Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has announced details of an arms build-up which he says will include a sophisticated missile defense system. "We're going to have a tremendous air-defense system, and with with missiles capable of reaching 200 kilometers," Chavez said during a televised speech April 27 at a military academy in Caracas. He boasted the plan "will convert Venezuela into a nation truly invulnerable to any external threat, invulnerable to any plan of aggression."

Ecuador has expelled World Bank representative to Quito, Eduardo Somensatto, on the order of President Rafael Correa. Though Ecuador did not give an official reason for the expulsion, but Correa had protested the Work Bank's withholding of a $100 million loan in 2005, when he was the country's economic minister. Correa charges it was because of the country's moves to nationalize the oil sector. The bank contends the loan was suspended because Ecuador violated terms by dissolving an oil fund set aside to pay off foreign debt. Ecuador last week paid off the balance of its debt to the International Monetary Fund, but Correa has threatened to default on the remaining foreign debt. The country owes the World Bank an estimated $748 million. (UPI, April 26)

Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa announced on April 21 during his weekly radio program that he planned to expel World Bank representative Eduardo Somensatto from the country and would consider legal actions against the lending institution itself. According to Correa, the World Bank held up a $100 million credit when he was economy minister in 2005 because of a reform of the law governing funds from petroleum; the reform increased the amount budgeted to social services and cut back the amount for debt repayment.

Agents of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have detained two former Peruvian military officers living in the US who are charged with human rights abuses in connection with an Aug. 14, 1985 military raid that killed 69 villagers—many of them tortured and raped—in the Peruvian Highlands village of Accomarca during the military's war against Peruvian Communist Party (PCP, Shining Path) guerrillas.

Protesters demanding a share of taxes from Bolivian natural gas field remain in control of the key Yacuiba plant that pumps gas to Argentina. The protesters freed some 50 police officers held hostage for over 20 hours, but have not surrendered the pumping plant operated by Transredes, a Royal Dutch Shell subsidiary. A spokesperson for Transredes told Reuters that company officials had to "run for their lives" and that protesters looted the site, destroyed documents and set several vehicles on fire. The government has sent hundreds of troops to the scene. The government says the plant continues to function despite the protest and that exports to Argentina have not been interrupted. The government, which moved to nationalize Bolivia's energy sector last year, appealed for calm and invited protesters to a meeting in the La Paz.

Colombia's government announced April 18 an "experimental" cease-fire with the National Liberation Army (ELN) following talks in Havana. "The president has asked me to accept the ELN's experimental and temporary cease-fire proposal," Colombian peace negotiator Luis Carlos Restrepo told reporters. But Restrepo added that the government is still demanding that the ELN concentrate its fighters in a geographic area as part of any longterm peace accord. Chief ELN negotiator Pablo Beltran said earlier in the week the group was willing to temporarily halt attacks, but that to gather its fighters in one place would be "suicide." (Reuters, April 18)

An investigation that has already exposed links between government officials and illegal paramilitary groups in six of Colombia's coastal departments has now reached the home department of President Álvaro Uribe, focusing on his administration's politically powerful allies. Colombia's Supreme Court, responsible for investigating corruption in Congress, has opened a probe into three lawmakers from Antioquia department—including Sen. Rubén Darío Quintero, Uribe's private secretary when he was governor there from 1995 to 1997. Investigators are also said to be probing Sen. Mario Uribe, the president's cousin. Quintero and Sen. Uribe both deny involvement with the paramilitaries.

At least 2,000 Quechua marchers and dancers in traditional costume filled the streets of Cusco, Peru on March 5 to protect the Andean sacred site of Q'oyllur Riti from mining activities. They came by bus or on foot from eight different communities in Ocongate district, about six hours away from Cusco.