ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips have opted to abandon their heavy crude oil projects in eastern Venezuela's Orinoco Belt rather than cede majority ownership and operating control to the state-owned oil company PDVSA, Venezuelan officials announced June 26. President Hugo Chavez had set that day as the deadline for the six foreign owners of four projects in the region to agree to new terms, a part of his program to "re-nationalize" the energy sector, along with banks and telecommunications.

Two people were killed, including a three-year-old girl, and seven wounded June 24 when presumed leftist guerillas detonated a bomb in a tourist area of Colombia's main Pacific port, Buenaventura (Valle del Cauca department), the latest in a series of attacks over the weekend. Seven bombs or grenades exploded at commercial centers around the city and a police station in the previous attacks, which began June 22, leaving 23 injured. Authorities blamed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's largest guerilla group. "This is retaliation from the FARC for the killing of one of their key leaders," Interior Minister Carlos Holguin told local Caracol Radio. "These bandits have decided to attack the civilian population and create acts of terror." (Reuters, June 24)

Spain's regional Basque Parliament June 22 voted down a motion submitted by the right-wing People's Party (PP) advocating "freedom of expression" and "pluralism in news media in Venezuela," following the refusal of the Hugo Chávez government to renew the broadcast license for RCTV. Instead the Parliament endorsed a resolution reasserting its "unequivocal stance to advocate freedom of opinion and expression," without condemning Venezuela. (El Universal, Caracas, June 20, El Universal, June 20)

A lawyer for the United Steelworkers has asked the US State Department to investigate infiltration by Colombia's illegal paramilitaries into President Alvaro Uribe's first electoral campaign, based on a video showing then-candidate Uribe meeting with a group that included a man identified as Frenio Sánchez Carreño, leader of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) in the violence-torn city of Barrancabermeja.

Cauca and the Afro-Colombian Renaissance

by Bill Weinberg

The Chamber of Representatives of the Colombian Congress voted 62-43 the night of June 14 to approve a law recognizing civil unions. The law would allow same-sex couples to register if they have lived together for two years and are not in other marriages or civil unions. If one partner dies, the survivor would automatically inherit and would receive social security payments and other work-related benefits. The Senate is expected to approve the law and send it to rightwing president Alvaro Uribe for approval on June 19; supporters expect no obstacles from Uribe. Although some Latin American cities have recognized same-sex unions--including Mexico City last November--no country in the region has passed a national law for civil unions. (El Diario-La Prensa, NY, June 16 from AP)

Two Colombian soldiers assigned to counter-guerilla operations in the southern part of the country were arrested June 10 for slaying six unarmed civilians, including a child, during a killing spree early the previous day. The soldiers appeared to be drunk when they entered a party held in a school in the town of San Vicente del Caguan and opened fire, killing three, witnesses told reporters. Three more victims, including a nine-year-old boy, were found shot dead near the building, the army said in a statement. San Vicente del Caguan is the site of a former "demilitarized zone" ceded to the FARC guerillas as a condition of peace talks which have now broken down. (Reuters, June 10)

International arms dealer Monzer al-Kassar was arrested by Spanish police June 7 after a federal indictment was issued against him in New York for conspiring to support terrorists and kill US soldiers. US officials said undercover agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had convinced al-Kassar that they represented the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a guerilla army classified by the US State Department as a terrorist group.