Colombia's former president may run for Senate

Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Colombia's former conservative president and, according to polls, one of the country's most popular political figures, was said to be considering running for a Senatorial seat in elections scheduled for March 2014. Mr Uribe has in recent months become an outspoken critic of his successor as president, Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, and denounced ongoing peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the guerrilla force he battered relentlessly when President from 2002 to 2010. Mr Santos, who has generally sought to avoid public spats with his predecessor, told a television interview on 21 August that Mr Uribe would make a good senator and was "welcome" in the Senate. After months of speculation about Mr Uribe's political future, he seemed to have conveyed his decision to head the list of his own party the Democratic Centre, to Senator Liliana Rendón Roldán, Europa Press reported on 24 August, citing the Senator's comments to Caracol Radio. She was cited as saying she was confident the list could win 25 to 30 seats in the Senate, which would be almost a quarter or third of its 102 seats. The presidential "Unity" party she said, should "tremble, let's see how many senators and representatives they will get, people are tired of so much tepid water and the Democratic Centre list will sweep through." Observers sometimes state that the Unity party backing the current president, and including both Conservatives and Liberals, hides an unknown number of Mr Uribe's supporters or admirers, reluctant to publicise their sympathies before presidential elections set for May 2014. The Democratic Centre's main weakness appeared for now to be the absence of a charismatic presidential aspirant, with several figures cited as possible candidates who had very limited public following or recognition compared to the present and last presidents.

Colombian troops shoot guerrillas, mayor detained for drug ties

Colombian troops shot dead three guerrillas in fighting on 23 August in the northern department of Córdoba and the west-coast department of Chocó. The Defence Ministry reported the killing of a commander of the National Liberation Army (ELN) in the district of Bagadó in Chocó, a man dubbed Darwin, Walter or Ñarro and described by the Ministry as a fighter of more than 20 years; he was identified as commander of the Manuel Hernández el Boche front, a unit of the ELN's Western War Front. Troops also shot dead in the district of Tierralta in Córdoba two members of Front 58 of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The army identified one of them, a 25-year-old, as an "important bombmaker" for the FARC, Radio Santa Fe reported. On 23 August President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón ordered the state's envoys to leave Havana and return to Colombia after FARC negotiators interrupted ongoing peace talks to "analyse" a possible national referendum concerning the talks' results, el Colombiano reported. The FARC suggested resuming talks on 26 August but Mr Santos said talks would resume when Colombia deemed it suitable; he said "in this process the FARC are not the ones to determine breaks or set conditions," el Colombiano reported. State agents separately arrested 10 including a mayor and two policemen suspected of drug trafficking and working with two of the continent's main drug cartels, Radio Santa Fe reported on 23 August. The detained were suspected to have sent some 100 tonnes of cocaine a year toward Central America, the United States and European countries over an unspecified time, and to have had ties with the Sinaloa and Zetas cartels as well as the FARC and local gangs. One of the detained - variously caught in districts including Bogotá, Cali and Medellín - was identified as the mayor of Milán in the southern department of Caquetá, Radio Santa Fe reported.

Troops disarm militia in western Mexico amid protests

Soldiers detained and disarmed on 14 August 45 members of the self-styled, self-defence group (Autodefensa) of Aquila in the western state of Michoacán in a rare intervention against one of the groups Mexico's government denounces as illegal. The groups have emerged in several states, but particularly in Michoacán and Guerrero in reaction to the extensive, violent and near-unchecked activities of criminal gangs there. This was presumably the militia that briefly took over the Aquila municipal government in late July, disarming the police; the newspaper Milenio reported on 15 August that it had controlled Aquila since 23 July. When troops arrived in town to arrest four or five members of the militia including its leader Agustín Villanueva, they found that 40 other members of the militia carried weapons used exclusively by the armed forces and other arms thought to have belonged to the Aquila police. They were disarmed and detained for the illegal possession of such arms; the army later stated that some 300 locals sought to obstruct the operation and effectively held 30 soldiers hostage for six hours. Sixty local residents were said to be travelling to Mexico City to demand the release of the 40 militiamen, La Jornada reported on 16 August. Self-defence groups in the nearby districts of Buenavista Tomatlán and Tepalcatepec were said separately to have threatened to "paralise the state" with unspecified actions from 19 August if these were not released, La Jornada reported. The acting governor of Michoacán Jesús Reyna García has accused the militia of "sowing fear" in and around Aquila and obstructing circulation, although according to Milenio he had not explicitly accused the group of having ties to organised crime. He was cited as saying he was not informed of the other militias' threats.

Daily sees "slight" fall in murders in Bogotá for arms ban

The ban on carrying arms in Bogotá, imposed in recent months by the city government and the army, is said to have had an "insufficient" effect on reducing violent crimes, according to the newspaper ADN. The daily is freely distributed on the streets; it was citing figures from the police and state coroners. The daily's website reported on 14 August that there were 708 homicides in Bogotá from 1 January to the end of July 2013, five per cent less than the 743 homicides counted for that period in 2012; 453 of those killed in the period cited in 2013 were shot dead, evidently in spite of the existing arms ban. The ban is regularly renewed, and the capital's police chief Luis Martínez Guzmán said it was best it be maintained. Police confiscated 1,473 "illegal weapons" in the capital in the first seven months of 2013, ADN reported.

Residents hand in firearms in northern Bogotá, given tokens

Residents of the district of Usaquén north of Bogotá handed in on 29 July lethal objects including firearms and grenades in exchange for supermarket vouchers in another of the disarmament events that have become part of the measures taken by the city government to curb crime in Colombia's capital. Twenty three residents responded to the local municipality's calls to leave items that included in this case 25 hand grenades and 10 firearms; children handed in plastic guns and "martial toys" in exchange for T-shirts, caps, chocolate and board games, the office of the Bogotá Government Secretary coordinating security in the capital reported. Usaquén had a population of a little under 480,000 in 2012. Those who disarm this way are exempt from police investigation; in Usaquén they received shopping vouchers to spend in Éxito supermarkets on food and household items but not alcohol or tobacco. The mayoress of Usaquén Julieta Naranjo Luján termed this first disarmament event in Usaquén a success, telling a gathering it would "reduce homicides, crimes and personal injuries to much lower levels in the city." The Usaquén Police chief Colonel Pedro Ruiz Pulido was cited as saying that there were 33 homicides "so far this year" in Usaquén, of which 88 per cent were committed with firearms. Authorities attributed 91 per cent of homicides registered in Usaquén to "personal problems resulting from social intolerance" and acts of vengence "mostly" following excessive drinking, the office of the Bogotá Government Secretary reported.

Colombian town votes to block local mining by multinational

Almost all voting residents of the district of Piedras in the central Colombian department of Tolima voted on 28 July to block the continued activities of the mining firm Anglo Gold Ashanti (AGA) after deciding they threatened local water supplies, the review Semana reported. It observed this was the first such vote in Colombia, one of several Latin American countries where mining activities have angered local populations. Just over 5,100 residents of Piedras were eligible to vote and 3,007 did, with 2,971 voting against the firm's continued activity and 24 voting in favour, Semana reported. The review observed that local opposition to the firm began in early 2013 with protests against a gold processing centre in nearby Doima whose activity it was thought would use millions of litres of water needed for farming. An AGA spokeswoman was reported on 18 July as telling W Radio in Bogotá that the firm's activities used a small part of local water supplies and AGA did not in any case need permission to continue working, apparently responding to a suspension order from a regional environmental authority Cortolima. The mayor of Piedras organised the vote after consulting with Tolima's Administrative Court and according to Semana, the results were binding pursuant to the Law 134 of 1994. There was no immediate consensus on this however as authorities in Bogotá were reported elsewhere not to recognise municipal authority over mining affairs. El Espectador reported on 28 July that the Mines Ministry had decreed on 9 May that local bodies could not vote or decide on mining affairs, such decisions pertaining to national mining and environmental authorities. Residents of Piedras believed the decree did not supercede the vote, which was a participatory mechanism foreseen in Colombian legislation, El Espectador reported.

New Mexico district "on verge" of banning plastic bags

Most city councillors of Santa Fe in New Mexico were reportedly backing a proposal to be voted in August and intended to ban distribution by shops of free plastic bags, the website of the Albuquerque Journal reported on 22 July. One councillor was reported as having suggested in preceding days a subsequent, undated ban on plastic bottles. The daily reported that almost no councilmember opposed the initiative, although the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce had urged the municipality to wait for the completion of an ongoing study on solid waste. Several west-coast cities including Los Angeles and Seattle have imposed similar bans to curb use of millions of bags that often are not recycled and pollute both the land and sea. The daily reported that the ordinance would ban "most single-use plastic bags" and require shops to charge most customers "no less than" 10 cents for paper bags, but allow "some smaller plastic bags" such as thin bags used for fruit and vegetables. Eateries were to be allowed to provide bags for food taken out.

Thirty guerrillas surrender in Colombia, one detained

Senior Colombian officials including President Juan Manuel Santos and his Minister of Defence personally received in Cali on 16 July a company of 30 former guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) who formally surrendered their arms and abandoned their fight against the Colombian state. President Santos said this was the "biggest demobilisation" of fighters in the ELN's history, praising the guerrillas for their decision and the armed forces for the relentless pressures exerted on the ELN, which the state has declared convinced the 30 to surrender. Media reported that state intelligence agents had visited the company's camp several times in preceding weeks, presumably to discuss the mechanics of a surrender. The guerrillas who demobilised at an army base in Cali constituted the Lucho Quintero Giraldo company of the ELN's South-Western War Front, the Defence Ministry reported. "I want to thank all the group, its commander aka Tiger, henceforth Mr Collazos and all of you. You took the right decision," the Presidential Office cited Mr Santos as telling them. He said the "state will receive you with all the guarantees we have promised," allowing them he added to begin to rejoin civilian and family life. The Defence Ministry separately reported on 17 July that troops caught a suspected head of a support or logistical network working with the ELN's Darío Ramírez Castro Front, active in the Bolívar department in northern Colombia. The detained was identified as Bautista his nom de guerre, and caught in the district of San Pablo in southern Bolívar, the Ministry reported. Bautista was being sought for suspected "financing" activities for the guerrilla that included drug dealing, extortion from local farmers and firms and the forcible recruitment of peasants.

Criminals shoot land activist in northern Colombia

Unidentified gunmen shot dead on 11 July an activist working to restore stolen lands to their owners in the northern Colombian department of Bolívar, El Tiempo reported on 15 July. The Colombian Government has encouraged rural families who fled lawless districts in past years to return and reclaim lands stolen from them; decades of conflict between the state and the two communist guerrilla forces have fomented insecurity and relative lawlessness in parts of Colombia that have become breeding grounds for armed gangs and paramilitaries engaged in activities including extortion and land grabbing. The national broadcaster Señal Colombia regularly publicises the progress of the Government's land restitution programme, depicting contented peasants resuming farming activities in bucolic settings. Yet the programme was bound to generate resistance - which in Colombia often means violence - from those who took over stolen lands. The 31-year-old activist José Segundo Turizo, said to have been shot in the neck and head in the district of Tiquisio, was coordinating the restitution of the lands to 14 families. The daily described him as a farmer and father of five. Separately, the daily Vanguardia Liberal reported on 15 July that 19 people were shot or found dead around the capital Bogotá over the weekend of 12-14 July.

Mexico's Interjet begins flights between Bogotá and Mexico City

The Mexican airliner Interjet, which covers routes inside Mexico and the American continent, began from 11 July direct flights between Mexico City and Bogotá, moving to exploit an anticipated increase in travel between the two states, members of the Pacific Alliance trading block. Interjet was to fly once every day, leaving Mexico City before 10:00 a.m and returning from Bogotá at 15:25, Mexico's El Universal newspaper reported, citing comments by the Interjet CEO José Luis Garza. The Interjet website was initially promoting tickets "from" a little over 520 USD, which at first glance seemed cheaper than similar flights operated by the Colombian airline Avianca. Interjet moved some 7.2 million passengers on all its routes in 2012, El Universal reported. It separately cited Mexico's travel monitoring system as counting a 30 per-cent increase in the number of Colombians who flew into Mexico, from 125,882 in 2011 to 163,072 in 2012.

Residents of Bogotá suburb hand in firearms, grenades

Municipal authorities of the district of Usme south of Bogotá were satisfied with the response to a disarmament day organized in that district, which yielded more than 20 firearms and weaponry thought directly related to violent crimes including the 31 homicides reported in Usme from 1 January to 31 May. The Bogotá municipality led by the Mayor Gustavo Petro has pursued disarmament as one of the means of reducing murders in and around the capital. The undated disarmament day brought in a range of items including "13 firearms," nine grenades, a "home-made grenade launcher" and "home-made shotgun," the Bogotá Government Secretary, the office that coordinates the capital's security affairs, reported on 9 July. Those who surrendered such items were exempted from investigations or prosecution for possession of arms, and given vouchers for the Éxito supermarket chain, a Deputy-Government Secretary of Bogotá Hugo Zarrate declared. He said disarmament "alongside other policies" had by 31 May reduced the homicide rate to 14.8 per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to 16.8 for 2012. It appeared he was speaking about all of Bogotá, though the report did not specify.

Media, public question gangs ceasefire in El Salvador

The website elsalvador.com observed on 6 July that hopes raised by the ceasefire the main street gangs began in 2012 - and especially a pledge to stop violent crime in specified municipalities - had "slowly faded away" amid the recent spike in killings across El Salvador. It counted 103 killings in 12 of the country's 14 departments "in the latest escalation of violence," though it gave no dates for these. Mexico's Notimex agency was cited as reporting 12 killings on 1 July, 20 the next day and 24 on 3 July, which were figures far above the four-seven killings a day officials had boasted had become a general norm after the ceasefire began in March 2012. The Salvadorean President was cited as saying on 6 July that the rate returned to "6-7" killings a day in the preceding 48 hours, due he said to police and other actions, which he did not specify. Elsalvador.com observed however that residents were noting little difference in districts where the Mara gangs had agreed to eschew violent crime, as violence and extortion continued there as elsewhere. President Mauricio Funes discussed the recent violence on 4 July with one of the ceasefire mediators, the former leftist guerrilla Raúl Mijango. The mediator asked that the government continue backing the process and aid the social reintegration of criminals, Notimex reported. Mr Mijango had promised that week that the violence would fall again within 72 hours, which prompted politicians to attack him, presumably for what seemed like an excessive level of complicity or familiarity with criminals. On 6 July the President also asked the opposition ARENA party and its leader Norman Quijano González to stop their "electoral" attacks on the ceasefire whose necessity he alleged ARENA accepted, the Public Security Ministry reported. Mr Funes said the mediator Raúl Mijango told him that members of ARENA had informed him ARENA was itself interested in maintaining dialogue with the Mara gangs should it win the presidential elections scheduled for February 2014. Mr Funes told a radio interview that "in fact they want to talk but right now during the elections it doesn't suit them to go with the ceasefire." ARENA he said, presently sought to depict the ceasefire as "a dark pact between the government and gang members, between President Funes and gang members...don't be hypocritical and mean... don't appear like you're telling the public you would not make a pact with criminals."

Bogotá creates 45 "safe zones" to take taxis

Bogotá's transport authority set up 45 "yellow zones" in the Colombian capital where it recommended travellers take a cab, in a bid to allay public fears about the risks of taking a taxi on the street, Bogotá's Radio Santa Fe reported on July 3. Police regularly advise people not to take taxis on the street, especially at night, and media have observed that the capital's thousands of taxi drivers include an unspecified minority of former criminals. The broadcaster did not elaborate on the security system, but cited the authorities' list of street sections where safe taxis could be found. A Bogotá court separately ordered jailed five suspects recently caught with arms, drugs and credit cards thought to have been robbed from taxi passengers, Radio Santa Fe reported on 2 July. Police were reportedly alerted about their suspect conduct and presence in a hotel in central Bogotá on 20 June, and inspection of one or several rooms revealed items including firearms and forged documents. The five were to be charged with possessing arms, drugs and forged documents, Radio Santa Fe reported.

Residents of Colombia's Bucaramanga to separate trash, recyclables

Authorities in Bucaramanga, a city of more than 500,000 residents in north-eastern Colombia, instructed residents of the city and its suburbs to separate recyclables from household waste from 1 July or pay a fine after September, the dailies El Espectador and Vanguardia Liberal reported on 1 July. The decree, applicable from that day, appeared innovative and Colombian media commented on it in preceding days; recyclables like plastic, paper and glass were to be prepared in separate bags for municipal collection once a week, either on Wednesday or Thursday depending on the municipal trash collection routine, the dailies reported. Residents failing to separate would initially be admonished and face fines after 1 September. El Espectador cited the city official Consuelo Ordóñez as saying that the Bucaramanga district produced 58 per cent of all the rubbish in the Bucaramanga Metropolitan Area, followed by Floridablanca with 20 per cent and Girón with 11 per cent, though no figures were given of trash volumes. Sustainability was one of the 10 components of the current mayor's policy plan for 2012-15.

Figures show fall in crimes in Mexico in 2013, but not kidnapping

The Observatorio Nacional Ciudadano, a private body that monitors crime and security trends in Mexico, revealed on 27 June that police figures for the first quarter of 2013 showed a drop in Mexico's "higher impact" crimes like homicides and violent robberies, but not kidnappings, which increased 16.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2013, presumably year-on-year. The report for the period January to the end of April 2013 was based on public complaints or reported crimes registered with the Public Security National System (Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Pública), a federal government agency. The Observatory's website cautioned however that the figures excluded unreported crimes. Its graphic summary of five "high-impact" crimes for the period January 2012-late April 2013 showed for example that while the average 17 extortions reported daily in the first quarter of 2013 were less than the 20 daily extortions reported over 2012, the figures likely represented just five per cent of all extortions. The Observatory's director Francisco Rivas gave the press on 27 June some of the report's highlights: kidnappings he said were the "high impact" crime that most increased in 16 months from January 2012 to the end of April 2013, rising 31.4 per cent. Homicides fell 13.8 per cent between January 2012 and the end of April 2013 and 10 per cent from January 2013, he said. In the first quarter of 2013, based on the official figures: reported extortions fell by 18.5 per cent, violent thefts by 3.6 per cent and car thefts 5.2 per cent. One of the country's most notorious kidnapping cases occurred on 26 May, when 12 or 13 youngsters were taken from an after-hours club in the capital's Zona Rosa district. These had yet to be found although authorities recently interrogated three suspects. The Zona Rosa is a neighbourhood of bars and restaurants, hitherto considered reasonably safe. The office of the chief prosecutor of Mexico City stated on 27 June that interrogations indicated the kidnapping was likely linked to a vendetta between two gangs of street dealers active locally, Proceso reported, citing agency reports. On 27 or 28 June, relatives of the disappeared and activists filled Tepito, the district of Mexico City where the 12 lived, with pictures of the kidnapped, perhaps hoping to jog memories or encourage residents to give information, Milenio reported. A reward equivalent to just over 770,000 USD was being offered to anyone providing information that would lead to the kidnapped, Milenio stated.

Los Angeles mayor signs in ban on plastic bags

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed into law on 27 June a Los Angeles city council vote to end the distribution and use of plastic bags in Los Angeles, making it the largest city so far in the United States to banish plastic bags, agencies and press reported. The ban would take effect in a six-month period from 1 January to June 2014, while the city was to hand out a million reusable bags to residents of poorer districts, the Associated Press reported. Those not taking their own bags to shops would have to buy paper bags for 10 cents, and shops would have to compile quarterly reports on the number of bags sold, AP reported. Antonio Villaraigosa's term as mayor was to end on 1 July.

Guatemalan bus drivers lynch extortionist

Bus drivers in the Guatemalan capital lynched a presumed extortionist on 25 June when he went to collect his money, the daily Prensa Libre reported the next day. The victim was found with his hands and feet bound and was apparently strangled to death with a plastic cable. Extortion is widespread in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, and bus and taxi drivers and stall owners are typical targets. The daily cited police as saying that the victim visited the drivers on 24 June to say he would return the next day for his "bonus;" he was met then by a crowd of  bus drivers and shopkeepers who began to beat him. Prensa Libre stated that 12 suspected criminals have been lynched around Guatemala so far in 2013, and 300 arrested for suspected extortion according to official figures. Police separately shot dead in the capital on 25 June a gunman who earlier sought but failed to kill a bus driver in a possible robbery, also arresting one or two suspected accomplices, Prensa Libre reported on 26 June. Passengers apparently stopped the attempted assault and threw the gunman off the bus, after which he sought to escape with an associate by motorbike, shooting at police on the streets. On 22 or 23 June, the Defence and Interior ministers presented the Guatemalan President with a security report for the period January to the end of June 2013; authorities stated in the report that they had dismantled 69 "structures" involved in murder, extortion and car theft among other crimes, the Ministry reported on 23 June.

Government to talk to protesting peasants in north-eastern Colombia

Colombian officials said they would talk again with representatives of some 7-14,000 peasants who have been blocking roads since 12 June in districts of the northern department of Norte de Santander, in protest at local poverty and the Government's bid to eradicate coca plantations providing many with a living, media reported on 24 and 25 June. Some officials have accused the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) - the guerrillas thought involved in drug cultivation and trafficking - of infiltrating or organising the protests. The suspicion was strengthened when a FARC representative, the guerrilla dubbed Iván Marquez, stated the FARC's solidarity with the protests from Havana, the daily El Tiempo reported on 24 June. The Government stated that day it would talk to protesters from the Catatumbo region if public order were first restored, particularly in the districts of Tibú and Ocaña. After clashes with state forces in previous days, the districts were said to be calm then, although El Tiempo reported that some 7,000 peasants continued to block the roads from Tibú to Ocaña, Ábrego-Ocaña and Ocaña-Convención. Another of their demands was that the Government rescind mining permits given to foreign firms in this area. A Government team including local mayors, the Governor of Norte de Santander Edgar Díaz and the deputy-interior and agriculture ministers was to meet with protesters in Tibú to discuss grievances and plan a ministerial-level meeting, RCN la Radio reported on 25 June. Díaz told RCN radio that day that the protests were an understandable response to the state's neglect of the area for "30 years." He urged the Government to find alternatives to the coca cultivations it was eradicating. Meanwhile the country's Police chief rebuked regional police forces on 25 June for "doing nothing" to end road blocks he said could eventually become unmanageable, observing it was "no surprise people greatly miss" Colombia's former conservative president Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Bogotá's Radio Santa Fe reported. Mr Uribe vigorously fought crime and guerrilla activities while President from 2002 to 2010, and left office with high approval ratings. Police General José León Riaño might have been referring to a recent poll organized by the History Channel in which Mr Uribe won most votes as the most prominent or admired personality in recent Colombian history. General León told regional colleagues by video-conference that when Uribe was president, "there was a kidnapping and the commander was at the kidnapping site within an hour, leading rescue operations. There was a road block and it was unblocked within an hour, road blocks were not accepted. Not so today, we're blocking all over the place, waiting and waiting while road blocks escalate" until their resolution becomes "very complicated." He told colleagues not to "sit and wait for the conversation table," referring either to planned talks with protesters or ongoing talks with the FARC in Havana, which Colombian media term a Dialogue.

Mexican drug cartel accuses militia of conniving with crime

The drug cartel Caballeros Templarios, which is active in western Mexico, accused a recently-founded anti-crime militia of collaborating with rival gangs in the western state of Guerrero and advised authorities to stay out of its imminent bid to destroy these groups, the review Proceso reported on 23 June. Self-defence groups have emerged in several parts of Mexico in response to violent crime and official corruption, and more so in smaller and rural districts where residents have accused local police and authorities of cowering before the powerful cartels. In this case the Templarios hung sheets in the districts of Atoyac de Álvarez and Coyuca de Benítez accusing the group led by activist Leopoldo Soberanis Hernández of being a front for the gang dubbed Los Granados and the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel. The gang was described as an offshoot of the dismantled Beltrán Leyva cartel. These, the sheets read, were kidnapping "teachers, tourists, the elderly and making social activists and environmentalists disappear," which the Templars said they would not permit. The cartel told the Mexican state not to "meddle" as it proceeded to eliminate "these stains." According to Proceso the civilian militia's formation was announced during a protest on 20 June by residents of four districts of the Costa Grande sector of Guerrero. "More than 1,000" residents of Coyuca de Benítez, Atoyac de Álvarez, Benito Juárez and Tecpan de Galeana announced they would form the Citizens' Self-Defence Group (Grupo de Autodefensa Ciudadana) as they blocked the motorway linking Guerrero to the neighbouring state of Michoacán. Proceso cited the activist Leopoldo Soberanis as telling a telephone interview that the militia was the fruit of locals' disgust with state "indolence" toward violent crime and to alleged ties between local authorities and troops based in the district of Petatlán with the Caballeros Templarios. He said he wanted his group recognised by the state government and would seek to expand its activities to three more districts in Guerrero including Petatlán. The review observed that the militia's first protest coincided with an incipient tour by the Guerrero governor to promote the state as a tourist destination; Guerrero includes the resort of Acapulco.

Suspected gangsters, extortionists held around Colombia

Several suspects thought involved in organised crime and extortion were reported detained in Colombia in recent days, including six members of one of the main national gangs the Rastrojos, while authorities found an explosives cache thought to belong to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). In San Martín in the department of Meta south of Bogotá, police detained a suspected member of Los Rastrojos sought by Interpol and likely to be charged with criminal conspiracy, the Ministry of Defence reported on 21 June. Police anti-extortion units (Gaula) arrested five other members of this gang in Soledad, a district next to the northern port of Barranquilla, suspected of coordinating extortion in that district and elsewhere in the department of Atlántico, Caracol radio reported on 21 June. Earlier President Juan Manuel Santos ordered the head of the anti-extortion police to work from Barranquilla, in an apparent response to a surge in extortions in parts of that district. This was apparently affecting bus drivers and stall owners in particular, the Presidential office reported on 19 June. General Humberto Guatibonza Carreño "is going to come and work here in Barranquilla and in Cartagena until this problem is totally resolved," the President was cited as saying after a security meeting in Barranquilla. In southern Bogotá police arrested six or more members of an extortion gang that worked around the capital's main wholesale market Corabastos, the Defence Ministry reported on 20 June. The gang reportedly forced "more than 100" street vendors and dairy products distributors to pay every day the equivalent of between 2.5 USD and five USD to avoid being robbed or beaten. In the department of Cauca in western Colombia, Police confiscated grenades and bullets found in the locality of Cerro Manuel in the district of Timbiquí, and thought to belong to Front 29 of the FARC, Bogotá's Radio Santa Fe reported on 20 June.

Report describes recent history of kidnappings in Colombia

A report issued on 20 June by Colombia's semi-official National Centre of Historical Memory (Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica) and the consultancy firm Cifras y Conceptos was presented as "the most solid and consistent" history of kidnapping in Colombia from 1970 to 2010 and of its geographical and human anatomy. The report entitled Una Verdad Secuestrada used 1,302,337 data pertaining to 39,058 kidnap victims, and was created with the support of bodies including the Police, the European Union and Colombia's state prosecution service (Fiscalía), Caracol radio reported. The broadcaster reported some of the highlights of its findings: it stated that Bogotá, Medellín and Cali were the cities most affected by kidnapping in that period, with 2,572 registered kidnappings in Bogotá in 1970-2010, 1,920 in Medellín and 1,241 in Cali. Tuluá, a district half-way between Bogotá and the Pacific coast, had the fewest - 153 - kidnappings. The country's two communist guerrilla armies - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) - were found to be the most prolific kidnappers, followed by criminal gangs who nevertheless kidnapped more in cities like Bogotá, Caracol reported. Figures showed that criminals kidnapped most in Bogotá in this period - 840 times - while the FARC had carried out their greatest number of kidnappings in the districts of Miraflores in the department of Guaviare (182 kidnappings there), and in San Vicente del Caguán (152) and Villavicencio (142), respectively in southern and in south-central Colombia. The ELN kidnapped most in Cali (353) and in Valledupar (307) in the northern department of César near the Venezuelan frontier. Graphic representaion of the history of kidnappings showed that kidnappings began to increase from 1990 and rose exponentially around 1996, at the start of what the report termed as a "massification" period. Its chart showed that kidnappings reached a peak in 2000-2002, when they began to decline during a "containment" period, Caracol reported. A decline and stagnation in kidnappings broadly coincided with the two presidencies of Álvaro Uribe Vélez (2002-2010), the conservative leader who waged war on crime and insurgencies.

Colombia captures "five terrorists," gang suspects

Colombian authorities detained five presumed members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) "as they slept" south of the district of Buenaventura on the Pacific Coast, Caracol radio reported on 18 June, citing declarations by the Minister of Defence Juan Carlos Pinzón. The Minister said the "five terrorists" were caught during "a surgical operation, legitimate and respectful of human rights" carried out by Naval Intelligence agents. Arms and "ample" amounts of ammunition were confiscated, Caracol reported. In Bogotá, police detained a drug trafficker identified as Gilberto Piñeros González, while he ate lunch on 18 or 19 June, Bogotá's Radio Santa Fe reported. The trafficker was one of 19 inmates who broke out of a prison in Ecuador on 12 February 2013, and this was the second or third time he was being held. Authorities separately detained in the western Valle del Cauca department six suspected criminals including a presumed chief or regional head of Los Urabeños - one of Colombia's main criminal gangs; the latter, a man dubbed Guacamayo, was sought for a range of charges including homicides, "torture," kidnapping and drug trafficking and was described as "the last of the leaders" of the Urabeños. He was detained at an unspecified date in the district of Alcalá, the Ministry of Defence reported on 18 June, adding that authorities had been tracking him since 2011 when he returned to Colombia after serving a seven-year prison sentence in the United States. Others detained with him were identified as an aide and finance chief dubbed el Rojo, three gunmen active in the district of Jamundí in Valle del Cauca, and two street dealers.

Los Angeles council votes against plastic bags

The city council of Los Angeles voted to ban shops from handing out plastic bags to shoppers, following the lead taken by several cities in California to restrict a useful accessory that has become one of the major pollutants of the land and oceans, press and agencies reported on 19 June. The ordinance, once confirmed and signed by the mayor, was to gradually take effect between 1 January and 1 July 2014, applying first to the largest supermarkets, Los Angeles Times reported. It would require shoppers to bring their own bags or buy paper bags for 10 cents, while businesses that failed to comply would be fined 100 USD after the first violation, 200 USD after the second and 500 USD after the third, this continuing for every day the shop persisted in handing out plastic bags, the daily reported. Jobs were likely to be lost in the plastic sector, but the move was expected to cut the pollution caused by bags, many of which were thought to end up in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch or Plastic Soup that mostly consists of plastic fragments and is reported to have increased in size 100 fold in the last 40 years. EFE news agency cited Los Angeles authorities as estimating that presently some 2,000 million plastic bags were given out in Los Angeles annually; 60 Californian communities or districts it added had banned the distribution of free or of all plastic bags, including San Francisco in 2007 and Santa Monica in 2011.

Local politician, builder, gangster among recent killed in Mexico

A mayoral candidate in 2012 was found shot dead on 15 June in the western Mexican state of Guerrero; he was one of at least 17 including a constructor, a former civil servant and a presumed gangster reported killed around Mexico in recent days. Guillermo Maceda Cervantes, a former pre-candidate for the district of Tlacoachistlahuaca and member of the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), was found in his car outside the district of Ometepec in Guerrero, Proceso reported, citing Mexico's Notimex agency. A former member of the office of the chief prosecutor of the state of Michoacán in western Mexico was also shot dead on 15 June while driving in the state capital Morelia, Proceso reported. Witnesses reportedly said a gunman waited for the victim's car to reach a crossroads, standing on the dividing line of the two sides of the street. The bodies of three executed men were found on 16 June in the north-western state of Sinaloa, with a message for the local police left beside them, while soldiers shot dead three suspected criminals in a gunfight on 16 June, in the western state of Michoacán, Proceso reported. The shootout occurred on a ranch or a locality between the  districts of Los Reyes and Cotija, near the border of the neighbouring state of Jalisco, the review stated. It counted no less than nine killings on 13-14 June, including of the owner of a construction firm and five of his workers, shot late on 13 June in the district of Totolápam, outside the Pacific-coast resort of Puerto Escondido. Police separately confirmed the killing of a gang leader on 16 June, in the district of San Andrés Cholula in the central state of Puebla. The victim was identified as presumed head of a gang known as Los Rojos, said to be based in the western district of Chilpancingo and to have acted or be acting as enforcers or gunmen for the Beltrán Leyva cartel. It was not immediately clear if the gang was independent now. The state Public Security chief for Puebla Sergio Lara Montellano warned the killing could provoke drug-related violence in the state, Proceso reported on 18 June.

Honduran convicts donate beds to elderly home, in seeming peace gesture

Jailed members of the Mara Salvatrucha, one of the main killing and extortion gangs in Honduras, donated 50 wooden beds they had made to an old people's home in the northern city of San Pedro Sula where they were jailed, the daily El Heraldo reported on 18 June. The Auxiliary Bishop of San Pedro Sula interpreted the donation as a sign of the gangsters' goodwill and desire to change lives, following earlier public declarations that they would abandon crime. Monsignor Rómulo Emiliani, who was acting as mediator in an incipient ceasefire between this and the rival Barrio 18 gang, accompanied the inmates as they delivered the beds to the home where they themselves were said to have elderly relatives. The newspaper cited an unnamed member of the 18 gang as thanking God "as He is always first in these situations," then the bishop for his "support and faith," and stating the gang's desire to show Hondurans "we want real changes in Honduras," one of the continent's most violent states. He said his gang would, at some point, take part in all "social causes" where given an opportunity. The cleric was separately cited as saying that while President Porfirio Lobo had phoned to express support for the planned ceasefire, the state had done nothing specific yet to forward a peace plan. Nor had criminal violence stopped in Honduras in spite of contrary assertions, as recent incidents indicated. A member of the presidential guard was shot dead in Comayagüela north of the capital Tegucicalpa on 17 or 18 June, while driving home with his wife and child, La Prensa and EFE news agency reported. In San Pedro Sula, a 26-year-old bus driver's assistant was shot dead by a thief, after the assistant refused to let him flee from the bus, La Prensa reported on 18 June. Three prisoners and a woman were also shot dead in the capital on 15 June, apparently while the inmates were on leave; they were said to have been shot by a five-member execution squad firing assault weapons, La Prensa reported on 16 June.

Salvadoran mediators to advise Honduras on gangs ceasefire

To help realise the pledge made last May by the two main street gangs in Honduras to abandon crime, mediators of a gangs ceasefire in El Salvador and representatives of the Organisation of American States (OAS) met and talked on 17 June with gang members and Honduran mediators, in what seemed to be a first concrete step to ensure the ceasefire took off in Honduras, the Associated Press reported. An OAS official Ana Martínez told the agency that a meeting held in a prison in the city of San Pedro Sula in northern Honduras was to establish a code of practice and make personal contacts, and took place with the knowledge of Honduran officials. The Auxiliary Bishop of San Pedro Sula, Rómulo Emiliani, who is to act as mediator in what was hoped would become a disarmament and pacification process involving Honduran gangs, was cited as saying that Salvadorean mediators had come to "specifically" back "this effort, transmit to us their experiences and offer their support, always bearing in mind that the context of violence in Honduras" differed from El Salvador's. A spokesman for the Barrio 18 gang who attended the meeting was cited as claiming that homicides had dropped 80 per cent in Honduras since the gangs announced a ceasefire in late May; he added however that "the situation" was "complicated" as police "continue to murder us. They do not arrest us they execute us," AP reported. The agency observed it was impossible to verify whether or not homicides had declined in Honduras in recent weeks.

Slight increase in homicides, kidnappings seen in Mexico City

A report showed a year-on-year increase in homicides, kidnappings and gunfire injuries in Mexico City in the first five months of 2013, although there appeared to be an overall decline in the most frequent crimes in the capital. The Reporte de Índice Delictivo (RINDE) compiled by the Citizens Council for Public Security (Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad Pública y Justicia Penal) using figures from the office of the Mexico City chief prosecutor (Procuración General de la Justicia del Distrito Federal) counted 336 homicides in the capital from 1 January to the end of May 2013, compared to 316 killings for that period in 2012, the newspaper Milenio reported on 12 June. Reported or registered kidnappings increased by 12.5 per cent in that period - rising from 24 to 27 cases - and gunfire injuries rose from 466 to 520 cases. Nevertheless there was an 18-per-cent fall in the 14 most frequently committed crimes in the capital in the first five months of 2013, these declining from 21,421 to 17,550 registered incidents. The report excluded crimes not reported. The Citizens Council president in Mexico City Luis Wertman Zaslav was cited as saying that of the documented homicide figures, 40 per cent were the result of fights or scuffles, 33 per cent for vendettas, 13 per cent were crimes of passion and 15 per cent the consequence of armed robberies, Milenio reported. Wertman urged authorities not to tolerate this increase; "we are not going to allow or tolerate being deprived of the tranquility we have attained...in Mexico City, which is living today a totally different reality from that of 10 or 12 years ago. We are not going to be quiet and give into a minority of delincuents. We are going to defend our" right to walk on streets that "belong to citizens not to crime." The Citizens Council found separately that kidnappings were increasingly violent in Mexico, observing on its website that 2013 was confirming the upward trend in the killing of kidnap victims. A report posted on the Council's website on 11 June found that "at least 144 " of the 2,756 reported kidnap victims were killed in Mexico in 2012, compared to 120 of 2,979 kidnap victims killed in 2011 and 219 killed in 2010. The Council stated these were the highest fatality figures since 1971 when compilations began, adding however that many kidnappings were unreported or figures were often "shaved" downward by authorities. Separately on 12 or 13 June, a spokesman for the national Security Cabinet said state forces had freed 67 kidnap victims over 15 days in actions around the country, and detained 37 suspected kidnappers, Milenio reported. Eduardo Sánchez told a press conference at the interior ministry that the detained were members of 11 gangs thought involved in 50 other kidnapping cases; they were caught in the states of Guerrero, Nuevo León, Baja California, Estado de México, Sonora and Mexico City.

Colombian Ministry says Venezuela was informed of opponent's visit

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

Gang killings continue in Honduras in spite of pledge to stop

Although the gangs of Honduras pledged last May to end their violent acts, raising hopes that crime could drop in Honduras as it has in neighbouring El Salvador, recent killings attributed to street gangs indicated they had yet to act on their stated intentions. One recent victim of gang criminality was a 31-year-old man shot on 9 June outside the northern city of San Pedro Sula, after he refused to hand over his house to a gang. Relatives of Cristhian Fajardo Sánchez fled the family home after one of the gangs told them they needed the property, but neighbours were cited as saying that he refused to leave - living there in a state of fear and locking himself in every evening after returning from work in a bottling plant, the Honduran daily La Prensa reported on 10 June. Three gunmen reportedly shot him as he walked to work one morning; witnesses said they were waiting for him at a street corner and shot him as he sought to walk past and ignore them. It was not immediately which of the gangs killed him, as he was reported shot on the frontier of the territories of the Mara Salvatrucha and M-18 gangs. In other incidents: the head of the state electricity firm ENEE for the northern city of Progreso was shot there on 11 June as he sought to enter a taxi, and a 63-old-woman was gunned down in Tegucicalpa on 9 June, apparently while cleaning the Protestant church she attended. The killing was attributed to an execution squad of 12 Maras, and police suspected this may have been for the victim's earlier efforts as head of a residents' association to reopen an abandoned police post in her neighbourhood, La Prensa reported. The daily also reported the shooting deaths of a Guatemalan couple while driving in Choloma in the northern department of Cortés, and of two taxi drivers in San Pedro Sula and Tegucicalpa on 9 June.

Gang suspects held around Colombia, Anglican priest shot in Bogotá

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

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

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

Bogotá taxis to boost security with "panic alarms"

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

Honduran gangs offer to stop violence, lead ordinary lives

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

Colombian troops gun down FARC guerrilla who killed minister in 2001

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

Police count over 150 criminal deaths around El Salvador in May

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

Colombian troops capture FARC guerrillas, gang chief

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

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

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

Ecuador's President begins second "and last" term

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

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

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

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

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

Armed locals infuriated by army arrests in western Mexico

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

Colombia and Costa Rica sign trade treaty ahead of summit

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

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

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

Army sent to fight crime in western Mexico

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

Colombian army shoots FARC captain, pipeline blown up

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

Salvadorean Court orders minister, police chief dismissed

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

Ministers change in Peru, court orders Lima mayoress dismissed

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