On the morning of March 1 members of Bogotá's Small Transport Providers Association (APETRANS), which represents about 90% of the Colombian capital's transport owners and workers, pulled some 16,400 buses and collective taxis out of service in a dispute with Mayor Samuel Moreno Rojas over his plans for modernizing the city's public transportation. Bogotá residents used trucks, bicycles and even vehicles drawn by animals to get to work and school in what most observers described as "chaos." On March 3 Mayor Moreno ordered the closing of public schools to relieve the congestion caused by the strike and authorized the sharing of individual taxis and other alternative transportation methods. He also sent 500 extra police agents to the streets in collaboration with the army's 13th Brigade.

A confrontation on March 3 between police agents and market vendors in Piura, capital of Peru's northwestern Piura province, resulted in the deaths of at least five civilians, according to the authorities; 95 civilians and 25 agents were injured in the incident, and 137 people were arrested. The vendors were protesting Piura mayor Mónica Zapata's plan to remove them from their current location in the Modelo Market to a new market area that they considered inadequate.

Following an "extraordinary assembly" Feb. 26 in Ambato, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) issued a call for a nationwide "uprising" to protest the government's development policies and press demands for a "pluri-national state." The statement charged that the government has "not modified the colonial State and continues building the neoliberal capitalist model." CONAIE president Marlon Santi said "CONAIE has terminated the dialogue with the national government, because the process of dialogue has produced no results."

A Spanish National Court judge on March 1 accused the Venezuelan government of aiding two rebel groups in a plot to assassinate members of the Colombian government in Spain. Judge Eloy Velasco charged six members of the Basque separatist group ETA and seven members of the Colombian guerilla organization FARC with collaborating to assassinate Colombian officials, including President Alvaro Uribe and his predecessor Andres Pastrana. The indictment accuses Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his administration of assisting the collaboration. Velasco found that Arturo Cubillas Fontan, former director of the Venezuelan Ministry of Agriculture, served as a key link between the groups, introducing members of ETA to FARC personal in Venezuela. A Spanish magistrate has ordered the Colombian and Venezuela governments to surrender the accused individuals to Spain.

The China-Peru Free Trade Agreement took effect March 1, calling for phasing out tariffs on 90% of goods exchanged between the two nations, with an emphasis on Chinese industrial and manufactured goods and Peruvian minerals and agricultural goods. With bilateral trade valued at $7.5 billion in 2008—up 24% from 2007—China has emerged as Peru's second-biggest trade partner, according to Beijing's Ministry of Commerce. China also has free trade pacts with Pakistan, New Zealand, Singapore and the ASEAN bloc. (Xinhua, Global Times, China, March 1)

Colombia's Constitutional Court President Mauricio González announced Feb. 26 that the court had voted 7 to 2 against the proposed referendum to allow President Alvaro Uribe to run for a third term, calling the idea "unconstitutional in its entirety." González said the court struck down law 1354-2009, created by the government in order to call the referendum. The ruling not only blocks Uribe from seeking a third consecutive term, but from ever running to regain the presidency.

The top Venezuelan human rights official on Feb. 25 criticized a new report issued by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). Ombudsman Gabriela Ramírez, head of Venezuela's Defensoria del Pueblo, said that the report makes unfair characterizations and undermines Venezuelan democracy. Refuting the report's claim that Venezuela is "punishing people based on their political convictions," Ramírez said that the data actually show an improved rights record. In a related statement, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez reaffirmed his belief that the IACHR, which has seven members elected by the OAS General Assembly, is an instrument of US imperialism.

The UN International Narcotics Control Board, in its annual report released Feb. 24 called on Peru's government to take measures to reduce the country's growing illicit coca cultivation. The 2009 report finds that the area under coca cultivation decreased in South America by 8% to 167,800 hectares in 2008, largely due to a major decline in Colombia, the world's top producer. But for a third consecutive year, cultivation increased in Peru, the second largest producer.