As the price of gold climbs to $1,441 an ounce, new illegal mines are springing up across Colombia, helping fund the armed conflict and damaging the environment, the New York Times reported March 4. Colombia's largest guerilla group, the FARC, have taken up the illegal mining of gold to finance their armed conflict with the state, President Juan Manuel Santos said in January. Their paramilitary adversaries have been swept up in the "gold rush" as well. Competition over the gold trade between two so-called "neo-paramilitary" gangs, the Urabeños and Rastrojos, has led to a homicide wave in the town of Caucasia in the north of Antioquia department (Bajo Cauca region).

The foreign ministers of Colombia and Venezuela have signed 13 agreements intended to increase cooperation between the neighboring countries, according to a March 3 report on the Colombian Exterior Ministry website. The agreements were signed at the conclusion of a Binational Economic Meeting between the two countries in Caracas, focusing on themes such as border security and the renewal of commercial relations following last year's bilateral crisis.

Colombian "neo-pramilitary" groups containing former armed forces personnel were able to infiltrate the state by exploiting past military connections, according to a WikiLeaks cable. The cable, dated Feb. 13, 2007, relates how the then-director of the Rural Security Police, Gen. Jesus Gómez Méndez, told a US official that the three main difficulties in dismantling these organizations were topography, money and infiltration. Gómez said infiltration allows paramilitaries to receive information through collaborators in the armed forces notifying them of an imminent operation against their activities.

Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, the Peruvian former secretary general of the United Nations, publicly lamented Feb. 28 that the hundreds of US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks have become an issue the presidential campaign underway in his country. "It is embarrassing that information from WikiLeaks has become part of the campaign, because it contains foreign opinions, not from Peruvians," he said. "Candidates should debate with ideas and not verbal attacks. We hope that candidates will calm themselves during this month." (Living in Peru, Feb. 28)

On Feb. 25, Bolivia was partially paralyzed in a national strike by independent bus and taxi operators to demand the government permit a fare hike to keep up with the cost of living. Confederación de Chóferes leaders noted that fares have been frozen for five years, and that concerns over the cost of living had sparked the recent "gasolinazo"—a protest wave that led to the cancellaiton of government plans to lift fuel subsidies. Some 40% of inter-city bus service was shut by the strike, with near total compliance in the twin cities of La Paz and El Alto. (EFE, Feb. 25)

The Colombian navy announced the seizure Feb. 15 a submarine believed to be used by drug runners to smuggle cocaine to Mexican shores. Powered by twin diesel engines, the 31-meter fiberglass vessel was found hidden in a jungle area in Timbiqui (Cauca department). Capable of traveling nine meters below water surface, it was the biggest and most sophisticated narco-submarine yet uncovered. Navy officials said the craft could carry four people and up to eight tons of cargo. According to Adm. Hernando Wills Velez, commander of the Pacific Naval Force, said it was equipped with navigational gear that would have allowed the crew to sail as far as Mexico without surfacing. (RTTNews, Feb. 15)

China and Colombia are planning to build a railway linking the South American country's Atlantic and Pacific coasts, President Juan Manuel Santos announced Feb. 14. Chinese ambassador Gao Zhengyue said his government sees Colombia as its chief port of entry to Latin America. The planned 138-mile long rail line will run from the port of Cupica on the Pacific to the Gulf of Urabá on the Caribbean, then continuing along the coast to a new port to be built near Cartagena.

Bolivian President Evo Morales hastily left the southern mining city of Oruro on Feb. 11 after protesters angered by rising food prices and shortages jeered him and set off dynamite. Morales canceled plans to lead a march in the city commemorating an 1871 anti-colonial uprising there, and retreated back to the capital, La Paz. "The government took the decision not to respond to shameful provocations of this kind," presidential spokesman Ivan Canelas said. Protesters were especially upset about a near-doubling in the price of sugar after the government lifted subsidies. The march was led by the regional labor federation, the Departmental Workers Central (COD).