Colombian guerrilla chiefs reported killed

Venezuelan authorities reported the death at an unspecified date of a member of Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN), a man dubbed The Butcher - El Carnicero - possibly in fighting between ELN guerrillas over a missing drug shipment, the Colombian broadcaster Caracol reported on 27 March. The guerrilla, Hermes Contreras Sánchez, was reportedly killed in the state of Zulia near Colombia. He was sought by Interpol on a range of charges relating to drug trafficking, insurrection and terrorism; Colombian authorities linked him to attacks on civilian targets and infrastructures in the Norte de Santander department. Troops killed two other members of the ELN including a captain dubbed Homero or Omar, in undated fighting in the district of la Sierra in the south-western Cauca department, El Espectador reported on 29 March. Another guerrilla captain confirmed as dead was a fighter of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) dubbed Arturo Rojas, killed in fighting in December 2012 but found only recently. Arturo Rojas was identified as a deputy-head of Front 63 of the FARC, and thought responsible for shooting dead four police and military hostages held by the FARC in November 2011, El Espectador reported on 28 March. Separately FARC negotiators issued a communiqué in Cuba, where talks are being held with the government, dismissing as "naive" the idea that the FARC would abandon arms without reforms to the Colombian polity. Colombia's chief negotiator stressed on one occasion at least in 2012 that peace talks were unrelated to the FARC's political and economic agenda. The FARC communiqué stated it was "not at all realistic" to suppose there would be a "stable peace" in Colombia without changes to the "economic model," Caracol reported on 27 March. The communiqué also indicated the FARC's reluctance to accept terms for ending the conflict that included imprisonment for FARC members involved in such activities as kidnapping, drug trafficking and extortion. Was it "naiveté or cynicism - perhaps both," the text asked, when "they tell us, an unconditional rendition of guerrillas, handover of arms, submission to [state] policies, all in exchange for two or three posts in Congress," or temporary positions for guerrilla chieftains as a "Work or Health minister...even a few years in jail for the insurgency's main leaders." Nevertheless the FARC expressed satisfaction at progress made so far in talks, in the same or another communiqué issued in Havana, Caracol reported on 26 March.

In days, 50 killed, found dead around Mexico

"At least" 18 were reported killed or found dead in presumed criminal incidents around Mexico on 24-25 March, these including five killed in a shootout between police and criminals in the north-western state of Sinaloa and an official of the state judiciary of Oaxaca, shot dead on 25 March as she emerged from a car. Victims also included three thought executed a month before, whose decomposing bodies were found on 25 March buried south of Chilpancingo in the western state of Guerrero, Proceso reported. On 22 March gunmen shot dead seven people including two Federal policemen in an eatery in Ciudad Altamirano in the western state of Guerrero, Proceso reported. The review observed that the targets of the attack may have been soldiers in civilian clothes eating in the restaurant that day, though reports did not clarify if any were among reported fatalities or the six injured of whom three were Federal policemen. The bodies of seven executed men were found on 23 March in Uruapan in the western of state of Michoacán. They were sitting in a row of plastic chairs placed at a crossroads, blindfolded and with hands tied, and later identified as window cleaners and farm workers, Milenio reported on 25 March. A deputy-governor of Michoacán asked media not to "magnify" what he termed an "isolated" incident related to drug trafficking, Proceso reported. Jesús Reyna García was cited as saying that while the state cannot assure the security of all Mexicans, people would not think ill of Michoacán - one of its more crime-ridden states - if the media did not highlight the incident, Proceso reported. Federal policemen killed five suspected gangsters in a shootout on 23 March in the district of Huatusco in Veracruz, responding to gunfire it was said, Proceso reported. In the south-central district of Xochitepec south of Cuernavaca, gunmen shot dead four men and a 15-year-old girl by a street stand. One of the victims was said to have run into a nearby building, but was followed and shot there, Proceso reported. The mayor of San Juan Mixtepec in Oaxaca and his bodyguard were gunned down while driving near that district early on 24 March, Proceso reported. Authorities' immediate "line of investigations" was not stated but Proceso observed the district had a recent history of land disputes with neighbouring Santo Domingo Yosoñama, which in one case led some 200 gunmen said to be from Santo Domingo, to have launched an assault on San Juan in January 2013. Other, isolated killings were reported around Mexico through 22-25 March, taking crime's presumed death toll to at least 50.

Armed residents warn will shoot criminals in Tabasco

The self-styled United People Against Crime (Pueblo Unido Contra la Delincuencia), one of several "self-defence" militias people have formed around Mexico to confront crime, reportedly claimed responsibility for shooting dead five suspected drug dealers on 21 March, and vowed to continue to "cleanse" districts in the east-coast state of Tabasco of street dealers, kidnappers and rapists. The group issued written warnings to the "poisoners of society" on large sheets hung in public - a practice favoured by drug cartels - in the districts of Villahermosa and Cárdenas, specifying it would continue to execute suspects if drug dealing continued on the streets and police allegedly continued to back the Zetas, one of Mexico's most violent cartels, Proceso reported. "We are not playing with you," one of the sheets reportedly read, "this beautiful state belongs to the people and is for the people not for criminals and corrupt policemen who work in league with this scum." According to Proceso, the chief prosecutor of Tabasco Fernando Valenzuela recognized the group's existence in Tabasco on 20 February. In a separate incident on 23 March locals in the district of Texcoco outside the capital almost lynched a suspected thief and fought police trying to free him, damaging a police car, La Crónica de Hoy reported. Residents of the locality of Tequesquinahuac gave the 20-year-old suspect a beating before police could take him away.

Mexican leader sees results of anti-crime strategy in a year

Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto said in Rome on 20 March that a year was needed before Mexicans could see the incipient results of his government's anti-crime strategy, even as reports indicated crime-related deaths remained high since he took over in December 2012. A "balance" could be made in a year, he said speaking at the Mexican embassy, and "favourable results, a palpable reduction" in violence and murders expected, though he added this did not mean an end to violence that has killed some 70,000 since 2006, when the previous government began to wage war on drug cartels. Peña Nieto said his government's security plan included the entire national territory while considering its regional variations, Europa Press reported, citing the Mexican daily El Universal. The Peña government's anti-crime plan includes dividing Mexico into five security regions, and consultations between state governors and the armed forces, currently involved in fighting crime, El Universal has reported. A recent Mexican interior ministry report indicated that average monthly deaths from criminal incidents were equivalent to those of 2009, three years into the war begun by the then president, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, Proceso reported on 14 March. Calderón was much criticized for "militarizing" law enforcement and often blamed for the thousands of deaths his government's policy was said to have provoked directly and indirectly. Yet the interior ministry recently reported that the average monthly homicides rate in the first three months of the Peña government stood at 1,052, compared to 879 for the first year of the Calderón presidency. It was not immediately clear if the comparison was with a similar three-month period or a year. A ministry report issued on 8 March counted 3,157 victims of homicides from December 2012 to, presumably, the end of February 2013. As reports indicate murder rates differ across the country, and violence shifts from one zone to another in response to policing. The Public Security chief for the south-western state of Oaxaca declared on 20 March for example that reported homicides in Oaxaca fell 29 per cent from March 2012 to March 2013, and kidnappings 30 per cent. Marco Tulio López Escamilla said Oaxaca had become one of the country's safer states, in spite of sitting between two particularly crime-ridden states, Guerrero and Veracruz, Milenio reported. Likewise the head of the US Northern Command, General Charles Jacoby, was reported as telling the House Armed Services Committee that drug violence had fallen in northern Mexico and shifted toward the country's interior states, Proceso reported on 20 March.

Fifty or more reported killed, dead around Mexico

The review Proceso counted 30 presumed victims of crime around Mexico for 14 March, including seven gunned down in an eatery in the Caribbean resort of Cancún and 10 that included gunmen killed or found dead in incidents in the north-western state of Sinaloa. The victims of the day included: four gunmen killed by troops in a shootout in the district of Sinaloa de Leyva in Sinaloa, a body found floating in a canal in Navolato in Sinaloa, a body found half-buried in coastal Mazatlán in Sinaloa, and seven shot dead in an eatery in Cancún. These included three trade unionists representing taxi drivers who appeared to be the targets of a gun attack that killed four other customers, Proceso reported. On 15 March police killed two gunmen who opened fire on a patrol on a road between Tala and San Isidro Mazatepec in the western state of Jalisco, while a body was found in Estado de México and three were found dead or killed in shootouts in the north-eastern state of Tamaulipas, Excelsior reported on 16 March. These were among 19 Proceso counted as victims of crime from late 14 through 15 March. Others were: two found shot in the head in the north-eastern city of Ciudad Victoria, with hands and feet tied and a message by them from the Zetas cartel to the rival Gulf Cartel, three suspects killed in a shootout with police in the east-coast city of Veracruz and a woman shot and killed while travelling on one of the Mexican capital's main roads, the Circuito Interior. Gunmen on a motorbike stopped her car in an apparent ambush or robbery, shortly after she and the car's driver withdrew money from a cash dispenser; the driver was injured in the shooting, Proceso reported. The 19 apparently did not include a suspected gangster shot dead by troops in the western state of Michoacán early on 15 March. The victim, identified as Dionisio Loya Plancarte, a presumed senior member of the cartel Caballeros Templarios, was one of five or more thought killed in a shootout between gunmen and the army in the district of Apatzingán. Authorities had yet to confirm the number and identities of the dead; one or more soldiers may have died, Proceso reported.

Property prices rise in Colombia, "no bubble" yet

Property prices rose 11 per cent in Colombia's main cities in 2012 a sector representative said on 14 March, though he rejected warnings given intermittently including by the Central Bank, that prices were starting to balloon. The head of the real estate sector association Fedelonjas, César Augusto Llano, was reported as saying that day that property prices rose in part for an "outbreak of speculation" but also for dearth of building land in places like Bogotá. While cities like Cali and Medellín witnessed price rises below the national average - eight and nine per cent respectively - prices rose 19 per cent in the northern coastal city of Bucaramanga and 12 per cent in Bogotá, RCN La Radio cited him as saying. Prices were described as having risen "like palm trees" in the port of Cartagena de Indias, a World Heritage Site on Colombia's Caribbean coast. RCN cited a local estate agent Rosario Hernández as saying that prices in Cartagena's historical quarter of Cartagena hovered around 10-12 million Colombian pesos per square metre, or roughly 4,200-5,000 euros depending on sectors. Llano separately told RCN radio on 15 March that Cartagena was now "at an international level" in terms of prices and foreign pensioners were among buyers. He observed a "vertiginous" rise in prices in the most expensive parts of the capital Bogotá, where he said certain "projects" were being offered at "historic" prices of some 14 million pesos or a little under 6,000 euros per square metre. This he attributed to "high liquidity, affluence of resources and insufficient land." But he denied a day earlier that a real-estate bubble was taking shape in Colombia. He said indicators showed "stable behaviour" in the macro-economy and "we do not have excess offer, we do not have have very high credit levels and mortgage credit maintains an ordinary growth," Cali's El País reported.

Venezuelan President fears "plot" against rival

Venezuela's Acting President Nicolás Maduro said on 13 March that the state would assure the security of his electoral rival Henrique Capriles Radonsky ahead of 14 April presidential elections, against unspecified plots being hatched against him by the "extreme Right" or the "Roger Noriega and Otto Reich group in the United States," the government news agency AVN reported. Noriega and Reich are conservative diplomats and were Assistant secretaries of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs between 2002 and 2005, under President George W. Bush. He said "we want him to have all his absolute guarantee and we alert our people and...the world about conspiracies...against the peace and stability" of Venezuela. Maduro said police and security services had been given pertinent instructions, but was not reported to have elaborated about the alleged plot. On 11 March the United States expelled two Venezuelan diplomats, apparently in retaliation for the expulsion on 5 March of two US military attachés from Caracas accused of "engaging in destabilizing manoeuvres" against the regime, Globovisión reported on 12 March. The two states do not have ambassadors with each other. The opposition candidate Capriles in turn apologized on a radio programme on 14 March for any earlier comments he said may have been misinterpreted and offended relatives of the late president Hugo Chávez. He insisted however that "Nicolás has been campaigning since President Hugo Chávez went for treatment." Capriles has repeatedly urged the government not to seek political capital in Venezuelans' grief. He said that meanwhile Venezuelans' problems had "taken a back seat," and urged Maduro to debate about "insecurity, the economy, electricity, water, jobs, transport, health. About problems," El Nacional reported. Maduro he said was "Raul Castro's candidate," and wondered aloud if Venezuelans wanted their resources sent to Cuba, El Universal reported. Cuba has been a recipient of aid from Venezuela under Chávez. Capriles said that Venezuela was being governed by elements Chávez had deemed "incompetent," adding "we have had 100 days of Nicolas's government and look where our country is going."

Mexican troops detain armed locals, held in turn

Mexican troops detained on 10 or 11 March 17 men armed with rifles in the western state of Michoacán who appeared to be members of a local self-defence group, one of several that have emerged around Mexico to fight crime. The men may have been of the "community police" of the locality of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, also called La Ruana, and were detained on the road between the nearby districts of Buenavista and Tecalcatepec, Proceso reported. Troops also confiscated their cars, described as quite new. The detainees were to be investigated by the Michoacán Public Ministry or state prosecution service. This and a previous arrest of dozens of locals may have led angry residents of Buenavista to retain a group of soldiers, perhaps 47, for several hours on 12 March. La Crónica de Hoy reported that locals were demanding the release of 51 residents of La Ruana held and suspected of having ties to crime; footage shown on Milenio television showed the locals heckling the troops who remained calm. The Mexican interior ministry announced in a communiqué that day that the defence ministry, Buenavista municipality and the state of Michoacán had agreed to resolve the problems of the arrests and of insecurity in the area, including by boosting military patrols. Separately, a spokesman for the south-central state of Morelos "categorically" rejected on 12 March the incipient formation of a self-defence group in the locality of Temoac in Morelos. The state's Government Secretary Jorge Messeguer Guillén said there was no "risk" such militias would be formed and "the state government will never allow, we say this quite emphatically, never allow armed, community-type police forces to be established in Morelos, with powers the law does not give them," Excelsior reported. Reportedly residents began on 8 March to guard entry points to Temoac, search cars and patrol the streets at night. Excelsior observed that kidnappings had become frequent in this part of the state in the last 20 years. The locals might have misinterpreted an agreement Messeguer said was signed between the Temoac municipality and state authorities whereby residents would assist police with information and patrol their village unarmed.

Dozens reported killed around Mexico

The webpage Valor por Tamaulipas, run by anonymous users and which monitors violent crime in Mexico's north-eastern Tamaulipas state, claimed that 50 people - most of whom may have been gangsters - were killed in gun battles between "armed civilians" in the city of Reynosa on 10 March and later. With these, some 60 were reported to have died in presumed criminal incidents or were found dead around Mexico on 10-12 March. Valor por Tamaulipas rejected the authorities' count of two deaths in the shootout and observed they omitted to count "dozens" of bodies thrown into one or more ditches in the district, Proceso reported on 12 March. The review reported continuing "movements" by armed groups that day. The shootout was attributed to rivalry between factions of the Gulf Cartel in Reynosa. Authorities separately found on 12 March seven bodies - of possible victims of drug cartels - left in clandestine graves in the northern and north-western states of Chihuahua and Sonora, Proceso reported. A spokesman for the Chihuahua state prosecutor's office said police believe the four found buried outside the district of  Rosales in Chihuahua may have been killed by gunmen linked to the Sinaloa Cartel headed by Joaquín Guzmán Loera. He said more bodies may be found. The grave was located after police questioned 11 suspected drug dealers and gunmen, detained in the state at an unspecified date. On 10 March the army arrested four police officers and a traffic policeman of Rosales, these being suspected of having ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, Proceso reported. Also, the police chief of the district of Tarímbaro in the western state of Michoacán was kidnapped on 10 or 11 March, then beaten and shot to death; his body was found elsewhere in Michoacán, Proceso cited the mayor of Tarímbaro as saying. Four people were in turn shot dead in the western resort of Acapulco on 11 March: three in a parked minibus, and another in an Internet café he owned, Proceso reported.

Colombian troops kill, detain FARC guerrillas

The army shot dead two and detained six presumed fighters of Front 33 of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on 11 March, in operations in the district of Convención the Norte de Santander department, north-eastern Colombia, the broadcaster Caracol reported. The two were suspected of having left an unspecified number of car bombs in several localities in that department in preceding days, Caracol reported, citing army declarations. The army shot dead at an unspecified date two other suspected guerrillas in the countryside of the district of Caucasia in the northern Antioquia department, Caracol reported on 11 March. It cited these as among the 10 presumed guerrillas killed by the army in Antioquia since it began its Sword of Honour (Espada de Honor) operations in December 2012. The Defence Ministry reported on 11 March the detention at an unspecified date of a suspected member of the FARC's Southern Block and another fighter's voluntary surrender, both in southern Colombia. The guerrilla who surrendered was identified by his nom de guerre, Pedro, and described as a member of the FARC's Eastern Block; he surrendered to soldiers in the town of San Vicente in the department of Caquetá. The detainee was a suspected member of the FARC's "support networks" in southern Colombia; he was caught in a rural part of the Puerto Caicedo district in Putumayo. In the district of Florencia in Caquetá, troops disposed of a roadside bomb thought placed by the FARC in the locality of Venecia, and separately arrested a man driving with 21 kilograms of unprocessed cocaine paste, in the locality of Santo Domingo in Florencia, the Ministry reported on 11 March.

Venezuela to elect president in April

Venezuelan authorities set 14 April as the date for the country's presidential elections, wherein the socialist Acting President Nicolás Maduro Moros will compete with Henrique Capriles Radonsky a state governor who will represent MUD, the Democratic Unity Table of conservative and liberal parties. Capriles ran for the presidency once and lost to Hugo Chávez in elections on 7 Octobre 2012; he said on 10 April that he realised many viewed his second candidacy as akin to being taken "to the slaughterhouse." But he vowed to "fight for every vote," telling Maduro "I won't leave the way open for you, you are going to have to defeat me with votes...I am going to fight for this country because I carry it in my heart," the broadcaster Globovisión reported. He observed "Maduro is not Chávez" and the late president's "entourage," which he stated many had blamed for "poor results" during the Chávez presidencies, "is the one that wants to govern now. It is that entourage that wants to take power with much fear, and abusing power." Maduro replied the same day, observing at a gathering of Venezuelan Communists that he did not claim to be Chávez but was "a son of Chávez," Venezuelan state television reported. He accused Capriles of throwing a "poisoned dart" at state institutions and the late president with his comments, motivated by "hate," El Universal reported. Capriles said in his press conference that Maduro and his clique "coldly calculated" an election schedule while Chávez was ill - or perhaps even dead - while maintaining Venezuelans ignorant of his state in the weeks following his December surgery in Cuba; Chávez he alleged never signed decrees from his bed as claimed. Capriles said "it is no secret for anyone" that Maduro was in rivalry with the parliamentary Speaker Diosdado Cabello who opponents have said should, constitutionally speaking, have become Acting President.

Colombian guerrillas free two hostages

Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN) freed on 8 March two Germans it had held hostages since November, and was reported to have stated its inclination to free a Canadian mining employee kidnapped in January. The ELN kidnapped the German brothers on 3 November in the north-eastern district of Teorama, though it only confirmed this on 4 February, speculating in a communiqué that they might have been spies as there was no convincing explanation for their presence where they were found. The two were held "in the mountains of Catatumbo" in the Norte de Santander department where they were kidnapped, and were to be flown back to Europe on 9 March, El Tiempo reported. The Canadian hostage Jernoc Wobert was kidnapped in the northern district of Norosí on 18 January alongside five other contractors or employees of the firm Geo Explorer; the five were handed over to Red Cross representatives on 12 February, El Tiempo reported.

Venezuela swears in acting leader, elections called

After heads of state paid their respects on 8 March to Venezuela's late President Hugo Chávez, his designated successor and former vice-president Nicolás Maduro Moros took the oath as Acting President and immediately instructed election authorities to call general elections as the constitution demands, to allow Venezuelans to "know democratically who their President will be." He resigned as vice-president as laws required, and appointed the Science and Technology Minister Jorge Arreaza, son-in-law of the late president, as Executive Vice-President. Maduro asked the National Electoral Council (CNE) to implement "corresponding evaluations" before setting a date for general elections, and urged the opposition to present its candidates, Venezuela's state news agency AVN reported. The opposition politician and governor of the state of Miranda Henrique Capriles Radonsky had earlier objected to Maduro becoming a candidate while remaining Executive Vice-President, calling this an abuse of authority; he observed at a press conference on 8 March that the people would give their opinion at the polls on "how they have used the death of President Hugo Chávez for electoral and propaganda purposes," El Universal reported. An unspecified number of people were heard to have started banging pots and pans - this being one of the forms in which Latin Americans like to protest - on balconies in Caracas, in an apparent and anticipated objection to Maduro's inauguration as Acting President, Spain's ABC reported. Earlier that day some 30 heads of state gathered to pay their respects to the late president, at a ceremony in the Military Academy in Caracas where Chávez's body was on display in a glass casket. The dignitaries included the presidents of Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Cuba, as well as prominent friends and admirers like the former Colombian senator Pilar Córdoba, who wept before the coffin and was comforted by Maduro and the late president's daughter. She has intermittently played the role of an intermediary between Venezuela, Colombia and FARC guerrillas, facilitating the release of certain hostages in Colombia.

Venezuelans comment interim presidency's legality

Constitutional lawyers and opposition politicians pointed out on 7 March that Venezuela's acting president Nicolás Maduro Moros, who many expect will seek election as successor to Hugo Chávez, could not legally and simultaneously be acting president, Vice-President and presidential candidate. Elections were expected within a month but a jurist told the broadcaster Globovisión on 7 March that these may be postponed by days or weeks. Juan Manuel Rafalli told Globovisión that to run for the presidency Maduro would either have to appoint a vice-president or the Supreme Court would have to make a pertinent ruling. It was perhaps unlikely that the court, which had stated nothing so far, would make an obstructive ruling. Certain opposition politicians observed earlier that the parliamentary speaker should legally have taken over the interim presidency with the President's "absolute" absence, and parliament should have convened an extraordinary session. On this the jurist Gerardo Blyde told the daily El Nacional that Article 33 of the constitution permitted the Executive Vice-President to "take charge" of the presidency if the President was no longer in office, interpreting this as distinct from "becoming president," Europa Press reported. He said this meant he remained Vice-President while exercising presidential duties and that pursuant to the Constitution's Article 229 could not also be a candidate. The opposition Table of Democratic Unity (Mesa de Unidad Democrática, MUD) observed separately that election laws prevented Maduro from running for the presidency as an acting rather than an elected president. That law they stated required public servants running for an elected office to resign their positions from the first day of the campaign, Europa Press reported. A member of the MUD secretariat Ramón José Medina said in turn that the opposition agreed elections could be held 45 or 60 days after the presidential demise rather than 30, given conditions, Globovisión and EFE reported on 7 March. Three names Medina cited as possible presidential aspirants for the MUD coalition were Henrique Capriles Radonsky, the candidate who failed to win the presidency in October 2012, the mayor of Caracas Antonio Ledezma and the legislator María Corina Machado.

Election body confirms Correa's victory in Ecuador polls

Ecuador's electoral authority the CNE confirmed that the sitting President Rafael Correa Delgado was re-elected in general elections held on 17 February, winning 57.1 per cent of all votes cast with all votes counted, Agence France-Presse reported on 4 March. Correa won a little more than 4.9 million of just over 9.467 million votes cast, and his runner-up the banker Guillermo Lasso won a few more than 1.9 million, or 22.7 per cent of votes. The third and fourth candidates in terms of votes were the former president Lucio Gutiérrez with 6.7 per cent of votes and the conservative Mauricio Rodas with 3.9 per cent, the CNE (Consejo Nacional Electoral) indicated on 6 March. Correa would begin new mandate on 24 May. The President's political group, Alianza PAÍS appeared to have won just over 52.3 per cent of votes cast for National Assembly lists according to the CNE's count on 6 March, followed by the Movimiento CREO, the party of Guillermo Lasso and described as liberal, which won 11.42 per cent of votes. The council did not immediately specify what this signified in terms of seats, but PAÍS was expected to win an absolute majority or about 100 of 137 legislative seats, the daily El Ciudadano reported on 6 March.

Venezuela mourns its president

Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez Frías died on 5 March, succumbing to a recurring, aggressive cancer he had fought with resilience and the help of a panoply of often painful treatments including surgeries. He was effectively  hidden from the public following his last surgery in December 2012, confined to hospital beds in Havana then Caracas, while officials urged Venezuelans to pray for the President's recovery. His death was announced by the Executive Vice-President Nicolás Maduro Moros who observed - visibly distressed - that Chávez "put up a hard fight" against cancer for two years. Authorities declared seven days of mourning in Venezuela, while "thousands" came onto the streets in a public display of grief, Europa Press reported. On 6 March his body was taken from hospital to the Military Academy in Caracas where a state ceremony was scheduled for 8 March, attended by heads of state. The presidents of Bolivia, Argentina and Uruguay were already in Caracas that day, La Nación reported, while Argentina, Cuba and Chile declared three days of mourning and Bolivia, a week, EFE reported. Latin American leaders promptly expressed sympathy and sadness, perhaps with greater sincerity than elsewhere given the personal relations Chávez forged with many regional politicians and for having become a familiar figure of television and radio across the Hispanic world. Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff said a "great Latin American" had died and one who had been "very generous with all those who needed him on this continent," Europa Press reported on 5 March. El Salvador's President Mauricio Funes described Chávez in a message as "one of the strongest and most popular Latin American leaders" who "changed the...inequality and exclusion" Venezuelans had "suffered before he took power" in 1998, Venezuela's state news agency reported. Vice-President Maduro was expected to become Venezuela's acting leader and elections were to be called within 30 days, Argentina's La Nación reported on 6 March.

FARC rebels killed, held in Colombia

The Colombian Defence Minister said on 3 March that the army had "neutralised" - killed or detained - in "preceding hours" 21 presumed fighters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), including eight children or teenagers who were taken from the FARC. Juan Carlos Pinzón Bueno said that in operations against Front 37 of the FARC and a smaller unit in the district of El Bagre in the northern department of Antioquia, troops killed one fighter and arrested three including a guerrilla dubbed Deisy, the niece of a member of the FARC Secretariat, the ministry website reported. Eight minors of unspecified age were among the demobilized - and they may be taken into state care in keeping with precedent - while three other guerrillas were in turn "demobilized" or surrendered. He said that troops separately killed two FARC members and injured two, and two others surrendered, in operations against fronts 48 and 58 of the FARC in the northern department of Antioquia and southern department of Putumayo. Police separately detained at unspecified dates two guerrillas presumed involved in the kidnappings and detentions in past years of policemen, soldiers and politicians. In Soacha west of Bogotá, police caught a man identified as Diego Navarrete Beltrán - Sebastián or LJ - a guerrilla said involved in the capture and detention of hostages that included the former politician Ingrid Betancourt Pulecio in 2003-2008, RCN La Radio reported on 5 March. Police caught another suspected guerrilla in Villavicencio south-east of Bogotá, a man dubbed Elkin, identified as one of the "guards" for captured policemen and soldiers in 2001-4. The authorities separately attributed to the FARC two purported bomb attacks early on 5 March in the naval district of Tumaco in the south-western department of Nariño, which damaged structures but injured nobody. The Defence Minister denounced them as indiscriminate acts of terrorism "intended to hurt the civilian population," El Tiempo reported. One of the bombs was placed by a naval base. FARC and government representatives in Havana were cited as claiming progress on 1 March in their process of talks, initiated in autumn 2012 and intended to end decades of conflict in Colombia. Talks had so far focused on rural land use and access, the broadcaster Caracol reported.

Mexican party amends statutes to help government

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto was the guest of honour at the 21st Ordinary National Assembly of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which approved a reformist agenda intended to assure the PRI's closer cooperation with government's liberalizing agenda. This included removal from party statutes of prohibitions on debating the imposition of VAT on foods and medicines, a move opposed by the Left in Mexico Alongside accepting the principle of private investment in the state-sector oil firm Pemex, these were among the "binding" items removed from the party's "basic documents," which indicated the party's eager support for its own government. The PRI senator Cristina Díaz Salazar said the changes sought to "accompany" Peña Nieto's policies, CNN reported. During and after the 2012 general elections PRI members were intermittently cited as saying that the PRI party and government would remain distinct; yet this is not a party known for dissentions and internal disputes. It contrasts in that sense with the Leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), whose members split from the PRI in the 1980s and which recently split again with the departure of its former leader. The PRI assembly approved an Action Programme (Programa de Acción) that included reducing its National Political Council from 1,200 to 700 members, and its Permanent Political Committee (Comisión Política Permanente) from 200 to 47 members including PRI-run state governors and the President, Proceso reported on 4 March. The assembly voted its support likewise for reforms in areas of taxation, competition and subsidies, while "mechanisms" were approved to ensure PRI members who accede to public office do not deviate from set party lines, La Crónica de Hoy reported. Peña told the 4,200 PRI members that there were "no untouchable interests" in the country; "the only interest I shall protect is the national interest. I shall take the decisions the country's transformation requires. The PRI's success depends on Mexico's success, CNNMéxico reported.

Mexican union boss loses post after arrest

The national teachers' union in Mexico elected a new leader on 28 February after its flamboyant former president Elba Esther Gordillo Morales was detained on 26 February, suspected of stealing union money; the political party she founded appeared to remain neutral meanwhile and stressed the party's autonomy from its founder. The SNTE (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación) held its 36th extraordinary session early on 28 February wherein it unanimously voted in the union's secretary-general Antonio Díaz de la Torre as its new president; he was sworn into office that day, Proceso reported. The union reportedly then reversed its opposition to the government's education reforms, which Gordillo had denounced and which may reduce the union's authority over members but also end their entrenched job security. Esther Gordillo's New Alliance (PANAL, Partido Nueva Alianza) party was also apparently distancing itself from its founder, issuing a communiqué on 27 February that stressed its national and autonomous character. The party stated it was "as a political option the property of people, its militants and those who seek a different country," Proceso reported. Gordillo it stated had been a "determining factor" in the party's formation but also in ensuring "New Alliance won autonomy, had its own life and became what it is today: a national party with a structure across the country." PANAL has ten seats in the lower legislative chamber. It refrained from commenting on the arrest, saying it was a judicial decision. The party changed its parliamentary coordinator on 28 February although members said the reshuffle and arrest were just coincidental. Cerda Franco, a former treasurer of the SNTE, became PANAL's new parliamentary coordinator, replacing Lucila Garfilas a former union section head in Estado de México, La Jornada reported on 1 March. Gordillo's estate and assets were meanwhile frozen and judges would later decide if these would be paid to the SNTE or used to pay unspecified damages and costs, La Jornada reported. Police were searching one of her properties on 28 February, an appartment in Mexico City's wealthy Polanco district. La Jornada cited one of Mexico's deputy-prosecutors as saying that two unnnamed individuals were in turn informing investigators of Gordillo's financial transactions, including several involving sums above those for which she had been charged.

Mexico insists union chief's arrest legal, not political

President Enrique Peña Nieto pledged in a television address on 27 February that the investigation of the activities of detained teaching union boss Elba Esther Gordillo would continue "to its ultimate consequences, always remaining strictly attached to the law" and respecting the "human rights of persons implicated," CNN reported. Gordillo was detained on 26 February and formally charged on 27 with undertaking "operations with illicit resources" and engaging in "organized crime," relating to a range of alleged activities that included syphoning off union funds, money laundering and perhaps tax evasion, CNNMéxico reported. In total four were reported detained and two people were to be charged beside Gordillo, as suspected accomplices of her financial transactions. Peña Nieto said the "process being followed" is "strictly legal" and "responds to evidence of the probable, illicit deviation" and "concealment" of funds belonging to the SNTE, the education-sector union. Those funds he said belonged to teachers not union bosses and "must be used to benefit their workers." The president said his government maintained a "respectful and constant dialogue" with the union's leaders and repeated a "commitment to Mexico's teachers." He said "Mexico's educational transformation is going forward" with the aim of one day providing "quality education for all" in Mexico. The same day Mexico's Prosecutor-General Jesús Murillo Karam told the daily La Crónica de Hoy that he doubted the union would react to the detention with protests seeing as the "investigation seeks to defend the interests of education workers." He said the prosecution had "nothing to do with political questions...these are the axes the president has indicated, which is to fight corruption," La Crónica reported on 28 February. He told the daily that from the day Peña began his presidency in December 2012, he "told me my function was to apply the law."

Mexicans awed, jubilant as union leader held over fraud

It is not every day a top politician is arrested, and certainly not in Mexico. But millions observed and commented on the Internet as one of Mexico's most powerful women and head of the national teachers' union Elba Esther Gordillo Morales, was stopped at an airport on 26 February after a court ordered her detained on theft-related charges. She was suspected among other offences of deviating the equivalent of some USD 200 million of union funds into private accounts. The Prosecutor-General of Mexico Jesús Murillo Karam explained that evening some of the motives and investigations that led to Gordillo's arrest, Excelsior reported. The newspaper cited among alleged offences the appropriation of union funds from 2008 to 2011, spending union funds on luxury shopping in the United States, laundering money through accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein and possible tax evasion as Gordillo had declared taxable revenues inferior to sums found in accounts being investigated. It is unlikely Mexicans were surprised to find that one of their politicians was involved in financial - or any type of - malfaisance. They already suspect and despise many of them as incompetent or crooked, in one way or another and to a lesser or greater degree. The report may have surprised millions who did not realistically envisage the arrest of such a prominent personage, especially by a government of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), traditionally associated with trade unions and clientelism. Esther Gordillo was since 1989 the president of the SNTE (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de Educación), the education-sector workers union said to be Latin America's largest, and was thought capable of mobilising a million votes or more. When acceding to her position, she promised the union would never become anyone's "booty" nor would she seek re-election, Excelsior wrote on 27 February. Her union's relations with the PRI soured over the PRI's pledge to reform education when in power. The reforms approved in 2013 and promulgated on 25 February may be said to have reduced union powers and qualified criteria for the recruitment and promotion of public teachers whose positions had become lifelong, hereditary or negotiable sinecures. The union's 1.4 million members including thousands of teachers - entrenched in jobs many said were often less-than-deserved - became an army of clients whose interests Gordillo ostensibly protected in return for wielding the power of their votes. She was rich; Mexicans would on occasions glimpse or read about her lifestyle and travels. Her face became the unashamed setting for layers of make-up and feats of plastic surgery. Dubbed the "Schoolmistress" - La Maestra - she was also known for grammatical bunglings that must have amused many. The review Proceso noted "euphoria" among users of Internet websites like Twitter and Facebook. Excelsior reported more than 540 million comments about the arrest on Twitter by 27 February. The excess, rancour and satisfaction many of these expressed may give an idea of how Mexicans perceive their politicians.

El Salvador launches an anti-gangs court

El Salvador's state prosecution service (Fiscalía) headed by Luis Martínez has merged its homicides unit into a new specialised court that would investigate murders and gang activity, with fewer state prosecutors focusing on the mechanics and organization of gangs seen as the culprits in most murders in El Salvador. The Specialised Homicide Crimes and Anti-gang Unit (Unidad Espcializada de Delitos de Homicidio y Antipandillas) was to begin working on 20 February, using 19 instead of the 25 prosecutors who worked before in the Homicides Unit; that court's former head Óscar Torres was provisionally to head the new unit, El Salvador's El Mundo reported. Torres has been a state prosecutor since 1999 and worked in different areas of the state prosecution service. El Mundo suggested these changes may be in response to the fact that murder investigations in El Salvador generally lead to the Mara street gangs, which police figures indicate to be responsible for 85 per cent of homicides and up to 90 per cent of extortions. It added that many shooting deaths reported in the papers appear to be carefully planned assassinations. The daily cited the prisons authority as estimating at 60,000 the number of gang members in El Salvador, of whom 10,000 were jailed. The Minister of Justice David Munguía Payés separately admitted on 20 February that homicides slightly increased on average in February compared to January, and attributed this to recent vendettas among gangs. Speaking in Sopayango outside the capital, he said he hoped the figure would fall again, adding that the latest rate of 6.7 homicides a day remained 70 per cent lower than in the same period in 2012 before the ceasefire of gangs began in March 2012, El Mundo reported. He said the same day that the state would seek to increase to 60 the 18 districts initially designated sanctuaries from violent crime in cooperation with local gangs, though he said money was needed to do this, La Prensa Gráfica reported.

Farmers denounce suspect killings in Honduras

A land activist in Honduras warned on 19 February that killings of farmers and "repression" would not "silence peasants but sharpen the conflict for land" there, speaking after the latest killings of two farmers, one the brother of a lawyer shot in September 2012, the Associated Press reported. The promotion of commercial farming in the Lower Aguán zone in northern Honduras has provoked an ongoing conflict between the local peasantry and commercial farming concerns. Rafael Alegría told AP in Tegucicalpa that nine peasants had been killed in the Aguán valley in 2013 and more than 89 "in the past two years." The latest were Santos Cartagena and José Trejo, killed in the department of Colón on 16 February. Trejo was a cooperative farmer and member of MARCA (Movimiento Reivindicador Campesino del Aguan), one of several groups defending peasants' rights and interests. His brother Antonio Trejo, a lawyer who defended activists, was shot in late September. Cartagena was in the United Peasant Movement of Aguán MUCA (Movimiento Unificado Campesino de Aguán); both were apparently killed in and around the district of Tocoa. AP reported that a court recently confirmed Trejo's MARCA movement as owners of the San Isidro Cooperative, formerly controlled by one of the country's main landowners, Miguel Facussé. His name seems to appear and recur in media when assassinations occur but he has in the past rejected allegations of any involvement in acts of violence. On 20 February four peasant associations issued a communiqué denouncing the government's land policies and observing that recent killings closely followed peasants' recuperation of two estates on 17 February. The associations blamed the conflict on previous governments' land reform legislation of the 1990s and to the present parliament's eagerness to hand over "our country's most productive regions" to foreign investors by designating them as Development Regions.

Ten killed in suspected crimes around Colombia

Unidentified individuals killed four people on 17 or 18 February in two country houses in the district of Barbosa in the northern department of Antióquia, Caracol television reported. Police provisionally said the four may have been domestic staff at the houses where they were found, but were investigating. In the departmental capital Medellín, two children aged 11 years were found dead on 17 or 18 February after they were reported missing on 16 February; they were believed killed by local gangs, it appears for unwittingly trespassing a gang's territory. The suspected killers released a younger child who was with them so he could relate the events, Caracol television cited relatives of the children as saying. The broadcaster observed the two children may themselves have been in a gang. Caracol also reported the death of a woman in shootouts between gangs in Commune 13, a neighbourhood of Medellín. Three were killed in the district of Tuluá in Valle del Cauca south-west of Bogotá over 16-18 February; one was a bus driver shot by two passengers who were later detained, Caracol television reported. In the department of Meta south-east of Bogotá, police and state agencies found two arms caches suspected to belong to a criminal group and to FARC guerrillas, after launching simultaneous operations. The stores yielded a range of assault weapons, rocket and grenade launchers, grenades and ammunition, RCN La Radio reported on 18 February.

Visits to Peruvian citadel fall after travel warning

Visits to the 15th century Inca citadel at Machu Picchu reportedly plummeted after the US embassy in Lima warned US nationals on 13 February not to travel there for a "potential kidnapping threat" in the area. Peruvian officials said the warning was baseless and the local mayor asked the embassy to retract its communiqué, as it was "killing" local livelihoods. The embassy's Security Message, accessible also on the US State Department website, cited the "credible" threat of a "criminal organization" kidnapping US tourists in the Cusco and Machu Picchu area; its warning was valid at least for February. The identity of the criminal organization was not immediately clear. President Ollanta Humala was reported as saying on 15 February that there was "no substance" to the claim, while his prime minister, Juan Jiménez Mayor, told the press on 14 or 15 February that the rumoured threat was not "corroborated by the security forces," Europa Press reported. The government he said strove to protect Peru's historical sites and "of course" tourists visiting them. The foreign trade and tourism minister, José Luis Silva Martinot also said "we have referred to our sources and there is no information in that sense, so we ask for calm and that tourism continue as normal." The district mayor of Machu Picchu Elvis La Torre said in turn that visits to the citadel were almost halved after the warning, Correo reported on 18 February. He said the citadel would usually receive 1,500-2,000 visits a day this time of the year but now receives 700-800 visits. "Almost half have cancelled their tour packages," he said. Peru was overall expecting a record number of tourists in 2013, perhaps more than three million. Tourism Minister Silva said Peru hoped tourism would become its second source of foreign exchange earnings by 2016, after mining; it was currently its third source of foreign exchange, El Peruano reported on 18 February. He said American Airlines would within weeks begin "seven flights" between Houston and Lima - presumably one a day - and become an air link to Peru for travellers from Japan and South Korea. These flights could bring in 70,000-80,000 more travellers to Peru annually, he said.

Hugo Chávez returns to Venezuela, taken to hospital

Venezuela's ailing President Hugo Chávez Frías returned to Caracas early on 18 February after weeks of treatment and care in Cuba following surgery for cancer on 11 December; he was taken to a military hospital for further rest and care, the Venezuelan state news agency reported. The return was announced by a comment appearing on the president's personal page on the website Twitter. Chávez thanked Cuba and its two leaders, President Raul Castro and his brother Fidel Castro, for their hospitality but also Venezuelans for "so much love;" he assured them "I am holding onto Christ and keep my trust in my doctors and nurses." The country's acting leader Vice-President Nicolás Maduro Moros, called Chávez an example of a "permanent battle" and urged Venezuelans to pray for him "with the heart," the agency reported. The president's absence has fuelled political tensions between the socialist government and liberal opposition parties, which have criticized the lack of clear information on the president's health and the prolongation of a de facto regime. The leading opposition politician and governor of the northern state of Miranda also wrote on Twitter that he hoped the president's return was permanent and would prompt his government to start working to solve Venezuela's problems, El Nacional reported on 18 February. He wrote that he hoped the return of Chávez would end the "red package" or economic policies opposition forces allege are being dictated from communist Cuba.

Ecuador re-elects its president

With a little over half the votes counted on 18 February, President Rafael Correa Delgado was declared winner in Ecuador's general elections of 17 February, leading his rivals by a wide margin, Europa Press reported. The agency cited provisional figures given by the state electoral agency CNE, which stated that with a little under 4.76 million votes counted that day - a little over half of all votes cast - Correa had won 2.49 million or 56.93 per cent of the votes. The second candidate in terms of votes was Guillermo Lasso with 23.7 per cent of votes counted thus far. The president said the night before speaking in northern Quito that "there is no stopping the citizens' revolution" and that his victory belonged to "all Ecuadoreans." Several Latin American leaders congratulated Correa on his victory, as did Spain's Foreign Minister, Europa Press reported. The elections were for 143 public offices, and a little over 11.6 million Ecuadoreans voted inside and outside the country, the daily El Universo reported on 18 February.

El Salvador gangs to hand in 300 firearms

Gang members in El Salvador were to hand in 300 firearms as part of an ongoing pacification process in the country, and within a new law to regulate the voluntary handover of firearms, El Salvador's El Mundo reported, citing declarations by the Minister of Justice. The Minister David Munguía Payés said 300 firearms were to be handed in within 10 days at an unspecified place and another undated handover was being negotiated, all within the Special Transitory Law for the Voluntary Handover of Firearms, Explosives, Munitions and Similar Articles, which parliament ratified on 14 February (Ley Especial Transitoria para la Entrega Voluntaria de Armas de Fuego, Explosivos, Municiones y Artículos Similares). "The idea is to take out of circulation weapons in the hands of people who can potentially commit crimes," the minister said at an unspecied location. The country's deputy-police chief Mauricio Ramírez Landaverde stated in turn - apparently speaking with the minister - that 380 arms or "artefacts" had been decomissioned in 2013. He specified that people handing in firearms would not be prosecuted for carrying or possession of arms but that crimes committed with such weapons would be investigated. The initiative was another part of an ongoing "pacification" process in the country that includes a ceasefire between Mara gangs in force since 2012 and designation of several crime-free districts, which officials insist has reduced violent crime. Police deputy-chief Ramírez said on 15 February that police counted 290 homicides in the country in January and 15 days of February 2013, when the figure was 587 for the same period in 2012, El Mundo reported. Munguía told Radio El Salvador on 13 February that this was "the most successful process to reduce violence throughout the western hemisphere" and had made El Salvador a model of interest to other states, the Ministry of Justice reported. Crime persisted however including in designated safe areas. On 13 February police detained five presumed members of the Mara-18 gang and freed a boy they had apparently kidnapped on 11 February on the edge of the "safe" district of Quetzaltepeque, north of the capital, elsalvador.com reported. The boy had been kept in the nearby district of Nejapa; police suspected the crime was ordered from a prison where M-18 inmates are kept.

Bomb kills Colombian soldiers, rebel numbers said down

A bomb attack on 15 February by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) killed three soldiers and injured three on a road in the district of Sumapaz south of the capital Bogotá, Europa Press reported. Separately a report by the Colombian defence ministry found that almost 1,500 FARC guerrillas had been "neutralised," that is killed, arrested or demobilised since the state began a negotiations process with the FARC in September 2012. This included five commanders, El Espectador reported, citing the ministry document. The ministry report stated that of the 1,475 guerrillas neutralised since 4 September 2012, 982 had been caught, 320 had surrendered and 122 were shot dead, while it cited as unprecedented the "neutralisation" of 26 regional or district Front commanders and death of the FARC's paramount leader within a 16-month period. This was the guerrilla dubbed Alfonso Cano, killed on 4 or 5 November 2011. The ministry estimated that the FARC had shrunk from some 20,000 fighters in 2002 to about 8,000 in 2012, and the other rebel force ELN, from more than 4,000 fighters in 2002 to about 1,500, El Espectador reported.

Seven hostages freed in Colombia

Colombia's two communist rebel forces, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) freed on 15 February two policemen and five contractors they held hostage, while a mediator suggested a soldier being held by the FARC might also be released within days. The policemen were handed to over to mediators in a rural part of the district of Miranda in the south-western Cauca department, then to government envoys at a base in the district of Florida in the Valle de Cauca department, Caracol radio reported. The former senator Piedad Córdoba, to whom the policemen were initially given, was to mediate for the liberation within days of a soldier also being held by the FARC, Caracol reported. In the northern department of Bolívar, the ELN released five of six hostages they held, handing them over to the Red Cross; these were three Colombians and two Peruvians kidnapped on 18 January in the district of Norosí in the southern part of Bolívar. The ELN retained one hostage, the Canadian national Jernoc Wobert. Separately the Humanitarian Committee of Huila (Comité humanitario de Huila) affiliated to the Huila departmental government stated on 15 February that "illegal armed groups" retained 38 hostages from that department, a number it stated it had verified with relatives, Caracol reported on 15 February. They were presumably held by the FARC who are present in this part of Colombia.

Locals in Tabasco city warn will lynch thieves

Amid concerns about Mexicans arming themselves against crime in parts of the country, locals in Cárdenas in the south-eastern state of Tabasco were reported to have formed a protection group in one or two city neighbourhoods, following similar initiatives in the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Michoacán. Thieves were warned in one public notice they would be lynched if caught red-handed, Proceso reported on 14 February. The residents have formed the United Neighbours (Vecinos Unidos) group, alleging that state and district authorities were unable or unwilling to curb crime. Their warning was written on sheets or banners hung in public, a practice favoured by drug cartels in Mexico. Another banner warned "we shall take our own measures" against anyone found entering into houses or caught spying, thieving or vandalising in that part of town. The review cited an unnamed resident of Cárdenas as saying that people were "terrified" by the surge in local crime - examples of which were not lacking. On 11 February two bodies and their heads were found in different parts of town, a former policeman was shot dead in the neighbouring district of Cunduacán on 12 February, a decomposing body with torture marks found that day in or near Cárdenas and a man executed in a bar there on 13 February. A prominent legislator said in Mexico City on 14 February that such groups could not usurp state authority in spite of the inability of some states to assure residents' security, La Crónica de Hoy reported. The leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the lower legislative chamber, Manlio Fabio Beltrones, said no state governor could "take refuge or find a refuge for his incapacity in the presence of community guards." He said "let's not generate greater signs of ungovernability in the country." The head of the chamber's Public Security Committee Alejandro Montano Guzmán, also of the PRI, told the daily the government must "attend to" Mexicans' security needs not just "recognize" such initiatives. La Crónica separately reported that armed residents of Ayutla in Guerrero released four more of 54 suspected criminals they had detained in January, after they were found not to be in organized crime. Eleven were earlier handed over to the authorities and 39 appeared to remain in detention. The four were apparently cattle thieves and pledged to carry out unspecified community services.

Qatar's ruler brings delegation to Peru

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

Gunfight kills seven Colombian soldiers

Seven soldiers were killed fighting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on 13 February in the southern department of Caquetá, and four or five were reported injured; the army declared that FARC rebels had also died or been injured but the casualty number was unknown. Fighting erupted in a rural part of the district of Milán after troops moved in to prevent a suspected FARC attack on the nearby town or village of San Antonio de Getucha, RCN La Radio reported. Fighting was continuing that day and the land army commander General Alejandro Navas Ramos had moved to the area, Europa Press reported. Officials separately denied on 13 February reports issued by the National Liberation Army (ELN) that it had freed five mining employees taken hostage in northern Colombia on 18 January, and stated this could not yet be confirmed. The Defence Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón told the ELN that day to emit fewer communiqués and free all hostages. He reminded them kidnapping was a crime against humanity for which they would later be held responsible, the ministry website reported. The hostages were two Colombians, two Peruvians and a Canadian, employees of the exploration firm Geo Explorer, Europa Press reported on 14 February.

Salvadorean police count two murders in "crime-free" district

A man's bruised body was found on 11 February in the district of Ilopango outside San Salvador, suggesting a second killing in recent days in one of the districts gangs had pledged would be free of violence, La Prensa Gráfica reported on 12 February. The body indicated the victim had been strangled and possibly stabbed to death and initial police investigations suggested gang involvement; gangs reportedly told police they had nothing to do with the first killing in this district, of an 18-year-old boy on 3 February. Ilopango was among the safe zones listed in the second phase of a national plan to disarm and pacify the Mara gangs. The mayor of Ilopango who has coordinated the ceasefire between gangs locally and the Justice Minister did not immediately attribute the crime to anyone. The minister David Munguía Payés reportedly declared however that police counted 76 homicides in El Salvador in 2013 to 10 February, 263 fewer than for the same period in 2012. La Prensa Gráfica separately reported the arrests on 10 or 11 February of six presumed gang members as they raped a 16-year-old girl, in the district of Apopa north of San Salvador. Three of the detained were described as "minors," presumably children or teenagers.

FARC rebels strike Colombian town, kill two

Suspected members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) killed a child and a policeman and injured 27 in an apparent attack on civilians in Miraflores in the southern department of Guaviare on 11 February, RCN La Radio reported. The mayor of Miraflores told RCN radio that suspected guerrillas began shooting and throwing grenades at a crowd putting out a fire in two buildings in the town; soldiers and policemen repelled the attack. Nine of the worst injured were taken to hospital in the departmental capital San José del Guaviare. President Juan Manuel Santos urged the armed  forces on 11 February to "persevere" with their defensive task until peace is attained in Colombia "one way or another," observing that "peace is the victory." He was speaking to troops at an air force base in Tolemaida south-west of Bogotá, where the armed forces took possession of six new helicopters and two planes. Santos said FARC attacks had not increased in Colombia this year but were receiving more attention. The FARC he said had reached "their maximum capacity, even the number of our fallen soldiers and policemen has decreased, but there has been more noise about this in the media," the presidential website reported. The number of FARC guerrillas demobilized increased 60 per cent in 2013 he said, compared to a similar but unspecified period in 2012. "They see less and less future [for themselves] and feel more defeated," Santos said. FARC and government negotiators were to renew peace talks in Havana on 18 February, continuing the present theme of discussions, rural land use and tenure, Colombia's public radio reported on 11 February.

Colombian authorities report guerrilla, drug strikes

The Defence Ministry reported on 8 February the deaths and arrests of eight members of Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN) and of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in separate incidents. Defence Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón declared while touring the departments of Antioquia and Huila that three ELN fighters including a local chief dubbed Dubernillo, were killed on 7 February in the district of Cáceres in the northern department of Antioquia, the ministry website stated. He said troops also foiled an attempt to sabotage power infrastructures in that area and confiscated arms. Speaking separately in the district of Neiva in the south-central department of Huila he said police and the army caught five suspected members of Front 13 of the FARC, dressed as civilians and "with the intention of launching bomb attacks" on civilian targets. On 10 February the army was reported to have killed three FARC fighters and destroyed two camps said designed for over 70 guerrillas, in the southern department of Caquetá. Three rebels were injured and arms and ammunition confiscated in the operation in the district of San Vicente del Caguán, Caracol television reported. Two of these were said to be children or teenagers and handed over to child welfare authorities. Juan Manuel Santos separately thanked Panama on 10 February for catching a suspected drug trafficker identified by his pseudonym Pichi. Writing on the website Twitter, Santos thanked President Ricardo Martinelli and Panamanian authorities for helping catch a man identified as a member of gang Oficina de Envigado, Colombian public radio reported, citing EFE. Police stated in a communiqué that Pichi was thought linked to the killings of two policemen in Medellín in 2012 and the massacre of nine or 10 members of his own gang outside Medellín last New Year's Eve; he was also blamed for the current bout of violence in Medellín, Radio Nacional de Colombia reported.

Seven shot dead around Mexico, gang suspects held

Police in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila shot dead three gunmen on 10 February, reportedly in response to an ambush on a police convoy driving to the frontier city of Acuña. A shootout began after the gunmen fired on the convoy that had stopped on a highway over a puncture, Proceso reported. On 9 February in the northern district of Piedras Negras in Coahuila gunmen fired on a bullet-proof car carrying policemen and bodyguards of the state Public Security or police chief Gerardo Villarreal Ríos. This prompted gunfire and a car chase around the city, with the participation of soldiers and marines, Proceso reported. Four men were separately reported shot dead early on 10 February in and outside the west-coast resort of Acapulco, Milenio reported. In Culiacán in the north-western state of Sinaola, a man identified separately as head of security for one of two prominent drug traffickers was reported arrested alongside four associates. Jonhatan Sales Avilés - El Fantasma - was identified by sources as either the security chief of Mexico's leading trafficker Joaquín Guzmán Loera or of another trafficker Ismael Zambada; he was surprised and detained on the night of 9-10 February at a safe house earlier located by the army, CNNMéxico reported. The broadcaster observed that state authorities had earlier thought and hoped, that the army killed Sales in a shootout near Culiacán on 4 March 2012.

Mexican locals hand crime suspects to police

Authorities of the state of Guerrero in western Mexico were handed on 8 February 11 suspected criminals detained by armed residents who began to police parts of the state in January, in a move suggesting greater coordination between locals and authorities previously blamed as being soft on crime. The detainees, suspected of involvement in drug trafficking, killings and kidnappings, were handed over at the municipality of Ayutla de los Libres, one of four or five districts policed by indigenous militias and a Community Police. The authorities of Guerrero pledged to hand the detained over to state prosecutors, according to Proceso. The review observed these were among 54 people locals detained in January in Ayutla and nearby Tecoanapa and suspected of working for a local drug-trafficking gang whose leader remained at large. The armed residents themselves were initially masked to avoid being identified by criminals. They had good reason to do so, as presumed criminals were reported on 8 February to have threatened one of their leaders with unspecified reprisals, apparently shortly before the 11 detainees were handed over. An unknown caller phoned Bruno Plácido Valerio, leader of the Union of Organized Peoples of the State of Guerrero (UPOEG), to say he would be hit "where it hurts most," Milenio reported. Plácido, who was not wearing a masked, told Milenio that "someone had to be the face" of the self-defence movement, which he pledged not to abandon.

Venezuelan devaluation affects border trade

Venezuela announced on 8 February a devaluation of its currency the bolívar, in what a local economist termed a "confiscation" of Venezuelans' purchasing power that would also impact exporters from neighbouring Colombia, El Tiempo reported. The Colombian daily observed that traders in the frontier district of Cúcuta were waiting to see the devaluation's impact on demand in Venezuela for local products. Venezuela's Finance Minister Jorge Giordani told the press in Caracas on 8 February that the exchange rate of 4.3 bolívars to the USD was now 6.3, which made the dollar more than 46 per cent more expensive, El Tiempo reported. The daily stated that this was the bolívar's fifth devaluation since Venezuela's socialist government imposed currency controls in 2003. On Venezuela's black market the USD was reportedly trading for as much as 28 bolívars, signifying much higher prices for an array of imported consumer goods. As Venezuelans pointed out on networking websites, the devaluation of the official rate now signified a price hike of 46 per cent in imported goods. Giordani blamed speculation for the inflationary "bout" the country was suffering, but the opposition politician and governor of the state of Miranda Henrique Capriles accused the government of squandering its petrodollars, El Tiempo reported. He observed on the website Twitter that "oil is at 106 [USD per barrel] and they do a devaluation. They spent the money on their campaign, corruption and foreign gifts. Lying government!" In Cúcuta, a money changer told El Tiempo that the devaluation would impact supply and demand in the frontier zone. It might ensure an "abundance" of cheaper but mostly smuggled Venezuelan goods, while Venezuelan importers would be dissuaded from buying Colombian products that would soon cost more. The president of the Colombian exporters' association Analdex Javier Díaz told El Tiempo on 8 February that he hoped the market and inflation in Venezuela would soon absorb the rate change.

Sixteen killed around Mexico, 11 detained

At least 13 were reported killed or found dead in incidents around Mexico on 5-6 February, including nine policemen and a priest, the review Proceso reported. The state policemen of Guerrero were ambushed and killed on 5 February as they patrolled by car the district of Apaxtla de Castrejón, half way between Mexico City and the western coast. A suspected criminal was reportedly killed in a shootout with police before this ambush in nearby Teloloapán, though it was not clear the incidents were related. In the western district of Colima, an elderly priest was severely beaten inside a church on 6 February, later dying in hospital, for motives that were not immediately clear, Proceso reported. The Bishop of Colima urged authorities "not just to investigate" the crime but "punish whoever turns out to be the culprit." In the south-central city of Cuernavaca early on 8 February, police shot dead three bodyguards of the chief prosecutor of the state of Morelos Rodrigo Dorantes Salgado, apparently by mistake, Milenio reported, citing Notimex. Authorities were investigating. In the central state of Guanajuato, authorities presented to the press on 7 February 11 detainees identified as members of the cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, and suspected as involved in crimes including several killings since 2012, Proceso reported.

Mexican, Honduran cities top homicides ranking

The Citizens' Council for Public Security and Penal Justice (Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad Pública y Justicia Penal), an independent crime-and-rights observer body in Mexico, published its 2012 list of cities with the highest murder rates; as in previous years, Latin American cities retained their preeminence in spite of "jostling" among them. San Pedro Sula in northern Honduras remained, according to figures obtained, the most murderous city in the world in 2012 with a homicide rate of 169.3 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. Acapulco on Mexico's western coast was the second city for homicides, with a rate of just under 143/100,000 inhabitants, the Council found. Its ranking for 2012 included:

3 - Caracas, Venezuela with 118.89 homicides/100,000 inhabitants,
4 - Tegucicalpa/capital district of Honduras, 101.99/100,000
5 - Torreón in northern Mexico 94.72
6 - Maceió in Brazil 85.88
7 - Cali, Colombia 79.27
8 - Nuevo Laredo in north-eastern Mexico 72.85
9 - Barquisimeto, Venezuela 71.74
12 - Guatemala City, 67.36
15 - Culiacán in north-western Mexico, 62.06
18 - Cuernavaca, central Mexico, 56.08
19 - Ciudad Juárez, northern Mexico, 55.91
20 - Ciudad Guyana, Venezuela, 55.03
21 - Detroit, United States, 54.63
22 - Cúcuta, north-eastern Colombia, 54.29
24 - Medellín, Colombia, 49.1
32 - Chihuahua in northern Mexico, 43.49
33 - San Juan, Puerto Rico, 43.25
35 - Port au Prince, Haiti, 40.1
36 - Ciudad Victoria in north-eastern Mexico, 37.78
44 - San Salvador, El Salvador, 32.48
47 - Monterrey, northern Mexico, 30.85
50 - Barranquilla, northern Colombia, 29.41.

The Consejo observed that several cities had lowered murder rates enough to drop out of the top 50, including Tijuana in northern Mexico and the eastern Mexican port of Veracruz, but also Panama City. Ciudad Juárez dropped almost 20 positions from its position near the top in 2011, and San Salvador had also improved from a rate of 59/100,000 in 2011 to a little over 32 - all these based on official or available figures used to compile the table as the Consejo cautioned. Its website stated that authorities in San Pedro Sula had complained about the negative image the ranking was giving the city and alleged the figures cited were mistaken, but it responded that the ranking was based "on official figures and regarding the effect of the ranking, which merely recognize reality, that is not what harms the city's image but its violence and rulers' inability to contain and reduce it. Hiding problems never solves them." The mayor of Acapulco, which came second in 2012, said "it is quite deplorable that we should be in this stituation...I've seen the note. It pains me that it should be so," Proceso reported on 7 February.

El Salvador officials say murders continue to fall

Officials declared on 6 February that El Salvador's homicide figures were in January 2013 less than half those of January 2012, even as they admitted that a ceasefire between gangs that helped reduce murders had yet to end violent crime in El Salvador. The Security and Justice Minister David Mungía Payés told a San Salvador press conference that authorities counted 190 homicides in January 2013, 54 per cent less than the 413 for January 2012. He attributed this as on previous occasions to police action and the ceasefire between the Mara street gangs. Extortions reported in January dropped 18 per cent year-on-year, he said. Munguía admitted there had been a slight rise in violent acts recently in spite of the ceasefire and that "purges" were going in the gangs including in districts selected as crime-free zones; "we have entered a process that has helped us reduce violence, but this has not finished. The ceasefire is not a perfect process," he said. He attributed the killings of four on 1 February in the city of San Miguel east of San Salvador to gang rivalries. The latest victims of crime in El Salvador were two cousins aged 15 and 16 years, earlier reported as kidnapped and found dead on 5 or 6 February in Apopa, a district north of San Salvador, elsalvador.com reported. Most or all readers' comments left on various websites reporting such crimes indicated that the public was entirely skeptical, and often contemptuous, of official declarations on improving crime figures.

Guerrilla bomb kills two in south-western Colombia

Two were killed on 5 February as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) exploded a car bomb near the village or town of El Palo in the Cauca department, Europa Press reported, citing Colombian media. The FARC reportedly intended to detonate the artefact inside the town but were foiled by the arrival of troops and shooting that followed. The victims were provisionally identified as a soldier and a civilian. Colombia's police chief José Roberto León Riaño ordered the security of police stations boosted on 6 February in response to a recent resurgence of FARC activities. He said 14 policemen had died in January for FARC attacks, Europa Press and El Espectador reported. A priest was also reported killed at home on 3 January in the district of Riosucio in the western department of Caldas, Europa Press reported, citing the Catholic agency MISNA. Father José Ancízar Mejía Palomino, aged 84, was the third priest to have been killed in the preceding 20 days, Europa Press reported.

Mexican community policemen said kidnapped child

Masked individuals identifying themselves as members of a self-styled community police briefly kidnapped a child in the Ayutla district of the western Mexican state of Guerrero on 4 February, prompting community police chiefs to order their policemen to work unmasked. The masks were very likely intended to help community policemen avoid identification by the criminals they have vowed to fight. Residents of at least four districts in Guerrero have formed the militias to police their part of the state, in response to the authorities' inability to curb violent crime. State authorities and civil observers have already expressed concern about the legalit of such armed groups, but locals have in turn denounced the state's failure to assure security. After the kidnapping, three local community police chiefs decided their policemen would only bear masks during "operations" or patrols, La Crónica de Hoy reported on 5 February. Community forces detained dozens of suspected criminals during January at road blocks set up around relevant districts; they recently announced relatives of 54 detainees held in the locality of El Mesón could visit on Sundays. Separately in the resort of Acapulco in Guerrero masked men raped six or seven female tourists lodged in bungalows on the edge of the city on the night of 4-5 February, media reported. Six were Spanish and one Mexican, and seven Spanish men who were with them were tied up; their belongings were robbed. The group later received medical assistance and counselling, Europa Press reported on 5 February.

Missing policeman's body found in Bogotá

The body of Jairo Alberto Díaz, a 24-year-old policeman who disappeared on 27 January in Bogotá's north-eastern district of Usaquén was found on 4 February, and police were unsure if he had died by accident or been killed as he was found in a spot that had already been searched. Dozens of police agents had searched for him in Usaquén and surrounding areas and the city's police chief initially suspected he had been kidnapped by a gang. A red plastic bag found over him may have hidden him, it was speculated. Coroners were examining the body to determine possible causes of death, the broadcaster Caracol reported. His father told Caracol radio on 5 February that he was convinced "he was killed," as indicated he said by the fact that the body had not decomposed after an absence of nine days. After days of hoping to find his son alive, "what are we going to do now?" he asked in grief.

Troops kill three Colombian rebels, hostages to be freed

Colombian troops shot dead three fighters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) during operations on 3 February in the district of La Macarena in the south-central department Meta, while a fourth guerrilla, aged 15 years, was caught and handed over to child welfare authorities. The army stated that two other guerrillas surrendered or left the FARC that day, Europa Press reported, citing the Cali newspaper El Tiempo. A rifle, machine gun and mortar were confiscated. The FARC stated in a communiqué on 1 February that they held two policemen kidnapped on 25 January and a soldier kidnapped on 30 January during fighting in the department of Nariño, and intended to release them, the broadcaster Caracol reported on 2 February. The communiqué declared the servicemen to be in good condition and specified that Colombianos y Colombianas por la Paz, a political formation sympathetic to the FARC, must participate in the release, to be "accompanied" it added by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Colombianos is headed by the former senator Piedad Córdoba who has intermittently acted as a mediator between the FARC and the Colombian state. She said on 2 February that she was waiting for the government's permission before meeting with the Red Cross to begin the hostages' release, Caracol reported.

Rebels ambush policemen in northern Colombia

Three policemen were reported killed in northern Colombia  on 1 February in an ambush attributed to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), press and agencies reported. Suspected guerrillas attacked a patrol car in the Maicao district in the department of Guajira, close to the border with Venezuela, Europa Press reported. The attack seemed to closely follow officials' declarations on troops killing six guerrillas including a FARC chief during bombardments. In the east-coast department of Chocó the departmental ombudsman spoke of local concerns over the FARC imposing an "armed strike" - curfews and restrictions on circulation - on several districts. Luis Enrique Abadía told Colombia's national radio on 1 February that pamphlets were found in districts along the highway leading to the department of Risaralda east of Chocó, announcing an "armed strike" from 1 to 20 February. He said this meant restrictions on movements of the local population and on deliveries to the districts of Mistrató, Pueblo Rico, Condoto and Atrato.