Techniques that Peruvian military officers learned at the Georgia-based US Army School of the Americas were used in massacres carried out by the Colina Group paramilitary commando in the early 1990s, several former Colina members have confirmed at the trial of ex-president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000). Fujimori is accused of ordering or approving a number of human rights violations during his administration, including the deaths of 25 people at Barrios Altos in 1991 and at La Cantuta University in 1992 in operations by the Colina Group. The techniques said to come from SOA manuals and classes included the use of clandestine graves and lime to bury the victims. According to the newspaper La Primera, the military officers who organized Peru's commandos and the counterinsurgent "dirty war" were trained at SOA, now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). (Prensa Latina, Feb. 8)

Some 20 FARC guerillas are dead and 30 more injured in ongoing clashes over the past week at the Colombian village of Chaparral, Tolima department, officials say. High casualties were reportedly due to aerial bombardment of rebel positions by Colombian warplanes. Authorities said the clashes began when army troops occupied Chaparral in response to the deaths of several soldiers stationed there by FARC landmines. National Police also announced the confiscation Feb. 13 of 5.2 tons of marijuana that had allegedly belonged to the local FARC column. (DPA, Feb. 15)

Anti-draft protest, Medellín

Under the slogan "Servicio Militar: Y Mi Vida, Que?" (Military Service: What About My Life?), the Colombian anti-war group Red Juvenil (Youth Network) held a rally attended by thousands of of young people at Medellín's Atanasio Girardot stadium Feb. 12. The rally was held partly to celebrate the Jan. 26 release of Carlos Andrés Giraldo Hincapié, a conscientious objector from Yondó, Antioquia department, from forced military service. Giraldo Hincapié was press-ganged into the army at the village of La Soledad in August 2006 and taken to Casabe Military Base, in what Red Juvenil calls a violation of his freedom of conscience. (Red Juvenil, Feb. 13; War Resisters International, July 18, 2007)

Just two weeks after saying he hoped oil prices would "stabilize" at under $100 a barrel, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez this week threatened to send them soaring to $200 a barrel in response to his growing dispute with Exxon. Chávez called Exxon's threat to freeze the assets of Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA part of Washington's "economic war" against his government, and vowed that Venezuela would not be intimidated. "They will never rob us again, those bandits of ExxonMobil, they are imperialist bandits, white collar criminals, corruptors of governments, over-throwers of governments, who supported the invasion and bombing of Iraq and continue supporting the genocide in Iraq," he said on his weekly TV show "Aló Presidente" Feb. 11.

Local residents burned tires and blocked roads around Cuzco, Peru, Feb. 7 to protest government proposals to expand private development at Machu Picchu and other tourism sites. Tourist access to Machu Picchu was cut off by the protests, with visitors transported out in police vehicles. Further such actions are pledged if Peru's congress does not reject two proposed laws to ease construction restrictions in Cuzco department and allow for more hotels to be built near archaeological sites. (AP, Feb. 9)

Russian authorities have formally agreed to extradite to Colombia former Israeli military officer Yair Klein, officials at Moscow's embassy in Bogotá said. Colombia requested Klein's extradition five months ago after he was arrested by Interpol and agents of the Anti-terrorist Department of Russia's Interior Ministry while trying to board a flight to Israel at Moscow's airport. He faces charges in Colombia of organizing and training paramilitary groups in the violence-torn Medio Magdalena region. (El Pais, Cali, Feb. 4)

Hundreds of thousands of Colombians marched Feb. 4 against kidnappings and other violence by the FARC guerillas in cities across the country. In Bogotá, marchers wore matching white T-shirts reading: "Yo Soy Colombia" (I am Colombia), with the kicker: "Stop the kidnappings, the lies, the murders... No more FARC." The protest, dubbed "A Million Voices Against the FARC," was ostensibly the fruit of a campaign launched last month by three young people on Facebook, the social-networking website. But the campaign clearly had official sanction. Throughout the country, schools canceled classes for the day or let students out early. In a public square in the northeastern city of Valledupar, President Álvaro Uribe voiced his support for the mobilization. Many marchers openly supported Uribe and chanted slogans against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. (CSM, Feb. 6) In Paris, Astrid Betancourt, sister of FARC hostage Ingrid Betancourt, called the mobilization a "grotesque manipulation." (Milenio, Mexico, Feb. 5)

After 112 days on hunger strike, on Jan. 30 imprisoned Chilean activist Patricia Troncoso Robles ended a protest which started in October around demands for the release of 20 indigenous Mapuche prisoners and an end to the military's presence in Mapuche territories. In an agreement negotiated by Conference of Bishops president Alejandro Goic, Troncoso will be transferred to a prison work and study center; beginning in March she will have weekend releases. Mapuche prisoners Jaime Marileo Saravia and Juan Millalen will have the same benefits; they were part of the hunger strike but resumed eating after 60 days.