Colombia's Supreme Court will not allow captured FARC operative Heli Mejia Mendoza AKA "Martin Sombra"—known as the guerilla army's "jailer"—to be extradited to the United States. The high court found he committed no border-crossing crimes. "Sombra" spent 40 years of his life in the ranks for the guerrillas and managed several FARC prisoner camps. He was arrested in February 2008. The US want to try him for his alleged responsibility in the captivity of three US military contractors, who were held in the Colombian jungle for more than six years.

Fox News warns in a June 16 headline, "Bolivia Becoming a Hotbed of Islamic Extremism, Report Concludes"—citing the findings of a recent study by the Open Source Center (OSC) of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. "There's a theory that they may believe—Latin America, particularly with its Leftist leanings in recent years, may be more receptive to the anti-American-type rhetoric that we've been accustomed to hearing from Iran," an anonymous "US intelligence official" told Fox.

The Colombian government is in favor of national biofuel production and boasts that Colombia is the world's second biggest producer of biofuels (after Brazil). But human rights groups denounced the cultivation of biofuel crops such as palm tree oil in Colombia to BBC World June 3, charging their production is linked to land theft and atrocities by paramilitary groups.

Former Colombian Senator Teodolindo Avendaño was sentenced to eight years house arrest June 3 for not voting on the 2006 re-election of President Alvaro Uribe in exchange for favors. Avendaño, theretofore a vociferous opponent of the constitutional change, disappeared on the day of the vote that would allow the 2006 re-election of Uribe. According to the prosecution, the senator received 200 million pesos (US$97 thousand) for his failure to show up for the vote.

Colombian paramilitary operative Diego Alberto Ruíz Arroyave was sentenced to seven and a half years in a US prison June 2 for trying to acquire anti-aircraft missiles, grenade launchers and other powerful weapons for $25 million worth of cocaine. Ruíz Arroyave pleaded guilty in October to conspiring to provide material support and resources to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), designated a foreign terrorist organization by the US government.

A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against Dole Food Co. on behalf of 73 people, survivors of murdered trade unionists and farmers in the banana-growing region of north Colombia, accusing the company of funding paramilitaries to carry out assassinations and terror tactics in order to protect its banana operations.

On May 20 some 17,500 banana workers in Colombia's northwestern Urabá region ended a strike they began on May 8 over pay and benefits. The workers won an 8% wage hike for the first year of the two-year contract and a cost-of-living adjustment for the next year; this is based on the Consumer Price Index (IPC in Spanish), which is expected to rise by 5% or less this year. The strikers also won benefits including funds for housing, recreation and culture, a bonus, and pay for the days lost to the strike.

Venezuela's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by just 0.3% in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same period the year before, the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) reported on May 19. Miguel Carpio, an economist at Banco Federal CA in Caracas, projected a zero growth rate for the year. Finance Minister Ali Rodríguez attributed the situation to the global economic downturn, which has cut the price of Venezuelan oil from an average of $87 per barrel last year to an average $42 per barrel so far in 2009; oil accounts for more than 90% of the country's exports.