Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said Oct. 17 that Iran is helping his country explore for uranium. "We're working with several countries, with Iran, with Russia," Chavez told reporters during a visit to Bolivia. But he emphasized that Venezuela is taking the lead in the exploration: "We're responsible for what we're doing, we're in control." He also insisted that Venezuela would only use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes: "What we propose is for nuclear bombs to be eliminated. Venezuela will never build a nuclear bomb." (Reuters, Oct. 17)

On Oct. 16, 22 students were arrested on the National University campus in Bogotá after they detained the university rector for five hours during a demonstration. Some 300 students were protesting lack of funds for the public university. During the protest, the rector was surrounded by students and held while attempting to leave the campus. The arrests came after President Alvaro Uribe ordered anti-riot police into the campus. Seven of the detained were released for being minors. Uribe called on prosecutors to charge the students with kidnapping. (Colombia Reports, Oct. 17)

Colombia's top prosecutorial office, the Fiscalía General, ordered the detention of army lieutenant Alberto Williams Echeverry as the presumed author of the Aug. 9, 2006 massacre of five members of the Awá indigenous people at Ricaurte, Nariño department. Investigators from the Fiscalía's human rights department found that the killings were "false positives"—slain civilians reported as guerillas killed in battle. Other army personnel are said to be under investigation in the incident. (RCN Radio, Colombia, Oct. 17)

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Oct. 8 demanded that his interior and defense ministers investigate how an imprisoned guerilla leader escaped in the northeastern city of Arauca. Gustavo Anibal Giraldo Quinchia AKA "Pablito" was freed the previous morning when a group of gunmen attacked a convoy transporting him to the local airport for a court hearing. One guard was killed and two injured in the incident. Giraldo is a high-ranking leader of the National Liberation Army (ELN) who opposed peace talks with the Colombian government. He was arrested in January 2008. "There is no explanation for this escape," Uribe told reporters. "There are signs of corruption around this that are very troubling."

Bolivia's President Evo Morales denied Oct. 10 that his government is engaged in a regional arms race, insisting the purchase of six Chinese military jets is only for drug enforcement. "This purchase of aircraft does not threaten anyone, they're not for war," Morales said at a ceremony commemorating the 52nd anniversary of the Bolivian Air Force. "The aircraft purchase is aimed at the fight against drug trafficking and not any arms race."

Some 1,000 workers at Shougang Hierro, Peru's only iron ore producer, have gone on strike demanding higher wages and better working conditions. The workers held a 10-day strike in July, which ended when the company indicated that it would raise wages. The Chinese-owned company did not meet their demands to increase their pay by $1.91 per day, and the workers have now returned to an indefinite strike.

Ecuador's indigenous movement launched a national "Mobilization to Defend the Water" Sept. 28, erecting roadblocks with rocks, trees and burning tires on several sections along the Panamerican highway and various other locations. The mobilization was called by Marlon Santi, president of Ecuador's national indigenous coalition CONAIE, two weeks earlier, at a "National Assembly to Defend the Water." A statement on the website of Ecuador's Amazonian peoples alliance ECUARUNARI states that the country's indigenous movement has been "exhausted by the process of dialogue" with the Rafael Correa government.

Nearly 30 heads of state attended the Second Africa-South America Summit, a Sept. 26-27 meeting of representatives of 61 nations on Isla Margarita, Venezuela, intended to increase trade and economic development cooperation between the two regions. The first summit was held in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, in November 2006. "North-North and North-South summits have been held," Venezuelan Deputy Foreign Minister for Africa, Reinaldo Bolívar, told the Inter Press Service (IPS), "but apart from the Summits of South American-Arab Countries in 2005 and 2009, the Africa-South America meetings are the only South-South summits taking place in the world."