms of incipient peace talks and said the government seemed more interested in talking to "terrorism" than assuring Colombia's security. Uribe, who sought to defeat the FARC when president in 2002-10, told party members "the last two years have made many Colombians think that the Government has shown greater interest in talking to terrorism than in security," and alleged any strikes against FARC commanders under his successor Juan Manuel Santos seemed "more the fruit of of the Armed Forces' resolve" than government determination. He deplored that the government should seek to build "trust with terrorism" or they should now be deemed a warring party when "many countries" and "most Colombians" considered them terrorists, EFE reported. Santos was Uribe's defence minister in 2006-9, but the two have drifted apart for Uribe's opposition to a compromise with the FARC. Members of the Partido Social de la Unidad Nacional - the Unity or U party - have thus faced a dilemna in the discord between their leading personalities. Santos later defended talks as a continuation of Uribe's own policies. He said the previous government tried "the impossible" to talk to the FARC, chose possible locations for such conversations and asked Brazil to act as garantor. There were letters he said, setting out preconditions including an end to terrorism, the broadcaster RTVE reported on 29 October. He said "they were negotiating for five years and now they say, how are we talking to terrorism?" while "members of the previous government forget" he was pursuing its policies. He declared he had not come with "rancour" or "resentment," but to "build the future and talk about the future." He observed that professional political parties with discipline, debate and "internal democracy" were a key part of the democratization process. "I do not believe, let me be clear, in made-to-measure parties that become shorter or longer" to fit the needs of a "caudillo or the one currently in charge," RCN radio reported.

Prison staff jailed in Mexico after inmates' flight

Authorities jailed nine former employees of the Piedras Negras prison in northern Mexico after they were charged with aiding a mass flight of prisoners on 17 September, Proceso reported on 27 October. Over 130 prisoners, mostly presumed members of The Zetas drug cartel, reportedly either walked out of the prison that day or fled through a hole made in the carpentry workshop. Troops and police have caught some of them and killed others, but most seemed to be free and likely involved in numerous criminal incidents in northern Mexico in recent weeks. The Coahuila state prosecutor's office stated it might question other prison staff. Two men were separately shot dead in the northern state of Chihuahua on 28 October, one in the city of Chihuahua, the other in Meoqui further south, Proceso reported.

Mexican troops kill, detain suspected gangsters

Six were killed in drug-related violence in three states of Mexico on 26 October, while troops detained a "cell" from The Zetas cartel thought involved in at least 43 killings over a year. Two of the dead were suspected members of The Zetas cartel, shot by troops in the northern city of Monterrey. They were identified as a local boss dubbed El Tío and a presumed associate dubbed El Pollo (Chicken), and were shot as they opened fire when troops told them get out of their car, Proceso reported. Another "suspected criminal" was shot dead by soldiers in Xalapa, in the eastern state of Veracruz; troops also detained four presumed kidnappers and released a man held by them in José Azueta in Veracruz. Police separately presented on 26 October four detainees and suspected members of The Zetas including their head in the northern districts of Guadalupe and Benito Juárez, identified as Miguel Ángel Domínguez Montaño or Micky. He confessed he had taken part in seven executions and ordered dozens more. The four were arrested on 6 October while driving in Guadalupe, Proceso reported. The state prosecutor's office was reported to have ascertained in this time that the four had kidnapped and killed 35 presumed traffickers working with rival gangs, and killed eight kidnap victims for whom ransom had not been paid or who recognized their captors.

Colombian guerrillas fighting amid peace talks

The Colombian government had ruled out suspending military action during peace talks it began in October with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the FARC took note: late on 19 or on 20 October suspected FARC guerrillas killed five soldiers in a bomb attack on a patrol in the southern department of Putumayo, Europa Press reported, citing Colombian media and officials. Twelve soldiers were injured in the attack in the Puerto Asís district, near Ecuador. President Juan Manuel Santos deplored the "vile attack" writing on the website Twitter, Reuters reported. The agency observed that violence might increase during peace talks as both sides sought to show strength on the ground. On 21 October, Colombian troops found a FARC "refinery" in the south-western department of Nariño, where crude oil stolen from the Transandino pipeline was stored and processed, EFE reported, citing army declarations. The army recovered 37,000 litres of crude oil from the store, in the district of Ricaurte. The Venezuelan daily El Nacional was separately reported to have published the names of 27 Venezuelans allegedly held by the FARC, some for as long as a decade; the list was given it by relatives of the disappeared, Europa Press reported on 21 October. The head of the civil association Venezuela Libre de Secuestros Porfirio Dávila, has urged the Venezuelan government to speak to the FARC on the kidnappings on the sidelines of talks between the Colombian state and the FARC. He said families of the kidnapped had received no support from state institutions or the police. The Venezuelan government - which sympathises with the FARC - reportedly rejects reports that the FARC hold any Venezuelans. Europa Press cited Venezuelan diplomats as saying that Venezuela, which is "accompanying" the talks, could not introduce items onto its set agenda. They said the issue might be discussed informally. That would be doing a favour to Carlos Rosales García, one of the Venezuelans on the list apparently kidnapped in 2002 - and the least to be expected of representatives of his country. Doubtless losing patience with the pace and resolve of the Venezuelan state, his father took pictures of his son to Bogotá in 2005 where he showed them to Interpol. Colombia was following his son's case, Venezuela's El Diario de Huila reported on 22 October.

Colombia, rebels begin peace talks in Oslo

Negotiators representing Colombia and the communist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) met behind closed doors in Oslo on 17 and 18 October, beginning a process of talks intended to end decades of civil war in Colombia. A communiqué read out by Cuban and Norwegian diplomats declared that the sides had set up the "negotiation table charged with developing the General Agreement for the Termination of the Conflict and Construction of a Stable and Lasting Peace, and in this way the second phase of the process begins," Venezuela's state news agency reported. The sides have apparently signed a document that they would not abandon talks before achieving a "real and sensible" peace agreement, El Espectador reported, which apparently contradicted the government's posture that talks could not go on indefinitely. Selected spokesmen were to meet again in Havana on 5 November to continue preparatory work for the next stage of talks on 15 November, when negotiators would discuss the first main theme agreed on - agrarian or rural development. Talks were to strictly follow the agenda set in previous months, Colombia's chief negotiator Humberto de la Calle Lombana told the press in Oslo on 18 October. He said these were not political or ideological arguments and the sides were not there to "convince" one another of their political preferences. He told a reporter of the Colombian broadcaster RCN that the FARC were entitled to hold and express their views, but peacefully. He told Reuters that talks would seek to eventually "transform" the FARC into a political force instead of an armed group, and "open ways" to end the "mix of politics and arms" in Colombia. De la Calle said at one point that the government would not become a "hostage" of prolonged talks if the agenda did not progress, the broadcaster Caracol reported.

Venezuela expels Paraguay's diplomats

Venezuela's foreign ministry told four Paraguayan diplomats on 16 October that they had 72 hours to leave the country, without giving explanations but following the progressive deterioration of ties in recent months, Europa Press reported, citing a diplomat's remarks. Paraguay's trade attaché in Caracas Víctor Casartelli was cited as telling a radio station in Asunción that the embassy was notified of the expulsion by phone; it appeared no diplomats would remain as Casartelli said caretakers would be left to guard the premises. Bilateral ties were spoiled last summer when Paraguay's parliament sacked its leftist president Fernando Lugo, a friend of Venezuela. Most Latin American states deplored the move, which was perceived as undemocratic in spite of its strict legality. Paraguay was considered to be in a state of relative diplomatic isolation until general elections due in April 2013. Paraguay's Foreign Minister José Félix Estigarribia Insaurralde said in Asunción on 17 October that his country had asked for a written note on the expulsion in line with formalities, EFE reported. "I don't  like judging other governments but I can say I notice the Venezuelan government has a peculiar approach to international relations and has confrontations with an enormous amount of countries," he told the Primero de Marzo radio station. He said Venezuelan statesmen "penalise, argue and ask states to disappear. They use an inappropriate language to deal with countries." Estigarribia said he would seek out "all channels" to resolve the impasse, but added Paraguay would not accept the "conduct" of Venezuela's foreign minister and new vice-president, Nicolás Maduro. Maduro was accused last June of meddling in Paraguay's affairs by encouraging its military to obstruct parliament's bid to remove the president, during a visit by foreign ministers of the regional association Unasur.

Peruvian novelist to be given Mexico's Fuentes prize

Mario Vargas Llosa became on 15 October the first recipient of Mexico's Carlos Fuentes Prize for Literary Creation in Spanish, "for the contribution he has made from Spanish to enrich mankind's heritage," according to the head of the Spanish Royal Academy José Manuel Blecua Perdices, a member of the jury that voted him the prize. The prize, worth 250,000 USD, was created in memory of the Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes who died in May 2012. Vargas Llosa was given the Nobel prize for literature in 2010 and has received two literary awards from Spain. On 15 October the head of the National Council for Culture and the Arts of Mexico (Conaculta) Consuelo Sáizar Guerrero, informed Vargas Llosa by video-conference of the decision; he is to receive the prize in person on 11 November, the birthday of Carlos Fuentes, AFP reported. Vargas Llosa has written numerous novels and essays, many set in Peru where he was born in 1936. He has become, unexpectedly perhaps for many, a cultural figure associated with liberal conservatism, with a disdain for modern popular culture that has likely irritated some conformists. In 2012 he was among certain prominent supporters of Mexico's conservative presidential candidate Josefina Vázquez Mota, who lost the race to Enrique Peña Nieto of the "centrist" Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The PRI governed Mexico for most of the 20th century and imposed as Vargas Llosa said a "perfect dictatorship," hiding a clientelist and authoritarian regime behind a social-democratic appearance. It may have been no coincidence that Vargas Llosa "cancelled at the last minute" an invitation on 16 or 17 October to meet in Madrid with the visiting president-elect Peña Nieto.

Nicaragua buys Russian armour to fight crime

Nicaragua bought "a small quantity" of armoured cars from Russia to fight drug cartels, its interior minister said in Managua on 16 October, EFE reported. Ana Isabel Morales Mazún told a press conference that the purchase was agreed on in a "recent" visit to Moscow by the Nicaraguan police chief, though she did not say how much Nicaragua was paying for this and related purchases. The vehicles were to be used by the three special police units that deal with organized crime or rioting, in cities and the countryside. Nicaragua also purchased vehicles to transport high-risk or violent detainees, as well as uniforms, technical equipment and training. Nicaragua and Russia signed an agreement to fight crime in February 2012 during a visit by the head of Russia's Federal Narcotics Service, Victor Ivanov. Bilateral ties have gained momentum since the return to power in 2007 of the socialist Daniel Ortega. Nicaragua was apparently using criminals' money to finance the fight against crime, though it was not immediately clear if such money paid for the purchases. Morales said her country would build "at least five prisons" with part of more than nine million USD confiscated from 18 Mexicans detained last summer and suspected of drug trafficking. The Mexicans were arrested on 20 August as they sought to enter Nicaragua from Honduras, initially identifying themselves as journalists and staff of the Mexican broadcaster Televisa. Televisa denied they were employees. Some 9.2 million USD as well as cocaine traces were found in their vehicles, painted with Televisa logos. The suspects were to be tried in Nicaragua on 3 December on drug-trafficking and money laundering charges, ACAN-EFE reported. Morales said Nicaragua would build one high-security prison with the money and upgrade a similar facility outside the capital. President Ortega was also reported to have said in September that part of the confiscated money would be spent on police equipment.

Troops shoot dead 16 gunmen around Mexico

Mexican soldiers shot dead six suspected criminals who reportedly fired on them in two incidents on 14 October, in the north-eastern state of Tamaulipas. The attacks occurred in the districts of San Fernando and Nuevo Laredo, Proceso reported. In Pánuco in the east-coast state of Veracruz on 13 October, troops shot dead 10 suspected gangsters who also reportedly had fired on them; arms and ammunition were confiscated, Proceso reported on 14 October. It reported separately that a "young man" was shot dead in a "marginal" area of the port of Veracruz; the victim was described as having heavily tatooed legs. In northern Mexico, a man detained for kidnapping was "beaten and burned" to death in a prison in Ciudad Juárez, hours after being sent there from Veracruz where he had been arrested, Proceso reported on 14 October. The 40-year-old was detained on 9 October in the district of Emiliano Zapata in Veracruz, with five suspected members of a kidnapping gang.

Venezuelan president changes ministers

President Hugo Chávez Frías kept Nicolás Maduro as foreign minister of Venezuela days after appointing him vice-president for executive affairs, and publicized several ministerial appointments through messages on the website Twitter, EFE reported on 13 October. General Néstor Luis Reverol was the new interior and justice minister, replacing Tareck El Aissami who was to compete for the governorship of the state of Aragua in polls schedued for 16 December. Reverol vowed on state television to hasten unspecified police reforms and boost security in one of the continent's more crime-ridden countries. Admiral Carmen Meléndez de Maniglia, the first female admiral in Venezuela, was to head the ministry for the presidential office as well as a newly-created ministry to follow up government management. The deputy-minister for Indigenous Peoples Aloha Nuñez was made minister, replacing her former boss Nicia Maldonado Maldonado, who was to run in December for the office of governor of the state of Amazonas in south-east Venezuela. The journalist and state television presenter Ernesto Villegas Poljak became the new Communication and Information Minister, replacing Andrés Izarra. The ministers were sworn into office at the presidential palace on 13 October.

Policemen killed, missing in Mexico

Gunmen fired on a police patrol late on 12 October, killing a policeman and injuring another in the northern city of Torreón, while two suspected criminals and a policeman were killed in a shootout in Los Mochis in the north-western state of Sinaloa, Proceso reported. Six policemen were reported missing on 12 October in Saltillo in the northern state of Coahuila, amid suspicions they may have been kidnapped. Their wives initially reported their absence; local authorities later confirmed they had not gone to work without stating why, Proceso reported. Authorities also arrested on 12 October six members of the gang Caballeros Templarios, suspected of forming an "operational" cell in Celaya and Apaseo el Alto in the central state of Guanajuato, the state's chief prosecutor Carlos Zamarripa Aguirre stated. The detained, including a local police official, were suspected of involvement in extortion, drug trafficking and perhaps murders, Proceso reported. Authorities confiscated 25 cars thought to belong to the group.

Hugo Chávez seen with key role in Colombian talks

Álvaro Leyva Durán, a former Colombian minister and "facilitator" of previous parleys with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), speculated that the outcome of peace talks with the FARC, to begin on 15-17 October, would depend more on the interventions of Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chávez than on the Colombian president's "goodwill." Venezuela is "accompanying" talks intended to end decades of guerrilla conflict in Colombia, and seen as having considerable leverage with the FARC. Leyva recently told the newspaper El Colombiano that he was certain President Juan Manuel Santos had "shared the keys" to the talks with Chávez, "to hasten the dialogue." It is "important people should know this. This process will have more to do with what Chávez can do than any goodwill the president might have" he said in remarks published on 12 October. He observed that the conflict with the FARC was now "internationalized" in spite of being internal, for its ideological nature and with the United States' involvement, for the FARC's alleged drug trafficking. To attain lasting peace he said, Colombia would have to unilaterally impose a "full-stop" legal formula ruling out subsequent prosecution and arrests of those involved in the conflict. "I do not think the gentlemen of the FARC...will submit to formulae...applied to the paramilitaries. They do not submit because they believe this implies juridical insecurity," Leyva said, referring to disarmament conditions for thousands of right-wing paramilitaries. Some paramilitary leaders were now serving jail terms for different crimes. Leyva said such a formula should cover "all those who are a part of this conflict," allegedly many. The war was not just with the FARC he said, but with "those who financed the war, with banana growers; there are many officials who combined their strengths and desire to overcome the enemy with the paramilitaries. Many civil servants lost control." Leyva, a member of the Conservative Party, was Colombia's mines and energy minister in 1984-5. Also on 12 October the FARC published on a website a message sent earlier to congratulate Hugo Chávez on his re-election to the presidency on 7 October, EFE reported.

Honduran leader checks security on buses

President Porfirio Lobo Sosa boarded several buses in Tegucicalpa on 9 October to check on a recent initiative to have soldiers assure security on buses, El Heraldo reported. Honduras has one of the world's highest crime rates. Lobo spoke to passengers and said troop numbers on buses could increase; his presence reportedly provoked congestion on the Bulevar Centroamérica, one of the capital's traffic arteries. On 28 September Lobo personally inaugurated the plan to have two soldiers or two policemen on every bus for 20 routes in Tegucicalpa and the northern suburb of Comayagüela, El Heraldo reported. "People tell me they take a very positive view of soldiers being there, and feel safer," he said as he came off a bus on 9 October. The government began to place security cameras on buses in February 2012.

Eight reported killed around Mexico

"At least" eight people were killed in violent incidents in four states of Mexico on 9 October, including a 16-year-old girl gunned down from a car in the northern city of Torreón, Proceso reported that day. Another victim was a 75-year-old man apparently strangled to death in the north-western town of Santiago Papasquiaro. Suspected criminals separately burned 20 police cars and confiscated vehicles in a police parking in Fresnillo in the north-central state of Zacatecas, Proceso reported on 9 October.

Ecuador's president may stand for re-election

Rafael Correa Delgado, president of Ecuador since 2007, said on radio in Quito on 9 October that there was a "high probability" his followers would ask him to be a candidate in presidential elections due in February 2013, EFE reported. Correa spoke in an interview with a broadcasting association, Asociación Ecuatoriana de Radiodifusión (AER). He said he had not yet decided to be a candidate but his family backed him and it was likely the Movimiento Alianza País (AP) would name him their candidate. EFE listed certain politicians cited as possible contenders so far, including the left-wing Alberto Acosta, former president Lucío Gutiérrez Borbúa, a former banker Guillermo Lasso and the "banana magnate" Álvaro Noboa Pontón. Correa said he would not fall into the "mediocrity" of discrediting aspirants but observed that some mentioned so far were an "embarrassment;" the country he said, "would have to be mad to send bankers back into power." A first round of elections was to be held on 17 February 2013 and a possible second round on 7 April, EFE reported.

Colombia's ex-leader said to be "obstructing" talks

The "foreign minister" of the communist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has said that the Colombian state decided to negotiate with the FARC after failing to defeat it, while a "minority" led by the former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez opposed peace talks backed by Colombians and the international community. Rodrigo Granda told La Tribune de Genève in Havana at an unspecified date that "the United States, the European Union, the Vatican" and sympathetic "personalities" in Colombia backed talks due to start informally in Oslo on 15 October, and "the only ones" who would obstruct them were "a small movement of the extreme Right" led by Uribe, El Mundo reported on 8 October. He said talks sought to "silence arms, but also and above all to refound our country." Government and FARC negotiators were to discuss themes including disarmament, rural reforms and the social reintegration of guerrillas. Granda said "all the themes are important and need to be treated calmly and negotiated scrupulously. They have to do with food sovereignty, health, education, the right to work...we have to reinvent Colombia, which is a very unjust country." He dissmissed the idea that the state was negotiating from a position of strength; "if the military could conquer us, the authorities would not have come to the negotiating table," he said. Uribe was president from 2002 to 2010 and weakened the FARC through relentless military action. He has denounced any negotiation with people he recently termed terrorists and drug traffickers. On 7 October he claimed the FARC had a "direct role" in Venezuela's recent presidential elections. Venezuela's socialist government has in the past been accused of aiding or sheltering the FARC; Uribe told Bogotá's Radio Santa Fe "I do not know how certain people can doubt that Venezuela is a sanctuary for the FARC." He said the FARC "controlled" an unspecified "mountainous zone" in the state of Zulia in western Venezuela. Twelve of as many as 30 FARC envoys and negotiators arrived on 8 October in Havana, where part of the talks would proceed, Europa Press reported. The FARC declared a day before that Interpol had suspended international arrest warrants for its negotiators, EFE reported.

Venezuela re-elects its president

Hugo Chávez was elected on 7 October to a fourth term as president of Venezuela, winning some 7,860,000 votes against just over 6,386,000 votes cast for the liberal Henrique Capriles, Europa Press reported. Chávez won 54.84 per percent of all votes counted by 8 October - which were 95.58 per cent of votes cast - the National Electoral Council (CNE) stated; he had already thanked Venezuelans through a message on the website Twitter, Reuters reported on 8 October. His rival conceded defeat and congratulated the president, but urged him to show "respect, consideration and recognition" for "almost half the country" that did not favour "this option keeping itself in power today," Reuters reported. Chávez was to govern Venezuela now until 2019.

Eleven shot, mutilated, found dead around Mexico

Eleven were reported shot or found dead around Mexico on 5 October in incidents likely related to organized crime, the review Proceso reported. In the north-central state of Zacatecas, four gunmen were shot dead by soldiers after they began shooting at a military patrol from a convoy of cars. Another man was shot dead in Valle Hermoso in the north-eastern state of Tamaulipas after he fired on a military patrol; a policeman who had been reported missing on 1 October in Escuinapa in the north-western state of Sinaloa was found shot dead and wrapped in a sheet in Acaponeta, in the west-coast state of Nayarit. He was the officer escorting the director of Public Security in Escuinapa. Other victims included two 14 and a 16-year-old boys shot dead in the central city of San Luis Potosí. Another "young man" of unspecified age was found decapitated that day in San Luis Potosí. In the northern city of Reynosa, police found and confiscated 13 armour-plated buses or lorries in a private lot, as well as arms and ammunition presumably belonging to criminal gangs, Proceso reported on 5 October. Guards at the site began shooting when police arrived; police shot dead one of them and arrested eight. The vehicles, some reportedly stolen, were being converted into armoured cars gangs use in gun battles, Proceso reported.

Over 20 killed, found dead around Mexico

Twenty two people were killed or found dead in apparent criminal incidents around Mexico on 2 October, including children aged seven and 11 years, Proceso reported, citing information given by police. These included: four suspected criminals killed by police in a shootout in the northern city of Saltillo, four men gunned down in a spa or public bath in the northern city of Monterrey, and the bodies of three men and an 11-year-old girl found in San Martín de Bolaños in the western state of Jalisco. Several bodies were found in cars in different parts of the country. A seven-year-old girl was shot dead, apparently accidentally, in the western city of Guadalajara, and two women had their throats slit in the Benito Juárez district in Estado de México, outside the capital.

Defections begin in Mexico's main Leftist party

Fifty members of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) from northern Mexico resigned from the party on 29-30 September and were to join the civic movement led by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the former PRD leader who failed to win the presidency in July 2012. The move confirmed fears that López Obrador's split with the PRD after the general elections could divide the party and realign the Left. The 50 were from the state of Nuevo León and their departure was ostensibly in protest at the PRD's "anti-democratic" practice of appointing electoral candidates, CNN and Notimex reported. One defector, Roberto Benavides González, told Notimex that up to 200 party members could leave. Their destination would be the Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional (MORENA), a "civil association" that may become a formal political party before the next presidential elections. López Obrador and many on the Left vigorously challenged the results of the 2012 elections, though critics have claimed his populist style as candidate may have dissuaded some middle-class voters from voting for the Left and cost it the elections. Another recent defector, original party signatory and former parliamentarian Lenia Batres declared on 30 September that the PRD was now a "bureaucratic structure" with limited popular support. She told the website ADNPolítico that the PRD's leader Jesús Zambrano Grijalva had neglected the PRD's "political project" to maintain the unity of "jostling" factions that often had "absolutely opposed interests;" the PRD she said had thus "lost its way. It had a good idea of the country but was taken over by people who may not be of the Left. That is why we are going to Morena." Morena is to hold a congress in November, where it may decide whether or not to become a party. The PRD was founded in 1989 in a split from the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party.

"Fearful" Mexican mayor shown with local mafia

A video uploaded on 29 September on the website YouTube purportedly showed the newly-installed mayor of Teloloapan in western Mexico promise gangsters that police would not meddle with their activities in return for a peaceful town, Proceso reported on 30 September. Ignacio de Jesús Valladares Salgado, from the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), had apparently been kidnapped; "visibly fearful and with a faltering voice" he told his captors he would appoint a "neutral" police chief "removed from the interests of any group," as promised apparently to the local head of the cartel La Familia Michoacana, dubbed El Pez (The Fish). The mayor observed however that other cartels were active in the region "and I am going to keep myself on the sidelines of everything." The captors said "that is what we want," and promised not to act against police, but vowed that if "police against us again," Teloloapan "will burn." The mayor promised to "invite" local policemen not to "become involved with problems that could cause them greater difficulties," and either dismiss agents "stepping out of line" as his interviewers said, or "hand them over to the army." Valladares was elected in the general elections of July 2012. On 30 September, authorities arrested one of the Familia Michoacana's local chiefs, sought for suspected crimes including trafficking and murder. Casimiro Nava León - El Casimiro - was arrested in Toluca, west of Mexico City; he was identified as the head or future head of the cartel in the Valle de Toluca zone, Proceso reported, citing police information. He was caught with arms, ammunition, drugs and cash.

Mexicans did not report 90 per cent of crimes in 2011

Recent research by Mexico's state statistical agency revealed that over 90 per cent of crimes or offences were not reported to the police in 2011, essentially because people believed it would be a waste of time, Europa Press reported on 28 September. The 2012 poll Encuesta Nacional de Victimización y Percepción Sobre Seguridad Pública (Envipe) by the statistical agency INEGI revealed that 20.5 million crimes or offences were not reported and most people did not trust the police. Eighty three per cent of respondents believed the traffic police was "corrupt" and 71 per cent thought the same about municipal preventive police who deal with petty crime. More than 18 million Mexicans - about a quarter of the adult population - were victims of a crime or offence in 2011. Based on information given by victims who were poll participants, the most frequent crimes in 2011 were muggings on streets or on public transport (29 per cent), extortion (19 per cent), car theft (14 per cent), and fraud and threats (both eight per cent).

Venezuela's Chávez deplores campaign violence

President Hugo Chávez Frías deplored on 30 September the deaths a day earlier of three opposition activists during an election campaign event in the Barinitas district in western Venezuela, Argentina's La Nación reported. Two members of the opposition coalition challenging Chávez in general elections due on 7 October were shot dead by presumed Chávez supporters, and another died later of shot wounds. Six members of the officialist United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) were later arrested as authorities investigated the killings, Europa Press reported on 30 September. Two victims were members of Primero Justicia and Acción Democrática, parties supporting the liberal candidate Henrique Capriles. Chávez declared in the western state of Zulia that he was "very, very" sorry for the deaths "where they were going in a caravan and others were standing at some point and someone fired shots." He said elections were not to be held "with violence," but "vote for vote, with ideas, with peace." On 30 September, the broadcaster Globovisión and other media depicted opposition supporters "filling" central Caracas for their closing campaign rally there. Capriles urged "hundreds of thousands" gathered in the grand Bolívar Avenue to vote out "the violent" and vote "not for me but for yourselves." Chávez he said, had "grown sick in power" and he was "the instrument of change," Spain's ABC and Europa Press reported.

Mexican activist "fled for his life" after protest

Aleph Jiménez Domínguez, a spokesman for the protest group Yo Soy 132 in north-western Mexico who disappeared for five days in late September, said in Mexico City on 28 September that he "had to flee" the city of Ensenada in Baja California where he believed unspecified elements might kill him. He told the press "this was an urgent action" and there was good cause for his flight to nearby La Paz; "believe me my life was in danger. You mustn't wait for someone to turn up dismembered or dead for these actions to be valid," CNNMéxico reported him as saying. Jiménez hid from 20 to 25 September; on 15 September he was one of 20 activists detained in Ensenada after a protest, and publicly criticized on 17 September the Ensenada mayor Enrique Pelayo. Jiménez said he then felt he was being followed; he said a black car with glazed windows stopped outside his house and its driver phoned as he stepped out, to say he was "in front of the house, I found him." Jiménez lodged a complaint with the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH) after travelling to its offices in Mexico City. Yo Soy 132 repeatedly protested against alleged manipulation and fraud in the July general elections, officially won by the Institutional Revolutionary Party and its presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto.

Twenty shot, found dead around Mexico

Twenty people were killed in criminal incidents or found dead around Mexico on 29 September, including three policemen and a civil servant's nephew, El Universal and CNN reported that day. In Torreón in the northern state of Coahuila, five suspected criminals died in a shootout with security forces, a state government spokesman declared. "At least" six were killed around Monterrey in the state of Nuevo León, two of them reportedly shot in their car by assassins driving behind them. The nephew of the Health Secretary of the north-western state of Sonora was gunned down late on 28 September in Hermosillo. Three policemen were shot dead on 29 September in San Miguel Teloloapán in the western state of Guerrero, the state prosecutor's office declared. In the north-western city of Aguascalientes, a woman was gunned down as she left the hairdressers. On 30 September, the bodies of three men and a woman who had been shot dead were found in pairs in the districts of Tototlán and Tequila, in the western state of Jalisco. Authorities separately arrested at an unspecified time and place, José Inés Medina Rodríguez, described as a senior operative of the Gulf Cartel in Juárez on the US frontier, El Universal reported on 29 September, citing the Nuevo León Public Security authority.

Guatemalan army evacuates families threatened by gang

The Guatemalan army evacuated late on 26 September five families from their homes near the Mexican border, apparently avoiding their imminent massacre by suspected members of the Mexican drug cartel The Zetas. The families - consisting of 44 people including 22 children - were taken from Santo Domingo Sinlaj in the district of Santa Cruz Barillas to army facilities in Guatemala City, El País reported on 28 September, citing local press reports. The Guatemalan daily Prensa Libre reported that they had for days been confined to their homes by Zetas who control this area and force locals into criminal work; it cited the regional commander General Rudy Ortíz Ruiz as saying that the army had information The Zetas were about to kill and rape 15 men and women for refusing to work for them, and that more families asked to be taken away when troops arrived to evacuate them. Authorities arrested in that zone on 27 September a suspect named as Daniel Juan, identified as the possible "local chief" of The Zetas, El País reported. The prosecutor-general of Guatemala Claudia Paz y Paz also announced the capture of the Zeta chief for Santa Cruz Barillas - named as Juan Nicolás - though it was not immediately clear if this was the same person, AFP reported, citing her remarks to Prensa Libre.

Army bombs Colombian rebels, kills eight

Colombian troops bombed a jungle base of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on the north-western department of Antióquia early on 27 September, killing "at least" eight rebels including two local chiefs, agencies cited Defence Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón as saying in Bogotá that day. Two of the dead were Efraín González Ruiz the commander of the FARC's fronts 35 and 37, and Jhonatan Lascarro head of a mobile unit and nephew of one of the seven members of the FARC's Secretariat or politburo. Five guerrillas were also detained and one surrendered to troops in the operation near the district of El Bagre, EFE reported.

Ten killed around Mexico

Nine people were killed or found dead on 27 September around Mexico, in the states of Morelos and Veracruz and the western city of Guadalajara, Proceso reported. These included a man shot dead in a bar in Cuernavaca, the capital of Morelos, the bodies of two young men found in a ditch in Morelos - they had apparently been stabbed in the neck - and a businessman and a woman found dead in Playa Vicente in the eastern state of Veracruz. It seemed they had been beaten then shot to death; the businessman, Cecilio Cervantes, had been reported disappeared 10 days before. On 28 September, the body of a man shot to death was found wrapped in a "colourful" blanket near the Country Club in Culiacán, north-western Mexico, El Universal reported.

Jordan's monarch in Peru for tourism, summit

King Abdullah II of Jordan arrived in Lima on 26 September and was to visit historic sites before attending the Third Summit of South American and Arab Countries (ASPA3) scheduled for 1 and 2 October. The summit aims to promote cultural, economic, education and scientific collaboration between the regions and is hosted by Peru this year. Heads of state expected to attend this summit were the King of Morocco, the Emir of Qatar, the Lebanese president and the head of the Palestinian Authority, Telesur reported on 27 September. Foreign ministers were to meet on 1 October and heads of states and governments the following day. Jordan's king was first to visit the historic city of Cuzco and the Inca citadel at Machu Picchu.

Fifteen killed around Mexico in a day

Fifteen people were shot dead or found dead on 26 September in different parts of Mexico, in apparent acts of violence likely and mostly related to cartels. These included: two employees of the national oil company Pemex shot dead at a refinery in Salamanca, north-west of Mexico City, three men and a woman whose bones or remains were found in a mine shaft in the district of El Oro in the north-western state of Durango, and a man and woman killed in a shootout between police and criminals in Tlanepantla, Estado de México, Proceso reported on 26 September. On the night of 26-27 September, the northern city of Piedras Negras became the setting of dispersed gun battles between Mexican security forces and "armed civilians" or suspected criminals, though it was not immediately clear how many died, Proceso reported on 27 September. At least 131 inmates broke out of the Piedras Negras prison on 17 September, though it was not immediately clear if these were involved in the shootouts. Messages written on sheets left hanging around Piedras Negras that morning warned residents there would be clashes later that day and they should "take precautions." Eight of the escaped convicts were caught by 26 September and one was killed on 25 September, CNNMéxico and Univision reported.

Eleven killed in shootout in western Mexico

Gunmen fired on troops patrolling the district of Tepecoacuilco in the western state of Guerrero on 26 September, provoking a gun battle that killed ten suspected criminals and a soldier, CNNMéxico reported, citing information from the state prosecutor's office. The patrol was part of the Operativo Guerrero Seguro operation launched in October 2011 in response to rising violence in that state. According to CNN, Guerrero was the setting of 1,538 homicides in January-September 2011, twice as many as in the same period in 2010, and mostly attributable to rivalries between cartels.

Mexican activist found alive

Aleph Jiménez Dominguez, a Mexican academic reported as missing in the northern state of Baja California on 20 September was found alive in La Paz in the same state on 25 September. He had apparently fled to La Paz from his home town of Ensenada for feeling "threatened and watched" there. The 32-year-old researcher took part on 15 September in a protest in Ensenada during national independence celebrations and was briefly detained, CNNMéxico reported on 25 September. Jiménez was a spokesman in Ensenada for the student protest group Yo Soy 132, which organized the protest against the results of July's general elections and the "imposition" of the president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto. The gathering reportedly led to scuffling between some protesters and municipal police. Jiménez said he felt threatened in following days and had observed suspect cars driving around his house. On 25 September he flew to Mexico City where he was taken to the seat of the National Human Rights Comission (CNDH), presumably to report on the incidents.

Tourism flourishing in Colombia

Colombia may host some 3.3 million tourists by the end of 2012 and expected the figure to "easily" rise to four million in 2014, a Colombian export official said in Madrid on 25 September. Juan Gabriel Pérez, head of Spain for ProExport told a gathering of travel agents that the tourist sector had in "recent years" grown 10 per cent a year compared to a global average of four per cent; he said Colombia had overcome the insecurity that formerly deterred tourists from visiting, El Economista reported. He cited Spaniards as the main group of European tourists in Colombia, with a five-per-cent rise in their number in January-July 2012. Pérez said Colombia would double the size of its stand at FITUR 2013, Madrid's annual travel fair, compared to 2012.

Nine shot dead at Mexican funeral

Gunmen in a convoy of three cars opened fire on a funeral crowd in Torreón in northern Mexico on 25 September, killing nine people and injuring 22, El Universal reported on 26 September. The convoy arrived at the funeral of a 27-year-old man shot dead on 22 September in nearby San Pedro de las Colonias, in the state of Coahuila. Police investigations suggested some in the crowd fired back at the cars; two children or teenagers were among those killed.

Mexico's former education minister dies

Politicians paid their respects on 25 September to Alonso Lujambio Irazábal, a senator of the conservative National Action Party and Mexico's former education minister who died of cancer that day, newspapers reported. Born in 1962, he studied sociology in Mexico, then politics at Yale University in the United States. He worked with the electoral authority from 1997 to 2003, advised the United Nations on designing parliamentary elections for Iraq after the overthrow of its dictator Saddam Hussein, and lectured at Mexico's Iberoamericana and Autonomous National (UNAM) universities. He served as Public Education Secretary from April 2009 to March 2012 when he resigned for ill health; his illness also ended the presidential race he began in 2011 as a pre-candidate. On 29 August - after months of medical treatment - he went to the Senate to swear his oath as a member and received a standing ovation. President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa called him "a kind human being" and example of "good sense and honesty," Excelsior reported on 25 September.

Mexican legislator "stabbed by wife," not mafia

Jaime Serrano Cedilla, the member of a Mexican state parliament stabbed to death on 17 September was apparently killed by his wife not gangsters as initially suspected, the website Infobae reported on 21 September, citing AFP. The Estado de México state judiciary declared that Serrano's wife stabbed him "with a kitchen knife" during a marital dispute "in which there was a lot of verbal and physical aggression," after examining evidence and declarations. Public concern following the killing in the district of Nezahualcóyotl - the constituency where Serrano lived and died - prompted the government to send troops and federal police in response to a perceived crime surge.

Detained guerrilla dies in Venezuela

Luis Freddy Rojas Rincón, a member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) detained in Venezuela on 19 September died hours after his arrest, apparently for injuries sustained in the shootout that preceded his capture, elcorreo.com reported on 20 September citing statements by the Colombian defence minister. Rojas belonged to Front 33 of the FARC and was sought for his role in a failed bomb attack in Bogotá last August. Separately, Colombian troops shot dead two guerrillas in an undated eight-hour battle in the southern Colombian department of the Cauca, El Correo reported on 20 September. One was Silvino Tapiero Castañeda - Aldemar - a 41-year-old junior commander and training officer thought to have spent  30 years with the FARC. The other - Robinson - was sought for his suspected role in a deadly bomb attack on the town of Villarrica in Cauca in February 2012.

Seven police officials killed around Mexico

Three security officials of the state of Tamaulipas were found dead in a car on 19 September in Nuevo Laredo by the US frontier, El Universal reported on 21 September. The three worked for the Tamaulipas Public Security Secretariat or police authority: they were its Police Strategy chief, the Armament officer and the head of Analysis, the state judiciary declared. On 20 September, three plainclothes policemen were shot dead outside a bank in Gómez Palacio, in the northern state of Durango, El Universal reported the next day. The policemen were gunned down from a convoy of three cars driving past; they were from the Estado de México, the state outside Mexico City. A municipal policeman was separately shot dead at an unspecified date in Atlahucan in the south-central sate of Morelos, the daily reported, citing declarations by the prosecutor-general's office. Also on 20 September three gunmen were killed in a shootout with police commandos in Piedras Negras by the US frontier, El Universal reported. Autorities were checking to ascertain if they were among 132 convicts who escaped from the Piedras Negras state prison on 17 September.

Mexico's president-elect, Venezuelan candidate in Bogotá

Henrique Capriles, the conservative candidate challenging President Hugo Chávez in Venezuela's October presidential elections was in Bogotá on 20 September, where he met in private with President Juan Manuel Santos, media reported. Santos told Capriles in a "cordial" 20-minute meeting that Colombia was neutral in Venezuela's 7 October elections and the two states must continue to cooperate whatever the election result, the broadcaster Caracol reported. Venezuela's Vice-President Elías Jaua Milano told Radio Caracol that day that Venezuela respected the Colombian president's "sovereign" decision to meet with political leaders of any country, Europa Press reported. On 19 September Santos met with Mexico's visiting president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto, who expressed support for Colombia's planned peace talks with FARC guerrillas and said Mexico and Colombia would cooperate in fighting organized crime, Europa Press reported. Peña Nieto said Colombia's "successful" security policies would become a "reference" for Mexico; Colombia had successfuly reduced crime rates he said, and his government would seek its "support and advice" in future "public security tasks."

Honduras Americas' most murderous state, data disputed

Homicide numbers soared in Honduras in 2011, making it the American country with most killings according to a mid-September report on security by the Organization of the American States (OAS), though Honduran officials said the murder rate was falling in 2012. The OAS, apparently citing figures from inside Honduras, counted 7,104 homicides in Honduras in 2011 or a rate of 91.1 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants (hti), La Tribuna reported on 17 September citing a report by the Associated Press. This was the highest rate since a rising trend began in 2004, the year the homicide rate was 31.9/hti. The OAS found lower murder rates in 2011 in other American states including: 69.2/hti in El Salvador, 41.2 in Jamaica, 49.3 in Venezuela (2009), 37.7 in Colombia (2010), 18.6 in Mexico, 3.7 in Chile and 4.6 in the United States. Available figures showed a near-doubling of the homicide rate in the seven Central American states in 2000-2010, from 26.6 to 43.3, while 12 South American states reduced their homicide rate that decade from 26.1 to 21.1. Honduran authorities believed violent crime was not as bad as suggested by the OAS and the situation improving, in spite of doubts about the reliability of figures. The Security Minister Pompeyo Bonilla said on 18 September that the homicide rate in 2012 was 80.8/hti, while admitting "transparency" was needed in police statistics, La Prensa reported. He said the public should have access to information on police management and statistics by zones. The dean of the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) Julieta Castellano cited 86.6/hti as the homicide rate for 2011 and said it could drop to about 81 for 2012 if present trends continued. The university-affiliated Observatorio de la Violencia gave a similar rate for 2011. Castellano admitted however that police were not freely providing the university with all the data it sought. "If police are the only ones managing the information it is not credible, I want them to understand that," La Prensa cited her as saying on 18 September. A reduction in homicides was also expressed in terms of frequency: in the first half of 2012 a homicide occurred every 78 minutes in Honduras, being less than every 74 minutes in 2011. Perhaps the reality of living in a crime-ridden country was expressed in readers' comments and reactions on La Prensa's website. Almost all - if not every single reader posting reactions to different reports - expressed distrust of official figures and public declarations and contempt for if not disgust with the country's rulers.

Colombian trafficker, guerrilla held in Venezuela

Daniel Barrera Barrera - El Loco or Crazy Barrera - apparently Colombia's most sought-after gangster, was arrested on 18 September while speaking in a phone booth in the city of San Cristóbal, south-western Venezuela, the broadcaster Univisión reported. Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos revealed the arrest, the result of a joint operation between the security and intelligence forces of Colombia, the United States, Venezuela and Great Britain. His suspected crimes included large-scale drug trafficking and collaboration with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), also thought to be involved in trafficking. He was believed to have sent "tonnes" of cocaine to the United States since he began working in the 1980s and was considered the last of Colombia's great traffickers. Santos said Barrera "has been harming Colombia and the world for more than 20 years, devoting himself to all manner of crimes and perverse alliances with paramilitaries and the FARC." The operation was reportedly coordinated from Washington DC by Colombia's police chief José Roberto León Riaño. On 19 September Venezuelan and Colombian agents arrested a suspected member of the FARC sought for his role in a failed bomb attack in Bogotá, EFE and media reported. Luis Freddy Rojas Rincón was injured in a shootout as Venezuelan police sought to arrest him in a hotel in Jesús María Semprún in the western department of Zulia. Rojas reportedly fled to Venezuela after failing in August 2012 to blow up a police building in Bogotá with a car bomb.

Colombian FARC chief envisages disarmament

The head of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Timochenko or Timoleón Jiménez, has said the FARC had "great expectations" on ending their decades-long conflict with the Colombian state in coming peace talks and understood this could mean "a veritable farewell to arms," EFE and media reported on 19 September, citing Timochenko's comments to a magazine. Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri - Timochenko - said in an interview with the weekly Voz that "it would not make sense to start a process leading to the definitive termination of the conflict without contemplating laying down arms as the final destination." Abandonment of arms, he said, entailed "the abolition of the use of force and inciting any type of violence to achieve political or economic goals. It is a veritable farewell to arms." The FARC's disarmament is one of the issues to be discussed between the FARC and Colombian negotiators in talks scheduled to start in Havana on 8 October. Timochenko said talks would be successful if unspecified "large majorities inclined toward a political solution" were allowed to talk and  "influence" the peace process in Colombia.

Police chief missing, several killed around Mexico

The police chief of the Pueblo Nuevo district in the north-central state of Durango was reported missing on 16 September - and may have been kidnapped - El Universal reported on 19 September, citing statements by the Durango judiciary. David Barrera González was a policeman for 15 years and the district's police chief for three months. His predecessor was shot dead in late May in the ciy of El Salto in Durango, as reported in newspapers. Around Mexico: a body was found on 17 or 18 September, wrapped in a cloth with a message from cartels in the central city of Zacatecas, the Zacatecas state prosecutor Arturo Nahle García stated. Four bodies were found at unspecified dates in four districts of the state of Morelos south of Mexico City, while four individuals were killed in Acapulco on Mexico's Pacific coast, and one in the northern city of Juárez, El Universal reported on 19 September.

Over 130 prisoners escape Mexican jail

One hundred and thirty two "federal" and local convicts broke out of the Piedras Negras prison in Castaños in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila on 17 September, though state authorities insisted none was "highly dangerous," the daily La Crónica de Hoy reported on 18 September. The prisoners reportedly drilled a hole into the prison's carpentry workshop. Guards were being investigated as the breakout occurred in the morning and the list of prisoners was read out as complete in the afternoon. The interior ministry announced it would send troops to help the state of Coahuila find the convicts, Notimex reported on 17 September. Four people were reported killed that evening in the town of Castaños as police heading toward the prison were fired on; the incident was thought related to the breakout though it was not clear who died in the shootout. Police reportedly arrested one of the convicts in Castaños that night.

Argentine "middle class" protest Kirchner policies

Thousands of Argentines protested in Buenos Aires and other cities on 13 September, banging metal pots and pans in the Latin American tradition, against crime rates and the leftist policies of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, media reported. Her officials dismissed the protests as confined to a wealthy minority and "addicts" of the country's right-wing dictatorship of the 1970s. Tens of thousands were thought to have protested at the invitation of Internet pages such as Twitter or Facebook, venting frustration with issues including foreign-exchange controls, insecurity and rumoured plans for constitutional reforms to allow Kirchner to serve a third presidential term from 2015, Reuters reported. There is a two-term limit set by the law, and Reuters observed the government had not so far declared any plan to reform the constitution. The reactions of the president's allies were almost contemptuous: Senator Aníbal Fernández of the Justicialist Party - the political home of several past presidents - said the protests were "put together by professionals" and "fake identities" on the Internet had convened protesters, the daily Clarín reported on 17 September. The head of the rights group Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Asociación Madres de la Plaza de Mayo) Hebe de Bonafini issued a communiqué published on 16 September in Tiempo Argentino denouncing the protesters as people who had "cheered" the military dictatorship and were "happy" to see it "kidnap and kill" its opponents;" they "are disgusting," her statement read. Bonafini told a radio station on 17 September that "the people are something else. The pots they were banging were not like the ones we have at home, made of aluminium, dented and charred," La Nación reported. The government's Cabinet Chief Juan Manuel Abal Medina said on 14 September that the government was not bothered by the protests. He told a television programme on 16 September that protesters were "sectors that do not tolerate egalitarian policies" or the government's "inclusive project" meant to benefit "40 million Argentines," La Nación reported. He said Argentina did not have "like elsewhere in the world a strong right-wing party to channel certain demands," for which reason its partisans formerly turned to "the barracks" - the army - and now use "the mass media."

Child killer lynched in Guatemalan town

An angry mob beat and burned to death a man who apparently killed two schoolchildren with a machete on 12 September, in the north-central Guatemalan town of Tactic, the Honduran daily La Prensa reported on 15 September. Witnesses said 35 or 40-year-old Julio Saquil entered a school and slit the troats of an eight-year-old girl and 13-year-old boy, before furious staff and locals seized and lynched him inside the school. Officials identified him as having a criminal record, Reuters reported on 13 September. Hours later, a mob publicly beat and almost lynched four individuals suspected of being thieves or accomplices of Saquil, though these were finally handed over to police, Guatemala's Siglo 21 reported on 14 September. The United Nations System in Guatemala deplored the killings on 14 September and urged the Guatemalan state to act against criminal violence, the Cuban website Prensa Latina reported. The website cited a local rights body Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo (GAM) as counting 4,899 homicides in Guatemala in the period January-31 August 2012, apparently six per cent less than the same period in 2011. GAM observed that the government of Otto Pérez Molina, elected in 2011, was faltering in its promised bid to significantly reduce crime. The government reportedly envisaged a 20 per cent reduction in crime in 2012 compared to 2011. Meanwhile 180 or more suspected criminals were lynched around Guatemala in 2011, Reuters reported. The education ministry closed the school in Tactic indefinitely, while staff and pupils were to receive counselling, Siglo 21 reported.

Policemen attacked in southern Colombia

A grenade attack on a police patrol injured three policemen and "totally destroyed" their car in southern Colombia, El Espectador reported on 16 September, citing police statements. The ambush in the district of La Hormiga in the department of Putumayo was perpetrated at an unspecified date by "heavily armed" individuals police suspected were of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Separately, authorities confiscated 12 tonnes of cocaine and marijuana around Colombia in raids and operations over three days, EFE reported on 16 September. Operations undertaken by the anti-narcotics police (DIRAN) also yielded 42 tonnes of "controlled chemical substances," presumably used as or to produce narcotics.

Mexico's future president to visit American states

Enrique Peña Nieto was to begin a tour of Latin American states on 17 September and scheduled to meet with Guatemala's President Otto Pérez Molina on his first stop, El Universal reported. Collaboration in fighting organized crime was to be a leading theme in his conversations, the daily stated. Peña Nieto was to travel to Colombia on 18 September, Brasil 19-20 September, Chile 20-21, Argentina 21-22 and conclude his trip in Peru on 24 September.

"Rapist" kidnapped, tortured and "crucified" in Mexico

A suspected rapist was forcibly taken from police custody and apparently tortured, castrated and murdered before being "crucified" on a roadside pole in the district of Contepec in Michoacán, western Mexico, the Notimex news agency reported on 7 September, citing the Prosecutor-General's office. A note nailed to his chest - apparently with a pick-axe - stated that "this happened to me for being a rapist" and warned the same would happen to "chatterers," presumably anyone informing on the incident, the review Proceso was cited as reporting. The 24-year-old victim had been charged with an armed rape attack on 3 September; he was reportedly kidnapped by armed men when police took him for a medical checkup and found dead on 7 September.

Sixteen bodies found in northern Mexico

Mexican soldiers found on 14 September nine bodies hanging from a bridge in Nuevo Laredo, a city bordering the United States, EFE reported that day. Some belonged to individuals earlier reported to have been kidnapped in a bar here. The same day troops found seven bodies by a road in the district of San Fernando in the north-eastern state of Tamaulipas, CNN reported. The bodies were of middle-aged men, with hands tied and gunshot wounds, the Tamaulipas prosecutor's office stated. Spain's El Pais reported on 16 September that authorities were increasingly attributing a recent splurge in violence in parts of Mexico - especially in August - to a rift within The Zetas, Mexico's most violent drug cartel. A suspected conflict had emerged between the established Zeta leader Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano and his former deputy Miguel Angel Treviño Morales - El Z-40 - cited in reports in late August as seeking Lazcano's overthrow.

Bribery charges stain Venezuelan campaign

A day after Venezuelan presidential candidate Henrique Capriles protested that supporters of President Hugo Chávez were trying to undermine the opposition with bribes ahead of October's elections, state television broadcast purported footage of an opposition politician taking bribes. A member of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) Julio Chávez accused the opposition on 13 September of breaking election laws and engaging in criminal conduct, and urged a parliamentary investigation of the incident, Europa Press reported. Pictures had shown Juan Carlos Caldera of the Mesa de la Unidad Democrática coalition led by Capriles accepting money for an unspecified "task" and apparently arranging a meeting between Capriles and an unidentified foreign financial backer. Capriles immediately expelled Caldera from his team, saying he had "marginalised" himself from the opposition's "project," Europa Press reported on 14 September. Caldera was also expelled from his party Primero de Justicia. Capriles told a press conference on 13 September that he would not give in to "blackmail" or "pressures from anyone," and promised honest government if elected. "I have been and will always be an open book. I am not here to defend the interests of any group," he said, adding that state "resources will be administered with complete transparency and efficiency" if he becomes president. Caldera separately admitted he had received money but said this was a trap tendered by Wilmer Ruperti, an oil magnate linked to President Chávez.

Colombian guerrillas name peace negotiators

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) named on 13 September their five main negotiators in peace talks with the Colombian state scheduled for October and intended to end decades of civil conflict in Colombia, the Associated Press reported, citing comments made in Habana by an unnamed FARC spokesman. The FARC's "plenipotentiary" negotiators were by their noms de guerre: Iván Márquez, Ricardo Téllez, Andrés París, Marco León Calarcá and Simón Trinidad. Five other envoys would attend talks without negotiating powers. Trinidad - or Ricardo Palmera - is serving a 60-year jail prison term in the United States for the kidnapping of three US citizens. Márquez or Luciano Marín Arango, took part in previous talks with the state and is a member of the FARC's six-member secretariat or politburo.

Colombian army kills guerrilla chieftain

Troops shot dead at an unspecified date in southern Colombia the deputy-head of Front Three of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), sought for his role in several deadly attacks on troops and police, Europa Press reported on 11 September, citing a defence ministry communiqué. Ramiro Guerrero Vargas, or Samuel, the Front's finance chief, was killed in a raid in the district of La Montañita in the Caquetá department. Troops also arrested a guerrilla dubbed Vladimir and freed a teenager or child who was handed over to child welfare officials. The ministry said 60 FARC guerrillas had been "neutralised" - killed or arrested - thus far in September.

Mexican political leader abandons leftist coalition

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico's combative leftist politician and runner-up in July's bitterly contested general elections announced on 9 September that he would "amicably" leave the left-wing coalition he led in July and turn the National Regeneration Movement he formed in 2006 into a formal political party, El Universal reported on 10 September. López Obrador told supporters gathered in the capital's historic square the Zócalo that this was no split and he was leaving "in peace." He thanked members of his former party the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) for their work and the trust given him, and observed he had given the PRD "his best" for 23 years. But he said it was "his task in this new stage in my life" to devote "all my imagination and work to the cause of Mexico's transformation." He insisted he would not recognize the court ruling confirming Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party as winner of the elections and Mexico's next president. The Progressive Coalition or Movement that backed López Obrador's presidential candidacy consisted of the PRD, the Labour Party (Partido del Trabajo, PT) and the Citizens Movement (Movimiento Ciudadano, MC). López Obrador formed the Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional (Morena) after the 2006 elections, which he narrowly lost to the conservative Felipe Calderón. He said it would be henceforth the base of his political activities. Attending the gathering were allied politicians including heads of the PT and MC, Alberto Anaya Gutiérrez and Luis Walton Aburto, but not Mexico City's PRD mayor Marcelo Ebrard. The new formation was to hold a national congress on 19-20 November.

Murders spoil "farse" ceasefire of Salvadorean gangs

The discovery outside San Salvador of the bodies of five students likely murdered by gangsters last June has belied the ceasefire declared last March by El Salvador's two main gangs the Maras, though many insist it reduced murders in 2012, the Associated Press reported on 9 September. The students were reported missing on 21 June and found dead in July in Santa Tecla, a district west of the capital; authorities attributed the massacre to the Mara Salvatrucha and believe the teenagers were murdered for refusing to join them. Officials and observers were now divided over whether or not the ceasefire had effectively reduced crime in El Salvador. AP cited the justice ministry as declaring that murders dropped 34 per cent in January-August 2012 compared to the same period in 2011, from 2,874 to 1,894. The state coroner (Instituto de Medicina Legal) reportedly registered a 31-per-cent drop in murders in this period - from 2,839 to 1,949. But the figures were apparently not flawless: The ministry declared its figures to be based on "cases investigated" while the coroner used reported disappearances. The latter cautioned however that it was not authorised to investigate such reports while Justice Minister David Munguía Payés observed to AP that people often failed to retract complaints when disappeared individuals returned. Certain experts expressed skepticism: Carlos Ponce, a criminologist working with the prosecutor-general's office, told AP he thought the gangs were continuing their activities and "continuing to kill" - perhaps with greater discretion - and said he suspected "manipulation" of Munguía's figures. Another observer, Max Manwaring of the US War University in Pennsylvania, qualified the ceasefire as a "farse" and said it was difficult to count murders when officials could not investigate crimes in parts of El Salvador controlled by the gangs. The former guerrilla fighter and current ceasefire mediator Rául Mijango attributed the killings to unidentified vigilantes who he said were trying to ruin the ceasefire between the Maras by killing Maras. AP's field inquiries and conversations with members of the public suggested that the intimidating authority of the Maras over localities had not diminished. The agency gave the first names of the students believed murdered by the Maras last June, as authorised by police: 15-year-old Kevin Alexis, 16-year-old Jonathan Alexander, 16-year-old José Roberto, and Fernando Alexander and Jonathan B. both aged 18.

Colombia and guerrillas confirm peace talks

The Colombian state and the communist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) confirmed on 4 September that a "road map" - a General Agreement for the Termination of the Conflict - had been signed for future talks, which many hope would end decades of guerrilla conflict in Colombia. President Juan Manuel Santos said in Bogotá on 4 September that the state would negotiate without repeating the "mistakes" of the past, meaning there would be no demilitarized zones in Colombia as the FARC demanded in previous talks in 2002 and talks would be "without interruptions or intermediaries," CNN reported on 4 September. He said these would broadly be in three phases: an exploratory phase, direct talks, and the implementation of agreements reached, but could not go on indefinitely. The parties were expected to discuss issues including rural development, the disarmament and social reintegration of former guerrillas, an end to drug trafficking by the FARC and compensation for victims of violence, CNN reported. Santos received the immediate support of the last president who sought to negotiate peace, Andrés Pastrana Arango. Pastrana told Colombia's Caracol radio he hoped the FARC would "do as they say," CNN reported. But Colombia's last president, the conservative Álvaro Uribe Vélez deplored that talks could happen before "the criminial activities of terrorism" had ended, Europa Press reported on 5 September. Uribe told Caracol television on 4 September that any legislation to allow FARC members to one day run for parliamentary office was a "slap in the face of democracy." He said the FARC whom he qualified as a drug cartel, would "murder Colombians as they keep talking."

Former Colombian "drug queen," guerrilla reported killed

Griselda Blanco, a former "Queen of Cocaine" and considered a pioneer of drug trafficking in the 1970s was shot dead on 3 September in Medellín, north-western Colombia, EFE agency reported. Blanco - a chubby 69-year-old also dubbed "Potato" or the "Godmother" - was shot several times in the head by an assassin riding a motorbike, as she left a butcher's shop. Biographical sources cited by EFE credited her with the "idea of exporting cocaine" to the United States. In 1985 she was convicted of drug trafficking in the United States and jailed to 2004 when she was deported to Colombia. Reputedly very rich, she led a clandestine life in recent years. Separately a Colombian NGO claimed that the communist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) may have executed in January 2012 one of their commanders and brother of the FARC military chief killed in an army raid in 2010, EFE reported on 3 September. Noé Suárez Rojas, brother of Víctor Julio Suárez Rojas - El Mono Jojoy - was apparently killed for several reasons including his incompetence in battle that provoked a FARC defeat at the hands of leftist ELN guerrillas in 2006 in the eastern Arauca region, according to the NGO Arcoiris, which reports on Colombian politics. Suárez also failed to obey several orders from the FARC's top command in the 2006-12 period. He was sought by the United States for his suspected role in crimes including drug trafficking and the kidnapping and murder of three US citizens in 1999. Suárez's execution was not confirmed by military sources. Mono Jojoy, commander of the FARC's Eastern Bloc and member of its secretariat, was killed by the army in 2010.

Court ratifies Mexico's general elections

Mexico's supreme electoral court the TEPJF formally ratified on 31 August the results of the 1 July general elections and declared Enrique Peña Nieto to be the next president, due to take office on 1 December, the Associated Press and media reported. The court's seven members were unanimous; a day before they had rejected leftist politicians' demands that the court cancel the polls for alleged fraud. The court declared that Peña Nieto of the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) won 19,158,592 or 38.2 per cent of all votes cast, Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the leftist Progress Coalition 15,848,827 or 31.6 per cent of votes and the conservative candidate Josefina Vázquez Mota of the National Action Party (PAN), 12,731,630 votes. The PRI president Pedro Joaquín Coldwell said that day that the decision "fully accredited" the PRI's victory, which has been challenged by López Obrador's Democratic Revolutionary Party, the PAN and certain civil groups. Joaquín Colwell urged López Obrador to respect the decision and Mexico's "institutions." Enrique Peña Nieto declared at the TEPJF's offices in Mexico City that the decision opened a new period of "work with shared responsibility." He said he was aware of "national needs and urgencies" and would lead a "modern and responsible" government "open to criticism," EFE reported on 31 August. He promised to honour campaign promises and meet Mexicans' expectations with "deeds, works and actions."