Almost 50 reported killed, dead around Mexico

Twelve at least were reported killed or found dead in presumed criminal incidents in Mexico on 25-26 March, including several teenagers and a political activist linked to the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Gerardo Israel Facio Huerta, a leader of the Citizens' Networks (Redes Ciudadanas) grouping in the northern state of Durango, was said kidnapped at a roadside restaurant on 24 March and found floating in a canal in the city of Gómez Palacio the next day, Proceso reported on 26 March. Investigations indicated he was stabbed in the neck, Proceso reported. A hot-dog seller died in a hospital in the northern city of Monterrey on 27 March, two days after being shot by his food stand for refusing to pay money local gangsters had demanded, Proceso reported. Thirty-four-year old Enrique Ramírez Rosas had opened his stall a week before. Also on 27 March, unidentified individuals dumped seven rubbish bags containing human remains by a military base in the north-eastern city of Victoria in Tamaulipas; authorities were not yet certain how many bodies the bags contained, Proceso reported. The review reported no less than 10 violent deaths around the country for 26-27 March, and 10 through 27-28 March. A gunman separately shot dead seven people in a bar in the northern city of Chihuahua on the night of 28-29 March, Milenio reported. The daily Excelsior reported that the victims were said to have been shot by a masked man "apparently" wearing a police-type uniform. In the western state of Guerrerro, state prosecutors declared on 29 March that a clandestine grave found on 27 March in the district of Acapulco had "so far" yielded eight bodies, Proceso reported.

Colombian guerrilla chiefs reported killed

Venezuelan authorities reported the death at an unspecified date of a member of Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN), a man dubbed The Butcher - El Carnicero - possibly in fighting between ELN guerrillas over a missing drug shipment, the Colombian broadcaster Caracol reported on 27 March. The guerrilla, Hermes Contreras Sánchez, was reportedly killed in the state of Zulia near Colombia. He was sought by Interpol on a range of charges relating to drug trafficking, insurrection and terrorism; Colombian authorities linked him to attacks on civilian targets and infrastructures in the Norte de Santander department. Troops killed two other members of the ELN including a captain dubbed Homero or Omar, in undated fighting in the district of la Sierra in the south-western Cauca department, El Espectador reported on 29 March. Another guerrilla captain confirmed as dead was a fighter of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) dubbed Arturo Rojas, killed in fighting in December 2012 but found only recently. Arturo Rojas was identified as a deputy-head of Front 63 of the FARC, and thought responsible for shooting dead four police and military hostages held by the FARC in November 2011, El Espectador reported on 28 March. Separately FARC negotiators issued a communiqué in Cuba, where talks are being held with the government, dismissing as "naive" the idea that the FARC would abandon arms without reforms to the Colombian polity. Colombia's chief negotiator stressed on one occasion at least in 2012 that peace talks were unrelated to the FARC's political and economic agenda. The FARC communiqué stated it was "not at all realistic" to suppose there would be a "stable peace" in Colombia without changes to the "economic model," Caracol reported on 27 March. The communiqué also indicated the FARC's reluctance to accept terms for ending the conflict that included imprisonment for FARC members involved in such activities as kidnapping, drug trafficking and extortion. Was it "naiveté or cynicism - perhaps both," the text asked, when "they tell us, an unconditional rendition of guerrillas, handover of arms, submission to [state] policies, all in exchange for two or three posts in Congress," or temporary positions for guerrilla chieftains as a "Work or Health minister...even a few years in jail for the insurgency's main leaders." Nevertheless the FARC expressed satisfaction at progress made so far in talks, in the same or another communiqué issued in Havana, Caracol reported on 26 March.

Colombian police chief vows state will "end" crime gangs

Colombia's National Police chief General José Roberto León Riaño recently told the Medellín newspaper El Mundo that extraordinary police operations carried out in the Medellín area on 18-22 March had cut crime by 60 per cent and netted 419 crime suspects within 100 hours. Medellín had in recent weeks seen a surge in violent crime - which Riaño attributed to turf battles between street gangs - and Riaño and several police generals moved to Medellín to oversee the operations. Riaño said in an undated interview that in their operations police confiscated more than 50,000 doses of various drugs, 32 firearms and more than 1,800 knives and sharp instruments, and also recovered 36 stolen cars, El Mundo reported on 26 March. He observed that a series of police actions in Medellín had mainly harmed a gang called La Oficina, and attributed a recent surge in criminal violence in Medellín to the dispersion of crime apparently following La Oficina's recent decline. "It is very weakened. Today we are becoming the victims of success. Before there was a chief who gave orders. Now there is an atomization of groups where each chieftain gives orders in his territory, but as we have caught one chief after another, these organizations have remained headless, hence the confrontation between the "combos" (street gangs) and increase in violence in the city." The Police chief declared the state would "put an end" in 2013 to the country's main criminal gangs, dubbed Bacrim (Bandas criminales), whose numbers he said had dropped from 33 in 2006 to "six today," which he listed alongside their zones. Murder figures for Medellín and its environs on 23-25 March were 50 per cent lower than for the same days in 2012, El Mundo reported on 27 March, citing comments by the police chief. General José Ángel Mendoza Guzmán, head of the Metropolitan Police of the Valle de Aburrá that includes Medellín said homicides in the city district had dropped from 18 to nine, and attributed this to the recent police operations. He reported that police detained five more criminal suspects on 25-26 March: a demobilized paramilitary arrested for the fourth time, and four members of a street gang from Commune 13, one of the neighbourhoods that has suffered a surge in violence. Over 1,100 policemen engaged in recent operations were to remain in Medellín until December he said, when they were to be replaced by permanent recruits.

In days, 50 killed, found dead around Mexico

"At least" 18 were reported killed or found dead in presumed criminal incidents around Mexico on 24-25 March, these including five killed in a shootout between police and criminals in the north-western state of Sinaloa and an official of the state judiciary of Oaxaca, shot dead on 25 March as she emerged from a car. Victims also included three thought executed a month before, whose decomposing bodies were found on 25 March buried south of Chilpancingo in the western state of Guerrero, Proceso reported. On 22 March gunmen shot dead seven people including two Federal policemen in an eatery in Ciudad Altamirano in the western state of Guerrero, Proceso reported. The review observed that the targets of the attack may have been soldiers in civilian clothes eating in the restaurant that day, though reports did not clarify if any were among reported fatalities or the six injured of whom three were Federal policemen. The bodies of seven executed men were found on 23 March in Uruapan in the western of state of Michoacán. They were sitting in a row of plastic chairs placed at a crossroads, blindfolded and with hands tied, and later identified as window cleaners and farm workers, Milenio reported on 25 March. A deputy-governor of Michoacán asked media not to "magnify" what he termed an "isolated" incident related to drug trafficking, Proceso reported. Jesús Reyna García was cited as saying that while the state cannot assure the security of all Mexicans, people would not think ill of Michoacán - one of its more crime-ridden states - if the media did not highlight the incident, Proceso reported. Federal policemen killed five suspected gangsters in a shootout on 23 March in the district of Huatusco in Veracruz, responding to gunfire it was said, Proceso reported. In the south-central district of Xochitepec south of Cuernavaca, gunmen shot dead four men and a 15-year-old girl by a street stand. One of the victims was said to have run into a nearby building, but was followed and shot there, Proceso reported. The mayor of San Juan Mixtepec in Oaxaca and his bodyguard were gunned down while driving near that district early on 24 March, Proceso reported. Authorities' immediate "line of investigations" was not stated but Proceso observed the district had a recent history of land disputes with neighbouring Santo Domingo Yosoñama, which in one case led some 200 gunmen said to be from Santo Domingo, to have launched an assault on San Juan in January 2013. Other, isolated killings were reported around Mexico through 22-25 March, taking crime's presumed death toll to at least 50.

Armed residents warn will shoot criminals in Tabasco

The self-styled United People Against Crime (Pueblo Unido Contra la Delincuencia), one of several "self-defence" militias people have formed around Mexico to confront crime, reportedly claimed responsibility for shooting dead five suspected drug dealers on 21 March, and vowed to continue to "cleanse" districts in the east-coast state of Tabasco of street dealers, kidnappers and rapists. The group issued written warnings to the "poisoners of society" on large sheets hung in public - a practice favoured by drug cartels - in the districts of Villahermosa and Cárdenas, specifying it would continue to execute suspects if drug dealing continued on the streets and police allegedly continued to back the Zetas, one of Mexico's most violent cartels, Proceso reported. "We are not playing with you," one of the sheets reportedly read, "this beautiful state belongs to the people and is for the people not for criminals and corrupt policemen who work in league with this scum." According to Proceso, the chief prosecutor of Tabasco Fernando Valenzuela recognized the group's existence in Tabasco on 20 February. In a separate incident on 23 March locals in the district of Texcoco outside the capital almost lynched a suspected thief and fought police trying to free him, damaging a police car, La Crónica de Hoy reported. Residents of the locality of Tequesquinahuac gave the 20-year-old suspect a beating before police could take him away.

Colombian state continues to strike at crime

As Colombian police rounded up criminals over several days in and around the city of Medellín, police operations netted 60 or so suspected criminals and collaborators of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in operations carried in several departments of Colombia. Twenty eight including four policemen were held in several districts of the east-coast department of Chocó, suspected of involvement in activities including gang membership, kidnapping and drug trafficking, the broadcaster Caracol reported on 23 March. Police linked the detained to two criminal gangs the Urabeños and Renacer; they were caught at an unspecified date in the districts of Quibdó, Tadó, Istmina, Bahía Solano and Yuto. In southern Colombia, authorities held 31 suspected collaborators of the FARC and the other guerrilla force ELN, and may charge them in relation to such activities as terrorism, kidnapping, extortion and sedition, Caracol reported on 23 March. The detained included seemingly ordinary individuals like taxi drivers, shopkeepers and a town councillor, police said; they were held in the localities of Sandoná, Ancuyá la Florida and Yacuanquer in the department of Nariño. The daily El Colombiano observed separately on 24 March that in five days - 18-22 March - the city of Medellín "felt" the impact of the presence of the National Police chief and his senior staff as they led police operations against criminals around the city. Crime was reportedly reduced by a third and Medellín enjoyed a day, 21 March, "when bullets were not heard." In total 419 crime suspects were detained El Colombiano stated, adding that police operations continued even though police generals had now left the city. In western department of Tolima, two soldiers and a FARC guerrilla were reported to have died in undated gunfights in rural localities of the district of Rioblanco, located between Bogotá and Cali. One guerrilla surrendered, Caracol reported an army spokesman General Luis Eduardo Vargas as saying on 23 March.

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.

Over 30 reported killed in Medellín

At least 31 were reported killed in Medellín and its environs in what Caracol television termed the "violent weekend" of 8-10 March, although the broadcaster observed the number of deaths may be 34 as two of the victims were pregnant women and another was declared brain-dead. Police attributed the deaths to incidents relating to extortion, gang fights and drug trafficking. Five of the victims were women including a 16-year-old girl killed in Envigado outside the city, Caracol reported. The victims may also have included a 60-year-old man reported beaten to death by neighbours on the night of 9-10 March, after he sought to rape his seven-year-old step-daughter. The girl's mother alerted neighbours when the man returned home drunk and "sought to sexually abuse" the child, El Espectador reported on 10 March. The weekend victims apparently did not include two men reported shot dead in Medellín late on 11 March or early on 12 March; two children were also injured in gang violence in Medellín on 11-12 March, one being a six-year-old boy accidentally shot in the knee, Caracol television 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.

Criminal killings continue around Mexico

Some 20-25 people were killed or found dead in presumed criminal incidents in Mexico on 4 March, 12 of them including four policemen, in the north-western state of Sinaloa, Proceso reported. The review counted 30 presumed victims of crime around Mexico for 3-4 March. The policemen were said kidnapped from a security post or office in the district of Rosario in Sinaloa on 4 March and found dead within hours alongside three civilians, the review reported, citing comments from the mayor of Rosario. Victims of the day included two Guatemalans aged 19 and 17 killed in the southern state of Chiapas, and five people killed in the western state of Michoacán. The Guatemalans were found with their throats slit in a bar where they worked near Guatemala's frontier, their employer reportedly said. On 5 March two men were shot dead in the districts of Empalme and Esperanza in the north-western state of Sonora, Milenio reported, and five were killed in Mexico City early that day, Proceso reported. On 4 March, authorities in Estado de México, the state outside the capital, blamed the cartel Familia Michoacana and "independent groups" for a recent surge in crime and killings in the state. Eleven or more deaths were reported in the state over 1-3 March, according to Proceso. The state's response includes boosting coordination between municipal and state police forces in 119 of the state's 125 municipal districts, in the form of a Coordinated State Police (Policía Estatal Coordinada) under a Single Command (Mando Único). The governor of Estado de México Eruviel Ávila Villegas signed a document on 4 March establishing the Single Police Command in 119 municipalities that have accepted a deal that may reduce their policing powers, Proceso reported. Ávila said the plan was intended to "back" the districts, home to 90 per cent of the state's population he stated, and "for that we shall be respectful of their own form, plans and strategies. The intention is to give people more security." The army and Federal Police separately disarmed on 4 or 5 March 80 municipal policemen of the district of Tlaquiltenango in the state of Morelos, following the district police chief's arrest on 3 March for suspected ties to crime, and took over the district's security while the policemen had their backgrounds checked. The mayor of Tlalquiltenango later said only 36 of the policemen were found have legal permits to carry arms, Proceso reported.

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.