The Americas Post - The alleged Chilean spy is the one wearing the Jack Daniels t-shirt

Peru’s government said Wednesday it is investigating an alleged Chilean spy arrested in the vicinity of a military airbase in the north, in a case that could cast a shadow over relations between Lima and Santiago.

Defense Minister Alberto Otárola, said when Luis Maximiliano Seraín was arrested he had in his possession a CD,  a USB memory stick and “some writings” that are being investigated by the local public prosecutor.

“From what we know he is a Chilean citizen who was arrested near the barracks of El Pato military base in Talara.  I can not provide or confirm more details because I repeat is in full investigation,” Otárola told journalists.

In 2009, Peru and Chile engaged in a diplomatic row after the arrest of a Peruvian Air Force officer, who was accused of sending classified information to Chile.  After a year of research, a military court in Peru convicted the officer, formerly employed in the Peruvian Embassy in Santiago, to 25 years in prison.

This new espionage case involving Chile, a major investor in Peru, comes at a time when both South American countries are in international court disputing differences in their maritime boundaries.

Chilean government spokesman Andrew Chadwick said in Santiago they are fully confident that the person arrested in Peru has no link with Chilean state activities.

“We are absolutely clear on the country’s foreign policy in relation to our neighbors.  We never want to risk any type of situation that could harm our relations,” he said.

“As a government we deal with these situations calmly and wisely,” he added.

Relations between Peru and Chile, both major mineral exporters, have gone through ups and downs since they fought a war in the late nineteenth century.  Despite the friction, trade links and business between the two countries have grown rapidly in recent years.

The Americas Post - This was the last face ever seen by a minimum of 75 murder victims

Police in northern Mexico have captured a suspected member of the Zetas drug cartel, who confessed to killing at least 75 people, authorities announced Monday.

Elizondo was captured Jan. 20 in the town of Salinas Victoria, but authorities postponed announcing his arrest in order to verify details of his confession, state Attorney General Adrian de la Garza said.

Domene said the 35-year-old suspect told investigators he had worked in the region over three years and that his duty was killing members of the rival Gulf drug cartel en route to the towns of Cerralvo and General Trevino.

Elizondo and other gunmen last January started pulling passengers off buses as they arrived at Cerralvo’s bus station, Domene said. They were among at least 92 bus passengers the Zetas are accused of killing in three attacks in January and March 2011.

Elizondo was famous “for torturing, maiming and then killing his victims,” Domene added.

Last year, authorities in the neighboring state of Tamaulipas exhumed 193 bodies from unmarked graves in the town of San Fernando. Security forces were led to the site by Zetas who confessed to kidnapping and killing bus passengers in the area.

The exact motive for the bus abductions is undetermined. Prosecutors  suggested the gang may be recruiting at gunpoint or killing suspected rivals aboard the buses.

Northeastern Mexico has been inflamed by a turf war between the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas since their 2010 division.  Over 47,000 people have been killed nationwide since President Felipe Calderon launched his December 2006 crackdown against drug traffickers.

The Center for International Policy, a Washington think tank,  reported Monday that $872 billion in proceeds from crime flowed out of Mexico between 1970 and 2010.

The CIA Director visited La Macarena in the state of Meta, center of Colombia. He met with the Defense Minister and Military Commanders of the Colombian Armed Forces.

Colombia’s government today praised U.S. support for strengthening systems of technical (Sigint) and human intelligence (Humint)  in the fight against illegal organizations like FARC operating in this South American country.

“With the support of the U.S. government we are strengthening our systems of technical and human intelligence,” said Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón, through a statement.

He added that “there must be no place in Colombia where terrorists and criminals can hide undetected.”

Minister  Pinzon and Director of the Central Investigation Agency (CIA) United States, Gral. David Petraeus, visited La Macarena last Friday in the southern province of Meta, one of the areas where the illegal groups and drug traffickers operate.

With these meetings Colombia “will continue to strengthen cooperation ties between the two countries and strengthen the commitment to continue fighting terrorism, drug trafficking and transnational crime,” said the Defense Ministry statement.

The Americas Post - It doesn't look like much, but this boat carried over a ton of marijuana

Federal authorities captured a Mexican motorboat with over a ton of marijuana north of Los Angeles early Wednesday,  arresting 10 suspects in the latest of a growing number of West Coast maritime smuggling attempts.

U.S. Border Patrol agents found the 27-foot craft packed with numerous bales of marijuana on the coast of Ventura County shortly before dawn, according to a news release from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Authorities also impounded two vehicles in the landing area suspected of involvement in the smuggling attempt.

Four of those arrested arrived on board the boat, while the other six were detained in the landing area, the agency reported.

In recent years improved security along the United States border with Mexico has increasingly forced traffickers to smuggle drugs and illegal immigrants north by sea.  Between January and October of 2011, authorities recorded 26 maritime smuggling attempts in the greater Los Angeles area, including seven in Ventura County.  Since then, 10 further cases included two in Ventura County and one in Santa Barbara County.

In response to increased activity in the Los Angeles area, authorities have extended the use of marine patrols, land-based surveillance and collaboration with the Mexican government.

The Americas Post - Al-Saadi Gadhafi wanted to go Al Puerto Vallarta. Photo Credit: AP

Mexican authorities said Wednesday that a surviving son of late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi and three other relatives planned to enter Mexico under false names and hide at a Pacific coast resort.

The plan to smuggle in al-Saadi Gadhafi allegedly involved two Mexicans, a Canadian and a Danish suspect, all of whom have been arrested according to Interior Secretary Alejandro Poire.

The plot was discovered by Mexican intelligence agents in September as al-Saadi fled Libya shortly after his father’s downfall.  He never made it as far as Mexico, ending up in the Western African country of Niger where he currently resides.

The plotters allegedly flew to Mexico, opened bank accounts and bought safe houses in several parts of the country, including one just outside Puerto Vallarta.

“The great economic resources which this criminal organization has, or had, allowed them to contract private flights,” Poire told a news conference.

Poire named Canadian Cynthia Vanier as the group’s ringleader.  He said she had been picked up on Nov. 10 and is now under house arrest with three other suspects on suspicion of document falsification, human smuggling and organized crime.

Poire said Vanier “was the direct contact with the Gadhafi family and the leader of the group, and presumably was the person in charge of the finances of the operation.”

The plot also allegedly depended on a Mexican woman living in the United States, who Poire said obtained the falsified Mexican identity documents.

A Danish man acted as “the logistic liaison” for the plan, Poire said.  He said the alleged conspirators also traveled to Kosovo “and several Middle Eastern countries.”

The Mexican officials made no mention of Moammar Gadhafi himself being involved in the plan, and Poire did not say which relatives may have planned to accompany the son to Mexico. The elder Gadhafi fell from power in late August and was killed in Libya on Oct. 20.

Poire said that false documents were issued in the names of “Daniel Bejar Hanan, Amira Sayed Nader, Moah Bejar Sayed and Sofia Bejar Sayed.”  The Gadhafi name does not appear anywhere in the documents.

The Americas Post - Meet the new boss.... Same as the old boss? Photo Credit: El Tiempo

Rodrigo Londoño, alias “Timoleón Jiménez” or “Timochenko,” has been promoted to the rank of commander for the FARC guerrilla movement, shortly after the Colombian military tracked down and killed its leader Alfonso Cano.

In a press release, the FARC Secretariat said Timochenko’s appointment was unanimous and that it remains committed to toppling the Colombian government.

The new leader of Colombia’s oldest rebel organization is said to be an sharp and experienced guerrilla, who leads the group’s intelligence operation and has strong connections in neighboring Venezuela.

Fighting since 1964, The FARC, or the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia, controlled large parts of the country in the 1980s and 1990s, but suffered dramatic setbacks in the last decade.  When Cano was killed on Nov. 4, President Juan Manuel Santos called it one of the most decisive blows in the group’s history.

He also called on FARC soldiers to put down their weapons and seek a negotiated settlement.

Analysts say that’s not about to happen. Timochenko has a reputation as a hardliner, though not as inflexible as his predecessor according to Antonio Lopez, the president of Colombian think tank Arco Iris.

“This does represent a sense of continuity in the FARC,” he said “We’re not going to see them give in and negotiate over Cano’s body.  At least not anytime soon.”

Now down to about 9,000 combatants, the FARC have changed tactics and rarely confront the military directly, Lopez said.  Now smaller groups use hit-and-run ambushes, sabotage public infrastructure and attack soft military targets.  That shift may be starting to pay off.  In the first half of 2011, the FARC staged 1,115 attacks – a 10 percent increase over last year.

Timochenko enlisted in 1982, and ascended rapidly to become a member of the Secretariat just seven years later.  His last turn on the media stage came in 2008 when he announced that FARC founder Manuel “Tirofijo” Marulanda had died and that Cano was stepping up. With graying beard and glasses, Timochenko punched his finger into the air as he shouted at the camera.

Colombian authorities think that video was shot in Venezuela. Emails recovered in 2008 from the laptop of FARC’s then No. 2, Raul Reyes, also hint that Timochenko was a liaison with the Venezuelan government, which denies supporting the group.  In those missives however, Timochenko describes FARC bases inside Venezuelan territory and frequent border crossings since 1997.

Timochenko has over 100 outstanding arrest warrants, including for terrorism, kidnapping and aggravated homicide.

The Americas Post - Colombian President Santos has pulled the plug on an intelligence agency. Photo credit: Reuters

On Monday Colombia shut down a controversial intelligence center for surveillance and illegal interception of communications to magistrates, journalists and politicians who opposed the administration of ex-president Alvaro Uribe.

President Juan Manuel Santos said that responsibilities of the Administrative Security Department  (ASD) will be taken over by other agencies like the Ministry of Foreign Relations, the Ministry of the Interior, the Justice Dept and the National Police.

“This is not a transformation, this is not reform”, said president Santos.  ”In the case of the ASD, it’s a liquidation.  The ASD is closed.”

The Colombian leader said that 92% of the 6,000 ASD staff members will be transferred to other agencies while the rest continue with the process of shutting down the agency.

Santos took the step using special powers authorized by the Colombian congress to modernize the state, under which he re-established the Ministries of Justice and Labor.

Illegal surveillance by the ASD resulted in one of the most serious scandals faced by the Uribe administration during that president’s second term.  Uribe led the nation of 46 million from 2002 to 2010.

"I was only following orders." Sound familiar?

A former agent for the Argentine navy known as “the Angel of Death” on Friday is claiming to be a victim of political persecution.

Capt. Alfredo Astiz is being tried for taking part in the disappearance, torture and murder of two French nuns, a journalist and three founders of a human rights group that he infiltrated while spying for the military dictatorship that ruled from 1976 to 1983.

Astiz’s apparent betrayal of mothers who demanded that the junta account for their missing children was seen as so heartless by Argentines that he has become a poster boy for the junta’s “dirty war” against leftists and political opponents.

Astiz claims to have been a military officer following legal orders.  Taking advantage of his right to make a final statement after closing arguments, he complained of persecution by a government that “won’t forgive us for having successfully battled subversion.”

For nearly a year the 59 year old officer has been on trial with 17 other former military and police officials, on charges of crimes against humanity committed in the Navy Mechanics School, the most infamous detention and torture center used against leftists.

Of approximately 5,000 detainees who passed through the site, fewer than half survived.

That former military campus, now housing a museum preserving evidence of crimes against humanity, also contained a maternity ward where pregnant detainees were held until they gave birth and then were killed.  A separate trial for systematic baby thefts is under way in another courtroom.

Hundreds of former military and police officials are on trial around Argentina for abuses in the “dirty war” that killed 13,000 junta opponents, according to official records.

In his statement, Astiz accused President Cristina Fernandez of using unjust prosecutions for political gain. Her late husband and predecessor, President Nestor Kirchner, pushed for the trials after Argentina’s congress and Supreme Court overturned amnesties protecting junta veterans.

“This government doesn’t hesitate to take revenge against we who combatted terrorism. It seeks revenge through martyrdom and death in prison,” Astiz said.

Among other crimes, Astiz is on trial for the kidnapping and disappearance of French nuns Alice Domon and Leonie Duquet, who were helping mothers organize a campaign to find children swept up by the junta.  He won their trust by claiming to be searching for a missing brother.

Astiz maintains that only a military tribunal has the right to adjudicate wartime actions.  He concluded his defense by passing a copy of Argentina’s constitution to the judges and asking them to share it with the Supreme Court.

Verdicts may be decided as soon as next week. If convicted, Astiz and most of his 17 co-defendants may be subject to penalties including life in prison.