Meeting in a heavily guarded military academy on the outskirts of Sucre, Bolivia's Constituent Assembly approved a new Constitution late on Nov. 24 with the support of 136 of the 255 delegates. Two delegates abstained, and the majority of the opposition, led by the Democratic and Social Power (PODEMOS) party, boycotted the session. Most of the votes for the new Constitution came from the leftist Movement to Socialism (MAS) of President Evo Morales, but some opposition delegates backed it, including three from PODEMOS. The Constituent Assembly, which has been meeting for 15 months, approved the document "as a whole" but left some details to be worked out.

The Nov. 21 New York Times includes a profile of Venezuela's recently retired army commander-in-chief Gen. Raul Isaias Baduel, a longtime confidant of Hugo Chavez who led the paratrooper raid that restored him to power following the abortive 2002 coup d'etat, but has now publicly broken with the president and spoken out against his proposed constitutional reform. Apart from chavista calls to send Baduel to the "paredón" (execution wall), some of the rhetorical reaction against the general will recall the firestorm sparked on this blog last year over accusations of anti-Semitism in Bolivarian Venezuela:

Just as the Peru Free Trade Agreement has passed the US House of Representatives, efforts to pass a similar agreement with Colombia hit an embarrassing snag. Sandra Suarez, the special envoy Colombian President Alvaro Uribe sent to Washington in July to usher the FTA through Congress, stepped down Oct. 30, stating in her resignation letter that she'd failed her government and that the agreement is dead. Although her letter didn't mention it it, the day she resigned a former intelligence chief for Colombia's Administrative Security Department (DAS), Rafael Garcia, testified to a Colombian government Commission of Investigation that Suarez collaborated with leaders of the AUC paramilitary network, and with the governors of Cesar and Magdalena departments to establish AUC control over key Colombian territory. The two governors are in prison for their own links to the outlawed paramilitary network. (United Steelworkers International president Leo W. Gerard for The Hill Blog, Nov. 9)

Colombians went to the polls on Oct. 28 to elect 18,527 local and regional officials, including mayors, governors, municipal council members and deputies. As has been usual in regional elections, turnout was low. The campaign was marked by the murders of 29 candidates—mostly attributed to the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)—and efforts by right-wing paramilitaries to extend their influence.

Peruvian miners began an open-ended strike on Nov. 5, affecting copper, tin, iron and zinc mines owned by Southern Copper Corp., Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., Newmont Mining Corp., Doe Run Resources Corp, Cia. de Minas Buenaventura SA, Minsur SA, Shougang Hierroperu, Cia. Minera Raura SA and Cia Minera Santa Luisa. Copper prices have gone up 10% on the international market this year, in part because of reductions in output caused by strikes in Peru (including a five-day national walkout in May), Chile and Mexico. Peru is the world's largest producer of silver; it comes in third in copper, zinc and tin production and fifth in gold production.

The US House of Representatives voted 285 to 132 on Nov. 8 to approve the Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA, or TLC for its initials in Spanish). The agreement, which eliminates tariffs and establishes new rules for foreign investment, was approved by Peru's Congress in June 2006. It still requires ratification by the US Senate, but the measure is expected to pass when it comes up for a vote the week of Nov. 12.

On Nov. 7 Chilean authorities suddenly moved prisoners José Huenchunao and Patricia Troncoso Robles to the hospital in Angol in Region IX, apparently because of the effects of a 28-day hunger strike. Along with three other prisoners—José Millalen, Jaime Marileo and Hector Llaitul—Huenchunao and Troncoso started an open-ended hunger strike on Oct. 10 to demand the release of more than 20 indigenous Mapuche activists they consider political prisoners; an end to the militarization of the traditional Mapuche territories; and an end to repression.

Spain's King Juan Carlos (now famously) told Hugo Chavez to "shut up" after the Venezuelan president repeatedly referred to former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar as a "fascist" at the Ibero-American Summit in Santiago, Chile, Nov. 10. (AP, Nov. 11) The following day, Chavez upped the ante by suggesting that Juan Carlos knew in advance of the abortive 2002 coup d'etat in Venezuela. Chavez asserted that Spain's ambassador had appeared at Venezuela's presidential palace during the two-day coup to support interim "president" Pedro Carmona—with the King's blessing. "Mr. King, did you know about the coup d'etat against Venezuela, against the democratic, legitimate government of Venezuela in 2002?" Chavez rhetorically asked at a news conference "It's very hard to imagine the Spanish ambassador would have been at the presidential palace supporting the coup-plotters without authorization from his majesty."