Venezuela and the US are both seeking the extradition of Walid Makled, a notorious drug lord known as "The Arab" or "The Turk," who was arrested in a joint operation by Colombian police and the DEA in the city of Cúcuta near the Venezuelan border Aug. 19. A federal court in Manhattan has indicted Makled on charges of drug trafficking—allegedly in cooperation with Colombia's FARC guerillas. Venezuela is meanwhile seeking him on multiple murder counts.

Colombian congressman Iván Cepeda Aug. 17 presented a case against former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe for slander to the International Criminal Court (ICC). The complaint regards comments made by Uribe in 2002 in which he accused the inhabitants of the San José de Apartadó peace community, along with Jesuit Priest Javier Giraldo, of colluding with left-wing guerrillas. Following the accusations, 20 members of the peace community were murdered.

Colombia's new President Juan Manuel Santos met with his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chávez in a first step to restore bilateral relations Aug. 10. In a symbolically charged move, the meeting took place at the Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino, a monument to Simón Bolívar near Santa Marta on Colombia's northern coast, where the liberator died in 1830.

A judge in Medellín acquitted ten soldiers on Aug. 6, including a colonel and major, of participation in the massacre of eight civilians at the "peace community" of San José de Apartadó in the northern Urabá region in February 2005. The case has been viewed as a critical measuring stick for the ability of the Colombian court system to render justice in the cases of thousands of killings of civilians in the country's armed conflict.

The Venezuelan Attorney General's Office announced on Aug. 2 that the Fourth Trial Court of the eastern state of Anzoátegui had handed down prison sentences to 15 police agents for the Jan. 29, 2009 shooting deaths of two unionists at the Mitsubishi Motors Corp (MMC) Automotriz auto factory in the Los Montones de Barcelona industrial park, located outside the city of Barcelona. Five agents were sentenced to 12 years and nine months for voluntary homicide in the killing of Pedro Jesús Suárez Poito, a plant employee, and Javier Marcano, who worked at the Macusa auto parts factory, and for injuries to Alexander García, a worker at the Barcelona plant. Ten agents received three-year prison terms for their involvement, and six were acquitted.

The southern Bolivian city of Potosí has been paralyzed by strikes and protests for over a week, with roads blocked, businesses closed and the airport under occupation. All flights are suspended, and some 100 foreign tourists trapped. Among other concerns, protesters are demanding construction of a new airport, a metal smelter and a cement factory; and recognition of the disputed community of Coroma, now within the jurisdiction of the neighboring department of Oruro, as part of Potosí department.

Bolivia's government announced Aug. 5 it has started a program of military training for civilians at army barracks in the east of the country—a stronghold of the right-wing opposition. Army officials said the program will extend to all the country's military bases. Questions about the training program arose after a TV station broadcast images of young men armed with rifles taking target practice at a base in the regional capital of Santa Cruz. Also shown in the video were young indigenous women in traditional billowing skirts and bowler hats doing calisthenics.

Community activist and hip-hop artist Marcelo Pimienta Sánchez AKA "MC Chelo," 23, was shot dead by unknown assailants Aug. 6 near his home in the conflicted Comuna 13 district of Medellín, Colombia. The father of a two-year-old boy, Chelo was a member of the group Hip-Hop Eskalones, and a recognized leader in social and cultural activities aimed at ending the endemic violence in the district, home to several armed factions. Chelo was the third member of the community group Red Cultural Elite Hip Hop to be killed in recent months. Andrés Felipe Medina was shot dead in Comuna 13 last month, and the artist known as"Colacho" was killed near the district nearly a year ago. (Red Juvenil, Boletín Alcaldía de Medellín, Aug. 6)