Colombian President delighted with results of year in trade pact with US

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said in the northern port of Cartagena on 15 May that a year after the application of a free-trade pact with the United States, Colombian exportation to the United States had risen and 775 firms made the United States their first export market. These firms "exported to the United States for the first time," a year after the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (CTPA) began, when they "had not exported any product between 2010 and 2012," the Presidential website reported on 15 May. Mr Santos observed on an 18-per-cent rise in exports of farming products excluding coffee and flowers - two of Colombia's best known and established exports - while 200 products arrived in the United States for the first time, most notably he observed, exotic fruit, but also ceramic tiles, packaging machines, stainless steel sinks and sowing machines. "Behind this are more jobs for Colombians...if this is how we did in a year of global contraction, imagine what we can achieve in a stabilised global economy." He said agro-industrial exports to the United States rose 5.7 per cent that year and industrial exports 6.2 per cent, providing "many motives for us to feel optimistic."

Colombia catches gang suspects, Police count fewer Bogotá murders

The army caught nine suspected members of criminal gangs in operations in northern Colombia, including six suspected members of one of the main trafficking and killing outfits, the Urabeños, Caracol radio and the EFE agency reported on 13 May. The six suspected Urabeños were caught with firearms and hand grenades in a rural part of the district of Caucasia in the Antioquia department and were to be charged with illegal arms possession and trafficking. Two were identified by their pseudonyms El Fiscal and Finura and described as former paramilitaries. Troops separately caught in the district of Zaragoza three suspected members of another gang Héroes del Nordeste (North-east Heroes), including their purported chief in that district, EFE reported. In the capital Bogotá, police launched an operation on 8 May against mobile phone theft and street crime in which they detained six suspects including a purported head of a thieving gang active in one of the city's main avenues, the website of the Bogotá Government Secretary reported on 10 May. The detainee, a man dubbed Caricortado (Scarface), was described as a veteran thief of mobile phones and previously detained four times but later released for being underage. The city's Government Secretary who coordinates security policies, Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo Martínez, said police were focusing on mobile thefts as killings had declined in Bogotá but persistent mobile thefts "generate a sense of insecurity among people." Police also confiscated 1,000 knives or sharp instruments and detained five suspected street dealers, the Government Secretary reported. The Bogotá police chief said police counted 380 homicides "so far this year," 76 cases less than the 456 homicides counted for the same period in 2012, Caracol radio reported on 13 May. General Luis Martínez Guzmán cited the neighbourhoods with most killings as Ciudad Bolívar and Usme in southern Bogotá and Bosa in the west.

Nicaragua said may want more of Colombian seas after Hague ruling

Nicaragua's representative before the International Court at The Hague told media on 11 May that his country had a right to claim more of Colombia's seas following a Hague Court ruling in 2012 that advanced Nicaragua's Caribbean frontier at Colombia's expense. The 19 November ruling provoked fury in Colombia and its President declared Colombia would in the future cease to submit to the Court's arbitration over frontiers; it seemed however not to have satisfied Nicaragua. Agencies cited the diplomat Carlos Argüello as saying that the November ruling - which ceded to Nicaragua 70,000 square kilometres of sea territory to delineate the states' disputed frontier - had not denied Nicaragua the right to push out its frontier to 200 miles or further on the offshore continental platform. The daily El Espectador interpreted his comments on 12 May as implying that Nicaragua believed it should hold the entire continental platform, which Argüello said was merely to be measured to establish the correct frontier line. Argüello said President Daniel Ortega would decide in following days whether or not Nicaragua would pursue its claim and when, the daily El Colombiano reported on 13 May. It was not immediately clear if Argüello was speaking in the Netherlands or Nicaragua. He stressed this was not a new claim but a logical interpretation of international laws and the 19 November ruling, Spain's EFE agency and ABC reported. Colombia had yet to formally accept or implement the court's instructions any case. A Colombian legislator said on 12 May that the only thing President Ortega should earn was that Colombia formalise its refusal to implement the ruling. Senator Alexandra Morena Piraquive of the small MIRA party and a member of a parliamentary committee that advises the President on foreign affairs, said Nicaragua was "daring" and "disrespectful" of international law, for not giving Colombia time to have the 19 November ruling reviewed. She said Colombia should "take a political posture" and "confirm" it would ignore the ruling, Caracol radio reported.

El Salvador prosecutor denounces gangs' "false" truce

El Salvador's chief prosecutor (Fiscal-general) Luis Martínez qualified as "false" and non-existent on 8 May the year-long truce agreed on by the Mara street gangs, accusing them of pursuing their violent activities and apparently contradicting officials' assertions that the truce had reduced crime. Martínez told the press in San Salvador that the truce "has never existed" as the victims cited in the press were members of the public, not "these lazy gangsters who only steal, extort and murder," Agence France-Presse reported. The agency observed that the comments followed authorities' recognition that violent crime had recently risen in El Salvador: Police registered "more than" 45 homicides "in the first few days" of May, El Salvador's Dario Co Latino reported on 9 May, and authorities suspected gangs were involved in some or most of these including the recent killing of a family of four in Zacatecoluca, south-east of San Salvador. "Criminal, violent, merciless...actions are the cause of social violence" and cause "pain, grief and bankruptcy" to Salvadorean families, he said. The Justice and Security Minister David Munguía however was reported as telling an interview or programme on 7 or 8 May that violent crime had several causes including "social violence." The Security Ministry stated on its website on 9 May that the rise in homicides in early May did not constitute a trend. The Minister attended on 8 or 9 May the inclusion of a ninth district in El Salvador - Nueva Concepción - among districts declared free of violent crime as part of the gang truce; the government was to spend 33 million USD in these districts to re-integrate gang members into civilian life, El Salvador's Diario Co Latino reported. On 9 May the Justice and Security Ministry stated on its website that April was the least violent month since the Maras' truce began in March 2012, with police counting 144 homicides compared to 156 in April 2012. It added that in the first four months of 2013 there were 695 homicides, compared to 1,225 counted for the same period in 2012.

Venezuelan President travels to boost trade, denounces "fascist" opponents

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro told a gathering of left-wing activists in Buenos Aires on 8 May that his country was seeing the resurgence of a "fascist-style" opposition that had allegedly resorted to violence when rejecting the results of the 14 April presidential elections. He was referring to parties in the Table of Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition led by the former candidate Henrique Capriles Radonsky. Maduro began on 7 May a tour of Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil, intended he said to "strengthen food sovereignty" and replenish Venezuela's food reserves, El Nacional and Globovisión reported on 6 May. In Argentina he accused unspecified opposition groups of attacking Cuban medical centres in Venezuela after the elections, El Universal reported on 8 May. The conservative forces emerging in Venezuela he said, had "clear fascistoid signs," and were "intolerant" and hostile to "brother nations" like Argentina and Cuba, key allies of Venezuela's socialist regime." Where he asked "has anyone seen a political current challenging political elections just before attacking Cuban doctors providing a service" to Venezuelans? Venezuela's opposition was "anti-Latin American" and would "immediately" leave regional associations like Mercosur "if they had power," he told activists gathered in a stadium. Maduro denied in Montevideo, Uruguay, on 7 May that the opposition was being harrassed and said "all political currents have full liberty in Venezuela." He signed 10 accords with Uruguay before going to Argentina, where he signed 12 agreements on 8 May intended he said to eliminate "the severe shortages we have had and have, among other reasons for sabotage," Venezuela's AVN news agency reported.The agreements also envisaged joint food production and farming ventures in Venezuela, and trade and exchanges in areas of energy, media and technology.

Extortion rife in Honduras as government "fails" on security

The Honduran daily La Prensa reported on 7 May on the apparent ease with which street gangs extort money from thousands of businesses and individuals in Honduras - even the Church - raking in the equivalent of over 62 million USD or over 47 million euros a year to finance their organizations. It observed in a separate report on 6 May that certain observers estimated extortion could be earning the gangs twice that amount annually, though this was difficult to measure as most acts of extortion went unreported. Those forced to pay include bus drivers, taxi drivers, shopkeepers, owners of stalls and kiosks and businessmen from whom money was demanded in person or by phone; money was paid in forms including cash, bank transfers and re-charged mobile phones. In Tegucicalpa, members of the Mara gangs were said to collect money in the capital's 16 covered food and grocery markets, and in bus and taxi stops and small shopping centres. In the northern city of San Pedro Sula - one of the most violent cities in the Americas - likewise "all taxi and bus stops" pay, the daily observed. The country formed a National Anti-Extortion Force (Fuerza Nacional Antiextorsión) in March 2013, but the daily observed many individuals did not report extortion, fearing reprisals from gangsters who might or might not be caught and punished. La Prensa cited a driver from San Pedro Sula as saying that "members of the Maras and gangsters have killed hundreds of bus drivers, assistants and taxi drivers since 2009. We do not report because you do not know if the person you are reporting to is part of the extortion or a hired killer." A study cited claimed that some 17,500 small businesses closed in 2012 under the pressure of extortion, La Prensa reported on 6 May. Separately a coalition of Honduran rights bodies concluded on 7 May that the government of President Porfirio Lobo Sosa had failed to assure public security since taking power in 2010, in spite of its pledges, actions and claims. The Human Rights Alliance (Alianza por los Derechos Humanos) including several rights bodies held a press conference that day and issued a communiqué to denounce this failure, but also the alleged complicity of certain officials, which assured the impunity of criminals, EFE reported.

Army extends firearms ban in Bogotá, shown to cut murder rate

The army extended through May a firearms ban imposed in the Colombian capital Bogotá at the mayor's request, which officials believed had led to a comparative reduction in homicides, the Bogotá city government reported on 2 May. The ban apparently in force from 1 February to 29 April 2013 affected civilians and legal entities and was renewed from midnight on 2 May to midnight on 30 July 2013; the first such ban was imposed from 1 February to 29 April 2012, the office of the city's Government Secretary coordinating security affairs reported. Figures seemingly indicated a link between banning guns and fewer homicides: there were 166 reported homicides using guns in Bogotá from 1 February to 29 April 2013, down from 196 for the same period in 2013, and in contrast with 232 homicides cited for 2011, presumably for the same three-month period that year when there was no ban. The report stated that in the February to late-April period, police caught 40 suspects in flagrante delicto and 212 whom courts had ordered detained in relation with homicides. Hundreds of guns were also confiscated or handed in since 2012, the municipality stated. The ban did no apply to the armed forces, members of the diplomatic corps, registered security personnel and officials of the judiciary. Separately, police said they had detained 1,466 people in Bogotá so far in 2013 for stealing mobile telephones or related devices, RCN La Radio reported on 7 May. Police most recently detained eight suspected of selling stolen mobile devices in the districts of Fontibón and Kennedy in south-western Bogotá; in all 3,940 stolen devices were recovered this year, RCN radio reported.

Colombian army kills FARC guerrillas, politician shot

Troops shot dead seven fighters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and arrested another in fighting on 4-5 May in the south-western Colombian department of Nariño, agencies reported, citing army declarations. The armed-forces commander for south-western Colombia General Leonardo Barrero Gordillo said the fighting was against the FARC's Front 29 in the locality of Leyva, on the frontier between the departments of Nariño and Cauca, Spain's EFE reported on 5 May. Barrero described this as the "fourth blow" this year against Front 29, which he said had lost 58 men in 2013 in deaths, arrests and desertions. In separate incidents a member of a Christian political party and a land claimant were killed in the northern departments of César and Antioquia. The Minister of Agriculture Juan Camilo Restrepo Salazar condemned on 5 May the killing that day of Iván Restrepo García, one of the many Colombians reclaiming properties from which they were expelled in past years, in areas of Colombia affected by conflict or insecurity. Land grabbers in such cases were generally suspected to be paramilitaries, gangsters or communist guerrillas. The government has begun a programme to restore such lands and Restrepo was reportedly registered as claimant to a plot of land in the Bello district in Antioquia. He was shot in his house there, in spite of unspecified protective measures given him by the state, RCN La Radio reported. The Minister wrote on the website Twitter that land restitution policies would continue "with determination" in spite of "sharpshooters" and "regardless of who the despoiler was," RCN radio reported. Unidentified gunmen also shot dead Gustavo Briceño, a member of MIRA (Movimiento Independiente de Renovación Absoluta), a small, independent party, at an unspecified date in Valledupar in César. Briceño was a pre-candidate for Senate elections in 2014, Agence France-Presse reported.

Police find indigenous family not "massacred" in northern Colombia

Authorities of the northern Colombian department of Antioquia dismissed after investigations the recent claim made by a young man that seven close relatives had been murdered by gunmen, initially suspected to be of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia operating in the Tarazá district; a regional official said the plaintiff Luis Albeiro González was mentally disturbed. Antioquia's Government Secretary Santiago Londoño Uribe said the man's mother, said to have been killed on 2 May, was found in the district of El Bagre in Antioquia where she has lived for some time, Caracol radio reported on 5 May. She told authorities investigating her son's claims that her husband - also supposed to have been massacred - died 20 years before.

Venezuela recalls envoy from Lima over minister's "meddling" comments

President Nicolás Maduro recalled Venezuela's ambassador in Lima for consultations after Peru's Foreign Minister proposed the regional association UNASUR should ask Venezuela to talk with domestic opponents over the disputed results of the 14 April presidential elections, agencies reported on 3 May. Maduro described Foreign Minister Rafael Roncagliolo's proposal as "interventionist," adding he would phone President Ollanta Humala to check whether or not this was Peru's official position, Spain's EFE reported. This was one of several verbal exchanges Venezuela's socialist government was having with foreign states and personalities over elections whose results the opposition coalition has rejected. Roncagliolo "has not consulted with Venezuela over what he has just stated. Please, not like this. You cannot state opinions on Venezuela...I do not accept this lack of respect for Venezuela's political and democratic process," Maduro declared. He said Roncagliolo had with the comments made "the mistake of his life." Venezuela's opposition welcomed the proposal however and declared the government was "going the wrong way" in its foreign relations. The Table of Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition stated its support in a communiqué that described Maduro's as a "Crafty Government," El Universal reported on 4 May. The government's management of its foreign relations it stated, "is very much going the wrong way" and the aggressive language it was now using with foreign parties "is not giving any benefits to this government of precarious legitimacy." Roncagliolo's proposals were not a "lack of respect to Venezuela. This is the responsible attitude governments adopt when they believe in democracy as a space for dialogue, tolerance and respect for opponents." Peru's former president Alan García also wrote on the website Twitter on 4 May that the incident was a "great opportunity" for Peru to distance itself from "Maduro's dictatorship" and forget the example of the left-wing ideology led by the late Hugo Chávez," Peruvian dailies reported. The incident followed similar harsh words Maduro addressed to Spain's Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo on 2 May. García-Margallo proposed on 29 April that Spain could mediate between Maduro and the opposition to reduce tensions in Venezuela, Spain's El País reported; Maduro told him to "take his nose out" of Venezuela's affairs.

Venezuela's Maduro says Colombian statesman involved in murder plot

Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro said in Caracas on 3 May that plans were being made in the United States and Colombia "to destabilize Venezuela and make me physically disappear," naming Colombia's former conservative president Álvaro Uribe Vélez as one of those plotting to have him killed. There was "evidence and sufficient elements to think there are plans guided from Miami...by Roger Noriega and from Bogotá by Álvaro Uribe to make me physically disappear. Uribe is behind a plan to assassinate me," he told a gathering of subway employees in Caracas. In March, Maduro alleged that Noriega, a senior diplomat of the administration of President George W. Bush, was planning to assassinate the opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles. Maduro said Uribe is "a murderer and we also know that sectors of the Venezuelan Right are in touch with him. They say if they get me out of the way, chaos will reign in Venezuela, but they will not succeed, this won't happen," the AVN agency reported.  The opposition formally rejected the results of the 14 April elections and Maduro's election as president, also accusing his government of starting to suppress dissent and opposition. Uribe said in Colombia that the only response to Maduro's "immature" charges was to repeat Venezuela's elections, EFE and other agencies reported on 3 May. Maduro, he wrote on Twitter, was heading a "dictatorship headed by fraud and violence." Maduro's statements followed reports of some opposition legislators travelling to Colombia for talks and to denounce an apparent assault on opposition lawmakers in Venezuela's parliament on 30 April. Those attacked included María Corina Machado, foreign affairs spokeswoman in the Capriles campaign team, Colombia's Caracol radio reported on 1 May. The scuffle erupted after socialist members obstructed opponents from speaking at the podium.

Colombian rebels may have massacred family, 11 surrendered to army

Members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were alleged to have massacred a family of seven in the northern department of Antioquia on 3 May or before, Colombian media reported, citing the declarations of a 19-year-old family member who said he had survived. Authorities were trying to ascertain the veracity of the incident, said to have occurred in the countryside of the district of Tarazá and initially attributed to Front 18 of the FARC, active in that area. The victims were provisionally identified as a couple, three of their children, an uncle and his son, RCN La Radio and El Espectador reported on 3 May. It was difficult to verify the survivor's declarations that day as he was reluctant or unable to precisely locate the incident described and initially refused to board a helicopter, RCN radio reported. Separately President Juan Manuel Santos reported on 3 May that 11 fighters of Front 57 of the FARC including their chief - a guerrilla dubbed Marlon - had abandoned the FARC at an unspecified date in Acandí in the western department of Chocó. Speaking in the northern district of Apartadó, Santos said that thanks to ongoing army operations in north-western Colombia, 64 FARC fighters had been "neutralised" - 24 of them being killed - and 11 deserted. He cited a message issued by Marlon declaring that the defectors wanted a new life "as ordinary citizens" and that "this war makes no sense because the chiefs have no ideology," Colombian public radio reported. Santos said the army must maintain its "harrassment" of the FARC in spite of talks in Cuba, "every day and every week and every month." He thanked Panama for collaborating against the FARC on its frontier. Colombian officials and the FARC concluded on 3 May an eighth round of talks in Cuba, "advances" were said to have been made but talks were not progressing fast enough, Colombia's chief negotiator reportedly declared.

Venezuelan opponents denounce "persecution" after presidential polls

Venezuela's opposition politicians denounced as political persecution the arrest and indictment of the government opponent and former army general Antonio Rivero, whom a colleague qualified as the first political prisoner of the government of President Nicolás Maduro. The arrest came amid persisting tensions for the opposition's refusal to accept Maduro's re-election on 14 April, and followed violent protests in parts of the country on 15 April. Authorities detained Rivero, a leader of the Popular Will (Voluntad Popular) party in the opposition coalition Table of Democratic Unity (Mesa de Unidad Democrática, MUD), on 27 April; his party leader Leopoldo López denounced this as "illegal, unjustified and illegitimate" writing on the website Twitter, and stated it was a step toward banning anti-government parties, Europa Press reported. The former presidential candidate and MUD leader Henrique Capriles denounced the arrest on 29 April as a bid to intimidate Venezuelans, Globovisión reported. On 30 April Rivero was charged with inciting hate and criminal association for his alleged role in protests that followed the 14 April elections. Rivero was said to have begun a hunger strike and was being held at his own request in the premises of the state security agency SEBIN (Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia Nacional), Europa Press reported. Leopoldo López and Capriles have also been warned they may be held, allegedly for inciting protests. Speaking earlier of the reasons for his arrest, Rivero told the broadcaster Globovisión on 26 April that the government had "taken out of context" declarations he made to opposition activists, which were filmed, and used them to accuse him of publicly inciting hate. He said he had explained to activists on 15 April how to bang pots and pans in protest and how to protect themselves if attacked, adding that Capriles had instructed followers to eschew violence, Globovisión reported on 27 April.

Electoral body to start partial "audit" of Venezuelan polls

Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE) was preparing on 29 April a partial audit of votes cast in the 14 April presidential elections, in spite of stating earlier that this would likely not overturn the results and re-election of President Nicolás Maduro, which the opposition has firmly contested. The former opposition candidate Henrique Capriles alleged there had been electoral fraud and has demanded a full recount of votes. The CNE was to audit between 6 May and 4 June a random selection of ballot boxes from the 46 per cent of voting stations not audited automatically on 14 April, the daily El Universal reported on 28 April, citing comments by the CNE head, Tibisay Lucena. This was apparently an expanded audit to which the authorities had agreed, though the opposition remained dissatisfied, having demanded an audit with all documents evidencing the voting process including lists of those who voted, El Universal reported. The opposition coalition Table of Democratic Unity (MUD) decided on 28 April that its technicians would not attend the start of the random audit, suspecting authorities did not want a full verification using voter lists and fingerprints. A MUD spokesman said the opposition had specific evidence of irregularities required to back any legal challenge it might launch against the elections, El Nacional reported on 29 April.

Venezuela's Capriles says state "stole" elections, writer chides "complicit" neighbours

Venezuela's former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles Radonsky accused the socialist government of President Nicolás Maduro of "stealing" the 14 April elections, a bitterly fought contest whose results the opposition had yet to accept. The Table of Democratic Unity (Mesa de Unidad Demócratica, MUD) led by Capriles has demanded a recount of all votes and Capriles said on 24 April that the opposition would not settle for less. "We won't let them mock us, we will not accept a partial audit or some absurdity, and if there is no response we shall tell the country what our next steps will be," El Nacional reported. He said to the government, "you stole these elections...and you are the ones who must explain to the world what hapened." He accused the government of intimidating opinion, citing in particular a video of the Venezuelan Labour Minister Ricardo Molina posted online, wherein he seemingly threatens to dismiss civil servants who voted for the opposition. Molina later said his words were taken "out of context, they always do this." One Venezuelan academic claimed on 25 April that public-sector employees were indeed being dismissed, apparently for having voted for Capriles. Ligia Bolívar, director of the Human Rights Centre at the Andrés Bello Catholic University (Ucab) in Caracas said "there is a disconcerting and massive situation of dismissals of civil servants for exercising the right to vote;" she suggested state agents had tapped people's telephones and were also checking what people had scribbled on websites like Twitter and Facebook, Globovisión reported. Separately, the Peruvian novelist and Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa rebuked Latin American leaders for rushing to recognise the new Venezuelan government, calling them "accomplices against the Venezuelan people," EFE and other media reported on 23 April. Spèaking to the Brazilian publication Epoca, Vargas Llosa urged regional leaders not to legitimize "a possible electoral fraud" by attending Maduro's inauguration. Maduro was duly sworn in as president on 19 April before foreign officials including all Latin American presidents bar those of Chile, Ecuador and Paraguay. The latter presently has no ties with Venezuela. Vargas Llosa singled out Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff in this "deplorable" act of recognition, but said "she is not the only case." He observed that the close results and transfer of millions of votes to the opposition in spite of the government's "disproportionate" resources "clearly" meant Venezuelans were turning against the socialist ideology of late President Hugo Chávez.

Conservative becomes Paraguay's President

Paraguayans voted in Horacio Cartes of the conservative Colorado party as president on 21 April, in general elections expected to end the diplomatic isolation provoked by parliament's dismissal in 2012 of the elected, Leftist president, Fernando Lugo. the Liberal candidate Efraín Alegre was runner-up while Aníbal Carrillo, candidate of the Frente Guasu formation of former president Lugo obtained a small percentage of votes, Europa Press reported. Unasur - the Union of South American Nations - recognized the results and Cartes reportedly began contacts to hasten Paraguay's return to the southern trading block Mercosur, from which it was excluded after Lugo's dismissal. Venezuela's socialist President Nicolás Maduro spoke by phone to Cartes, discussing Paraguay's return to Mercosur and a normalization of bilateral ties, Europa Press reported on 24 April. The two states effectively severed ties after Lugo's fall, while their deteriorating relations recently degenerated into bitter verbal exchanges between Venezuelan officials and Paraguay's provisional government led by the conservative Federico Franco. Franco was to hand over power on 15 August, Europa Press reported. Cartes meanwhile named a transitional government team that included: Juan Carlos López Moreira, a businessman and close associate as the team's general coordinator, Leila Rachid Lichi, Paraguay's foreign minister in 2003-6, in charge of foreign affairs and the former Central Bank governor Germán Rojas Irigoyen as a provisional economy minister, ICN Diario reported on 24 April.

Seven die in post-election protests in Venezuela

Seven were reported to have died in protests in Venezuela on 15-16 April, which followed the refusal of the opposition to recognize Nicolás Maduro's proclamation as the newly elected President and his apparent refusal to order a recount of votes. The chief prosecutor of Venezuela Luisa Ortega identified one of the dead as a policeman and said 135 people were, Spain's RTVE and agencies reported. Maduro blamed the violence on "fascist mobs" and the opposition candidate Henrique Capriles accused Maduro of ordering the violence to avoid a recount. Maduro declared on 16 April that he would not permit protests scheduled for 17 April and a planned march in Caracas toward the National Electoral Council (CNE), which oversaw the elections. He said "you will not go to central Caracas to fill it with death and blood. I will not allow it. Do what you want to do. I will use a firm hand with fascism and intolerance...if they want to overthrow me let them come. I am here with the people and the" army, Globovision reported. The Speaker of the National Assembly Diosdado Cabello blamed five opposition politicians including Capriles for the deaths and indicated they could be taken to court. A "small, fascist group" he said was trying to undermine "order," Globovision reported on 16 April. Maduro was to be sworn in as President on 19 April, the state news agency AVN reported.

Maduro proclaimed Venezuela's President in spite of recount calls

The National Electoral Council (CNE) declared Nicolás Maduro Moros to be the newly elected President of Venezuela on 15 April in spite of the opposition's calls for a recount of votes for alleged irregularities; it unclear if this would happen. The CNE declared that with 99.17 per cent of votes counted, Maduro won 7,559,349 or 50.75 per cent of votes cast and his rival Henrique Capriles Radonsky 7,296,876 or 48.98 per cent of votes, Spain's El País reported on 15 April. The opposition was reported to have denounced 3,000 or more irregularities at polling stations. One of five directors of the CNE identified as not attached to the socialist regime, Vicente Díaz, had earlier said there should be a recount although an electoral tribunal had to authorise this, El País wrote. While Leftist states friendly to Venezuela's regime swiftly recognised Maduro's apparent victory, other observers from the United States and Spain to the Secretary-General of the Organization of American States José Miguel Insulza, were cautious about results. Venezuela recalled its ambassador in Madrid for consultations after Spain's Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo commented that "one has to wait and see who the winner is," Europa Press reported on 15 April. Foreign Minister Elías Jaua said "there is a winner here, Nicolás Maduro won the Presidency...as the National Electoral Council has dictated." He reportedly deplored Insulza's stated support for the vote-count demanded by Henrique Capriles. Separately the Speaker of parliament Diosdado Cabello declared he would call for an inquiry against Capriles on 16 April for alleged complicity in disorders reported in Venezuela late on 15 April. Two at least died in the protests, which erupted in several Venezuelan states after Mr Capriles rejected the election results, Europa Press and Venezuelan media reported. Maduro warned Capriles "a majority is a majority...whoever seeks to harm the majority is trying to launch a coup," Europa Press reported on 16 April.

Over 50 reported killed, found dead in Mexico over weekend

At least 52 were reported killed or found dead in apparent criminal incidents around Mexico over 12-14 April, media reported. Of these, at least 23 bodies were reported found in the states of Coahuila in northern Mexico, Guerrero on its western coast and Quintana Roo on the Caribbean coast through 13-14 April. These included eight bodies found in Cancún on 14 April and 10 shot in incidents in Torreón in Coahuila, CNN reported. Authorities in Cancún suspected the eight may have been killed in a house gangsters used as a body "dump" where four suspects including a 15-year-old boy were found drinking and taking drugs. They were said detained. The 23 also included the bodies of five men aged 25-35 years, found tied in the district of Atoyac de Álvarez in Guerrero, and apparently totured then executed. A message left by them, signed by one of the cartels the Caballeros Templarios, alleged they were "kidnappers and blackmailers." Atoyac is one of the districts in Guerrero where locals have turned to community policing. The review Proceso separately counted 14 presumed victims of crime for 12 April, and 14 at least appeared to have been shot or found dead on 13 April in the northern states of Durango, Chihuahua and Tamaulipas, Proceso and Milenio reported. The latter group included four dismembered, decapitated bodies found on a road in Tamaulipas on 13 April, Proceso reported, and a woman shot dead and found on 13 April in Ciudad Victoria in Tamaulipas. A note left beside her alleged she was an informant of the Defence Ministry, Proceso reported. Separately, a communiqué issued by Mexican authorities counted 1,101 homicides linked to federal offences in the 31 days of the month of March, which exceeded detentions, Proceso reported on 12 April. Victims included 40 state agents killed during service and 25 civilians thought killed by mistake, a communiqué signed by the interior ministry, the Prosecutor-General's office and the Defence and Navy ministries stated. Its figures were compiled by the National Centre for Planification, Analysis and Information to Combat Crime, CENAP (Centro Nacional de Planeación, Análisis e Información para el Combate a la Delincuencia), a body attached to the office of the Prosecutor-General of Mexico. The authorities stated that over 138,000 kilograms of cocaine were seized that month among other illegal substances, and 957 individuals detained.

Venezuelan president declared re-elected, opposition wants recount

Nicolás Maduro Moros was declared winner - by a narrow margin - of Venezuela's 14 April presidential elections, although his rival Henrique Capriles Radonsky said he would not recognize the results until every single vote was recounted. The head of the National Electoral Council (CNE) Tibisay Lucena declared that evening that with 99,12 per cent of votes counted, Maduro had won 7,505,338 or 50,67 per cent of all votes cast, and Capriles 7, 270,403 or 49.07 per cent of votes, Europa Press and Le Monde reported on 15 April. She said 78.71 per cent of electors had voted and insisted the CNE only declared results when "an irreversible trend" was evident. Capriles told a press conference in Caracas soon after Lucena's declarations that it was Maduro who had lost and he would not recognize results "until every vote is counted," Europa Press reported. He urged the CNE that "every ballot box be opened and every vote of the Venezuelans counted, one by one, manually, to corroborate the figures presented by the electoral authorities." He denied reports he had made any pact with Maduro, saying "I do not make pacts with lies or corruption. I do not make pacts with those I consider illegitimate." Several heads of states and foreign politicians, mostly of the Left, congratulated Maduro. An official of the CNE Vicente Díaz declared there would be re-count of all ballots for the narrow difference in candidates' votes this time, in contrast with a recount of 53 per cent of votes in previous polls, CNN reported on 14 April.