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)

Revelations in the Colombian newsweekly Semana that the Department of Administrative Security (DAS) illegally listened in on the telephone conversations of judges, politicians and journalists prompted the resignation Feb. 23 of DAS deputy director Jorge Alberto Lagos—and denials of involvement by President Alvaro Uribe. "I have never given a single order to monitor these people's private lives," Uribe said. The president blamed the eavesdropping on a "mafia gang" within the DAS. (AFP, Feb. 23)

Via a statement issued by the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) Feb. 19, traditional indigenous authorities in southern Colombia and Ecuador made an "ultimatum" to the FARC guerillas to return the bodies of slain members of the Awá ethnicity by Monday Feb. 23 so that they can buried according to ancient custom. The statement warns that if the bodies are not returned, indigenous communities in the region will organize a "Humanitarian Minga" to enter the conflicted territory and recover the bodies themselves. The statement called on "All armed actors, legal and illegal, to immediately withdraw from Awá territory" and allow an international team into the region to clear landmines. The statement emphasized that the Humanitarian Minga will not accept accompaniment from the Colombian army.

Ecuador expelled US diplomat Mark Sullivan Feb. 19, accusing him of trying to handpick officials of the National Police. On Feb. 7 President Rafael Correa told another US diplomat, Armando Astorga, to leave on similar charges that he sought to manipulate appointments in police programs receiving United States aid. Correa, is in a re-election campaign and has stressed his credentials as a leader determined to stand up to foreign influence. Correa charges Astorga with conditioning $360 million in US aid on his ability to intervene in appointment of police commanders. "We regret this decision by the government of Ecuador," said a State Department spokesman, Gordon Duguid. "We also reject any suggestion of wrongdoing by embassy staff." Ecuador's media cited anonymous diplomatic sources saying Sullivan is an agent of the CIA. (NYT, El Comericio, Feb. 20; InfoBae, Argentina, Feb. 18)

On the eve of the international London Conference on Anti-Semitism, Venezuelan Jewish community leader Sammy Eppel, director of the human rights commission of B'nai B'rith and columnist for the Caracas daily El Universal, accused President Hugo Chávez of leading a state-sanctioned campaign against the country's Jews. Eppel said the campaign of anti-Semitism that hit world headlines with this January's Venezuelan synagogue attack actually began with a raid on a Jewish school in Caracas in 2004. The police were looking for weapons and explosives, but he pointed out that the raid coincided with a high-profile visit to Iran by Chávez. "It was, if you like, a gift for Ahmadinejad, to say that 'this is how I treat my Jews,'" Eppel said.