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

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

Fifty or more reported killed, dead around Mexico

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

Property prices rise in Colombia, "no bubble" yet

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

Venezuelan President fears "plot" against rival

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

Mexican troops detain armed locals, held in turn

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

Dozens reported killed around Mexico

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

Colombian troops kill, detain FARC guerrillas

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

Venezuela to elect president in April

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

Colombian guerrillas free two hostages

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

Venezuela swears in acting leader, elections called

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

Venezuelans comment interim presidency's legality

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

Election body confirms Correa's victory in Ecuador polls

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

Venezuela mourns its president

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

FARC rebels killed, held in Colombia

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

Mexican party amends statutes to help government

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

Mexican union boss loses post after arrest

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

Mexico insists union chief's arrest legal, not political

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

Mexicans awed, jubilant as union leader held over fraud

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

El Salvador launches an anti-gangs court

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

Farmers denounce suspect killings in Honduras

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