One year after a deadly raid on a supposed right-wing terrorist cell in a hotel in Bolivia's eastern city of Santa Cruz apparently thwarted a conspiracy to launch an armed separatist movement, the affair is back on the front page of the nation's newspapers, with the government charging the plot was overseen and financed by powerful Masonic lodges. Especially named are the lodges Caballeros del Oriente (Knights of the East) and Toborochis (named for a tree that grows in the region). Pablo Costas, brother of Santa Cruz governor Ruben Costas, is named by the Bolivian press as "brother number one" in los Caballeros del Oriente. Vice-Minister of Interior Gustavo Torrico warned that another lodge linked to eatern Bolivia's "oligarchy," Mariscal de Zepita, may have infiltrated the Bolivian military. President Evo Morales called upon the armed forces to "punish" those within their ranks who have collaborated with the separatists. (Estrella del Oriente, Santa Cruz, Cambio, La Paz, April 17; La Razon, La Paz, April 16)

A clash between Bolivia's elite Police Operations Tactical Unit (UTOP) and loteadores (squatters) calling themselves the "Sin Techo" (Roofless) movement erupted when agents evicted an encampment on a private predio (collective land-holding) of 70 hectares at La Guardia, Santa Cruz department, on April 16. The confrontation left one squatter dead and numerous on both sides wounded. At least 12 police were reported to be among the injured. Police said 11 loteadores were detained in the action. Vice-Minister of Interior Gustavo Torrico denied that security forces used firearms in the eviction, and said an investigation into the use of arms by the squatters would be carried out. One revolver was reported confiscated. (El Deber, Santa Cruz, La Razon, La Paz, April 17; ABI, April 18)

Indigenous journalist Mauricio Moreno Medina, founding member of a community radio station for the Pijao people, was murdered April 11 by unknown assailants at his home in the town of Ortega, Tolima department. Medina, 50, died of multiple knife wounds. Police say they see no link to illegal armed groups, asserting that Moreno had not received any death threats. But Reporters Without Borders (RWB) suggest that the murder was not a "crime of passion" as police maintain. "The label 'crime of passion' is too often used to avoid investigation of any link with the victim’s work, even to the extent of covering up a case. This has already happened in several other murders of journalists in Colombia," RWB said. "As a director of a community radio, the kind of media often targeted by the authorities, particularly in conflict areas, Medina ran risks as a result of his work."

Colombia's Sen. Piedad Córdoba, flown by a Brazilian helicopter, arrived March 27 in the central city of Villavicencio to oversee the release of two hostages held by the FARC. Brazil is providing logistical support for the operation. Córdoba, the Brazilian team, the bishop of the city of Magangué, members of Colombians for Peace, and members of the International Red Cross are scheduled to leave Villavicencio to pick up one of the two hostages this weekend.

With Colombia's Constitutional Court still reviewing a December measure recriminalizing "personal quantities" of drugs, President Alvaro Uribe March 22 announced that pending a decision on the penalty for possession, police will for now only be permitted to confiscate drugs rather than make an arrest. The recriminalization move was predictably hailed by Colombia's National Police, with public security director Gen. Orlando Paez Baron stressing the importance of the "fight against micro-traffickers." (Colombia Reports, March 22)

At least six people were killed and 20 others injured when a car bomb exploded outside the mayor's office in the Colombian Pacific port city of Buenaventura March 25. Gen. Freddy Padilla, the head of Colombia's armed forces, blamed the country's guerillas. "Surely this was the FARC," he said. President Alvaro Uribe announced a $150,000 reward for information leading to those responsible. (AlJazeera, March 25)

Clodomiro Castilla, 49, publisher of Colombia's El Pulso del Tiempo newspaper—known for his exposés of official corruption and paramilitary terror—was shot dead by unknown gunmen in an attack on his home in the city of Montería, Córdoba department. Castilla had received death threats in recent months, after having testified in court that officials from the ruling party of President Alvaro Uribe had contacts to the outlawed paramilitary groups. He had been given police protection, but it was withdrawn shortly before the shooting. Castilla had also been arrested numerous times on drug and theft charges that his defenders claimed were fabricated. Last year, seven journalists were murdered in Colombia.

The retired general who captured legendary guerilla leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara in 1967 was summoned March 19 by Bolivian authorities for questioning in an alleged plot against President Evo Morales. Ex-Gen. Gary Prado Salmón allegedly exchanged "ultrasecret" encrypted e-mail with Eduardo Rozsa Flores, a Bolivian-born Hungarian who was killed in an April 2009 raid by an elite police unit in the eastern city of Santa Cruz. Authorities maintain that Rozsa and two others killed in the raid—an Irishman and an ethnic Hungarian from Romania—were involved in a conspiracy to create a separatist right-wing militia in the eastern Santa Cruz region. Morales said after the raid that a plot to assassinate him had been foiled.