Cartel suspect detained in Mexico, four killed

Four men were found dead in eastern Mexico on 4 November with indications they had been "executed" by a cartel or gang, Proceso reported. Their bodies were found outside the town of Tierra Blanca with heads covered, hands tied and showing "signs of torture," the review reported. Authorities were reported that day to have made several arrests around Mexico. On 1 November soldiers arrested a suspect identified as "one of the most important" members of the Sinaloa drug cartel, Mexico's leading cartel though challenged by rivals, Proceso reported on 4 November. Jesús Alfredo Salazar Ramírez - El Muñeco (Doll) - was stopped in Huixquilucan in the Estado de México state. He headed Los Salazar, a gang said to be part of the Sinaloa cartel, and was sought for his suspected in role in "numerous" executions around northern Mexico and in the capital, including of the anti-crime activist Nepomuceno Moreno Núñez in November 2011. A Texas court had separately issued an arrest warrant for him, for charges of criminal association and drug trafficking. On 3 or 4 November police arrested three Guatemalans "wearing military uniforms" thought to have participated in "one of the shootouts" reported on 3 November in the northern city of Reynosa, Proceso reported. They were detained after they began shooting at a police patrol near their purported hideout; arms, ammunition and hand grenades were found in the house. Proceso reported another shoutout in Reynosa on 4 November, in a shopping centre and apparently without casualties.

Twenty six reported killed around Mexico

It was one of Mexico's more violent days: more than 25 were reported killed or found dead on 1-2 November, including four whose dismembered bodies were left outside a police station with a warning message. Presumed cartel members left the bodies in a car boot outside a federal police station in the northern city of Torreón, with a message to the "asshole" police to "keep still" or there would be more violence, the review Proceso reported on 2 November. Also in Torreón, gunmen fired on a congregation attending a "service" or ceremony in honour of the figure of Holy Death, killing six in the group. The cult of Holy Death (Santa Muerte), depicted as a squeleton clad in robes not unlike those of the Virgin Mary, has in recent years emerged as a pseudo-religion followed mostly by the lower classes and criminals. In the west-coast state of Guerrero, four members of a family were shot dead at home late on 1 November, in the countryside of the Coyuca de Benítez district; a decapitated body was also left in a car in the nearby district of Acapulco, Milenio reported. In the state's Ajuchitlán de Progreso district, troops rescued a man kidnapped by a gang on 31 October and arrested nine suspects including four teenagers, Milenio reported on 2 November. The purported gang of kidnappers included four members aged 16 and one aged 19. In Cancún on Mexico's Caribbean coast, a 15-year-old boy and suspected thief was shot dead outside his home, at dawn on 1 November. The boy was reputedly "very violent" and had been reported several times to the police for thieving and assaults, Milenio reported. Police detained his mother, an uncle and a brother for questioning. His mother said she came out of the house and found his lifeless body, after she heard gun shots then her son "muttering."

Mayoress sends marines onto streets of Monterrey

Ninety Mexican marines began patrolling downtown Monterrey in northern Mexico on 1 November, in one of the new mayor's first moves to boost the crime-ridden city's security and to enhance, or restore, public trust in local security forces. Residents and drivers were said to have watched in surprise - or admiration - as armed and masked navy troops "slowly drove around" central Monterrey, stopping to inspect suspect vehicles, Guadalajara's 1070 Radio reported. Margarita Arellanes Cervantes, Monterrey's first female mayor since its foundation in 1596, said that day that "we are starting a new phase," even as she urged people to "call and inform" on suspects to help beat crime, Milenio reported on 2 November. She said she hoped people would trust patrols including troops and policemen, in a country where many local policemen are distrusted if not despised, and intermittently dismissed for ties to organized crime. Arellanes, a member of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), was elected mayor in July's general elections. She has vowed the "reconstruction" of Monterrey and vowed "absolute transparency" when taking office on 31 October at a ceremony in the city's theatre; "let me say very clearly, there will be no acts hidden from the law in my government. I shall watch over the absolute transparency of every one of our actions nor tolerate under any circumstance the stain of suspicion or the shadow of corruption," the website Terra cited her as saying. Earlier in October she declared that municipal employees accross the board in Monterrey would have to sit through "confidence" tests, and this seemed to have begun. On 1 November she said 80 city policemen had failed these tests and were expected to leave their posts before December. She also appointed a soldier, Rear-Admiral Augusto Cruz Morales, as the new police chief of Monterrey.

Colombian rebels killed by own bomb before attack

Two members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were killed on 31 October by a bomb they were carrying in the town of Pradera in western Colombia, avoiding what the mayor said would have been a "tragedy" as people were out and about for Halloween festivities. Nevertheless over 30 people including 14 children were injured when the bomb exploded in the town's park, according to the daily El Espectador; the guerrillas were thought to be taking the bomb on bicycles toward a police station, Europa Press reported, citing Colombia's El Tiempo. Colombia's police chief José León Riaño called this a "demented and cowardly" attack and told the FARC to expect a firm response, El Espectador reported on 1 November. He said at a police event that FARC chiefs should sit at the negotiating table in Havana if they wanted to stay alive. Colombia and the FARC are to pursue planned peace conversations in Havana on 15 November.

Five killed, policemen arrested in Mexico

Five including a former mayor and a municipal employee were murdered or found dead around Mexico on 31 October, while authorities detained 23 policemen in the district of Chalco south east of Mexico City, for suspected ties to the mafia, Proceso reported on 1 November. The suspected victims of organized crime included the former mayor of Miguel Alemán on Mexico's north-eastern frontier with the United States, shot to death as he  entered his house the evening of 31 October. The Municipal Secretary - likely a deputy-mayor - of Zumpango in the Estado de México state, separately died after being stabbed in the chest outside a clinic in that town; in the same state, the mayor-elect of Luvianos was "repeatedly" shot from car and badly injured as he drove on a state road. Early on 1 November, 1,400 state police and judicial agents of Estado de México participated in the arrests of 23 municipal policemen and five municipal employees of the Chalco and Valle de Chalco districts suspected of aiding criminals, Proceso reported. The suspects were held at the police stations where they worked to which they had been summoned for an inspection at four in the morning. They were taken to the prosecutor's office of the nearby district of Nezahualcóyotl.

Nine killed in Mexico, traffickers arrested

A policeman and two suspected criminals were three of "at least" nine reported killed or found dead around Mexico on 31 October. The three were killed in a shootout between security forces and gunmen in the district of Guasave in the north-western state of Sinaloa, Proceso reported. Four were killed the same day in a gun attack on a mechanical workshop in Guadalupe, next to the north-eastern city of Monterrey. The owner of the workshop, his son and two presumed employees were killed in that attack. Another victim was a policewoman reported kidnapped on 30 October, found dead in Tlapehuala in the western state of Guerrero. Marines separately arrested on 29 October a suspect identified as José Salgueiro Nevárez - El Che - presumed head of the Sinaloa drug cartel in Hidalgo de Parral in the northern state of Chihuahua where he was arrested, Proceso reported on 31 October. Four were arrested with him and arms, ammunition, seven cars and communication equipment confiscated. A man described by media as The Zetas cartel's main supplier of Colombian cocaine was arrested in Buenos Aires on 30 October following a multi-national investigation process, Proceso reported, citing declarations by Colombia's police chief José Roberto León. Henry de Jesús López Londoño - Mi Sangre or My Blood - was apparently arrested while attending to paperwork in Ecuador's embassy; Colombia, Argentine intelligence and the US Drug Enforcement Administration collaborated to find him.

Colombia's other rebel force proposes ceasefire

Colombian leftist rebels of the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional, ELN) proposed a bilateral ceasefire with the government on 30 October as a first step toward possible peace, and echoing the peace conversations begun between the state and the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The ELN recalled this was not the first time it had sought a ceasefire or peace conversations with the state, Europa Press reported, citing Colombia's Caracol Radio. The state has refused a ceasefire while talking to the FARC. The communiqué was read out at a seminar on protecting civilians in Colombia's conflicts, organized by the NGO Geneva Call and backed by the UN. It expressed hope for an eventual peace allowing "truth to flourish" in Colombia and the "pains" of Colombians to be "treated with dignity," but also urged an eventual "cleansing" or purging of local and regional authorities imposed by unspecified "narcotic and paramilitary pressures and corruption." The guerrilla stated that dialogue engaged within a ceasefire would create greater trust and "relieve" the suffering of civilians in conflict zones, EFE reported. The ELN was formed in 1964 and is run by a five-member Central Command including its supreme leader, currently Nicolás Rodríguez Bautista or Gabino.

Ten reported killed around Mexico

Gunmen shot dead on 30 October the district Public Security or police chief of San Martín de Hidalgo in the western state of Jalisco, a week after a similar attack on a local police chief, Proceso reported. Eight assassins reportedly arrived in a Dodge truck at seven in the morning and forcibly entered the home of Casimiro Zárate Guerrero; the weekly reported an attack on 22 October on the police chief of Guadalupe, a nearby district within the Valles zone west of the city of Guadalajara. He and two colleagues were shot dead in that attack by individuals riding four "luxury" estate cars, presumaly members of a drug cartel. Also on 30 October, marines shot dead five suspected kidnappers in the Cosamaloapan district of the the east-coast state of Veracruz, as they sought to rescue a hostage, Proceso reported. A gun battle erupted when marines entered the roadside Villa Paraíso hotel looking for the son of a local notary reportedly held there; the kidnappers threw hand grenades at them. The judiciary in the neighbouring state of Tabasco separately presented to media on 30 October three suspected kidnappers arrested on 26 October and presumed members of a gang active in the states of Tabasco and Chiapas, Proceso reported. Four people were also reported shot dead that day: three men in Tonalá next to Guadalajara and a Honduran migrant in the state of Veracruz, Proceso reported.

Fourteen killed around Mexico

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

FARC attack kills six policemen in Colombia

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

Salvador Allende's granddaughter now a mayor in Chile

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

Chile's Left advances in municipal polls

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

Colombian leaders voice divisions at party congress

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

Prison staff jailed in Mexico after inmates' flight

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

Mexican troops kill, detain suspected gangsters

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

Colombian guerrillas fighting amid peace talks

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

Colombia, rebels begin peace talks in Oslo

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

Venezuela expels Paraguay's diplomats

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

Peruvian novelist to be given Mexico's Fuentes prize

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

Nicaragua buys Russian armour to fight crime

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