Colombia's second largest guerrilla army, the National Liberation Army (ELN), asked the rival Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to end hostilities between the two groups. ELN supreme commander Nicolás Rodríguez Bautista AKA "Gabino" wrote an open letter to his FARC counterpart, "Alfonso Cano" asking him to "stop to fratricidal war between our two forces," the ELN website shows. In the letter, the ELN chief says he is still waiting for reply to earlier missives urging the FARC commander for a bilateral meeting and resolve the conflict between the two guerilla armies. (Colombia Reports, May 24)

Colombian President Álvaro Uribe on May 23 named armed forces chief Gen. Freddy Padilla de Leon as his new defense minister. Padilla will retain his current post while taking over the defense portfolio from Juan Manuel Santos, who recently resigned to prepare a possible run for president in 2010. Santos was a mastermind of the current administration's crackdown on FARC guerillas, who have seen their leadership decimated during Santos' near three-year tenure. (AFP, May 23)

The Bolivian Senate announced May 21 that an impeachment trial for Chief Justice Dr. Eddy Walter Fernández Gutiérrez of the Bolivian Supreme Court will be held on June 3. The Chamber of Deputies, Bolivia's lower congressional house, impeached Fernández and suspended his title earlier this month after convicting him on the charge of "retardation of justice." Fernández denounced his impeachment as a politically motivated endeavor to clear room in the Supreme Court for a justice more likely to represent the interests of President Evo Morales.

Venezuelan police and soldiers on May 21 raided a property belonging to Guillermo Zuloaga, president of the country's opposition Globovisión news network amid a growing confrontation between the station and the government of President Hugo Chávez. Judicial police chief Wilmer Flores Trossel said authorities found 24 Toyota vehicles on the Caracas property. "The owners of the residence will have to explain what these vehicles are doing there and why they aren't in a dealership," he said.

Colombian security forces arrested 112 suspected members of the powerful Norte del Valle Cartel May 20. The heavily-armed unit belonging to the cartel's paramilitary arm, Los Rastrojos surrendered in an area of Chocó department near the border with Panama. They were surrounded in a Colombian military operation involving army and naval units.

The Colombian Senate on May 19 approved a proposal to hold a referendum on amending the country's constitution to allow for a third presidential term. Passed by a vote of 62-5, the measure would allow current two-term Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to seek a third presidential term in 2010, although a similar proposal passed in the Chamber of Representatives last year would require Uribe to postpone a third term until 2014. The two proposals must be reconciled in a conference committee and be approved by the Constitutional Court before the referendum can take place.

The Bolivian Supreme Court of Justice opened the trial of former president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada May 18 in connection with the deaths of 63 protesters in October 2003. Sanchez de Lozada and 17 other former government officials face "genocide" charges related to the repression, for which he faces 30 years in prison if convicted. Nine of the defendants were tried in absentia, including Sanchez de Lozada, who fled to the US after resigning from office in 2003. Warrants were issued for the missing defendants after they were found to be in contempt of court. Some 200 relatives of the dead gathered in hot sunshine outside the Supreme Court in the city of Sucre to demand justice. (Jurist, May 19; BBC News, May 18)

Venezuela's government "temporarily" seized a pasta factory owned by US food giant Cargill May 15 in the coastal state of Vargas. Flanked by soldiers at the plant, Vice-Minister of Food Rafael Coronado said the government will run the factory for at least 90 days, having found it guilty of violating price controls. The move further increases President Hugo Chávez's hold on the economy, after a series of recent take-overs of private and foreign-owned businesses—including a Cargill rice plant. (La Reforma, Mexico, Radio Netherlands, May 16; BBC News, May 15)