Commemorations taking place nearly throughout Latin America 40 years after the death of Ernesto "Che" Guevara on Oct. 8, 1967, indicate just how much the world has changed since then—for better and for worse. Most significantly, in Bolivia—where he met his death, and where his name and image were anathema under military dictatorships and conservative regimes a generation thereafter—the official ceremony celebrating the legendary guerilla was presided over by the populist President Evo Morales. The commemoration was held at the village of Vallegrande in Santa Cruz department, where Guevara was captured, tortured and killed by Bolivian soldiers overseen by CIA agents.

A federal judge in Washington DC declared a mistrial Oct. 4 in the cocaine trafficking trial of Colombian guerilla leader Ricardo Palmera, AKA Simón Trinidad. AP writes: "The US government had hoped a conviction would underscore its view that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, is not just a terrorist organization but also a violent drug cartel. But jurors said they could not reach a verdict." (AP, Oct. 5)

From Editor & Publisher, Oct. 5:

Gonzalo Guillen, a reporter for The Miami Herald's Spanish-language daily El Nuevo Herald, has fled Colombia after President Alvaro Uribe accused him of ghost-writing a book linking the president to the notorious drug dealer Pablo Escobar, a Colombian free-press group said Friday.

Mexico's underground Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) issued a communique Oct. 3 to the leadership of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), expressing solidarity and pledging to "avoid to the maximum" any action which could affect them or compromise their security. The document, addressed to the EZLN's general command, the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee, and to Subcommander Marcos, stated that the EPR has a presence in Chiapas and that its campaign of "harassment" against the state will continue if the government does not return alive its "disappeared" militants. It recognized that the EZLN "continues to be harassed and in many cases assassinated, in spite of everything it has done to maintain a praiseworthy resistance in the face if these injustices"—an implicit acknowledgment of the EZLN's strategy of civil struggle. (La Jornada, Oct. 3)

Mexican officials say the US has committed to giving their administration $1 billion over the next two years to fight drug trafficking. Carlos Rico, Mexico's undersecretary for North American affairs, said the "Joint Strategy to Combat Organized Crime"—which would have to be approved by the US Congress—would be similar in scope to the multi-year, multi-billion-dollar Plan Colombia. US lawmakers say that President Bush is expected to call for an emergency appropriation to get the funding approved this fall. "We are going to have some hurdles in Congress," said Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX). "But at the end of the day, this will get done." US Drug Czar John P. Walters also said an announcement is forthcoming, but the White House has not publicly released details.

Abu Mansur Robow, ex-deputy defense secretary with Somalia's ousted Islamic Courts movement, told Mogadishu radio Oct. 3 that his Shabaab resistance group has "nothing to do" with the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), recently founded by Somali opposition leaders in the Eritrean capital Asmara. Robow said al-Shabaab was "not satisfied" with the Asmara conference.

Over at the CIA, they must really be scratching their heads over Eritrea. It is hosting the exiled Islamist leaders of Somalia and is accused by Washington of backing Islamist insurgents there. But the New York Times reports Oct. 5 that it also hosts "more than half a dozen Darfur rebel groups" fighting the Islamist government of Sudan—including the United Front for Liberation and Development, which has been provided with its own offices by the Asmara regime, free of charge. The Times also points out that last year Eritrea's President Isaias Afewerki "brokered a peace deal between the Sudanese government and rebels in a separate conflict in eastern Sudan that had ground on for 15 years and that cost thousands of lives." (This is a reference to the Beja region, although the Times, in its maddening way, does not mention it by name.) Is this a schizophrenic policy, or is there some consistency here that we're missing?

From the New York Times, Oct. 5:

3 Youths Die in Connecticut Car Crash
WOLCOTT, Conn. — Anthony Apruzzese, a 17-year-old high school senior, used to joke on Facebook about his history of reckless driving. But on Thursday the kidding turned to horror as the car he was driving clipped a boat being towed, hurtling his car into an oncoming truck and taking his life as well as that of his 14-year-old sister and a 15-year-old friend of hers.