Government to talk to protesting peasants in north-eastern Colombia

Colombian officials said they would talk again with representatives of some 7-14,000 peasants who have been blocking roads since 12 June in districts of the northern department of Norte de Santander, in protest at local poverty and the Government's bid to eradicate coca plantations providing many with a living, media reported on 24 and 25 June. Some officials have accused the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) - the guerrillas thought involved in drug cultivation and trafficking - of infiltrating or organising the protests. The suspicion was strengthened when a FARC representative, the guerrilla dubbed Iván Marquez, stated the FARC's solidarity with the protests from Havana, the daily El Tiempo reported on 24 June. The Government stated that day it would talk to protesters from the Catatumbo region if public order were first restored, particularly in the districts of Tibú and Ocaña. After clashes with state forces in previous days, the districts were said to be calm then, although El Tiempo reported that some 7,000 peasants continued to block the roads from Tibú to Ocaña, Ábrego-Ocaña and Ocaña-Convención. Another of their demands was that the Government rescind mining permits given to foreign firms in this area. A Government team including local mayors, the Governor of Norte de Santander Edgar Díaz and the deputy-interior and agriculture ministers was to meet with protesters in Tibú to discuss grievances and plan a ministerial-level meeting, RCN la Radio reported on 25 June. Díaz told RCN radio that day that the protests were an understandable response to the state's neglect of the area for "30 years." He urged the Government to find alternatives to the coca cultivations it was eradicating. Meanwhile the country's Police chief rebuked regional police forces on 25 June for "doing nothing" to end road blocks he said could eventually become unmanageable, observing it was "no surprise people greatly miss" Colombia's former conservative president Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Bogotá's Radio Santa Fe reported. Mr Uribe vigorously fought crime and guerrilla activities while President from 2002 to 2010, and left office with high approval ratings. Police General José León Riaño might have been referring to a recent poll organized by the History Channel in which Mr Uribe won most votes as the most prominent or admired personality in recent Colombian history. General León told regional colleagues by video-conference that when Uribe was president, "there was a kidnapping and the commander was at the kidnapping site within an hour, leading rescue operations. There was a road block and it was unblocked within an hour, road blocks were not accepted. Not so today, we're blocking all over the place, waiting and waiting while road blocks escalate" until their resolution becomes "very complicated." He told colleagues not to "sit and wait for the conversation table," referring either to planned talks with protesters or ongoing talks with the FARC in Havana, which Colombian media term a Dialogue.

Mexican drug cartel accuses militia of conniving with crime

The drug cartel Caballeros Templarios, which is active in western Mexico, accused a recently-founded anti-crime militia of collaborating with rival gangs in the western state of Guerrero and advised authorities to stay out of its imminent bid to destroy these groups, the review Proceso reported on 23 June. Self-defence groups have emerged in several parts of Mexico in response to violent crime and official corruption, and more so in smaller and rural districts where residents have accused local police and authorities of cowering before the powerful cartels. In this case the Templarios hung sheets in the districts of Atoyac de Álvarez and Coyuca de Benítez accusing the group led by activist Leopoldo Soberanis Hernández of being a front for the gang dubbed Los Granados and the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel. The gang was described as an offshoot of the dismantled Beltrán Leyva cartel. These, the sheets read, were kidnapping "teachers, tourists, the elderly and making social activists and environmentalists disappear," which the Templars said they would not permit. The cartel told the Mexican state not to "meddle" as it proceeded to eliminate "these stains." According to Proceso the civilian militia's formation was announced during a protest on 20 June by residents of four districts of the Costa Grande sector of Guerrero. "More than 1,000" residents of Coyuca de Benítez, Atoyac de Álvarez, Benito Juárez and Tecpan de Galeana announced they would form the Citizens' Self-Defence Group (Grupo de Autodefensa Ciudadana) as they blocked the motorway linking Guerrero to the neighbouring state of Michoacán. Proceso cited the activist Leopoldo Soberanis as telling a telephone interview that the militia was the fruit of locals' disgust with state "indolence" toward violent crime and to alleged ties between local authorities and troops based in the district of Petatlán with the Caballeros Templarios. He said he wanted his group recognised by the state government and would seek to expand its activities to three more districts in Guerrero including Petatlán. The review observed that the militia's first protest coincided with an incipient tour by the Guerrero governor to promote the state as a tourist destination; Guerrero includes the resort of Acapulco.

Suspected gangsters, extortionists held around Colombia

Several suspects thought involved in organised crime and extortion were reported detained in Colombia in recent days, including six members of one of the main national gangs the Rastrojos, while authorities found an explosives cache thought to belong to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). In San Martín in the department of Meta south of Bogotá, police detained a suspected member of Los Rastrojos sought by Interpol and likely to be charged with criminal conspiracy, the Ministry of Defence reported on 21 June. Police anti-extortion units (Gaula) arrested five other members of this gang in Soledad, a district next to the northern port of Barranquilla, suspected of coordinating extortion in that district and elsewhere in the department of Atlántico, Caracol radio reported on 21 June. Earlier President Juan Manuel Santos ordered the head of the anti-extortion police to work from Barranquilla, in an apparent response to a surge in extortions in parts of that district. This was apparently affecting bus drivers and stall owners in particular, the Presidential office reported on 19 June. General Humberto Guatibonza Carreño "is going to come and work here in Barranquilla and in Cartagena until this problem is totally resolved," the President was cited as saying after a security meeting in Barranquilla. In southern Bogotá police arrested six or more members of an extortion gang that worked around the capital's main wholesale market Corabastos, the Defence Ministry reported on 20 June. The gang reportedly forced "more than 100" street vendors and dairy products distributors to pay every day the equivalent of between 2.5 USD and five USD to avoid being robbed or beaten. In the department of Cauca in western Colombia, Police confiscated grenades and bullets found in the locality of Cerro Manuel in the district of Timbiquí, and thought to belong to Front 29 of the FARC, Bogotá's Radio Santa Fe reported on 20 June.

Report describes recent history of kidnappings in Colombia

A report issued on 20 June by Colombia's semi-official National Centre of Historical Memory (Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica) and the consultancy firm Cifras y Conceptos was presented as "the most solid and consistent" history of kidnapping in Colombia from 1970 to 2010 and of its geographical and human anatomy. The report entitled Una Verdad Secuestrada used 1,302,337 data pertaining to 39,058 kidnap victims, and was created with the support of bodies including the Police, the European Union and Colombia's state prosecution service (Fiscalía), Caracol radio reported. The broadcaster reported some of the highlights of its findings: it stated that Bogotá, Medellín and Cali were the cities most affected by kidnapping in that period, with 2,572 registered kidnappings in Bogotá in 1970-2010, 1,920 in Medellín and 1,241 in Cali. Tuluá, a district half-way between Bogotá and the Pacific coast, had the fewest - 153 - kidnappings. The country's two communist guerrilla armies - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) - were found to be the most prolific kidnappers, followed by criminal gangs who nevertheless kidnapped more in cities like Bogotá, Caracol reported. Figures showed that criminals kidnapped most in Bogotá in this period - 840 times - while the FARC had carried out their greatest number of kidnappings in the districts of Miraflores in the department of Guaviare (182 kidnappings there), and in San Vicente del Caguán (152) and Villavicencio (142), respectively in southern and in south-central Colombia. The ELN kidnapped most in Cali (353) and in Valledupar (307) in the northern department of César near the Venezuelan frontier. Graphic representaion of the history of kidnappings showed that kidnappings began to increase from 1990 and rose exponentially around 1996, at the start of what the report termed as a "massification" period. Its chart showed that kidnappings reached a peak in 2000-2002, when they began to decline during a "containment" period, Caracol reported. A decline and stagnation in kidnappings broadly coincided with the two presidencies of Álvaro Uribe Vélez (2002-2010), the conservative leader who waged war on crime and insurgencies.

Los Angeles council votes against plastic bags

The city council of Los Angeles voted to ban shops from handing out plastic bags to shoppers, following the lead taken by several cities in California to restrict a useful accessory that has become one of the major pollutants of the land and oceans, press and agencies reported on 19 June. The ordinance, once confirmed and signed by the mayor, was to gradually take effect between 1 January and 1 July 2014, applying first to the largest supermarkets, Los Angeles Times reported. It would require shoppers to bring their own bags or buy paper bags for 10 cents, while businesses that failed to comply would be fined 100 USD after the first violation, 200 USD after the second and 500 USD after the third, this continuing for every day the shop persisted in handing out plastic bags, the daily reported. Jobs were likely to be lost in the plastic sector, but the move was expected to cut the pollution caused by bags, many of which were thought to end up in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch or Plastic Soup that mostly consists of plastic fragments and is reported to have increased in size 100 fold in the last 40 years. EFE news agency cited Los Angeles authorities as estimating that presently some 2,000 million plastic bags were given out in Los Angeles annually; 60 Californian communities or districts it added had banned the distribution of free or of all plastic bags, including San Francisco in 2007 and Santa Monica in 2011.

Local politician, builder, gangster among recent killed in Mexico

A mayoral candidate in 2012 was found shot dead on 15 June in the western Mexican state of Guerrero; he was one of at least 17 including a constructor, a former civil servant and a presumed gangster reported killed around Mexico in recent days. Guillermo Maceda Cervantes, a former pre-candidate for the district of Tlacoachistlahuaca and member of the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), was found in his car outside the district of Ometepec in Guerrero, Proceso reported, citing Mexico's Notimex agency. A former member of the office of the chief prosecutor of the state of Michoacán in western Mexico was also shot dead on 15 June while driving in the state capital Morelia, Proceso reported. Witnesses reportedly said a gunman waited for the victim's car to reach a crossroads, standing on the dividing line of the two sides of the street. The bodies of three executed men were found on 16 June in the north-western state of Sinaloa, with a message for the local police left beside them, while soldiers shot dead three suspected criminals in a gunfight on 16 June, in the western state of Michoacán, Proceso reported. The shootout occurred on a ranch or a locality between the  districts of Los Reyes and Cotija, near the border of the neighbouring state of Jalisco, the review stated. It counted no less than nine killings on 13-14 June, including of the owner of a construction firm and five of his workers, shot late on 13 June in the district of Totolápam, outside the Pacific-coast resort of Puerto Escondido. Police separately confirmed the killing of a gang leader on 16 June, in the district of San Andrés Cholula in the central state of Puebla. The victim was identified as presumed head of a gang known as Los Rojos, said to be based in the western district of Chilpancingo and to have acted or be acting as enforcers or gunmen for the Beltrán Leyva cartel. It was not immediately clear if the gang was independent now. The state Public Security chief for Puebla Sergio Lara Montellano warned the killing could provoke drug-related violence in the state, Proceso reported on 18 June.

Honduran convicts donate beds to elderly home, in seeming peace gesture

Jailed members of the Mara Salvatrucha, one of the main killing and extortion gangs in Honduras, donated 50 wooden beds they had made to an old people's home in the northern city of San Pedro Sula where they were jailed, the daily El Heraldo reported on 18 June. The Auxiliary Bishop of San Pedro Sula interpreted the donation as a sign of the gangsters' goodwill and desire to change lives, following earlier public declarations that they would abandon crime. Monsignor Rómulo Emiliani, who was acting as mediator in an incipient ceasefire between this and the rival Barrio 18 gang, accompanied the inmates as they delivered the beds to the home where they themselves were said to have elderly relatives. The newspaper cited an unnamed member of the 18 gang as thanking God "as He is always first in these situations," then the bishop for his "support and faith," and stating the gang's desire to show Hondurans "we want real changes in Honduras," one of the continent's most violent states. He said his gang would, at some point, take part in all "social causes" where given an opportunity. The cleric was separately cited as saying that while President Porfirio Lobo had phoned to express support for the planned ceasefire, the state had done nothing specific yet to forward a peace plan. Nor had criminal violence stopped in Honduras in spite of contrary assertions, as recent incidents indicated. A member of the presidential guard was shot dead in Comayagüela north of the capital Tegucicalpa on 17 or 18 June, while driving home with his wife and child, La Prensa and EFE news agency reported. In San Pedro Sula, a 26-year-old bus driver's assistant was shot dead by a thief, after the assistant refused to let him flee from the bus, La Prensa reported on 18 June. Three prisoners and a woman were also shot dead in the capital on 15 June, apparently while the inmates were on leave; they were said to have been shot by a five-member execution squad firing assault weapons, La Prensa reported on 16 June.

Salvadoran mediators to advise Honduras on gangs ceasefire

To help realise the pledge made last May by the two main street gangs in Honduras to abandon crime, mediators of a gangs ceasefire in El Salvador and representatives of the Organisation of American States (OAS) met and talked on 17 June with gang members and Honduran mediators, in what seemed to be a first concrete step to ensure the ceasefire took off in Honduras, the Associated Press reported. An OAS official Ana Martínez told the agency that a meeting held in a prison in the city of San Pedro Sula in northern Honduras was to establish a code of practice and make personal contacts, and took place with the knowledge of Honduran officials. The Auxiliary Bishop of San Pedro Sula, Rómulo Emiliani, who is to act as mediator in what was hoped would become a disarmament and pacification process involving Honduran gangs, was cited as saying that Salvadorean mediators had come to "specifically" back "this effort, transmit to us their experiences and offer their support, always bearing in mind that the context of violence in Honduras" differed from El Salvador's. A spokesman for the Barrio 18 gang who attended the meeting was cited as claiming that homicides had dropped 80 per cent in Honduras since the gangs announced a ceasefire in late May; he added however that "the situation" was "complicated" as police "continue to murder us. They do not arrest us they execute us," AP reported. The agency observed it was impossible to verify whether or not homicides had declined in Honduras in recent weeks.

Slight increase in homicides, kidnappings seen in Mexico City

A report showed a year-on-year increase in homicides, kidnappings and gunfire injuries in Mexico City in the first five months of 2013, although there appeared to be an overall decline in the most frequent crimes in the capital. The Reporte de Índice Delictivo (RINDE) compiled by the Citizens Council for Public Security (Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad Pública y Justicia Penal) using figures from the office of the Mexico City chief prosecutor (Procuración General de la Justicia del Distrito Federal) counted 336 homicides in the capital from 1 January to the end of May 2013, compared to 316 killings for that period in 2012, the newspaper Milenio reported on 12 June. Reported or registered kidnappings increased by 12.5 per cent in that period - rising from 24 to 27 cases - and gunfire injuries rose from 466 to 520 cases. Nevertheless there was an 18-per-cent fall in the 14 most frequently committed crimes in the capital in the first five months of 2013, these declining from 21,421 to 17,550 registered incidents. The report excluded crimes not reported. The Citizens Council president in Mexico City Luis Wertman Zaslav was cited as saying that of the documented homicide figures, 40 per cent were the result of fights or scuffles, 33 per cent for vendettas, 13 per cent were crimes of passion and 15 per cent the consequence of armed robberies, Milenio reported. Wertman urged authorities not to tolerate this increase; "we are not going to allow or tolerate being deprived of the tranquility we have attained...in Mexico City, which is living today a totally different reality from that of 10 or 12 years ago. We are not going to be quiet and give into a minority of delincuents. We are going to defend our" right to walk on streets that "belong to citizens not to crime." The Citizens Council found separately that kidnappings were increasingly violent in Mexico, observing on its website that 2013 was confirming the upward trend in the killing of kidnap victims. A report posted on the Council's website on 11 June found that "at least 144 " of the 2,756 reported kidnap victims were killed in Mexico in 2012, compared to 120 of 2,979 kidnap victims killed in 2011 and 219 killed in 2010. The Council stated these were the highest fatality figures since 1971 when compilations began, adding however that many kidnappings were unreported or figures were often "shaved" downward by authorities. Separately on 12 or 13 June, a spokesman for the national Security Cabinet said state forces had freed 67 kidnap victims over 15 days in actions around the country, and detained 37 suspected kidnappers, Milenio reported. Eduardo Sánchez told a press conference at the interior ministry that the detained were members of 11 gangs thought involved in 50 other kidnapping cases; they were caught in the states of Guerrero, Nuevo León, Baja California, Estado de México, Sonora and Mexico City.

Colombian Ministry says Venezuela was informed of opponent's visit

Colombia's Foreign Minister said on 12 June that President Juan Manuel Santos had previously informed his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolás Maduro of a planned meeting on 29 May with Venezuela's leading opponent Henrique Capriles, which provoked the public ire of Venezuelan authorities. Opposition forces led by Mr Capriles refused to recognize President Maduro's election last April and the government has since accused them of plotting against the state, allegedly with the help of Colombian conservatives. The visit triggered a recent deterioration of ties between the two states although Colombia has given a muted response to incendiary declarations made in Venezuela. Colombia's Foreign Minister María Ángela Holguín said in a radio interview on 12 June that "the two presidents spoke days before" the visit to Bogotá wherein Mr Capriles met with the President and parliamentarians. She said she did not know what Maduro had said in response, Radio Santa Fe reported. Among charges recently made in Venezuela was that members of its opposition had bought warplanes in the United States, presumably to attack Venezuelan territory. On 10 June the Interior Minister separately revealed that the Government had foiled a plot by "paramilitaries" to assassinate President Maduro. Miguel Rodríguez Torres said nine Colombian citizens were detained on 9 June as they sought to enter Caracas, allegedly as part of a "plan orchestrated in Colombia to assassinate President Maduro and destabilise the Venezuelan government," CNN reported on 10 June, citing a Venezuelan state television report. Mr Capriles dismissed the allegations on 11 June another of the "follies" the Government was "inventing" to distract opinion from Venezuela's problems, Europa Press reported, citing Capriles's comments to an opposition programme.

Gang killings continue in Honduras in spite of pledge to stop

Although the gangs of Honduras pledged last May to end their violent acts, raising hopes that crime could drop in Honduras as it has in neighbouring El Salvador, recent killings attributed to street gangs indicated they had yet to act on their stated intentions. One recent victim of gang criminality was a 31-year-old man shot on 9 June outside the northern city of San Pedro Sula, after he refused to hand over his house to a gang. Relatives of Cristhian Fajardo Sánchez fled the family home after one of the gangs told them they needed the property, but neighbours were cited as saying that he refused to leave - living there in a state of fear and locking himself in every evening after returning from work in a bottling plant, the Honduran daily La Prensa reported on 10 June. Three gunmen reportedly shot him as he walked to work one morning; witnesses said they were waiting for him at a street corner and shot him as he sought to walk past and ignore them. It was not immediately which of the gangs killed him, as he was reported shot on the frontier of the territories of the Mara Salvatrucha and M-18 gangs. In other incidents: the head of the state electricity firm ENEE for the northern city of Progreso was shot there on 11 June as he sought to enter a taxi, and a 63-old-woman was gunned down in Tegucicalpa on 9 June, apparently while cleaning the Protestant church she attended. The killing was attributed to an execution squad of 12 Maras, and police suspected this may have been for the victim's earlier efforts as head of a residents' association to reopen an abandoned police post in her neighbourhood, La Prensa reported. The daily also reported the shooting deaths of a Guatemalan couple while driving in Choloma in the northern department of Cortés, and of two taxi drivers in San Pedro Sula and Tegucicalpa on 9 June.

Gang suspects held around Colombia, Anglican priest shot in Bogotá

Colombian authorities reported on 11 June arrests in different localities of 17 suspected members of the Rastrojos, one of the country's leading criminal gangs; they were to be charged with conspiracy to murder for presumed criminal activities that included killings, Radio Santa Fe reported. Thirteen of the suspects were detained in the district of Arjona in the northern department of Bolívar, the remainder in the departments of César and Norte de Santander, the broadcaster reported. Police also announced the arrest of the suspected head of another national gang Los Urabeños for the western port of Buenaventura, a suspect dubbed La F, El Colombiano reported on 11 June. The suspect was sought on homicide and related charges; he was caught in the city of Cali where he reportedly ran operations that included shipping drugs along Colombia's Pacific coast, and gold mining. Colombian media reported several killings in the capital and in Medellín. In south-western Bogotá, an Anglican priest and his lawyer were shot dead early on 11 June in what was initially reported to be a robbery. The victims were alternately said to have been shot in their car, which two gunmen stopped as it drove toward the district of Villavicencio at four in the morning, or taken away and shot in the district of Kennedy in the capital, Caracol radio reported. In Medellín, three men - one aged 17 - were shot dead late on 9 June by gunmen said to be wearing police uniforms, while six at least were shot dead on 8 June around the department of Antioquia that includes Medellín, El Colombiano reported. Homicides in Medellín were reportedly continuing an upward trend compared to 2012; the Antioquia security affairs chief Arnulfo Serna Giraldo said there were 503 homicides in Medellín from the start of 2013 to 9 June, compared to 499 for the same period in 2012, El Colombiano reported.

Colombian police detain guerrilla captain, crime gang held in northern Bogotá

Colombian police declared on 6 June they had detained a field commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), as he headed to a meeting with another FARC chief in the locality of Páramo de Sumapaz south of the capital Bogotá. The guerrilla dubbed Jaime was associated with the kidnap in 2000 of the journalist Guillermo Cortés and identified as a 25-year veteran of the FARC; he was to face sedition-related charges, Radio Santa Fe reported on 6 June. Police also caught a suspected paramilitary or former paramilitary, a man dubbed Farid, in the district of Puerto Concordia south-east of Bogotá, Radio Santa Fe reported. The detained, a suspected member of a group called Libertadores del Vichada, was thought involved in killings and extortions from traders and livestock formers in the departments of Casanare and Meta south of Bogotá. In the district of Suba north-west of Bogotá, police reported the arrests of 14 members of a local gang called the Boyacos, involved in extortion and drug dealing among other "selective" activities, Radio Santa Fe reported on 6 June.

Bogotá taxis to boost security with "panic alarms"

Devices activating "panic alarms" are to become available to taxis in Bogotá, anticipating possible emergencies like attempted assaults and to protect drivers and passengers from crime, media reported on 4 June. Fear of theft and violence haunts both taxi drivers and passengers in many Latin American cities, and police in Bogotá have advised residents not to hail a taxi on the street, especially at night. It is difficult to determine who fears whom more. The panic button activates technology that instantly alerts the police and the taxi authority in the capital, and is already installed in 480 taxis in Bogotá, Caracol radio reported on 4 June, citing comments by the capital's Government Secretary or security affairs coordinator, Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo. The "button" appeared to be in an application called Digital Plus, which could be downloaded freely onto mobile telephones or similar devices; once activated the alarm would send the taxi's car number, the number of the mobile phone activating the "panic button," and the driver's mobile phone number, according to the Colombian daily Vanguardia Liberal. The system would also allow passengers to call a taxi whose movements were subject to a satellite monitoring system, the broadcaster RCN reported on 4 June, adding that the Digital Plus system was devised through an agreement between some 2,000 taxi drivers, the Bogotá Municipality and the police. Secretary Jaramillo was cited as saying there were some 50,000 taxi drivers in Bogotá.

Honduran gangs offer to stop violence, lead ordinary lives

Leaders of the two main criminal gangs in Honduras - Mara Salvatrucha or MS13 and the Barrio 18 or M18 - publicly apologised on 28 May for any harm their groups had done to Honduran society and asked the state to help them move on from a life of crime, in a step echoing the gangs' ceasefire in El Salvador that has reduced violent crime there since March 2012. Honduras is currently one of the most violent countries in the world and authorities recently admitted its police and judiciary could barely cope with criminality. Gang spokesmen stated their resolve on 28 May to end this violence, at a press conference organised in prison in the northern city of San Pedro Sula, attended also by the two chief mediators, the Auxiliary Bishop of San Pedro Sula, Rómulo Emiliani, and the Secretary of Multidimentional Security at the Organization of American States (OAS) Adam Blackwell. According to the Honduran website Proceso Digital the ceasefire consisted for now in a total end to criminal violence across the country but not to extortions, which remained as elsewhere in Central America the chief source of money for such gangs. The Maras also pledged they would suspend recruitments, La Prensa reported. Reasons given by spokesmen for the apparent contrition or change of heart included the state's retaliatory violence against gang members and their relatives, the Maras' social ostracism and deplorable reputation and a desire to offer their children a better life. Honduran President Porfirio Lobo was cited as saying the state would give all necessary support to the ceasefire and the "efforts" being made by mediators. He said he spoke by telephone on 27 May to the Auxiliary Bishop who warned him the ceasefire would not be easy to maintain; but Mr Lobo stated his belief that the ceasefire was "for the best," even if the state did not envisage abandoning its capacity to fight crime with force, Europa Press reported on 29 May, citing the President's comments to the press in Tegucicalpa.

Colombian troops gun down FARC guerrilla who killed minister in 2001

Troops shot dead in northern Colombia the presumed fighter of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) Cécil Rodríguez Sánchez - Amaury - sought for his suspected role in several killings of policemen and of the country's minister of culture in 2001. Amaury, described as a "finance" and extortion agent for the FARC in the northern department of La Guajira, was killed in an undated gun fight in the countryside of the district of Maicao near Venezuela, though authorities believe he was injured during shooting that followed a FARC ambush of police cars in La Guajira on 23 May, Caracol radio reported on 28 May. The guerrilla was sought for his role in the massacres of 10 policemen in Patillal in the department of César in 1995 and other unspecified killings in the César, La Guajira and Magdalena departments, Caracol reported. Another of his victims was Colombia's late minister of culture Consuelo Araújo Noguera, whom Amaury reportedly had kidnapped and later executed in 2001. In separate incidents in the south-western department of Cauca suspected FARC fighters were reported to have burned transport vehicles and shot at a lorry travelling on the Panamerican highway, and shot at a military patrol and the police station in the district of Mondomo on or just before 28 May, Bogotá's Radio Santa Fe reported. Casualties were not reported in these incidents.

Police count over 150 criminal deaths around El Salvador in May

El Salvador's National Civil Police (PNC) counted 151 homicides or violent deaths in the country from 1 to 25 May, an average of six a day that indicated a slight decline through that month, the Salvadorean daily El Mundo reported on 26 May. Police put the average daily homicides rate at the start of May at 8.5, the daily reported. Official figures cited in past months have indicated a decline in violent crime since the start of a 2012 ceasefire between Mara street gangs and their stated pledge to gradually disarm. According to the PNC's acting head Mauricio Ramírez Landaverde there was a 40 per cent drop in homicides for the first five months of 2013, or 844 from 1 January to 25 May compared to 1,357 for the same period in 2012, El Mundo reported. He attributed this in part to greater police presence in areas where gangs were more active and to the selection so far of 10 districts around the country where gangs have pledged to desist from violence. Police declared however that car break-ins and thefts had increased in May 2013, according to complaints filed. The PNC declared there were 1,298 complaints to police over cars broken into or stolen between 1 and 19 May, compared to 1,128 complaints for that period in 2012, El Mundo reported on 26 May. Not all public figures in El Salvador are convinced by the Mara gangs' pledge to disarm, the country's director of public prosecutions recently calling their ceasefire a "sham" that allowed them to continue their criminal activities. Another critic was an aspiring candidate of the right-wing ARENA party for presidential elections due in February 2014; he urged the state on 24 May to make pacts with citizens not criminals. The government of President Mauricio Funes has denied it has made a pact with the Maras. Norman Quijano said he would not support "the pact made with criminals" if he were elected President, and urged instead a "Citizens' Alliance" (Alianza Ciudadana), the website lapagina.com reported. He said his plan was "basically about taking the side of citizens, of victims," and contrasted it with the "government's evident failure to stop the crime wave." The website cited an earlier poll that gave ARENA (Alianza Republicana Nacionalista) a slight lead in voting intentions. President Funes has in turn called Quijano ignorant and warned him that allegations made in some of his campaign publicity on the state making a pact with gangs were defamatory. Mr Funes was cited as saying on 25 May that Mr Quijano's chance of registering his candidacy could be jeopardised if the state were to prosecute him for calumny, lapagina.com reported.

Colombian troops capture FARC guerrillas, gang chief

Colombian authorities caught in recent days two suspected commanders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in operations in western and south-western Colombia. One, the presumed guerrilla dubbed Arquímedes or Alquímedes, was identified as the deputy-head of the Jacobo Arenas Mobile Column whose commander was shot in early May and described as "one of the army's main targets in south-western" Colombia since then, Caracol radio reported on 24 May. Arquímedes, said to coordinate guerrillas in eight districts in the northern part of Cauca, was caught early on 24 May near a bridge on the border between the Cauca and Valle de Cauca departments. Soldiers and intelligence agents caught in the western department of Risaralda another suspected FARC member named as José Eniller Lengua Gañán, Caracol radio reported on 25 May. The detained was described as in charge of 21 fighters from the FARC's Aurelio Rodríguez Front and engaged in extortion in Risaralda. In the west-coast district of Istmina in the department of Chocó, police caught early on 24 May a suspected gangster and former paramilitary dubbed Guacharaco, described as a member or head of a gang called Águilas Negras or Renacer, Caracol radio reported on 25 May. The suspect was sought for his suspected role in crimes including killings and extortions in Chocó; his group was said to be working with the gang Los Urabeños to exclude another gang the Rastrojos from control of drug routes in Chocó, Caracol reported.

Colombian, FARC envoys reach agreement on land as part of peace talks

Representatives of the Colombian state and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) reached an agreement on land use and distribution in Colombia, the first and a key part of talks being held in Cuba to end decades of internal conflict, agencies and press reported on 27 May. The two sides were to resume talks on 11 June and start discussing the second theme of talks, the FARC's possible participation Colombian public life if peace were attained, Reuters reported, citing the communiqué issued by the sides in Havana. The document stated that both sides had agreed on what would become "the start of radical transformations in Colombia's rural and agricultural reality, with equity and democracy. It is centred on people, the small producer, access to and distribution of land, the struggle against poverty, stimulus to agricultural production." Land use and ownership was a cause of extreme social tensions that provoked civil conflict in the 20th century and led to the FARC's creation in 1964. Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos wrote on the website Twitter that "we really, truly celebrate this fundamental step in Havana toward a full agreement to end half a century of conflict. We shall continue with prudence and responsiblity," Reuters reported. Colombia's Radio Santa Fe observed on 27 May that this and any agreement reached in Havana would only take effect once the sides reach a comprehensive and definitive agreement on all parts of their agenda. The land agreement's provisions included helping peasants with no land or insufficient land buy more with the help of a Land Fund for Peace (Fondo de Tierras para la paz), Radio Santa Fe reported.

Ecuador's President begins second "and last" term

Rafael Correa Delgado began on 24 May his second term as President of Ecuador in ceremonies attended by foreign dignitaries and some heads of state, and after saying he would not aspire to a third term, agencies reported. The official website El Ciudadano observed that the Government would seek in the 2013-17 term a "qualitative leap" in Ecuador's productive model to turn the state from an exporter of raw materials to one of added-value goods including oil-derived products. The new Vice-President Jorge Glas Espinel was expected to coordinate the implemention of these and other policies in "strategic" sectors. He would replace Lenín Moreno Garcés, the outgoing vice-president who sought not to show emotion while given a standing ovation by the assembly at the event. Leaders who attended Correa's inauguration were the presidents of Bolivia, Chile, Honduras and Venezuela; the Prince of Asturias represented Spain and Vice-President Amado Boudou Argentina, while Mexico sent its foreign minister, José Antonio Meade, El Universo reported. In contrast with other Leftists leaders of Latin America, Correa earlier ruled out running for a third presidential term in 2017, saying it would be a "failure" if his movement the Alianza PAIS (Patria Altiva i Soberana) could not designate a successor. Even in that case he said he would not repeat as President; he would apparently seek work as an academic in Belgium, the homeland of his wife, Perú 21 reported on 23 May. He was cited as saying that "we have worked these years to be as unnecessary as possible. We are all necessary, but nobody should be indispensable." Voters elected Correa with a clear majority in general elections on 17 February 2013.