Indigenous peoples are again caught in the middle as the Colombian army launches a major offensive against the FARC guerillas in the southern Andean department of Cauca. At dawn on Feb. 20, guerillas from the FARC's Sixth Front attacked the center of the Nasa and Guambiano indigenous town of Jambaló, after it was occupied by the army and National Police. However, residential houses and the town's hospital suffered severe damage, while the local National Police headquarters was relatively unscathed. Some half the population of Jambaló's urban center fled, taking refuge in outlying hamlets (veredas) and the neighboring municipality of Silvia. (Semana, Bogotá, Feb. 22)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced the creation of a new Campesino Militia, which will be under the command of the national Bolivarian Armed Forces (FAB). Chávez made the announcement during a ceremony to commemorate 151 years since Venezuela's Federal War lead by peasant leader Ezequiel Zamora. The Campesino Militia will be responsible for protecting peasant farmers from paramilitary groups organized by ranchers and wealthy landowners, Chávez explained in his weekly column, "Las líneas de Chávez" on Feb. 21. More than 300 peasant leaders and activists have been murdered since the government introduced the Law on Land and Agricultural Development in 2001, launched an agrarian reform program.

Bolivian President Evo Morales Feb. 18 appointed 18 judges ahead of the country's judicial elections, calling the move "the beginning of the decolonization of the judiciary." The appointees will fill five vacancies on the country's Supreme Court, five on the Constitutional Court, and three on the Judiciary Council, while five others were named alternates. All will serve until judicial elections are held on Dec. 5. Though roughly 20 of 26 high-level judicial posts were unoccupied prior to the announcement, the move has drawn criticism from Morales's opponents who fear it jeopardizes the judiciary's independence. The Bolivian National Congress passed legislation last week authorizing Morales to appoint judicial officials on an interim basis until the election.

Right-wing gubernatorial candidate José Pérez Restrepo in Colombia's southeastern Guaviare department was wounded in the leg and three of his bodyguards killed Feb. 14 when presumed FARC guerillas attacked his election caravan in an apparent kidnapping attempt. Media reports said the politician was taken captive by the rebels, but freed when police and soldiers came to the scene. Two police officers were also killed in the shootout.

Bolivian President Evo Morales plans to put the coca back in cola with a new coca-infused carbonated energy drink slyly dubbed Coca Colla. While the product's packaging will be red with a swoosh like Coca-Cola, the name "Colla" is not just a pun, but also references the traditional word for Bolivia's Aymara people in the Quechua tongue. Officials say the drink will hit the market in April. Production will either be run by the government, the coca growers, or as a joint cooperative between the two. Bolivia already markets coca toothpaste, sweets and other legal products.

President Evo Morales signed a decree creating the Bolivian Space Agency at a cabinet meeting Feb. 10, with a mission of building and launching a satellite with Chinese help. The third-generation DFH-4 satellite is to named after Túpac Katari, an Aymara indigenous leader who fought the Spanish before being martyred in 1781. Public Works Minister Walter Delgadillo told a press conference the government will initially invest $1 million in the program, and expects China to meet the rest of the projected $300 million budget. He said Chinese technicians have arrived in the country to direct the program. Construction of the satellite is to begin in March. (The Guardian, Feb. 12; AP, Feb. 10)

There continues to be a "systematic policy of violation of human rights, of violation of union rights" in Colombia, Alberto Vanegas, head of the Human Rights and Solidarity Department of the country's main labor federation, the Unitary Workers Central (CUT), charged on Feb. 4 at the start of a two-day conference in the northwestern city of Medellín in Antioquia department. According to the union movement, 40 union leaders and activists were killed in Colombia during 2009, a slight improvement over the 49 killed the year before. Vanegas told the Spanish wire service EFE that "60% of the trade unionists killed worldwide are Colombians."

A Colombian prosecutor called on the country's Vice President Francisco Santos to testify about allegations by an ex-paramilitary boss that he had collaborated with the now-demobilized United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). Santos was invited to voluntarily respond to accusations by demobilized warlord Salvatore Mancuso that Santos had known of the planning of a paramilitary group in the Colombian capital of Bogotá. The Prosecutor General's Office is currently investigating the accusations.