Mario Ernesto Villanueva Madrid, ex-governor of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, was extradited to the US on May 10 to face charges of accepting some $20 million in bribes from the notorious Juárez Cartel in exchange for allowing in the transport of over 200 tons of cocaine through his state towards North American markets. US prosecutors say the money was laundered through accounts at Lehman Brothers in New York. Appearing in federal court in New York the day of his extradition, Villanueva pleaded not guilty to all charges. (AHN, AOL News, May 10)

Mexico's prosecutor general of Military Justice, José Luis Chávez, announced May 1 that following a joint investigation with civilian prosecutors, it was determined that drug cartel gunmen, not soldiers, were responsible for the deaths of two children during a confrontation in the northern state of Tamaulipas. The incident took place April 3 on the Reynosa-Nuevo Laredo highway near Ciudad Mier, where a family of 13 traveling in an SUV was apparently caught in a crossfire between army troops and cartel gunmen. Bryan and Martin Almanza Salazar, ages 5 and 9, were killed and seven other family members wounded. The survivors said that the troops opened fire without provocation.

A Honduran truth and reconciliation commission on May 4 began investigating the June 2009 coup that removed Manuel Zelaya from power. The commission is tasked with understanding the circumstances that led to the coup, and making recommendations for the future. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has praised the commission as "an important first step toward reconciliation" in Honduras. The commission is also supported by the US government, and Honduras hopes it will result returning Organization of American States (OAS) recognition to the Central American republic. "We want to do what we can to leave behind the shock to our economy," Foreign Minister Mario Canahuati told Bloomberg. "Our intention is to have friends and alliances."

Peru's Sendero Luminoso guerillas, thought to be confined to a small pocket of high jungle known as the Apurimac-Ene River Valley (VRAE), on April 27 launched an attack on a government coca-eradication team in the Upper Huallaga Valley, a region to the north of the VRAE that had been the rebels' principal stronghold in the 1990s. One National Police officer and two eradication workers with Special Control and Reduction Project (CORAH) were killed in the ambush at Alto Corvina, Huánuco region. National Police say the VRAE faction, led by a commander code-named "José," has now been joined by a Huallaga Valley column, led by a commander "Artemio." (El Comercio, Lima, May 1; Prensa Latina, April 27)

A supposed member of the rebel Army of the Paraguayan People (EPP), identifying himself as "Máximo Brizuela," called into radio station Primero de Marzo on May 10 to take responsibility for an attack that left four dead on April 21 at the department of Concepción. The supposed guerilla spokesman said he was calling "from the northern hills of Paraguay" (desde los norteños montes del Paraguay), and said the attack was carried out by the EPP's "Commando Number 7 Mariscal López." He stated: "This execution was a reprisal for the assassination of community residents" in the area of Guaraní-Santa Adelia. He added that "as protector of the people, the EPP will carry out reprisals...against the foreign landlords and their representative, Fernando Lugo," Paraguay's ostensibly leftist president.

In a case sensationalized by the Bolivian press as a crackdown on a "Norwegian Cartel," a Bolivian national was sentenced to 20 years in prison last month, and two Norwegians to 13 years each on charges of attempting to smuggle 22 kilograms of cocaine out of the country. The defendants, all in their 20s, were arrested in May 2008 with cocaine hidden in their backpacks. Bolivian authorities say they were recruited as drug-runners by crime bosses in Norway, with promises of luxury vacations as well as payments of $1,500. (Los Tiempos, Cochabamba, April 22)

The five ex-military chiefs who made up the Bolivian High Command in 2003 were cited by the Public Ministry last month for the apparent destruction of Armed Forces documents related to "Black October" violence of that year, which saw deadly repression against at least 60 indigenous protesters. Charges are still pending against ex-president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada in relation to the conflict, but the US has not extradited him back to Bolivia to face justice.

Juan Carlos Urenda, leader of Bolivia's right-opposition Todos por Santa Cruz party, spoke before members of the US Congress at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington DC on April 22, complaining about what he called the deteriorating democratic system in Bolivia under leftist President Evo Morales, in a special session on Latin America organized by the Center for Security Policy. Presided over by Reps. Brian Bilbray (R-CA) and Connie Mack (R-FL), the event also included testimony by ex-assistant secretary of state Otto Reich and journalist Douglas Farah.