Some 30 reported killed around Mexico

At least 29 people were reported killed or found dead around Mexico on 14-16 December in presumed criminal executions or gun battles with state forces. Eight suspected gangsters were shot dead in a gun battle with police on 15 December in Genaro Codina in the north-central state of Zacatecas; police said shooting began when the suspects fired on a patrol. Five suspects were also arrested and arms and equipment confiscated, the dailies Proceso and Imagen reported. On 16 December, soldiers shot dead five suspected gangsters or cartel operatives in the north-eastern city of Tamaulipas, Proceso reported. Four women earlier reported as missing in the northern state of Chihuahua were found dead there in the district of Guachochi on 14 December, their bodies indicating they were "tortured" then shot dead, Proceso reported. The women were apparently last seen on 12 December when they drove out of Creel further to the north, and may have been murdered at a road block set up by criminals in the countryside area known as Sierra Tarahumara. Proceso observed that people had repeatedly reported the presence of road blocks in the Sierra to Guachochi's municipal police as well as the prosecutor's office for western Chihuahua, and no measures were taken. There were nine victims on 14 December alone in the north-western state of Sinaloa, six of these in the form of headless bodies found near the neighbouring state of Chihuahua, Proceso reported. Other victims were: a local politician and a female companion shot dead in the north-eastern city of Ciudad Valles late on 14 December, and a police detective shot dead by suspected car thieves, early on 16 December in the Nezahualcóyotl district of Estado de México. He was apparently stopped while driving and asked to get out of his BMW but refused, Proceso reported.

Socialists retain most regions in Venezuelan polls

The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), the party of President Hugo Chávez Frías, and allies collaborating in its Comando Campaña Carabobo kept 20 of the 23 states for which they competed in regional polls on 16 December, opposition parties holding onto three in elections marked by a relatively low turnout. The former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles remained governor of the state of Miranda next to the capital, while his allies retained the states of Lara and Amazonas, El Nacional reported. The daily reported a turnout of 53.9 per cent of eligible voters, down from about 80 per cent for the October presidential elections, according to initial figures released by the electoral authority (CNE). This was reportedly the lowest turnout since the regional elections of 2004. But Venezuela's Vice-President and provisional ruler Nicolás Maduro was triumphant on 16 December, stating that the people had ratified the socialist regime and "dissolved" the opposition Democratic Unity Table (MUD, Mesa de Unidad Demócratica). He told state television by telephone that voters had "liberated" five of the eight states governed by MUD politicians, which was a "great victory we must accept with wisdom, with humility," the broadcaster Globovisión reported. Earlier Maduro advised the defeated MUD candidate in the state of Bolívar "not to go crazy" after he challenged the results and alleged the existence of "a manoeuvre" to ensure his defeat. The results were close in that state. The leading opposition figure Henrique Capriles Radonsky said he was "immensely happy" for people in Miranda, Lara and Amazonas, but "I cannot feel happy for our Venezuela," El Nacional reported. He said officialist parties had presented no programs but allegedly capitalized on the sympathies or concerns generated by the president's current illness. He asserted however that "change is quite, quite close, you can feel it," and "Venezuelans want answers to their problems," including he said that of insecurity. The regime he declared "wanted to be done with me but the people responded."

FARC rebels attack police station in Colombia

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were reported twice so far to have violated the two-month ceasefire they declared from 20 November while negotiating an end to their conflict with the Colombian state; an attack on a police station on 15 December, attributed to Front 34 of the FARC, further reduced the credibility of their pledge. Police in the district of Murindó in the north-western department of Antioquia repelled a 45-minute gunfire attack or shelling of their offices, El Espectador reported, citing EFE and the broadcaster Caracol. A deputy-governor of Antioquia Santiago Londoño Uribe, told Caracol that the FARC had "harrassed" Murindó with gunfire or shelling some 10 times in the past two years. There were no reported casualties in this attack. On 14 December a former president Ernesto Samper Pizano wrote a letter to Colombia's negotiators in Havana urging them to reach an agreement during the ceasefire on "minimal humanitarian" norms to reduce harm to civilians from fighting, RCN Radio reported. Samper was president in 1993-98 although his reputation was tarnished by allegations that a drug cartel contributed funds to his election campaign. Samper wrote that it was "indispensable to protect the civilian population" before peace was attained. The chief negotiator Humberto de la Calle, who was Samper's vice-president in 1994-6, was earlier cited as saying that the aim of talks was not to "humanize" the decades-long conflict with the FARC but end it. Samper wrote that the "humanisation of the conflict whose termination is being negotiated is not an option but an ethical obligation, born of clear constitutional and legal mandates."

Nineteen or more reported killed in Mexico

At least 19 people were reported shot or found dead around Mexico on 13-14 December in incidents mostly thought related to organized crime and cartels, Proceso reported. These included: two bodies found in the northern city of Coahuila, covered by blankets and with an unspecified message by them signed by Z-40 the head of The Zetas cartel, a policeman shot dead in the north-western district of Otáez in the state of Durango, and three people killed in a shootout in a residential building in the north-central city of Celaya. Nine of the dead were from the north-eastern state of Nuevo León, five of these being shot dead in and at the entrance of a house in the city of Monterrey, Proceso reported. A convict was stabbed to death on 14 December in a prison in the district of Iztapalapa outside Mexico City. This occurred hours before Mexico's Primate Archbishop Cardinal Norberto Rivera was to hold mass at the prison, but apparently did not interrupt preparations for the service held annually in this prison, Milenio reported. A man arrested for killing his wife on 13 December told police he shot her during a row after she would not let him sleep; it was not immediately clear if the shooting had been accidental, Proceso reported on 14 December. Neighbours in the Tláhuac district in Mexico City said the couple were drug users; both apparently had been prosecuted for violent thefts and the victim was on prison leave, the Mexico City chief prosecutor was reported as saying. They argued after returning from a party, when she "turned up the music" and prevented him from going to bed. After her death he fired shots into the air and took a woman and her three children hostage for an unspecified time, before being arrested.

Police detain 16 suspects around Guatemala City

Police detained 16 suspected criminals on 13 December during raids and interventions in the department of Guatemala surrounding the capital; the suspects were sought for presumed involvement in a range of crimes including robbing minibuses, extortion and killings, the daily Prensa Libre reported on 14 December. The daily reported at least six violent deaths on 12-14 December. Four of the victims were found on 12 and 13 December as decapitated bodies in the district of Sanarate north of the capital; one body was identified as belonging to an 18-year-old girl, Prensa Libre reported.

Venezuelan officials cautious on president's health

Venezuela's acting president Nicolás Maduro told a gathering outside Caracas on 13 December that President Hugo Chávez had gone from a "stable to favourable" state as he recovered in Cuba from his fourth operation for a cancer first diagnosed in 2011; he stated however that Chávez previously instructed officials to prepare Venezuelans for "any circumstance." Both he and Venezuela's information minister have spoken of the operation's complexity and of unforeseen bleeding that had required "corrective measures," partly divulging the relevant medical reports. Maduro was speaking at a rally to close the campaign of Tareck El-Aissami, the socialist candidate to become governor of the northern state of Aragua west of the capital, Venezuela's El Universal reported. Venezuela was holding elections state governments on 16 December. He praised Chávez who he said had made Venezuelans better people than they were "five years ago or 10, and our country is infinitely better than 15, 20" or 100 years before. Individualism he said had given way to "humanism" under Chávez, and "when humanity lives socialism, it will live in the Kingdom of Heaven as Chávez has said...we are living a miracle right in the 21st century." Allusions to the other world may have been disconcerting to some, given the uncertainty over the president's health. El Universal cited the country's Information Minister Ernesto Villegas Poljak as commenting that given complications, a "time of caution" was needed before the president could be described as recovering. The former liberal presidential candidate and governor of the state of Miranda Henrique Capriles was reported on 14 December as objecting to what he said was Venezuelan officials' electoral usage of "a person's pain," while expressing sympathy for Chávez. Elections for state governors he said, had "nothing to do with the president's health, so enough of manipulating our people," for whom he asked for more "respect," the Colombian broadcaster Caracol reported.

Fifteen reported killed around Mexico

Some 15 people were reported shot or found dead in incidents around Mexico on 11-13 December, including a pregnant woman shot with four others in a restaurant in northern Mexico. Gunmen were said to have entered a restaurant in Nuevo Laredo on the US frontier, and shot dead five employees including the woman, Proceso reported on 13 December. Four gunmen were shot dead by the army in the western state of Guerrero, reportedly after they began shooting at troops who ordered them stop on a motorway early on 13 December, the commander of the Ninth Military Region Guillermo Moreno Serrano was reported as saying. Police separately shot dead a suspect and arrested two after a shootout on 13 December in the district of Calera in the north-central state of Zacatecas, Milenio reported. The suspects began shooting at one or more police cars driving toward Fresnillo, a city north of Calera, the Zacatecas Public Security chief declared. Soldiers freed a kidnapped woman in Fresnillo on 12 December and arrested four presumed kidnappers, after another woman they held held escaped and informed the police, Milenio reported on 14 December. On 13 December police freed a 20-year-old man held by a gang of three in the western district of Tequila, Milenio and Notimex reported. Also on 13 December, the governor of the state of Chihuahua César Duarte Jáquez ruled out that troops could help police patrol the streets of Ciudad Juárez in his state as announced earlier by a local army commander. Duarte said troops in the city "only provoke tensions in society" and the last time soldiers patrolled Juárez the city lived a "war siege," Proceso reported. It was up to state and municipal authorities to fight crime, he said, using intelligence work and the "clear" pursuit of crimes.

Honduran magistrates denounce "illegal" destitution

Four members of the Constitutional Court of Honduras dismissed by parliament on 12 December denounced the move as "totally illegitimate, illegal and unjust" and violating the separation of powers, adding they would consider their legal options, the Honduran daily El Heraldo reported. The four read out a joint communiqué to the press in Tegucicalpa on the afternoon of 12 December declaring that their dismissal "obviously follows political not juridical reasons," and defended their earlier rulings as legal and reasoned. Parliament and the government made a ruling issued in November by the magistrates, which declared unconstitutional parts of the government's drive to purge the police force of corrupt officers, the basis of moves to dismiss the judges. The Speaker of the National Congress or parliament Juan Orlando Hernández said the destitution had been "traumatic" but not politically motivated; the move he added was with the backing of the President Porfirio Lobo Sosa and the head of the judiciary and president of the Supreme Court Jorge Rivera Avilés, El Heraldo reported. He said "we discussed it with the President...and reached the consensus that it was necessary for the good of the country," while Rivera began to contact possible successors before the destitution process. President Lobo was separately reported as saying on 12 December that he would in following days convene the heads of the legislature and judiciary and other key political figures to initiate an "ample and open" dialogue intended to find a collaborative solution to the crisis.

Lawyers among four executed in Mexico's Chiapas

Two lawyers were gunned down while driving in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas on 10 December, it was suspected by organized crime, Proceso reported on 12 December. The website observed they had left a prison that day near the site of their assassination, on the road between the districts of Chiapa de Corzo and Acala; it reported two other execuctions on 9 December in the state capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez. In northern Mexico, the army announced it would once again patrol the streets of Ciudad Juárez to back the police, two years after a similar measure was ended for its apparent unpopularity. The last government headed by Felipe Calderón withdrew troops from the city in 2010 after reports of abuse and rights violations by soldiers, with Federal Police taking over their duties, Proceso reported on 12 December. The head of the military guarrison in Juárez General Salvador Gutiérrez Plascencia, said military patrols would be temporary and confined to the city's periphery. He added troops would particularly look for military weaponry used by criminal gangs and seek to find how they obtained them.

Honduran parliament sacks four judges

Doubts were publicly voiced in Honduras about the legality of a parliamentary vote on 12 December dismissing four members of the Constitutional Court, a part of the Supreme Court of Honduras. The move was related to the court's ruling on 27 November that "confidence" tests being carried out on police personnel were unconstitutional, although the entire Supreme Court was to meet on 12 December to deliberate on that ruling. The jurists dismissed were those who had ruled against the tests, while a fifth member who had not remained in his position. The ruling had angered President Porfirio Lobo and his allies who have defended a government decree to purge police of corrupt elements as a key component of the state's drive against crime. The daily El Heraldo observed that Lobo had reportedly consulted with the parliamentary speaker Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado and members of the presidium before parliament debated the dismissal. On 10 December parliament voted that an eight-member committee examine the "administrative conduct" of the four jurists and these, apparently very swiftly, drafted a report justifying a second motion to dismiss them. Parliament debated that after one in the morning on 12 December, and the motion was approved by 97 legislators with 31 votes against. The Speaker defended the motion at the pre-dawn session: "Security is the Honduran people's main concern. What we have detected is worrying, it is practically a conspiracy and we are obliged to debate the subject...this wave of crime cannot continue; while some are working others are conspiring." He did not elaborate on the conspirators but they were presumably those obstructing the president's anti-crime measures. To those who said parliament was meddling with the judiciary's prerogatives, he said parliament had already voted to dimiss magistrates before, as it had in 2009 the president of Honduras. Four new magistrates were appointed after the vote, for a term running to 2018. They were on a list of 45 nominees for membership of the Supreme Court drawn up in 2009, El Heraldo reported.

Venezuela's Chávez recovering from surgery

Venezuela's acting president Nicolás Maduro announced on state television that President Hugo Chávez had successfully received cancer surgery in Havana on 11 December and was in recovery; Venezuelans would be informed of his physical progress in coming days, Venezuela's state news agency cited him as saying. He said doctors had informed officials who accompanied Chávez to Havana of the "complex" six-hour surgery carried out; these included the speaker of Venezuela's parliament, the prosecutor-general and the science and oil ministers who Maduro said "are like daughters and sons to Chávez more than politicians." He thanked Latin American leaders and officials who had sent expressions of support, but apparently said nothing about a similar statement by the US State Department in recent days. Maduro also urged the "adversaries, opponents and even enemies of our fatherland, and above all those who are Venezuelans, who exude their hate and venom every day: stop it, stop this poison, stop the hate against" Chávez. Maduro urged an extensive voter participation in regional elections scheduled for 16 December.

Former policeman among six killed in Mexico

A former police chief from the north-western state of Sinaloa reported kidnapped on 10 December was found dead the next day with "his face destroyed;" he was one of six people reported killed by suspected criminals in Mexico on 10-11 December. The body of Alfredo Mejía Pérez, the former head of Sinaloa's state Preventive Police was found in the district of El Limón de los Ramos north of the city of Culiacán. Victims that day included three men gunned down in a bar in the northern city of Torreón; armed men entered the bar, and lined the three up behind the drinks bar to execute them, Proceso reported.

Hugo Chávez stirs emotions, sympathies in illness

Moved to tears by his own words or by circumstances, Venezuela's acting president Nicolás Maduro reiterated in public on 10 December the enduring loyalty of Venezuelans to President Hugo Chávez, who was in Cuba for treatment of a resurgent cancer. Maduro was shown speaking to a crowd of supporters, many also in tears, at the inauguration of a cable-car line in Caracas; on 8 December Chávez handed him his powers for his "temporary absence," though opposition politicians were demanding by 10 December that the public be told of the president's state of health. Certain opposition members, and the US State Department, urged that constitutional provisions be respected in case of a power transition, Globovisión reported on 10 December. This meant general elections must be called if Chávez were unable to return to work. Vice-President Maduro prayed for recovery however and said "Chávez has a people, he has us and will have us for ever in this battle from victory to victory," EFE reported. Messages of encouragement and sympathy were emitted by American governments of all persuasions; Ecuador's Rafael Correa was visiting him in Cuba. In Argentina, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner recalled speaking in Buenos Aires in 9 December that Chávez had helped "Argentina when nobody was helping it," and asked God to "give him back" his health, Venezuela's El Universal reported. The daily observed on 11 December that the illness was of particular concern to Nicaragua's Sandinista regime, a recipient of generous financial help from Venezuela since 2007.

Gang "terrorises" Mexican town, 16 killed

Sixteen or 17 people were shot dead in the town of Guadalupe y Calvo in the northern state of Chihuahua during 7-9 December, apparently by gangsters intermittently patrolling the town unchecked, Proceso reported. The gunmen, described as possible members of a gang associated with the Sinaloa drug cartel, turned the town into a "war zone" when they arrived late on 7 December, Proceso reported citing witnesses. The killings continued after army and police reinforcements were reported to have mobilized in response; five of the victims were killed on the afternoon of 8 December or later. Proceso cited residents as saying on 8 December that they remained mostly at home, while the gunmen circulated around "the streets in absolute calm, dressed in military gear and in super-equipped and armoured" estate vehicles. "They have everything," a resident said; the website observed that residents found out "on the news" that troops were acting to retake control of the area. Separately a "young man" and possible criminal was found dead on 8 December half-naked and apparently after being "tortured," in the district of Carichí in the state of Chihuahua, Proceso reported. A note was left by his body that this was "for killing women and children, which you don't do," signed by La Línea. This was presumably the gang of gunmen of the same name active in Chihuahua in recent years, though there was no immediate confirmation.

Rebel shot dead in Colombia, gang suspects held

Colombian forces shot dead on 8 December a commander of the National Liberation Army (ELN) dubbed Duber in the northern department of Antióquia, the broadcaster Caracol reported. He was described as a veteran bomb-maker and number three in the command hierarchy of the Capitán Mauricio unit of the ELN, Colombia's second largest rebel force after the FARC. The broadcaster also reported the arrest in the same department of a member of one of the country's main drug gangs called Los Urabeños; the suspect identified as Jorge Luis Cordero Márquez or 400, was detained in the district of Yarumal at an unspecified date. Police announced on 7 December the arrests of two other members of Los Urabeños, detained on an estate in the district of Ayapel in the northern department of Córdoba, El Espectador reported. The two, respectively dubbed in the criminal underworld Boca de Perro and Montiel, were sought for suspected crimes including criminal conspiracy and attempted murder in the former's case and illegally making and carrying arms for Montiel. Early on 10 December, five people were shot dead in a shopping centre or store in the district of Villavicencio, south-east of the capital Bogotá. Six were injured in the attack and the gunmen fled, Caracol reported.

Colombian rebels said to have broken ceasefire pledge

They had promised not to attack for two months from 20 November while talking peace with the Colombian state, but this pledge by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was apparently broken by a deadly mortar or explosives attack on 8 December, which the army attributed to the FARC. An army colonel said members of the FARC's Sixth Front were suspected to have thrown explosives at houses in a rural zone of the district of Caloto in the Cauca department, killing a man and injuring three women, the daily El Espectador reported. One of the injured was a 16-year-old girl. "We don't know where the ceasefire is because look what happened here," El Tiempo cited a relative of the victims as saying. The daily cited the head of the army's anti-terrorist Apollo Task force General Jorge Humberto Jerez Cuellar as saying that troops were two kilometres from the site of the incident, meaning this could not have been a defensive action. Another army spokesman was reported as saying that there had been no recent clashes in this area. Jerez was cited by the same daily as saying on 20 November that the FARC broke their ceasefire pledge hours after declaring it. They apparently failed in their bid to draw soldiers onto a minefield that day. On 9 December, the FARC publicly urged the Colombian Defence Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón Bueno to start a "verbal ceasefire" and stop his alleged hostility to ongoing peace conversations in Havana. "We urge the Defence Minister to at least end his verbal hostility, which is incessantly firing at the peace process," the rebel and FARC negotiator dubbed Iván Márquez stated in Havana, reading out a communiqué. The statement added that peace depended not just on negotiators but on the "involvement of the national country" and the "common people," El Espectador reported.

Venezuela's ailing leader envisages succession

Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez Frías handed over responsibilities to his vice-president, foreign minister and possible successor as head of the socialist regime Nicolás Maduro Moros, hours before travelling to Cuba on 10 December for surgery against a resurgent cancer first diagnosed in 2011. Speaking on Venezuelan television late on 8 December, he said "With God''s favour we will come out victorious and go forward," indicating that his cancer had recurred in February 2012 and been cured. He said surgery was deemed necessary now as he was in pain and admitted there were "risks" involved, but he reminded Venezuelans "this revolution does not depend on just one man" and had a "collective leadership," Venezuela's state news agency reported. Maduro was now acting president in keeping with constitutional provisions for the head of state's "temporary absence." This could only be until 10 January 2013 when Chávez was to be sworn in for his new presidential term, jurist José Peña Solís told the Venezuelan daily El Nacional. He contemplated a situation of particular political gravity if he did not return to his duties by then for death or physical incapacity. The constitutional jurist Pedro Afonso separately told El Nacional that this would effectively reactivate the electoral machinery. The constitution he said, required the parliamentary speaker - to be chosen with a new parliamentary presidium on 5 January - to take over the executive branch on 10 January and call general elections within 30 days of doing so.

Fifty or so killed in crimes around Mexico

Some 50 people, or perhaps more, were reported shot or found dead in presumed criminal incidents around Mexico on 5-7 December, many in the form of bodies buried in clandestine graves. Among the victims: six men were shot dead on 5 December in the northern city of Gómez Palacio in the state of Durango, while police found a ditch in Jiutepec in the south-central state of Morelos, containing the remains of two adults, a child and a baby. The review Proceso numbered at 14 or more those killed or found dead on 5-6 December. It reported at least 35 victims on 6-7 December, including 13 bodies found in two lorries on 6 December in the districts of Soto la Marina and Ciudad Mante in the north-eastern state of Tamaulipas, and four bodies found hanging from a bridge in the northern city of Saltillo early on 7 December, Proceso reported. The lorries likely contained the bodies of members of The Zetas cartel, as messages were found addressed to the cartel signed by its rivals the Gulf Cartel. In the district of Calera in the north-central state of Zacatecas a ditch or grave was found on 6 December, revealing "at least" 11 bodies.

Salvadorean president sees "unprecedented" crime fall

President Mauricio Funes Cartagena said in San Salvador on 5 December that his country was living an "unprecedented process" of decline in criminality even as crime rates were rising elsewhere in Latin America, and this partly for the truce that began last March between the main gangs, the Salvadorean daily El Mundo reported. He said at a graduation ceremony for 65 army and airforce officers that El Salvador "faces a unique opportunity to advance on the path to becoming a country with real democracy and peace." This "pacification process" he added was not just for the gang truce arranged by mediators, but also for the efforts of the army and police. The country's Justice and Public Security Minister David Munguía Payés spoke last October of a steady decline in crime in 2012, asserting that it fell more sharply after the start of the gang truce on 8 March and unspecified police operations, El Mundo reported at the time. Munguía cited a 38.4 per cent fall in crime in 2012 compared to 2011 - without specifying dates for the January-October period - and a comparative fall in crimes of 68 per cent for the period after 8 March. Separately El Salvador and Russia signed a security agreement in Moscow on 6 December focused on fighting drug trafficking, El Mundo reported. The agreement was signed by Munguía and the head of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service Viktor Ivanov. Its provisions included exchange of information, "technological investigation" and training programmes.

Nicaragua, Colombia in peaceful standoff over sea frontier

Reports indicated Colombian ships remained present in Caribbean waters which the International Court at The Hague recently ruled Colombia should cede to Nicaragua to settle a border dispute; it was not immediately clear if Colombia was simply ignoring the ruling. Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos said after the 19 November decision that Colombia would use all peaceful means to defend the rights of citizens living in islands and cays now surrounded by Nicaraguan waters, and he and Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega agreed on 1 December not to resort to force. Ortega told a military gathering in Managua on 5 December that Nicaragua would not seek UN help against "Colombian frigates" in its territorial waters but use "communication," the broadcaster Caracol reported, citing EFE.  Which resolution could the UN Security Council issue, he asked? "You only need a country to put a veto and there is no solution there," he said, adding there was no hostility now and the two navies maintained communications that were "serene, serious, without aggression." He was separately reported as saying, perhaps at the same event, that he had reassured Santos about his concerns over the fate of the Flor de Mar nature reserve now mostly inside Nicaraguan waters. Ortega said he promised Santos permits would not be given to explore oil in the UNESCO-listed biosphere reserve and that Colombians living in the San Andrés Archipelago would still be allowed to fish in Nicaraguan waters, Portafolio reported on 6 December, citing agency reports.