One of Colombia's most feared paramilitary commanders was extradited to the US March 5—over the protests of local human rights groups concerned that details of atrocities and government collusion with paras may never be revealed. US Drug Enforcement Administration officials escorted Hebert Veloza Garcia AKA "HH" onto a plane headed for New York, where he faces drug-trafficking charges.

Meeting with members of indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities impacted by floods, displacement and violence in Colombia, the top United Nations relief official last week called for stepped up assistance for these minority groups. Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes travelled to the northwest Chocó department, where leaders in the Afro-Colombian community of Bebedó described the destruction of their homes by severe flooding last year, when the San Juan River broke its banks. Also in the same town, he met with representatives of the Wounaan indigenous people who told him how they had been uprooted from their traditional lands in 2005 by armed gangs.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez over the weekend ordered the army to seize control of all the the country's rice processing plants, citing the companies' failure to adhere to price control regulations. "I have ordered the immediate intervention in all those sectors of agro-industry, intervention by the revolutionary government," Chávez said in a nationally televised address March 1. "This government is here to protect the people, not the bourgeoisie or the rich." He also warned that he would nationalize the country's rice industry if the processing companies do not respect price controls.

Venezuela and Bolivia Feb. 26 condemned the new US State Department human rights report that singles out the two South American countries, saying Washington has no right to pass judgment. The government of President Hugo Chávez said it categorically rejects the report, which cited a politicized judiciary and harassment of Venezuela's political opposition and the news media. Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said the report is "plagued with lies." He added: "No government in the world has the right to use a report to meddle in, judge or qualify the situation in other nations."

Representatives of Venezuela's Jewish population said Feb. 26 that unidentified assailants threw an improvised explosive at a community center in La Florida district of Caracas in a pre-dawn attack. The explosion damaged the doors to the center and blew out a window of a nearby car, but there were no injuries. Abraham Garzón, president of the Jewish Community Center located in the downtown district, said: "The damage, really, is spiritual because it seems there are some people in our country who want to use terrorism." (El Tiempo de Venezuela, Feb. 27; AP, Reuters, Feb. 26)

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe announced Feb. 26 that the Department of Administrative Security (DAS) will no longer be able to conduct wiretaps with just a court order, and will now require the cooperation of the National Police. This order follows allegations that the DAS illegally recorded the conversations of Supreme Court magistrates, media directors, and politicians from the opposition. According to Uribe, the police will need to verify the legality of the requests and will act as a check on the power of national intelligence gathering, improving transparency. DAS Director Felipe Muñoz has acknowledged the existence of evidence supporting the allegations. DAS Intelligence Director Fernando Tabares resigned Feb. 26, the fourth DAS official to step down in the scandal.

Colombian President Álvaro Uribe clashed with the country's prosecutor general over the head of state's proposal to re-criminalize possession of personal quantities of drugs. Prosecutor General Mario Iguarán expressed his support for a recent statement by a number of former Latin American presidents, including Colombia's César Gaviria, that drug addiction should be treated not as a criminal issue, but a healthcare issue. Uribe said Iguarán should have consulted with him before speaking publicly on the issue. Uribe also accused: "It seems to me he is misleading the public opinion when he says the government will take the addicts to jail. This can not happen like that." (Colombia Reports, Feb. 23)

On Feb. 17 the Agencia de Noticias Nueva Colombia (ANNCOL) published a Feb. 11 communiqué from the Antonio José de Sucre column of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) taking responsibility for the killing of eight people on Feb. 6 at Río Bravo, Barbacoas municipality in the southwestern department of Nariño. The communiqué charges that the eight victims had collaborated with the military and that due to "their responsibility in the death of numerous guerrilleros and their undeniable active participation which involves them in the conflict, they were executed." The FARC didn't specify the ethnicity of the victims but insisted that the "action was not against indigenous people." The communiqué didn't comment on any other recent killings of indigenous people attributed to the FARC in the same area. (ANNCOL, Feb. 17)