Plan Colombia, the US financial and military aid program to fight drug trafficking and guerrillas, is not mentioned in the 2011 budget proposal that President Barack Obama sent to Congress. According to JustF.org, Colombia will receive $228 million in military aid, 20% less than it received in 2009. Economic aid will slightly be diminished and is proposed to be set at $239 million. Colombia still remains the largest US aid recipient in South America.

The Colombian Air Force denied Jan. 31 that its planes had bombed the indigenous Embera Katío community of Alto Guayabal in the Urabá region early that morning, leaving four wounded. But the following day, the army's Seventh Division issued a statement taking responsibility for the air-strike, saying they took place in operations against the FARC rebels. Calling the casualties "lamentable," the statement said two of the injured were evacuated to Medellín. The Indigenous Organization of Antioquia (OIA) said one of the casualties was an infant. Indigenous leader William Carupia accused the army of "indiscriminately bombing the communities." (El Tiempo, Bogotá, Feb. 2; El Colombiano, Medellín, RNV, Venezuela, AFP, Feb. 1) Last year the FARC was accused of assassinating Embera residents in the region.

Tens of thousands of Venezuelans opposed to Hugo Chávez took to the streets of Caracas Jan. 23, blaming him for numerous problems in the country, including increased electricity blackouts, water rationing, and widespread crime. The rallies coincided with the 52nd anniversary of the uprising that toppled Venezuela's last dictator (Marcos Pérez Jiménez). (AlJazeera, Jan. 23).

Venezuelan authorities backed by soldiers closed a total of 70 of retail outlets for price-gouging after a currency devaluation that triggered a frenzy of shopping but met with favor by international markets. Among the outlets ordered temporarily closed are at least two supermarkets belonging to a Colombian retailer controlled by France's Casino group. President Hugo Chávez announced the devaluation last week, cutting the exchange rate of the bolivar against the dollar by half for oil income and goods deemed nonessential.

On Jan. 3 a five-member panel of the Peruvian Supreme Court unanimously upheld a 25-year prison sentence for former president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) for deaths and serious injuries caused by a paramilitary unit during his administration; Supreme Court justice César San Martín Castro had handed down the sentence on April 7, 2009. The panel also voted 4-1 to confirm Fujimori's conviction for two kidnappings. The ex-president, 71, could remain in prison until 2032; the two years since he was arrested in Chile in 2007 count as time served. He would be eligible for parole in 2025.

Some 400 prisoners revolted on New Years Eve at Huancas prison in the northeastern Peruvian city of Chachapoyas, taking several guards hostage and seizing part of the facility. Two inmates were killed by guard gunfire, and at least six guards are still being held hostage. The prisoners are demanding better food and conditions, speedier trials, and that administration of the facility be transfered to the National Police from the National Penitentiary Institute (INPE), which they accuse of corruption. A commission led by Deputy Justice Minister Gerardo Castro has been sent to the prison to negotiate. (Periodismo Peru, LAHT, Jan. 2)

Colombian senator Piedad Córdoba announced on Dec. 26 that she had asked the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to state whether they are responsible for the Dec. 21 abduction of Luis Francisco Cuéllar, governor of the southern department of Caquetá, whose body was found with a slashed throat outside the state capital, Florencia, on Dec. 22. Police agent Javier García Gutiérrez was also killed in the incident, and two agents were injured. The government of right-wing president Alvaro Uribe immediately blamed the FARC for the kidnapping and deaths. Agencia de Noticias Nueva Colombia (ANNCOL), a news agency which carries communiqués from the rebels, called the government's claim "irresponsible," but as of Dec. 26 there had been no denial from the FARC.

At a ceremony in La Paz marking International Migrants Day on Dec. 18, Bolivian foreign minister David Choquehuanca said the leftist government of President Evo Morales had an "obligation" to help Bolivian migrants return to their country. "The recovery of our natural resources is important for us so that Bolivians who for different reasons have gone abroad to look for work or to study can return to our country and can build [their] dreams in our lands," Choquehuanca said, linking the issue to the government's nationalization policies. He also announced accords with Spain to make it easier for Bolivian immigrants to Spain to get drivers' licenses there.