"Plan Colombia," Bogotá's US— backed program to reduce drug production in that Andean nation, "isn't working," charges Luis Correa, leader of Venezuela's National Commission Against Illicit Drug Use (Conacuid). Luis Correa said there had been "a huge increase" in illegal crop production in areas of Colombia near the Venezuelan border. "In July, we were able to prove it through satellite photos provided by the OAS, which even revealed new landing strips," the Conacuid chief told reporters. "In my opinion, this shows that Plan Colombia isn't working, because — according to what they said — the purpose was to eliminate the crops and reduce drug production."

On Oct. 11, unidentified gunmen shot dead Francisco Antonio Cuchillo Baltazar, a 57-year indigenous governor of Ginebra municipality of the southwestern Colombian department of Valle del Cauca, the authorities said. Cuchillo was hit by three bullets when he was waiting for a bus to return home. His daughter, Lili Cuchillo, said her father "was shot three times, one in the head and two in the chest, by an assault rifle. To this moment we do not have information about which armed group committed this crime." She said this murder "represents an attack on our communities. They took a leader away from us." On Sept. 5, Jorge Eduardo Cuchillo Baltazar, the governor's brother, was kidnapped and shot dead. His body was found near Ginebra. (Xinhua, Oct. 13)

On Oct. 10 in Santiago, Chile, nearly 4,000 people took part in a "Dignity March" called by Meli Wixan Mapu and other Mapuche organizations. The marchers called for the release of Mapuche political prisoners, and for Mapuche unity in the continued struggle for land and self-determination and against violations of indigenous rights by the Chilean and Argentine governments and by business interests. (Campana Continental Contra el ALCA, Oct. 12)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Oct. 16

At midday on Oct. 16, Orlando Valencia, an Afro-Colombian representative of the Community Council of Curvaradó in the department of Chocó, was arbitrarily detained and "disappeared," despite being protected by official measures of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The abduction took place immediately after the vehicle in which he was travelling with human rights observers and other members of the community, en route to a regional peasant assembly, was stopped by the National Police in the municipality of Belén de Bajirá. The police demanded the occupants' documents at rifle-point and briefly detained them. On the way to the local police station, they passed a truck filled with men they recognized as paramilitaries. They were released after several hours of interrogation, in which Valencia was accused of being a "reinsertado"—a demobilized guerilla fighter

In an Oct. 9 interview with CNN, televangelist Pat Robertson—who recently got in hot water by calling for the assassination of Hugo Chavez—accused the Venezuelan president of giving Osama bin Laden $1.2 million after the 9-11 attacks and of trying to obtain nuclear material from Iran.

On Oct. 5, a group of seven Mapuche indigenous students from the Frontier University in Temuco, Chile—on hunger strike since Sept. 29—began an occupation of the Temuco cathedral. Another two hunger strikers did not participate because they were hospitalized on Oct. 4. The action was the latest in a series of protests started at least three weeks earlier by some 120 students demanding repairs to the Las Encinas Mapuche student residence, where they live, and autonomy in its administration.

Venezuela's left-populist President Hugo Chavez made history this weekend with a visit to New York for an appearance at the UN summit. His brief sojourn in La Manzana Grande consciously evoked his mentor Fidel Castro's historic 1960 debut address at the General Assembly—complete with a blistering verbal attack on the global economic order, and visits to the city's poor communities.

The US government has yet to respond to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's offer to send planeloads of aid, including 2,000 soldiers, firefighters, volunteers and other disaster specialists to Louisiana. Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter, also pledged $1 million in Hurricane Katrina relief aid through its state-owned Citgo Petroleum Corp., plus fuel to help in hard-hit areas. (AP, Sept. 1) The company’s CEO Félix Rodríguez said this donation had the full support of the company’s parent organization, the Venezuelan state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), as well as President Chávez. (Venezuelanalysis, Sept. 1)