The North Cauca Association of Indigenous Councils (ACIN) in Colombia's Cauca department has implemented its own re-immersion program for demobilized guerillas, helping them through the interview process required by the government and assisting them in finding homes and employment.

A Peruvian appeals court announced on Jan. 24 it had rejected the government's petition to overturn a lower court's decision to grant parole to Lori Berenson, a US citizen held since 1995 for collaboration with a Marxist rebel organization. According to Berenson and her lawyer, the ruling was final and cannot be appealed, representing a major setback to the government's efforts to return her to prison. Berenson's release last year sparked angry reaction in Peru, where she is widely remembered for her tirades in court during her televised trials in 1995. Berenson is obliged to stay in Lima for the remaining five years of her 20-year prison sentence, unless her sentence is commuted by President Alan García. If her sentence is commuted, Berenson would be deported immediately, allowing her to return to her native New York.

On Jan. 26, coca growers and their supporters gathered in cities across Bolivia to hold peaceful demonstrations in support of their government's proposed amendment to the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. The amendment seeks to decriminalize the traditional practice of coca leaf chewing. Coca growers' federations from the Chapare region gathered in Cochabamba's main plaza to collectively chew coca, distribute information, offer free samples of coca leaves, and show their solidarity with the Bolivian government's legalization proposal. (Andean Information Network, Jan. 26)

US military agencies in September 2010 signed contracts for construction at Tolemaida, Larandia and Málaga bases in Colombia worth nearly $5 million, according to documents obtained by the anti-war group Fellowship of Reconciliation. US military contracts for Tolemaida in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 were larger than the last four years combined.

Ex-president Alejandro Toledo, a front-runner in Peru's presidential race, said Jan. 13 that the mining sector must "give back" a portion of rising profits to poor rural areas. In a speech outlining his policy proposals, Toledo called for "co-responsibility" between private companies and the state for social development: "Just as we respect the rules of the game and assure them contracts will be honored, they, the extractive sector, should respect the environment and give back part of their profits in the form of infrastructure and improve the quality of life of townspeople." (Reuters, Jan. 13)

Colombian authorities brought charges against a Maj. Juan Carlos Del Río Crespo and four other troops in the December 2002 slaying of three members of the Agudelo family in Campamento village, Antioquia state. Crespo is accused falsely presenting their bodies as those of FARC guerilla fighters who were killed in combat—a widespread practice in the Colombian military known as "false positives."

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on Jan. 15 raised the possibility of surrendering his special powers to rule be decree more than a year earlier than expected in response to accusations that he is becoming a dictator. In a televised address before the National Assembly, Chávez said he could put in place by May the decrees necessary to relieve the crisis caused by floods that have displaced 130,000 in western Zulia state. "To accuse me of being a dictator because the previous assembly voted for an Enabling Law—how is that a dictatorship?" Chávez asked.

Spanish prosecutors on Nov. 14 charged an alleged member of the Basque separatist group ETA with training members of the Colombian guerrilla group FARC in computer skills. Iraitz Guesalag was arrested in France days earlier and will be extradited to Spain. The FARC training allegedly took place in Venezuela, and was arranged by Arturo Cubillas, an ETA operative in the Venezuelan Ministry of Agriculture. Spain issued an extradition request for Cubillas in March 2010, charging the official for his ties to ETA, which the Venezuelan government denies. (Colombia Reports, Jan. 14)