Authorities say gunmen who stormed a hospital and battled police in Tijuana April 18, leaving three dead, were soliders for the city's Arellano Felix drug cartel. The clashes began when police tried to stop a truck carrying two alleged Arellano Felix gunmen suspected of plotting to attack members of a rival cartel. The two men fled, firing at their pursuers and crashing into another vehicle. One suspect was killed, and another wounded and taken to Tijuana's public hospital. Four gunmen then headed to the hospital to free him, but were confronted by state police escorting some prisoners for routine surgery. A new shootout erupted and the gunmen fled inside, seizing a ward for several hours until dozens of federal police and army troops stormed in and subdued them.

The Other Campaign of Jovel—local chapter of the Zapatista civil initiative in the Chiapas highland city of San Cristobal de Las Casas—has turned over to the agrarian authorities in the state capital, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, a critical analysis of land conflicts in the restive southern Mexican state. The analysis accuses the federal Agrarian Reform Secretariat and the local Agrarian Tribunals of favoritism in approving land claims by those seeking to expel Zapatista communities. A statement in support of the analysis is signed by over 200 grassroots and non-governmental organizations, and more than a thousand individuals.

The Section 22 teachers union in the conflicted southern Mexican state of Oaxaca has entered into dialogue with the federal Government Secretariat (Gobernación). There are two issues they have agreed to discuss: release of unionists detained in the strike over the past year, and resolving the situation at 227 Oaxaca schools divided by labor strife. These schools are currently in the hands of the rival Section 59 union, formed by Oaxaca's ruling political machine to divide the movement. (La Jornada, April 19)

From Cuba's Prensa Latina, April 19:

International terrorist Luis Posada Carriles was released by US authorities on Thursday, despite evidence of his involvement in criminal acts.

Nicaragua has arrested 17 people in two days in a crackdown on Mexico's Sinaloa cocaine cartel, which has established a foothold in the Central American country and reportedly issued death threats against the national police chief, Aminta Granera. The Nicaraguan national police said they uncovered a secret landing strip and seized shotguns, automatic weapons, vehicles and speed-boat engines. The arrests come a month after Nicaraguan authorities said they thwarted a Sinaloa cartel plot to assassinate Granera.

Petroleos de Nicaragua (Petronic) has announced construction of an oil refinery in the Central American nation, with aid from Venezuela as part of Hugo Chavez's proposed Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA). Work is to begin on the "Sandino-Bolivar" refinery by June, when Chavez is slated to visit Nicaragua. Petronic director Francisco Lopez said that besides satisfying Nicaragua's annual demand of 10 million barrels, the refinery will supply fuel to other countries of the isthmus from Guatemala to Panama. Lopez said the project is unprecedented in Central America, comparable only to the Panama Canal in magnitude. (Prensa Latina, Cuba; El Universal, Caracas, April 16)

The recent media coverage of para-politics in Colombia may be the final nail in the coffin for a proposed US-Colombia free trade agreement. Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe, Bush’s strongest ally in the region, not only has an administration filled with people conspiring with right-wing death squads, but allegations are surfacing that his family members housed paramilitary groups on their land in the 1990’s. Colombia's paramilitary state has made the South American nation the most dangerous place in the world for trade unionists. [Bloomberg, April 17]

Colombia's government announced April 18 an "experimental" cease-fire with the National Liberation Army (ELN) following talks in Havana. "The president has asked me to accept the ELN's experimental and temporary cease-fire proposal," Colombian peace negotiator Luis Carlos Restrepo told reporters. But Restrepo added that the government is still demanding that the ELN concentrate its fighters in a geographic area as part of any longterm peace accord. Chief ELN negotiator Pablo Beltran said earlier in the week the group was willing to temporarily halt attacks, but that to gather its fighters in one place would be "suicide." (Reuters, April 18)