The president of a failed Colombian financial firm suspected of laundering drug profits and bilking thousands of mostly poor investors of millions of dollars was arrested in Panama and promptly deported Nov. 20. David Murcia Guzmán, 28, founder of the DMG financial services firm, was detained near Panama City as he prepared to flee to Costa Rica, which has no extradition treaty with Colombia.

From the BBC News, Nov. 18:

UK drug users 'damaging Colombia'
Drug users in the UK are causing an environmental catastrophe in Colombia, the country's vice-president has told a meeting of police chiefs.

Bolivia's first indigenous president, Evo Morales, in Washington DC for an OAS meeting Nov. 19, drew parallels between himself and US President-elect Barack Obama: "Who would have believed 10 or 15 years ago that I could become president of Bolivia? Who would have believed 20 or 30 years ago that a black man could become president of the United States?" He made his comments before the OAS special session, speaking in Spanish.

The New York Times reports Nov. 19 that "President-elect Barack Obama's transition team has signaled to Eric H. Holder Jr., a senior official in the Justice Department in the Clinton administration, that he will be chosen as attorney general... Mr. Holder would be the first African-American to serve as the nation's top law enforcement official." Unfortunately, he would also be the first AG to have defended a multinational corporation in a lawsuit over collaboration with paramilitary death-squads—specifically Chiquita Brands in a case over its payments to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a State Department-recognized "terrorist organization."

Colombian officials declared a state of emergency Nov. 19, boosting their powers of arrest and money seizure to help deal with multimillion-dollar investment scams that have targeted mostly poor investors. President Álvaro Uribe's office said the measure was taken because of a "serious deterioration in public order" in connection with "massive illegal collection of public funds."

On Nov. 12 Cuba released La Paz en Colombia (Peace in Colombia), a 265-page book by former president Fidel Castro giving new information about the Cuban government's relations with Colombia's leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). In the book, which Castro says took 400 hours of work, the former president repeats criticisms he made last July of the FARC's treatment of prisoners of war and "the capture and holding of civilians not involved in the war." In the book he also notes that holding "prisoners and hostages deprived the combatants of the ability to maneuver."

Between Nov. 13 and 14, more than 30 offices of bogus financial companies were attacked by protesters across Colombia in continuing unrest over pyramid scams. One town official was killed as protesters clashed with police in Buesaco, Nariño department. The official was apparently mistaken for an employee of the pseudo-firm Easy Money, Fast Cash (DRFE). (Cronica de Hoy, Mexico, Nov. 14)

Thousands of Colombians rioted around the country Nov. 12, demanding their money back after being defrauded in a series of pyramid schemes. In some of the nine cities where the protests erupted, police used batons and tear gas. In recent months, several phony loan companies have vanished along with millions of dollars in deposits after promising interest rates of up to 150 percent.