Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN) denied government charges it has become a drug trafficking organization, saying the accusations jeopardize preliminary peace talks set to resume this month. Peace commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo told Reuters the previous day that cocaine smuggling has supplanted kidnapping as the group's main source of income.

Violence has forced up to 7,000 people in the southern Colombian department of Nariño from their homes over the past two weeks as soldiers battle to retake land from FARC guerillas producing cocaine in the area, officials said. The displacement, which started on March 23 when the military launched an offensive in the area, is one of the biggest in recent years. "People are leaving their homes because they are afraid of getting caught in the confrontations between the FARC and government security forces," Gloria Paredes, human rights ombudsman for the town of El Charco told Reuters. (Reuters, April 4)

Interpol issued an international arrest warrant April 3 for three Israelis accused of training illegal paramilitary groups in Colombia. Yair Klein, Melnik Ferri and Tzedaka Abraham are being sought on charges of criminal conspiracy and instruction in terrorism, facing nearly 11 years in prison if convicted, an anonymous Colombian intelligence source said. The men are accused of helping set up training camps to instruct the private armies of drug lords Pablo Escobar and Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha. These armies later morphed into Colombia's right-wing paramilitaries.

from Weekly News Update on the Americas:

On March 24, two separate but nearly simultaneous marches were held in Buenos Aires to mark the anniversary of Argentina's 1976 coup and remember the 30,000 people who were disappeared by the military regime.

Venezuela has announced it is working on a number of new oil deals with China, as it aims to reduce its dependence upon crude exports to the US. The China National Petroleum Corporation is expected to sink new investments in Venezuela's oil facilities. The announcement comes as President Hugo Chavez is pushing a reorganization of Venezuela's oil industry which would strip major US companies such as Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron of their majority stakes in Venezuelan oil projects. "The United States as a power is on the way down, China is on the way up," said Chavez after the announcement. "China is the market of the future." (BBC, March 25)

The Los Angeles Times reported March 25 on new CIA intelligence indicating that the Colombia's army chief, Gen. Mario Montoya, collaborated extensively with right-wing paramilitaries that Washington considers terrorist organizations. The report circulated within the CIA and obtained by the LAT claims Montoya and a paramilitary group jointly planned and carried out a 2002 "Operation Orion" to eliminate guerrillas from poor areas around Medellin. Operation Orion sent 3,000 Colombian army troops and police, supported by helicopter gunships, into the vast guerilla-controlled shantytowns ringing Medellin. At least 14 people were killed in the operation, and rights observers say dozens more disappeared in its aftermath. The UN and Organization of American Stateshave investigated the reports, and Colombian Sen. Gustavo Petro, an opponent of Uribe, publicly charged that 46 disappeared during the operation.

Early on March 20 in Tirua, in Chile's Region VIII, police arrested Jose Huenchunao Marinan, a Mapuche community leader (werken) and activist who had been in hiding for nearly three years. Huenchunao, a member of the Arauco-Malleco Mapuche Coordinating Committee, was sentenced in August 2004 to 10 years in prison for a December 2001 arson attack against the Poluco Pidenco estate, property of Forestal Mininco, a subsidiary of the Compania Manufacturera de Papeles y Cartones (CMPC), in Ercilla, Region IX. A number of other activists, including Patricia Troncoso Robles, Juan Carlos Huenulao and brothers Juan and Jaime Marileo Sarabia, were also sentenced to 10 years in the same case. (Argenpress, March 23 via Resumen Latinoamericano; La Tercera, Santiago, March 22; UPI, March 20 via Terra Noticias; Santiago Times, March 21 via UNPO)

The Colombian government says that it will seek the extradition of eight unnamed people affiliated with the US banana giant Chiquita Brands International for their alleged involvement in the company's payments to illegal right-wing paramilitary groups. The Chicago Tribune reports March 22 that Colombia's chief prosecutor, Mario Iguaran, has formally requested from the US Justice Department documents relating to Chiquita's payment of $1.7 million to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a group that the United States labels a terrorist organization.