From American Friends Service Committee, Feb. 7:

PHILADELPHIA – The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker humanitarian service organization, has nominated two Colombian groups for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for their extraordinary commitment to nonviolence in the midst of the country’s 50 year-old conflict and their exemplification of organized efforts by many Colombians to end that conflict justly.

Earlier this month, a delegation from the Bush adminisation met with President Alvaro Uribe in Bogota to evaluate what Uribe is calling "Plan Colombia II." The delegation was led by assistant secretary of state for hemispheric affairs Tom Shannon and assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs Anne Patterson (former US ambassador to Colombia). Also on the delegation were assistant secretary of defense for western hemisphere policy Stephen Johnson, assistant attorney general Mary Lee Warren and US AID deputy director Mark Silverman. The Bogota daily El Tiempo called it part of Uribe's "diplomatic offensive" to assure continued Plan Colombia aid following the changes in Washington. He officially dubs his new program "Plan Colombia Consolidation Phase: Strategy for Strengthening Democracy and Social Development." It emphasizes alternative crop programs for peasants in drug-growing regions and job programs for the 32,000 ostensibly "demobilized" paramilitary fighters. (El Tiempo, Jan. 26)

Some long-belated progress in the struggle of another stateless ethnicity left off the map in the colonial and post-colonial carve-ups. From Reuters, Feb. 21:

ALGIERS - The Malian government and Tuareg rebels agreed on Tuesday to start implementing an Algerian-brokered peace deal for the northeast desert region of Kidal, the Algerian official news agency APS said.

From IRIN via Electronic Iraq, Feb. 20:

BAGHDAD - Umm Muhammad Jalal, 39, starts every day walking to a river 7km away from her temporary home in a displacement camp on the outskirts of Fallujah, 70km west of the capital, Baghdad. Because of severe water shortages, she and many others make the daily trip to the river to collect water for all their needs.

Friends and advocates from the Paraguayan Union of Journalists (SPP) will mark the one year anniversary of Paraguayan radio journalist Enrique (Kike) Galeano’s disappearance with a protest in his home town of Yby Yaú. Galeano was reporting on drug trafficking in the northeast region of Paraguay on the Brazilian border when he disappeared on February 4, 2006. Galeano was under police protection shortly before his disappearance, when he covered the seizure of a shipment of cocaine and heavy weapons for Radio Azotey. His coverage linked trafficking to local government officials, such as ruling Colorado Party parliamentary representative Magdaleno Silva. (RSF, Oct. 25) The event has been covered widely by the local press, but little has been done to find Galeano or his abductors.

Almost two months after Ecuador’s Ministry of Energy and Mines rejected Ascendant Copper’s Environmental Impact Study for the controversial and locally unpopular Junin copper mine project, the company’s shares plummeted to a measly $0.47 per share on Monday. In addition to the rejection of the company’s environmental study (a prerequisite to begin the exploration phase), which was nixed because of a lack of consultation with local communities (a decision Ascendant president Gary E. Davis angrily described as "asinine"), there have been a number of other setbacks that may explain the lack of investor confidence about the viability of the company’s project.

The 15-member United Nations Security Council voted unanimously in New York on Feb. 15 to approve Resolution 1743, which extends the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) until Oct. 15. The eight-month period was a compromise. A number of countries, including Brazil, Canada, France, the United Kingdom and the US, recommended a one-year extension. But China—which has no diplomatic ties with Haiti because of Haiti's links to Taiwan—had argued for a six-month renewal so the council could have better oversight. Resolution 1743 asked the MINUSTAH "continue the increased tempo of operations in support of the HNP [Haitian National Police] against armed gangs as deemed necessary to restore security, notably in Port-au-Prince." (AlterPresse, Feb. 15; Haiti Support Group News Briefs, Feb. 14 from Reuters; Security Council press release, Feb. 15) MINUSTAH's anti-crime operations have been widely criticized for indiscriminate violence in impoverished Port-au-Prince neighborhoods, with reports of deaths and injuries to local residents who had no connection to crime.

A UN working group recently investigated abuses by private security firms recruiting and training hundreds of Peruvians to work as mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan. (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Feb. 5) Mercenaries are currently the second largest military force in Iraq, with numbers estimated as great as 50,000. Britain is next in line with 10,000 troops. This marks a shift from the "coalition of the willing" to a "coalition of the billing" used to complement the 130,000-strong US occupying force in Iraq. (AFP, Feb. 3)