In an unusual ruling, a Danish court acquitted seven leftist activists—who had sent funds to the FARC in Colombia and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine—of sponsoring terrorism. The panel of judges ruled that though both groups were branded as terrorist groups by the United States, the European Union, and Denmark, "their actions were not meant to intimidate the population or destroy a political and economic system. They were therefore not guilty of any terrorism." The Danish leftists—members of an activist organization calling itself Fighters and Lovers—plan to continue transmitting the profits of their FARC and PFLP t-shirts to support the "non-violent" operations of both rebel groups. (The Guardian, Dec. 14)

Security forces are on alert in Bolivia ahead of rallies planned in four eastern departments to inaugurate declarations of autonomy. Rejecting the draft constitution recently completed by supporters of President Evo Morales, regional assembly members in Santa Cruz Dec. 13 voted up a statute giving the department power to keep two-thirds of its tax revenues. Three other eastern departments—Tarija, Beni and Pando—are planning similar declarations at rallies on Saturday. Once the autonomy charters are declared, they will be put to the local populations for approval. Morales has ordered 400 extra national police troops to Santa Cruz, with the army prepared to protect public buildings.

A Peruvian court Dec. 11 sentenced former president Alberto Fujimori to six years in prison for abusing his powers by ordering an illegal search of the home of Trinidad Becerra, wife of his fugitive spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos in November 2000. The ex-president was also fined 400,000 soles ($135,000 dollars). But he claimed the search was necessary as part of a nationwide hunt for Montesinos, then wanted on both Swiss charges of money-laundering and Peruvian charges bribing opposition figures.

On Dec. 10, Chiquita Brands filed a motion to dismiss in a case brought by 144 survivors of Colombian paramilitary victims in federal district court in Washington DC. The case, first filed in June under the Alien Tort Statue, holds the company responsible in the reign of terror by the United Colombian Self-Defense Forces (AUC), a State Department-listed terrorist group that Chiquita has admitted to underwriting. Attorney Paul Wolf, who filed the case with Terry Collingsworth of the International Labor Rights Fund, has opened an office in the town of Apartadó, in Colombia's northern banana-growing region of Urabá, to continue to gather evidence in the case. Writes Wolf in an e-mail update: "If we survive the Motion to Dismiss, there's little doubt the case will be before a jury, and if that happens, there's little doubt we'll win. The estimated 800-1,000 cases we have now are just too gruesome, involving machete massacres, beheadings, numerous children, and entire communities that were virtually eliminated."

On Dec. 4 the US Senate voted 77-18 to approve the Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA, or TLC for its initials in Spanish). The House of Representatives ratified the treaty on Nov. 8, and the approval process now only requires the signature of US president George W. Bush, whose government negotiated the agreement. Bush may sign it the week of Dec. 10 in a ceremony attended by Peruvian president Alan Garcia. The FTA is expected to go into effect in July 2008 as the two countries celebrate their independence days, starting a process for eliminating all tariffs which is to be completed in 17 years. Peru exported goods worth $6 billion to the US in 2006; US exports to Peru were worth about $3 billion.

Meeting in Oruro rather than its official seat of protest-wracked Sucre, Bolivia's Constituent Assembly approved all 411 articles of the new constitution in a marathon 16-hour session dominated by the ruling Movement to Socialism (MAS) and its allies—and boycotted by the opposition. Said Assembly president Silvia Lazarte at the end of the session Dec. 9: "Although suffering many sacrifices, we have approved...this new constitution. We have done this for the people, and not for the parties of the right who want failure." Boycotting Assembly member Samuel Doria Medina said the new document "undermines democracy." (Univision, Dec. 10)

The draft Bolivian constitution approved by the country's Constituent Assembly in Sucre explcitly rejects foreign military bases on the national territory. "Bolivia is a pacifist State, which promotes the culture of peace and the right to peace, and seeks cooperation between the peoples of every region of the world," it reads. The document, yet to be ratified by popular vote, rejects war as a means of addressing international problems, while asserting the right of self-defense in case of aggression.

When the US Air Force Southern Command's 10-year usage rights for Ecuador's Manta air base expire in 2009, they can expect to be evicted in favor of China. President Jamil Mahuad signed a 10-year lease agreement with the US Military's Forward Operating Location (FOL) in 1999. The Manta base is not geopolitically important for US national security, but Southern Command (South Com) currently uses it to combat illegal cocaine trade in the "source zone" of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. The Air Base shares a common runway with Manta's Eloy Alfaro International Airport terminal, but the airbase has a separate office for cargo, while the airport handles passengers. About 475 US military personnel are stationed at the air base under a under a 10-year agreement signed with Quito in November 1999 and due to expire in 24 months.