Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexico's leading presidential candidate, this week appointed Gen. Oscar Naranjo, former chief of Colombia's National Police, to work as an "external advisor" for public security if he wins the July 1 election. Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), called Colombia a "successful example" for Mexico in the fight against drug cartels. Naranjo is credited with helping take down Medellín Cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar in 1993, and more recent gains against the FARC guerillas. In a press conference with Peña Nieto, Naranjo employed the rhetoric of Colombia's so-called "democratic security" model: "Security, understood as a democratic value, is expressed in policies that are totally inclusive, that protect everyone." An official biography of Naranjo distributed to reporters lists him as an "honorary member" of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

After six weeks without generating any nuclear power, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda this week succeeded in lobbying local authorities in Fukui prefecture to approve the restart of two reactors at the Ohi nuclear complex, raising the specter of widespread power shortages over the summer. The archipelago nation got more than 30% of its electrical energy from nuclear generation before the Fukushima disaster that gradually shut down the whole nuclear production network was shut for safety checks and upgrades after last year's Fukushima disaster. Activists opposing the return to nuclear power are holding a cross-country "March for Life" from Fukushima to Hiroshima—where they will meet with hibakusha, survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings of August 1945. The dwindling hibakusha have re-emerged as a voice warning of the dangers of radiation since the Fukushima disaster. (LAT, 命の行進-2012, June 15)

A US prosecutor has filed drug trafficking charges against a retired Colombian police general who was former President Alvaro Uribe's security chief, newspaper El Tiempo reported June 15. According to the charges filed before the Eastern District Court of Virginia, retired Gen. Mauricio Santoyo Velasco collaborated with paramilitary organization AUC and Medellín-based crime syndicate Oficina de Envigado between 2000 and 2008. Santoyo was Uribe's security chief between 2002 and 2006 after which he was named military attaché in Italy.

Iran announced June 12 that it plans to build its first nuclear-powered submarine—days before talks with world powers on its nuclear program were set to begin. "Preliminary steps in making an atomic submarine have started and we hope to see the use of...nuclear submarines in the navy in the future," deputy navy commander Abbas Zamini was quoted as saying by Iran's Fars News Agency. (Reuters, June 12) Last month, Israel received its fourth German-made submarine—capable of launching nuclear warheads. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that the submarine would increase Israel's capabilities "in the face of the growing regional challenges." The Dolphin-type military submarine is one of six Israel has ordered from Germany, which subsidizes the sales. (AP, May 3) Germany's Der Spiegel newspaper, citing unnamed sources, said it has learned that Israel is arming the submarines with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. Officials said the German government has known about Israel's nuclear weapons program for decades, despite official denials, and assumed nuclear arms would be used on the subs. (Der Spiegel, June 3)

The International Criminal Court (ICC) will analyze information regarding the Colombian army murdering civilians and disguising them as guerillas killed in combat to artificially inflate its enemy kill count. "We are asking [the government] about this issue, they have responded to us about the cases currently under investigation. We are preparing a report about this, but for now we are in the process of analyzing," said the court's outgoing prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, in an interview with Spanish news agency EFE June 13.

At least 16 people were killed and dozens injured June 15 in armed clashes that erupted as police evicted landless campesinos who had invaded a privately-owned "forest reserve" in Paraguay. The 2,000-hectare "reserve" is within the sprawling Morumbí hacienda, outside Curuguaty town in fertile Canindeyu department, near the borders with Brazil and Argentina. (See map.) The ranch is owned by Blas Riquelme, a former senator with the Colorado Party. Some 300 police were mobilized to the site, backed up with helicopters. Authorities said the campesinos were armed with M-16s and other assault rifles, and opened fire as police moved to eject them. The dead included six police and at least 10 campesinos.

An elaborate ploy by ranchers in Paraguay to trick an indigenous tribe into allowing them to build a new road that would cut their lands in half has backfired, with an official investigation now underway by the country's Indigenous Affairs Department (INDI). Leaders of the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode people had been visited by the ranchers' agents, demanding they sign a "friendly agreement" (acuerdo amistoso) allowing the ranchers to bulldoze a road through the middle of their territory. When indigenous leaders refused, the ranchers allegedly forged their signatures and sent the "agreement" to government officials. But just days later the same government office received a letter from the Ayoreo denouncing the ranchers' strong-arm tactics. If built, the road would have facilitated escalation of the illegal forest destruction which has already ravaged much of the Ayoreo's land, including areas inhabited by isolated or "uncontacted" bands. INDI warned in a statement that the scam "could lead to countless violations against environmental laws and against uncontacted indigenous families."

A de-escalation is reported in the Espinar mining conflict in Cuzco, Peru, as a judge ordered the release of the province's imprisoned mayor, Oscar Mollohuanca. In an unusual move, he had been ordered imprisoned in Ica region—which does not even border Cuzco—while awaiting trial on charges of abetting violent protesters against the Xstrata Tintaya copper mine. Although the charges have not been dropped, Mollohuanca upon his release June 14 immediately headed for Lima, where he said he will establish a dialogue with the administration of President Ollanta Humala. (La Primera, June 14; AP, June 12)