Armed Forces and Police will install new frontier outposts                                                                        El Comercio, Ecuador, January 13, 2009

In 2008, Esmeraldas was one of the preferred places for organized crime operating on the frontier. This, at least, is concluded from the evaluation made by the North Operations Command (Copno), last weekend. All indicates that the pressure from the Armed Forces and Police in Sucumbíos and Carchi pushed the thieves to the ‘Green Province’. One of the most significant actions in Esmeraldas was: the discovery of four laboratories for drug processing and weapons, three hectares of coca crops and three resting camps for irregular groups, allegedly, Colombian.
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U.S base in Manta will shut down in November, according to Ambassador Hodges
El Comercio, Ecuador, January 13, 2009

The antidrugs military post, which the U.S has been keeping for ten years, in the Ecuadorian base of Manta (west) will leave that site next November, or sooner, assured today American ambassador in Quito, Heather Hodges. The diplomat reminded that the Ecuadorian president, Rafael Correa, did not renew the agreement so that the U.S military outpost (FOL for its English initials) remains in Manta and has asked for its retirement. The FOL was installed in Ecuador following a controversial covenant, which yielded a part of the airport of the coastal city of Manta for the installation of the U.S military outpost, with the only mission of controlling drug traffic in the region.
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Bolivia breaks off diplomatic relations with Israel
El Diario, Bolivia, January 15, 2009

Venezuela has become a key piece in the Kremlin’s new foreign policy, which rests upon the idea that the era of U.S domination of world politics, after the disintegration of the USSR, has ended. While in Orenburg, city in southern Russia, they prepared to receive president Hugo Chávez in his second visit to Russia in less than three months, a squadron of the Russian Navy, headed by the big nuclear cruiser  “Piotr Veliki” (Peter the Great) sailed towards Venezuelan coasts.
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Armed Forces will guard electoral day with 140,000 units
El Nacional, Venezuela, January 15, 2009

Operational Strategic Command chief, Jesús Gonzalez Gonzalez, stated that this amount could be increased in case of an incident involving the alteration of civil order in the amendment project’s electoral day, which was approved yesterday in its second discussion in the AN (National Assembly) and is to be presented tomorrow at the CNE (National Electoral Council). Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB) Operational Strategic Command chief Jesús Gonzalez Gonzalez, assures that the units which will be a part of ‘Plan Republic’, for the constitutional amendment’s electoral day, are prepared.           more>>  

DOCUMENTS

FARC after Marulanda: strategic extinction or  organizational             transformation?                  Román Ortiz, Real Instituto Elcano                                           A league of American democracies? Román Ortiz

Prepared by: Mariana Caramagna Natalia Herrera

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