After almost 20 years, a former Colombian army officer was sentenced Oct. 14 to 44 years in prison for his role in the deaths of over 245 civilians in the Trujillo Massacres between 1986 and 1994. Retired major Alirio Antonio Urena, a School of the Americas graduate, was a commander of an army brigade that evidently collaborated with paramilitaries in Valle del Cauca department at the time of the killings. The dead included Tiberio Fernández, a popular Catholic priest and political organizer whose body was found castrated and decapitated in the Río Cauca. The verdict was the first by the Colombian justice system in the notorious case, which was reopened in 1991 after justice officials had initially absolved the Urena and his co-defendants.

Unknown assailants on a motorcycle assassinated Colombian indigenous leader Rodolfo Maya Aricape as he left a community meeting in the hamlet of López Adentro, Caloto village, the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC) announced Oct. 15. The statement said Maya Aricape had received death threats last month from armed groups operating in the region. It said the slaying was "not an isolated incident but is part of a strategy of intimidation" by armed groups to involve indigenous communities in the war and seize their lands. (Notimex, ACIN, Oct. 15)

The majority of Bolivian newspapers engaged in a joint protest Oct. 7 against a proposed anti-racism law that they claim would damage freedom of expression. The newspapers (e.g. Los Tiempos of Cochabamba) shared one message on their front page—"There is no democracy without freedom of expression"—in response to a decision by President Evo Morales to maintain certain provisions of the legislation. Article 16 of the bill currently being discussed by the Senate, and which was already passed by the Chamber of Deputies, would establish economic sanctions and allow for media outlets that publish information considered by the government to be racist or discriminatory to be closed. Bolivia's journalists and media outlets maintain that they support the struggle against racism but that they cannot accept provisions that would limit freedom of expression. They worry that the bill could be used for political ends to censor unfavorable opinions.

On Oct. 1, seven Peruvian SOA graduates were convicted of aggravated murder, kidnapping, forced disappearance, and conspiracy for their roles in two massacres of civilians and the murder of a radio journalist who had been reporting on human rights violations. The crimes were all committed by Grupo Colina, an army unit led and largely staffed by SOA-trained soldiers.

A School of the Americas graduate has been charged for last week's unsuccessful coup attempt in Ecuador. Col. Manuel E. Rivadeneira Tello, a graduate of the SOA's combat arms training course, is one of three police officials being investigated for negligence, rebellion and attempted assassination of the president.

On Oct. 4, Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez announced the expropriation of a subsidiary of the British Vestey Group, and of Agroisleña, a major agricultural firm founded by Spaniards half a century ago. In a nationally televised telephone interview, Chávez said Venezuela would take complete control of hundreds of thousands of hectares, and some 130,000 head of cattle, owned by La Compañía Inglesa, which is controlled by the Vestey Group. Vestey has owned property in the country since 1909. Chávez said compensation had been negotiated with the company. Since 2001, the government has expropriated (with compensation) some three million hectares of land, and has issued permits to tens of thousands of families to work a total of two million hectares.

On Sept. 27 Colombian inspector general Alejandro Ordóñez Maldonado announced that he was removing Senator Piedad Córdoba from her position and barring her from public office for 18 years because of what he said were her links to the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Córdoba, a member of the centrist Liberal Party, has mediated in negotiations which led to the release of 14 prisoners held by the FARC. She is also a member of Colombians for Peace, formed in 2008 by politicians, intellectuals, artists, journalists and former FARC prisoners to seek solutions to the armed conflicts in the country.

Ecuador's military staged a rescue late Sept. 30 to free President Correa, who was holed up in a hospital for more than 12 hours by the police uprising. As TV cameras rolled and pro-Correa crowds at the scene cheered, some 40 special operations troops who arrived in two trucks entered the hospital, and hustled Correa out and back to the presidential palace. Sporadic gunfire could be heard and five soldiers were reported injured. A defiant Correa appeared minutes later on the balcony of the presidential palace, where he told the crowd: "It's a day of profound sadness that I never thought would happen during my government. The police have been infiltrated by well-known political parties that want to conspire."