Bolivia will gain access to Atlantic ports in Uruguay in exchange for a pledge of natural gas exports to Montevideo in an agreement signed in La Paz March 14 by presidents Evo Morales and José Mujica. A new road will follow the Paraguay-Paraná river system, while the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) will begin construction of a new pipeline between the countries. The regional grouping URPABOL (Uruguay-Paraguay-Bolivia) has approved the project, and Brazil is also expected to cooperate, with its Puerto Cáceres serving as one hub on the river route. (NNN-Prensa Latina, March 14)

The Bolivian Armed Forces has completed the declassification of files from the years of military dictatorship. According to Defense Minister Ruben Saavedra, Chief of Staff General Ramiro de la Fuente handed over the files to Public Ministry officials three days before schedule last month. The files are mostly from the regime of Gen. Luis García Meza (1980-1981), and will be placed at the disposal of judicial authorities to investigate the disappearance of opposition figures under his rule.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on March 14 called for Internet controls and demanded that authorities crack down on a website he accused of spreading false information. "The Internet cannot be something open where anything is said and done. No, every country has to apply its own rules and norms," Chávez said during a televised speech, singling out Noticiero Digital, a Venezuela news site he said falsely reported the assassination of one of his ministers.

Venezuela on March 13 tested six training and light attack jets bought from China for defense and anti-drug flights in a deal that dodges an embargo banning sales of US weapons parts to the left-populist government of Hugo Chávez. Caracas ordered a total of 18 K-8 jets from China after a plan to buy similar jets from Brazil's Embraer fell through, apparently because they include US electrical systems. Said Chávez during a televised display of the jets' capabilities: "Thank you, China. The empire wanted to leave us unarmed. Socialist China, revolutionary China appeared and here are our K-8 planes."

At least 15 people were killed March 13—four of them beheaded and left in public places—in and around Mexico's popular beach resort of Acapulco, just as foreign tourists start arriving for spring break. Among the dead were six municipal police and the brother of the city's ex-mayor. It was part of a wave of violence in which a total of 29 were killed in 24 hours around Guerrero state. The worst bloodshed was in Ajuchitlán del Progreso, where a confrontation between army troops and sicarios left 11 dead, including one soldier.

Several dozen Palestinian women clashed with Israeli troops on the outskirts of Jerusalem on March 13. The confrontation erupted at the Qalandiya crossing between the West Bank and the contested city. The women chanted "Jerusalem is Arab, our eternal capital," briefly planted a Palestinian flag on one of the crossing's metal gates, and attempted to push through it. Israeli troops finally dispersed the women with tear gas. At one point, a firebomb hit a military jeep and soldiers rushed to extinguish the fire. (AP, March 13)

Egyptian border guards shot and seriously wounded an Ethiopian migrant trying to cross illegally into Israel on March 12, and arrested seven others. Authorities said that border guards had seen the Ethiopian man trying to sneak across the border at dawn, and that they shot him in the abdomen after he disobeyed orders to stop.

Government troops—the FARDC—in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are to blame for much of the epidemic of sexual violence in the east of the country, according to US and UN reports detailing war crimes and possible crimes against humanity by various groups there. FARDC is trying to rout the Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR) and the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) from the Kivu region and Oriental province in eastern Congo, but operations have been criticized for their impact on civilians.