Bribery charges stain Venezuelan campaign

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

Colombian guerrillas name peace negotiators

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

Colombian army kills guerrilla chieftain

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

Mexican political leader abandons leftist coalition

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

Murders spoil "farse" ceasefire of Salvadorean gangs

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

Colombia and guerrillas confirm peace talks

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

Former Colombian "drug queen," guerrilla reported killed

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

Court ratifies Mexico's general elections

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

Court rejects Left's challenge to Mexican elections

Mexico's supreme electoral court the TEPJF (Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federación) rejected on 30 August the Left's demands that it cancel the 1 July presidential elections for alleged irregularities by the winning party, stating that evidence sent to the court had been insufficient or inappropriate, Mexico's media reported. The leftist coalition led by Andrés Manuel López Obrador as well as civic groups vehemently challenged the polls, ostensibly won by the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and its presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto, alleging fraud in various forms including the purchase of votes. The court's president Alejandro Luna Ramos said that after detailed investigation of evidence presented by López Obrador's party the court found its "grievances" were "unfounded." The court he said acted here "with all the rigour the Constitution demands;" its seven members voted to approve a motion to nullify the complaint. The PRI was reportedly delighted and party members welcomed the declaration in comments on the website Twitter. López Obrador however declared on 31 August that he would rather be termed a "crazy fool" than accept the decision. The elections he said "were neither clean, nor free nor authentic. Consequently I shall not recognize an illegitimate power that has emerged from vote buying and other, serious violations of the Constitution and laws," CNN reported. In a communiqué read out in the capital, he urged his followers to gather in Mexico's historic central square the Zócalo on 9 September and decide on a course of action. He said "civil disobedience is an honourable duty" when directed at the "robbers" of Mexicans' "hopes."

Mexican court members confirm election count

Members of Mexico's supreme electoral court the TEPJF stated on 17 August that votes had been correctly counted in the 1 July general elections, apparently rejecting the validity of complaints by civic groups and two political parties about alleged malpractice throughout the electoral process. Alejandro Luna Ramos, the magistrate presiding the Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federacion, said that any flaws found in recounts were for "human errors" and did not impact the elections' outcome, El Universal reported. Another court member, Flavio Galvan, said Mexican citizens had supervised the election process and counted votes. The winning party was declared to be the Institutional Revolutionary Party; if the TEPJF confirms the election definitively, its candidate Enrique Pena Nieto would become president in December 2012.

Mexico City women warned over taxi kidnappings

The Mexico City chief prosecutor's office revealed on 26 July that authorities were monitoring three gangs considered responsible for most "express" kidnappings that have occurred in three sectors of the city in recent months, the website Animal Político reported, citing statements made at a press conference. Prosecutor Óscar Montes de Oca Rosales said that seven of every 10 registered express kidnappings were against women, and these happened mostly when they took taxis to work between 06:00 and 09:00 hours. Victims of such crimes - usually lasting hours or a day perhaps - are forced to hand over cash and withdraw cash from dispensers. Montes de Oca said authorities were observing the methods used by these gangs, which he said operated in the generally middle-class sectors of Coyoacán, Cuauhtémoc and Benito Juárez. A classic method was reported to be the taxi stopping for a technical problem, allowing accomplices to arrive. Separately, one of the capital's Green Party politicians said on 25 July that authorities had but a "partial" map of crimes in the capital, since citizens did not even report 80 per cent of crimes for distrusting the police and lawcourts, often perceived as corrupt, Notimex reported. The Green Ecological Party of Mexico (PVEM) sided with the winning Institutional Revolutionary Party in the 1 July general elections, though it was unclear how much policy-making power it would yield in any future administration. The PVEM leader in the capital Samuel Rodríguez Torres said this public distrust was fuelling insecurity in the capital. He said the "preventive police" were neither acting against the 13,000 points of sale for drugs thought to exist in the capital nor using information supplied by the police intelligence centre C4i4 or images from the city's 12,000 security cameras.

FARC bomb Colombian pipeline, oil pours into river

Suspected members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) bombed a pipeline in the department of Boyacá in northern Colombia on 21 July, provoking crude oil to pour into a nearby river and threatening waterways in Colombia and Venezuela, Europa Press reported on 23 July, citing local media reports and official declarations. The pipeline was blown up near La Blanquita in the municipality of Cubará, provoking a crude spill into the Róyota river, a tributary of the Arauca, which flows into Venezuela. Several aqueducts were said to be threatened, though troops were working to contain the oil with sandbags, Colombia's Mines Minister Mauricio Cárdenas Santamaría declared. He said the nation rejected such "acts of terrorism."

Colombian police expel natives from army base

Colombian police expelled on 18 July natives who occupied on 17 July an army position outside Toribío, in the Cauca department, the scene of fighting between the state and communist guerrillas, which natives say is desecrating their ancestral lands, EFE reported. Police used tear gas to expel the occupants of the army telecomunications position on a hill named Cerro Berlín. Three natives were injured, one arrested and one reportedly disappeared, Carlos Andrés Alfonso a legal representative of the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca (Acín) told EFE, observing that the natives had been thrown off their own land. The Cauca's police chief Ricardo Alarcón said in the departmental capital Popayán that this was a "strategic position in operations against" the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

Natives throw Colombian troops off base

About 1,000 indigenous residents of Toribío in the southern Cauca department, angered by gunfights around them between the state and communist guerrillas and implementing an earlier threat to take charge of local security, forced soldiers to abandon a nearby position on 16-17 July, in keeping with a deadline they had set, Europa Press reported on 18 July. Members of the Nasa nation climbed the Cerro Berlín, a hill overlooking Toribío, and urged 200 troops to leave a position defending a communication installation; refusing, the soldiers were disarmed and pushed out amid reported arguments and scuffles. The soldiers did not use their arms, but FARC guerrillas nearby were reported to have shot in that direction without causing injuries. Natives then sealed and occupied the site; a sergent expelled in the incident said he felt "humiliated," Reuters reported. President Juan Manuel Santos denounced the "unacceptable events" he qualified as liable to prosecution; "everything has a limit," he said, and the state would not permit attacks on "those who defend us." Defence Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón said in turn that "the public force cannot and must not leave" Cauca and leave natives "at the mercy of guerrillas and drug traffickers." He claimed the FARC had "infiltrated" certain native organizations, without specifying. "Autonomy and respect for native rights are one thing, starting to break the law is quite another," he said. The governor of the regional Indigenous Council Héctor Fabio Vircué was cited as saying on 17 July that natives were not demanding an evacuation of the Cauca "but of our territories. The place where they put the base was sacred." Separately the governor of Cauca Themístocles Ortega described the situation as the result of the state's "slow and belated" response to Cauca's situation. He said "the Cauca is living today the state's historical abandonment," and urged reconciliation between natives and the state, Europa Press reported.

Natives in Cauca ask troops, guerrillas to leave

The natives of the Cauca department in south-western Colombia sent letters on 15 July to the army and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), asking them to leave the Cauca, which natives stated had become the scene of "indiscriminate" shellings by the FARC, Europa Press reported on 16 July, citing Colombian press reports. One letter was addressed to the FARC commander Rodrigo Echeverry Londoño, aka Timoshenko, and another to the army commander in the Cauca General Jorge Humberto Pérez; they were asked to evacuate the region within 24 and 72 hours respectively. State officials have ruled out any such evacuation. The FARC were accused of having no respect for civilians and of shelling towns in an "indiscriminate" manner, while the army was said to have failed in its mission to assure the security of locals. The letters were first read out in public outside the offices of the Indigenous Guard - a native militia - in the town of Miranda, in the presence of two personalities who were to mediate between natives and the government: the Jesuit priest Francisco de Roux representing the Church, and the former Spanish high-court judge Baltazar Garzón. These met earlier to consider the natives' proposal to demilitarize the zone and entrust security to the Indigenous Guard.

Mexican firms to reduce salt in bread

Mexico's bread-making firms have agreed to cut salt by 10 per cent in bread products, in a bid to prevent heart ailments or strokes, linked to excess salt consumption, CNN reported on 12 July, citing comments by President Felipe Calderón. He was reported as saying that bread, alongside processed foods, were the sources of the excess salt consumed by up to 80 per cent of Mexicans; Mexicans are thought to consume 10 grams of salt or sodium a day or twice the recommended amount. The president said preventing a range of illnesses would help ease the financial burden on the public health system. An agreement to cut salt in bread products was signed on 13 July by Bimbo, the National Chamber of the Baking Industry (Cámara Nacional de la Industria Panificadora) and a national association of convenience and department stores (Asociación Nacional de Tiendas de Autoservicio y Departamentales).

Peru opens Saudi embassy

Peru has opened an embassy in Saudi Arabia, with a view to boosting political and economic ties with the oil-producing kingdom; the mission's first official act was to receive on 3 July the visiting deputy-foreign minister of Peru José Beraún Araníbar. Eduardo Martinetti was to be Peru's first ambassador. Beraún was in the kingdom to extend an invitation for the third heads-of-state Summit of South American-Arab Countries, scheduled for 1-2 Octobre 2012, the foreign ministry stated.

PRI retains lead in Mexico's contested vote

Mexico's authorities confirmed on 5 July that Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) won the presidential elections of 1 July, even as the second candidate, leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador, threatened to challenge the entire election process, Reuters reported on 6 July. With 99.53 per cent of the votes counted on 5 July, Peña Nieto had won 38.21 per cent of the votes and López Obrador 31.57 per cent, Reuters reported. The Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) reportedly completed by the afternoon of 5 July recounting more than half the votes as promised earlier. But López Obrador's Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) challenged the election on 6 July and a party spokesman said the PRD would formally ask the country's supreme electoral arbiter TEPJF (Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federación) on 12 July to cancel it. The party would present evidence of violations, which it claims have nullified the polls' validity. The student movement Yo Soy 132 separately stated on 5 July that it had some 1,100 complaints about the electoral process compiled in 70 pages and 45 videos, and would present them to the IFE and the court dealing with electoral violations, EFE reported. The conservative candidate who came third with over 25 per cent of votes, Josefina Vázquez Mota, accepted the results on 5 July but said unfair conditions had influenced the outcome, EFE and Infolatam reported. She said in Mexico City that opinion polls before the elections that gave Peña Nieto a decisive lead had amounted to "propaganda" and conditions of "inequity" before and during campaigning shaped the results.

Mexico creates literary prize

Mexico is to give out a 250,000-USD prize every 11 November to a writer in Spanish, in memory of the country's late novelist Carlos Fuentes, the daily ABC reported on 4 July, citing EFE. The Carlos Fuentes Prize for Literary Creation in Spanish (Premio Internacional Carlos Fuentes a la Creación Literaria en Idioma Español) was to honour Fuentes who died on 15 May, but also part of a project to make Mexico an "intellectual platform for Spanish," the head of state arts council Conaculta (Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes) Consuelo Sáizar told the press in Mexico City on 3 July. The prize was envisaged for writers whose works have enriched "the literary heritage of humanity in Spanish," Conaculta's cultural and arts secretary Roberto Vázquez said. It would be determined by a jury of seven including four writers or academics and three members of the language academies of Spain, Mexico and a Latin American state. their decision would be made known on 16 October.

Left keeps Mexico City in elections

The candidate of the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) to become mayor of Mexico City Miguel Ángel Mancera Espinosa, was reported to have won elections by a large margin, maintaining the Left's power in the capital after general elections on 1 July, El Universal reported on 2 July. Authorities said that with 90 per cent of votes counted on 2 July, the PRD was leading in the capital's 16 districts, Notimex reported.