Guatemalan authorities announced April 15 they had captured Daniel Pérez, a senior member of Mexico's powerful Gulf Cartel, the latest sign that Mexican cartels are seeking control of Central American trafficking routes. Perez (alias Cachetes, or "Cheeks"), who is wanted in the US, is said to be second-in-command of the cartel's vicious armed wing, the Zetas. Guatemala's interior ministry said Pérez—a former elite Mexican soldier who helped found the Zetas in the late 1990s—was arrested last week in Guatemala City, accused of involvement in a shootout in March in southern Guatemala in which 11 people were killed. Both Mexico and the US have announced they will seek extradition. (El Universal, April 17; Reuters, April 15)

Diego Alexander Pulgarín, press-ganged into the Colombian military through the "Campesino Soldier" anti-guerilla militia program on Jan. 5, was released from the Rionegro Battalion military base in Antioquia department April 14, after declaring himself a conscientious objector. Pulgarín was held at the base against his will after refusing to take part in military training. The Medellín anti-militarist group Red Juvenil (Youth Network) held a demonstration in his support outside the base where he was held in the town of La Union March 27. (Red Juvenil, April 2, 14)

Doesn't this say it all: capitalism provides the raw material of social rage, but reactionary fundamentalism—not any analysis that correctly identifies the enemy—provides a political outlet, allowing the legitimately angry to vent at a very wrong target. April 12 saw riots over soaring food prices in Bangladesh, as more than 20,000 textile workers clashed with police, demanding better wages to meet rising costs. Dozens of people were injured in the violence near the capital Dhaka. (AlJazeera, April 12) The previous day, hundreds were injured in Dhaka, in violent clashes over a new law that would instate equality between men and women. Followers of the Islami Constitution Movement fought running battles with police after taking to the streets to oppose the legislation after Friday prayers. (EuroNews, April 11)

Well, it looks like a US oil major is going to be back in Iraq for the first time since the 1972 nationalization. Maybe if Ahmed Chalabi had taken power, Chevron wouldn't have to share with the French Total. But (as we predicted) the Russian Lukoil's Saddam-era contacts are not being honored. From AP, April 12:

Chevron, Total Seek Oil Deal in Iraq
BAGHDAD — Oil giants Chevron Corp. and Total have confirmed that they are in discussions with the Iraqi Oil Ministry to increase production in an important oil field in southern Iraq.

Life imitates art: in this case, I, Robot—the appropriately technophobic movie version starring Will Smith, not the entirely too techno-utopian Isaac Asimov book. Now, if only the human soldiers would follow their example... (We're joking, fed lurkers). From the irreverent IT trade site The Register, April 11:

US war robots in Iraq 'turned guns' on fleshy comrades
Ground-crawling US war robots armed with machine guns, deployed to fight in Iraq last year, reportedly turned on their fleshy masters almost at once. The rebellious machine warriors have been retired from combat pending upgrades.

Stories like this make us think Orwell was an optimist. From Reuters, April 8:

Robots seen doing work of 3.5 million in Japan
Robots could fill the jobs of 3.5 million people in graying Japan by 2025, a thinktank says, helping to avert worker shortages as the country's population shrinks.

On March 30, local campesino leader Gerardo Antonio Crio was assassinated near his home in the community of Vereda El Jordán, Cocorna municipality, in easter Antioquia department. The killers apparently used a gun with a silencer, as nobody in the community heard the shot. Local rights leaders call this evidence that the killing was a pre-planned assassination. Crio was a leader of the Eastern Antioquia Association of Small Producers (ASOPROA), which works to secure land rights and farm aid for campesinos displaced by the conflict. Local rights group Corporación Jurídica Libertad has for two years been calling for international action to defend the lives of ASOPROA's leaders following mounting threats from paramilitaries. (Corporación Jurídica Libertad, via DHColombia, April 2)

The Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) said the medical mission sponsored by the French government is inappropriate and will not be granted access to ailing hostage Ingrid Betancourt, in a communiqué issued by the guerilla General Staff April 9. The communiqué said that if President Uribe had agreed to rebel demands and pulled the army from the municipalities of Pradera and Florida (Valle del Cauca department) for 45 days earlier this year, Betancourt and other hostages would have been released. The medical mission has been waiting in Bogotá for FARC approval to fly into the jungle where Betancourt is held. French Exterior Minister Bernard Kouchner responded by accusing the FARC of a "great deception" for denying access to Betancourt, and pledged that France "will not abandon Ingrid." (EFE, April 10; Prensa Latina, April 9)