Mexican lawmakers opened a debate this week on the legalization of marijuana as part of a possible strategy to tackle the country's powerful drug cartels. Javier González Garza, leader of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) bloc in Congress, has come out in support of the proposed legalization measure, and said cannabis must be considered apart from drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

Manuel Rosales, mayor of Maracaibo, Venezuela's second largest city, is missing—in what the opposition is calling the latest instance in wave of persecution by the government of President Hugo Chávez. After Chávez vowed on national TV to have Rosales imprisoned, the government filed corruption charges against the 56-year-old mayor. Two weeks ago, Rosales dropped out of sight, and his supporters say he is in hiding. (Fox News, April 14)

Daniel Rendón Herrera AKA "Don Mario"—Colombia's most wanted and feared drug lord—was captured April 15 in Apartadó municipality, in the Urabá region of northern Antioquia department, near the Caribbean coast. According to local media reports, twenty to thirty of the kingpin's men were also arrested. The operation, involving some 300 agents, was headed by National Police commissioner Oscar Naranjo himself, who had secretly gone to the region to coordinate the raid.

The commander of a remnant faction of Peru's Shining Path guerilla movement pledged more attacks after their 11th deadly ambush this year. "We will fight militarily those who defend imperialism and the government, and they are the armed forces and the police," local guerilla leader "Comrade José"—identified as Victor Quispe Palomino—said in an audio statement sent to the media. His comments came five days after suspected guerillas killed 14 soldiers in two ambushes in Ayacucho region.

An April 13 NATO airstrike in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar province killed six civilians, including two children, and wounded 14 more, charged Zalmay Yousufzai, governor of Watapor district, saying that helicopters destroyed one house and damaged several others. NATO officials confirmed the raid, but said that only insurgents had been killed. (NYT, April 13)

After a five-day visit to Chile the week of April 6, United Nations special rapporteur for indigenous rights James Anaya said there was evidence that police agents use excessive violence against the indigenous Mapuche communities, which make up about 4% of Chile's population. Chilean human rights groups and international organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have reported that the police break up Mapuche street protests violently and have raided Mapuche communities without proper authorization.

On the night of April 8 US federal prosecutors filed an 11-count indictment in El Paso, Texas, charging that Cuban-born former US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) "asset" Luis Posada Carriles perjured himself and obstructed justice in 2005 when he told immigration authorities he was not involved in the bombing of two Havana hotels in 1997; Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo was killed in one of the attacks, at the Copacabana Hotel. Posada was quoted in a 1998 New York Times article as saying that he was in fact involved, and there is speculation that federal agents have found additional information linking him to the attacks. A New Jersey grand jury has also been investigating the bombings, although no charges have been filed in that case. Posada is scheduled to go on trial before US district judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso on Aug. 10.

At least 5,000 workers have been laid off recently in free trade zone (FTZ) factories in the Dominican Republic's Santiago province, according to the United Unions Federation, which is made up of 38 unions in the northern Dominican Republic. FTZs are industrial parks for tax-exempt assembly plants producing for export. The job cuts included layoffs of 1,000 workers at FM Industries, which makes pants for export to the US, on April 7; the dismissal of 2,000 workers by a plant that made cigars for export to the US and Europe; and the loss of 600 jobs when a footwear company closed after 50 years in business. (Latin American Herald Tribune, April 9 from EFE)