Andes, Colombia, Latin America: Week in Review
Colombian Court Says Troops Must Leave Indigenous Land
August 3, 2012 By Staff
Top Story — The Colombian government said it will challenge a Constitutional Court ruling ordering the country’s military to dismantle a training base on an indigenous reservation in Guaviare province. The court ruled Thursday that the presence of troops was endangering members of the Jiw and Nukak tribes caught in the conflict between the Colombian military and leftist rebels. Unexploded ammunition and landmines have already injured three indigenous people in and around the Barrancon training base, which occupies 6 hectares of indigenous land. Commander of the Armed Forces Gen Alejandro Navas maintained that if the military left, it would open a strategic corridor to guerrilla activity, and added that the government would try to get the court’s ruling reversed. Colombian Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón said that the ruling would have no bearing on the military’s conflict in Cauca province with members of the Nasa tribe, who have demanded that both troops and rebels leave their land.
Read more from the BBC.
Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- The U.S. Department of Justice told the California Supreme Court that it could not allow undocumented immigrant Sergio Garcia to practice law in the state despite passing the bar.
- Mexican archers Aida Roman and Mariana Avitia earned Mexico’s first Olympic medals in archery with a silver and a bronze on Thursday.
Caribbean
- San Juan Mayor Jorge Santini said that he would prove the city’s streets are safe by sleeping on a bus in different neighborhoods with his family.
- U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday named former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to lead a U.S. delegation to Jamaica to celebrate the country’s 50th anniversary of independence.
- Hundreds of Cubans are beginning to migrate to the United States via Panama and Colombia.
Central America
- Honduran Congress has approved a ban on the public possession and transportation of guns in Colon province, a region known for high rates of violent crimes.
- Guatemalan Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla said that there are not enough guns to arm the country’s newest crop of police graduates.
- Costa Rican deputy minister Karina Bolaños, who was fired after her racy home video circulated on the Internet, says she was a victim of an extortion scheme by a computer repairman.
Andes
- Colombian employees and former employees of General Motors in Colombia went on a hunger strike in front of the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá to protest the firing of workers on sick leave.
- The Bolivian government has rejected claims for compensation for Canadian mining company South American Silver Corp. after revoking a concession for its Bolivian subsidiary.
- A Spanish citizen was shot to death in Colombia after he resisted two armed robbers who were trying to steal his cell phone.
Southern Cone
- Brazil’s Supreme Court began a trial Thursday that will probe the “mensalão” corruption scandal that emerged during the presidency of former Brazilian president Lula da Silva.
- Lawmakers in Buenos Aires passed a bill Thursday that would ban ships from docking in the port of Buenos Aires if they are involved in business activities in the Falkland Islands.
Image: Troskiller @ Flickr.
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