Bolivian President Evo Morales plans to put the coca back in cola with a new coca-infused carbonated energy drink slyly dubbed Coca Colla. While the product's packaging will be red with a swoosh like Coca-Cola, the name "Colla" is not just a pun, but also references the traditional word for Bolivia's Aymara people in the Quechua tongue. Officials say the drink will hit the market in April. Production will either be run by the government, the coca growers, or as a joint cooperative between the two. Bolivia already markets coca toothpaste, sweets and other legal products.

President Evo Morales signed a decree creating the Bolivian Space Agency at a cabinet meeting Feb. 10, with a mission of building and launching a satellite with Chinese help. The third-generation DFH-4 satellite is to named after Túpac Katari, an Aymara indigenous leader who fought the Spanish before being martyred in 1781. Public Works Minister Walter Delgadillo told a press conference the government will initially invest $1 million in the program, and expects China to meet the rest of the projected $300 million budget. He said Chinese technicians have arrived in the country to direct the program. Construction of the satellite is to begin in March. (The Guardian, Feb. 12; AP, Feb. 10)

There continues to be a "systematic policy of violation of human rights, of violation of union rights" in Colombia, Alberto Vanegas, head of the Human Rights and Solidarity Department of the country's main labor federation, the Unitary Workers Central (CUT), charged on Feb. 4 at the start of a two-day conference in the northwestern city of Medellín in Antioquia department. According to the union movement, 40 union leaders and activists were killed in Colombia during 2009, a slight improvement over the 49 killed the year before. Vanegas told the Spanish wire service EFE that "60% of the trade unionists killed worldwide are Colombians."

A Colombian prosecutor called on the country's Vice President Francisco Santos to testify about allegations by an ex-paramilitary boss that he had collaborated with the now-demobilized United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). Santos was invited to voluntarily respond to accusations by demobilized warlord Salvatore Mancuso that Santos had known of the planning of a paramilitary group in the Colombian capital of Bogotá. The Prosecutor General's Office is currently investigating the accusations.

Colombian authorities say that three of 21 drug trafficking suspects arrested Feb. 8 are closely linked to Joaquin Guzmán AKA "El Chapo" (Sinaloa Cartel), Mexico's most wanted drug lord. The alleged drug traffickers—all wanted for extradition by the US—were arrested following "Operation Frontiers," a joint US-Colombian operation. The suspects allegedly oversaw air trafficking of Colombian cocaine, and some are professional pilots. They are believed to belong to trafficking organizations "Loco Barrera," "Los Mellizos" and "Los Rastrojos."

Bolivian President Evo Morales was sworn in for a second five-year term on Jan. 22, pledging to open a new era for indigenous peoples in his nation. The formal swearing-in at the capital La Paz was preceded a day earlier by a traditional indigenous ceremony at the ancient Kalasasaya temple in the ruined pre-Inca city of Tiwanaku. (RIA-Novosti, Jan. 22)

On Feb. 4, US District Judge Kenneth Marra in West Palm Beach, Fla., ruled that a lawsuit against banana giant Chiquita Brands brought by the families of North American missionaries kidnapped and killed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) will not be dismissed.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on Jan. 31 poked fun at Colombia's expulsion of a Venezuelan soldier accused of carrying out an operation in Colombian territory, saying "only people like Rambo or the Terminator undertake solo missions." Sgt. Juan Gómez of the Venezuelan National Guard was expelled from Colombia for "reasons of national security" Jan. 27, the same day that Colombia said that a Venezuelan helicopter violated its airspace.