Community leaders in Vistahermosa, a village in Colombia's eastern Meta department, reported to local human rights observors the disappearance of campesino Luis Enel Moreno Romero on July 22. He was last seen near his lands in the vereda (settlement) of Caño Animas. Vistahermosa has seen 65 extrajudicial executions by paramilitary groups, sometimes acting in overt concert with the army, since 2005. Over the past three months, a strong presence of the Águilas Negras paramilitary, dubbed by the authorities as an "emergent criminal band," has been reported in the zone. (Comisión de Seguimiento a los Derechos Humanos, Meta, July 24, via Anarcol, Bogotá)

Speaking at a military ceremony in Caracas July 21, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez accused neighboring Colombia of making an "unfriendly gesture" towards his country with its plan to open its territory to permanent US military bases. Accusing the US of attempting to foment a coup in Venezuela, while staging destabilization efforts on its borders in Colombia's Guajira region, Chávez addressed Bogotá: "You are opening your house to an enemy of your neighbor." (El Observador, Caracas, Prensa Latina, July 23)

US production of marijuana now equals that of Colombia, according to the annual report of the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The report finds that the US and Colombia each produced some 4,000 metric tons of cannabis last year. Morocco is the world leader at 44,000 metric tons, followed by Paraguay at 16,500 metric tons and Mexico at 15,800. Production in Mexico is down from 25,800 metric tons in 2007, when it occupied second place after Morocco. The Mexican government boasts of eradicating 18,652 hectares of marijuana in 2008. A much higher proportion of the US crop is indoor—an estimated 430,000 plants, compared to 6.6 million outdoor. (El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, July 17)

A videotape that appears to link Colombia's FARC guerillas to President Rafael Correa of Ecuador was broadcast on Colombian TV July 18. The video allegedly shows FARC commander Jorge Briceño AKA "Mono Jojoy" claiming the guerilla organization helped fund Correa's 2006 election. Ecuador's government has strongly denied any ties with the FARC. The two countries severed relations last year after Colombian troops raided a guerilla base across the border.

Venezuela's former defense minister Italo del Valle Alliegro faces charges over his role in violent repression of the protests in Caracas in 1989, an affair today known as the "Caracazo." The protests, sparked by economic restructuring measures that included price rises on fuel and public transport, left hundreds dead in February 1989. The retired general denies all the charges.

Colombia's government says it is close to sealing an agreement with Washington which would make the country the hub for US anti-drug operations in South America. The deal would give the US access to air bases in Colombia to gather intelligence and support operations across the continent. The administration of President Alvaro Uribe rejected accusations that the deal would infringe the country's sovereignty. The US was forced to seek a new center for regional operations after Ecuador refused to renew the lease on its military base at Manta. Ecuador's President Rafael Correa has said he would rather "cut off his arm" than allow the US to stay on at Manta. (BBC News, July 16)

FARC guerrilla Gerardo Antonio Aguilar AKA "César" was extradited to the US July 16 to face drug charges. "César" guarded hostages including Ingrid Betancourt before his arrest in July 2008. He was turned over to the DEA and flow to Washington after being transfered from his Bogotá prison to El Catam military airfield. César "was commander of the First Front of the FARC and in that position in charge of the production and distribution of cocaine to the United States," Colombia's Supreme Court stated in February when it ruled to allow his extradition.

Peru's former president Alberto Fujimori admitted at the opening of his corruption trial July 20 that he had paid his spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos $15 million in public funds to quit as his regime collapsed in 2000. But he added: "I only accept the facts, I do not accept the criminal responsibility, the punishment or the civil reparations."