Diego Arria, a former minister of Information and Tourism and former Venezuelan Ambassador to the United Nations, said on Monday in Madrid that in addition to Arturo Cubillas, other six ETA members who were deported to Venezuela in 1989 work in the government led by Hugo Chávez. Arria testified before the Spanish National Court Judge Eloy Velasco, who is investigating the alleged links between Basque terrorist group ETA and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and their...

A Reuters photographer sustained a gunshot wound to the shoulder and one of the fugitive murderers of TV Globo reporter Tim Lopes was arrested during a six-day operation by soldiers and elite police units against drug traffickers in the Morro de Alemão complex of favelas in northern Rio de Janeiro that ended on 26 November. The operation against one of the city’s biggest drug trafficking strongholds was aimed at dislodging the headquarters resulting from an alliance between two...

France refused to confirm on Monday alleged sharp criticism of Venezuela and Iran by a senior French diplomat contained in US State Department documents leaked by the whistle-blowing WikiLeaks website. A spokesman for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that WikiLeaks was "irresponsible" for disclosing US diplomatic correspondence which he said could "harm the resolution of issues essential for the security and stability of international relations and place people's...

More than 100 journalists and other communications professionals met in Panama, together with experts and policymakers, in order to analyze how the media addresses criminal behavior in the region, as well as the perception of violence and public policies with regard to the causes, prevention and punishment of crime. Participating in the event were journalists, experts and leaders in the field from Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican...

Four journalists are still missing in the southwestern state of Michoacán, one of the epicentres of the federal offensive against the drug cartels that President Felipe Calderón launched on taking office in December 2006. José Antonio García Apac, the editor of the local weekly Ecos de la Cuenca, has been missing the longest. He disappeared exactly four years ago, on 20 November 2006, just days before the offensive began. It is still not known what happened to him....

If Sudanese President Omar al Bashir, who was charged by the International Criminal Court (ICC) with several counts of genocide against different tribes of his country settled in the Darfur region, decided to accept the invitation from Venezuelan Head of State Hugo Chávez, who invited al-Bashir to come to Venezuela in 2009, the African ruler would find a "safe haven" in the South American country not only because Chávez' government has rejected the case against him, but...

Ecuadorean army commander General Ernesto Gonzalez denounces the recruitment of Ecuadorean minors into the ranks of Colombia's FARC guerrilla group, reports Caracol. Gonzalez said there have been several complaints of Ecuadorean children being taken across the border to join the rebel army. Four children, aged from 14 to 17, are reported missing from a border town and may have been on the Colombian side during a recent raid on a FARC camp close to the border. Earlier this week, there was...

Amnesty International today expressed concern at the arrest of a heavily pregnant human rights defender in the north-eastern city of Bucaramanga on 16 November, on charges of having links with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Carolina Rubio, who is more than eight months pregnant, is a member of the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE) and of the Committee of Solidarity for Political Prisoners (FCSPP), and is being held in prison despite concerns over her...

A Colombian guerrilla accused of kidnapping a former governor in 2001 has been arrested in the city of Cucuta and transferred to Bogota, a high-level police commander said. Erika Natalia Campiño, a member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was behind the kidnapping of Alan Jara, who served as governor of the east-central province of Meta, Gen. Francisco Patiño said. Jara was kidnapped in Colombia’s Eastern Plains region on July 15, 2001. The...

Asuncion, Nov 14 (Prensa Latina) Five Members of the Paraguayan parliament will travel to Cuba next week to participate in the sixth International Conference for the release of five Cubans imprisoned in U.S. jails. The meeting will be held from November 17 to 21 in the city of Holguin with the participation of national and foreign guests. Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Rene Gonzalez and Ramon Labañino have been unjustly detained for more than 12 years in...