Andes, Colombia, Latin America: Week in Review
Bombing In Bogotá Kills Two, Injures Dozens More
May 16, 2012 By Staff
Top Story — A driver and a police bodyguard for former Colombian Interior Minister Fernando Londoño were killed after a bomb went off in Bogotá on Tuesday, injuring dozens of other people. Lodoño was traveling through a commercial district when an assailant allegedly threw a bomb at his car, according to security camera footage mentioned by Bogotá Mayor Gustavo Petro. Colombian authorities had discovered another bomb earlier Tuesday, hidden in a car allegedly destined for police headquarters in Bogotá, but they managed to defuse it. It is not clear if the two bombing incidents were related. While Londoño is in the hospital in stable condition, his driver and police bodyguard were killed, and the police reported that a third, unidentified person was killed as well. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos condemned the bombing, which police blamed on the FARC, and cancelled a scheduled trip to Cartagena to attend a ceremony marking the beginning of a new U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement.
Read more from the New York Times.
Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- Latin American literary great Carlos Fuentes died in Mexico City on Tuesday at age 83.
- Rev. Alejandro Solalinde, a priest who runs the “Hermanos en el Camino” shelter for migrants in southern Mexico, has temporarily left his post due to death threats.
- Four demonstrators in Chicago were arrested Tuesday during a protest against immigration policy and economic injustice in anticipation of the NATO summit to be held in Chicago this weekend.
- A plumber digging a swimming pool in Florida discovered pottery shards and two skulls dating from between 1200 and 1400 that are said to have originated in Peru.
Caribbean
- Laurent Lamothe was voted in by Haitian Parliament as Haiti’s new Prime Minister on Monday.
- Cuba’s National Statistics Office reported Monday that university admissions in Cuba dropped 26 percent in the 2011-2012 academic year.
- A bank robber featured on “America’s Most Wanted” was detained by authorities in Puerto Rico after arriving at the airport from Venezuela.
Central America
- Honduran police and U.S. DEA agents in a helicopter killed two men and two pregnant women in a boat on the Patuca River on Friday in what authorities say was a botched attempt to kill drug traffickers.
- Six Guatemalan taxi drivers were killed in six days as violence and extortion targeting transit workers is on the rise.
- Guatemala extradited a man to face charges in California for kidnapping, raping and robbing his ex-wife in 2002.
Andes
- The Ecuadoran government said that a crashed Mexican plane that contained two dead men and three dogs also contained $1.3 million in cash and is thought to be linked to a drug traffickers.
- Unlicensed mining in Peru, Bolivia and Colombia is having devastating effects on the Amazon rainforest as the price of gold continues to climb.
Southern Cone
- Spanish oil and gas company Repsol sued Argentina on Tuesday for seizing control of Repsol’s majority stake in state energy company YPF.
- The Brazilian Sports Minister denied rumors that construction on a World Cup stadium in Salvador, Bahia won’t be ready for next year’s Confederations Cup.
- Much of Paraguay’s national soccer squad will be sidelined due to injury in Paraguay’s World Cup qualifier against Bolivia.
Image: Knight Foundation @ Flickr.
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