Bolivia's President Evo Morales expelled a US diplomat March 9, accusing him of conspiring with opposition groups. Last week, Morales accused the diplomat, Francisco Martinez, of "coordinating contacts" with a former Bolivian national police captain, Rodrigo Carrasco, who is in turn accused of infiltrating the state oil and gas company on behalf of the CIA. Morales said that "deep investigations" had determined that Martinez "was in permanent contact with opposition groups." The State Department rejected the allegations and called the move "unwarranted and unjustified."

President Hugo Chávez called Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos a "threat to the peace in South America" and pledged to hit back hard if Colombia made any military incursion into Venezuela. "Sadly, and it would hurt me to the bottom of my soul, I would immediately have the Suhkoi fighters fired up and the armored tanks; I am not going to let anyone disrespect Venezuela's sovereignty for anything in the world," Chávez said on his weekly TV broadcast "Aló, Presidente."

One of Colombia's most feared paramilitary commanders was extradited to the US March 5—over the protests of local human rights groups concerned that details of atrocities and government collusion with paras may never be revealed. US Drug Enforcement Administration officials escorted Hebert Veloza Garcia AKA "HH" onto a plane headed for New York, where he faces drug-trafficking charges.

Meeting with members of indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities impacted by floods, displacement and violence in Colombia, the top United Nations relief official last week called for stepped up assistance for these minority groups. Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes travelled to the northwest Chocó department, where leaders in the Afro-Colombian community of Bebedó described the destruction of their homes by severe flooding last year, when the San Juan River broke its banks. Also in the same town, he met with representatives of the Wounaan indigenous people who told him how they had been uprooted from their traditional lands in 2005 by armed gangs.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez over the weekend ordered the army to seize control of all the the country's rice processing plants, citing the companies' failure to adhere to price control regulations. "I have ordered the immediate intervention in all those sectors of agro-industry, intervention by the revolutionary government," Chávez said in a nationally televised address March 1. "This government is here to protect the people, not the bourgeoisie or the rich." He also warned that he would nationalize the country's rice industry if the processing companies do not respect price controls.

Venezuela and Bolivia Feb. 26 condemned the new US State Department human rights report that singles out the two South American countries, saying Washington has no right to pass judgment. The government of President Hugo Chávez said it categorically rejects the report, which cited a politicized judiciary and harassment of Venezuela's political opposition and the news media. Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said the report is "plagued with lies." He added: "No government in the world has the right to use a report to meddle in, judge or qualify the situation in other nations."

Representatives of Venezuela's Jewish population said Feb. 26 that unidentified assailants threw an improvised explosive at a community center in La Florida district of Caracas in a pre-dawn attack. The explosion damaged the doors to the center and blew out a window of a nearby car, but there were no injuries. Abraham Garzón, president of the Jewish Community Center located in the downtown district, said: "The damage, really, is spiritual because it seems there are some people in our country who want to use terrorism." (El Tiempo de Venezuela, Feb. 27; AP, Reuters, Feb. 26)

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe announced Feb. 26 that the Department of Administrative Security (DAS) will no longer be able to conduct wiretaps with just a court order, and will now require the cooperation of the National Police. This order follows allegations that the DAS illegally recorded the conversations of Supreme Court magistrates, media directors, and politicians from the opposition. According to Uribe, the police will need to verify the legality of the requests and will act as a check on the power of national intelligence gathering, improving transparency. DAS Director Felipe Muñoz has acknowledged the existence of evidence supporting the allegations. DAS Intelligence Director Fernando Tabares resigned Feb. 26, the fourth DAS official to step down in the scandal.