Bolivian President Evo Morales said Tuesday that the September expulsion of U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg was "a success and not a mistake because it "thwarted " an opposition coup plot.

Global coffee demand should hold through the economic crisis and forecasts show a deficit of 8 million sacks next year, the head of Colombia's National Federation of Coffee Growers told Reuters late Monday.

Gabriel Silva said Colombia, the world's No. 3 coffee producer and a top supplier of high-quality arabica beans, should produce between 11.8 million to 12 million 60-kg bags this year but more in 2009 thanks to rejuvenated coffee crops.

Latin American and Caribbean leaders gathering in Brazil tomorrow will mark a historic occasion: a region-wide summit that excludes the United States.

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa halted payment on foreign bonds he calls “illegal” and “illegitimate,” putting the South American country in default for a second time in a decade.

The presidents of Iran and Ecuador pledged an expansion of diplomatic and other relations on Saturday, the latest sign of closer ties between Tehran and leftist South American governments that have annoyed Washington.

"In this operation we've confiscated, along with other police
forces, 1.5 tons of cocaine. In Lima and Chorillos we confiscated more than half a ton and the rest in busts in the Bahamas and Spain. There are five people detained in Peru, one Israeli and four Peruvian for now," Hidalgo said.

Authorities believe Israeli citizen Moris Abdelhak, a 51-year-old known as 'The Welder' who was arrested in Peru last week, was responsible for hiding the cocaine inside machinery to be shipped to fake companies.

Warships, nuclear power, arms sales and perhaps cooperation on oil prices -- Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev is in Venezuela this week with an alarming sounding list to wave under Washington's nose.

Bolivian leader Evo Morales on Thursday accused the US government of encouraging drug-trafficking as he explained his decision to banish the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Morales, a staunch opponent of the Washington government, said the staff from the US agency had three months to prepare to leave the country, because "the DEA did not respect the police, or even the (Bolivian) armed forces."

"The worst thing is, it did not fight drug trafficking; It encouraged it," the Bolivian leader said, adding that he had "quite a bit of evidence" backing up his charges.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visits to Venezuela and Cuba during a week-long trip to Latin America look set to irk Washington, highlighting a foreign policy challenge facing President-elect Barack Obama.

His trip to Venezuela, a key buyer of Russian arms, coincides with the two countries' first joint naval exercise in the Caribbean -- traditionally viewed by the United States as its backyard.

During his stay in Cuba, the Russian leader is likely to demonstrate Moscow's commitment to renew a Cold War-era alliance with Havana, abandoned after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Bolivian officials on Tuesday formally requested that the US issue extradition orders for former Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada [official profile, in Spanish; TrialWatch profile] to face genocide charges for his role in October 2003 riots [Amnesty International backgrounder] over corporate exploitation of the country's natural gas resources that left at least 60 dead.

The State Department is asking officials at the Venezuelan consulate in Houston to leave the country after the South American government moved its offices in that city before receiving permission.

The Venezuelan officials were being asked to depart because the unauthorized move violated international protocol, Nicole Thompson, a State Department spokeswoman, said Saturday.

Venezuela said Wednesday that it intended to mend its battered relationship with the U.S. following the election of Barack Obama as American president.

Venezuelan military intelligence officials on Friday raided offshore banking group Stanford International Bank, a prosecutor and the U.S.-founded company said.

Stanford said it has strictly followed Venezuelan laws and regulations, will cooperate with the investigation and continues to operate normally despite the raid on one of its offices in Caracas.

The War on Drugs meets the War on Terror, and the result, inevitably, is stone-cold murder: Colombia Killings Cast Doubt on War Against Insurgents (NYT):

"With soldiers under intense pressure in recent years to register combat kills to earn promotions and benefits like time off and extra pay, reports of civilian killings are climbing, prosecutors and researchers say, pointing to a grisly facet of Colombia’s long internal war against leftist insurgencies."

The wave of killings has heightened focus on the U.S. Embassy here, which is responsible for vetting Colombian military units for human rights abuses before they can receive aid. A study of civilian killings by the Fellowship of Reconciliation and Amnesty International, two rights groups, found that 47 percent of the cases reported in 2007 involved Colombian units financed by the United States.

The wave of killings has heightened focus on the U.S. Embassy here, which is responsible for vetting Colombian military units for human rights abuses before they can receive aid. A study of civilian killings by the Fellowship of Reconciliation and Amnesty International, two rights groups, found that 47 percent of the cases reported in 2007 involved Colombian units financed by the United States.

A top Bolivian official on Friday accused the United States of backing armed anti-government groups in a violent jungle clash that left 15 people dead last month, including 13 supporters of leftist President Evo Morales.

“Take a Look for Yourselves and Size Up the Absurd Amount of Firepower Sent to Squash a Public Protest”

Venezuelan tax authorities have ordered 118 McDonald's restaurants to shut down through Saturday because of "inconsistencies" in the chain's financial records.

Three Chinese astronauts landed safely back on earth on Sunday after a 68-hour voyage and space walk that showcased the country's technological mastery and were hailed as a major victory by its leaders.

Washington officials have played down the significance of Russia sending a squadron of warships to the Caribbean for a joint exercise with Venezuelan Navy, but what kind of force exactly will be maneuvering in America’s backyard in one month’s time?

Russia and Venezuela have discussed the possible creation of a joint bank and an oil and gas consortium between the two countries’ energy giants PDVSA and Gazprom. The statement came during the meeting of presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Hugo Chaves in Russia’s Orenburg.

On Monday, Sept. 15, Bolivian President Evo Morales arrived in Santiago, Chile for an emergency meeting of Latin American leaders that convened to seek a resolution to the recent conflict in Bolivia. Upon his arrival, Morales said, "I have come here to explain to the presidents of South America the civic coup d'etat by governors in some Bolivian states in recent days.

The secession of Bolivia's Eastern provinces is part of a US sponsored covert operation, coordinated out of the US State Department, in liaison with US intelligence.

The death squads armed with automatic weapons responsible for killing supporters of Evo Morales in El Porvenir are supported covertly by the US. According to one report, "USAID has an "Office of Transition Initiatives" operating in Bolivia, funneling millions of dollars of training and support to right-wing opposition regional governments and movements."

Venezuela signed agreements today with OAO Gazprom of Russia, Italy's Eni SpA and other foreign companies for offshore natural gas projects that will require $19.7 billion in investment over eight years.

The Venezuelan government Friday expelled two activists of a U.S. human rights organization, accusing them of "illegally interfering in the country's matters."

Norway will donate up to a billion dollars to a Brazilian government fund that aims to protect the Amazon rainforest.

The same kind of hatred for the United States and its neocon Latin American policy is now sweeping through South and Central America. In Latin America, it is individuals with names like Goldberg, Levey, Shapiro, Mukasey, Berman, Brownfield, and Shannon who have rankled Latin American nerves by their meddlesome actions in not only grossly interfering in the domestic affairs of Latin American nations, including fomenting insurrection and acts of terrorism, but designating certain Latin American leaders and officials as aiding in drug trafficking and terrorism.

Bolivia's simmering political crisis has entered a crucial phase, with martial law imposed in one region and at least 30 people killed in clashes between supporters of leftist President Evo Morales and rightist opposition groups that oppose his plans for socialist reforms.

Here are possible scenarios in the landlocked Andean country, an important supplier of natural gas to neighboring Brazil and Argentina.

South America's leaders were headed to Chile, meanwhile, for an emergency summit Monday aimed at trying to prevent Bolivia from splintering apart. All the presidents of the continent's major nations except Alan Garcia of Peru confirmed their attendance, including Morales.

He presented his credentials before President Evo Morales on October 13, 2006; but three months before his arrival in Bolivia, when he was still in Pristina fulfilling his role as head of the US mission in Kosovo, it was already being said that the new US ambassador designated by George Bush for this Andean country, Philip Goldberg, would come to take part in the separatist process that was being cultivated in the background to pierce the Bolivian regime.

Honduras postponed the accreditation of the U.S. ambassador on Friday, expressing solidarity with Bolivia's complaint that the top U.S. diplomat there incited violent protests.

Bolivia's President Evo Morales ordered emergency measures in one of five states where unrest against his rule has flared into violence, as the crisis engulfing his nation pulled in other Latin American countries and even the United States.

The country has effectively become polarized between the western Andean half where the indigenous majority -- from which Morales himself hails -- mostly live, and the more prosperous eastern lowlands, where an elite of European and mixed descent is pushing for autonomy and greater control over lucrative gas fields there.

Russian nuclear-capable bombers have arrived in Venezuela for unprecedented joint exercises in the Caribbean, which would later be joined by Russian warships, including nuclear submarines.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he had ordered strategic bombers to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. Two Tu-160s, the world’s biggest long-range bombers, landed in Venezuela on Wednesday in the first Russian military foray into the Western Hemisphere since the Cold War ended.

"The Yankee ambassador to Caracas has 72 hours to leave Venezuela, in solidarity with Bolivia, with the Bolivian people, and with the Bolivian government," Mr Chavez said.

"Without fear of anyone, without fear of the empire, today before you, before the Bolivian people, I declare the ambassador of the United States persona non grata," he said of Ambassador Philip Goldberg in a nationally televised speech from the presidential palace.

Prevailing Nationalism, Investment From Elsewhere Make American Presence Obsolete

More than 4,400 Colombians were driven from their rural communities or pinned down in their homes Monday by gunfights among leftist rebels, other armed groups and state security forces, the Red Cross said.

The country is still exporting about 600 tons of cocaine annually, despite billions of dollars in U.S. aid aimed at cracking down on the trade.

Abadia is currently serving his term in Brazil's Campo Grande Federal Penitentiary. In early August, he and Brazilian drug dealer Fernandinho Beira-Mar were accused of heading an extortion scheme in the prison.

They had planned to kidnap President Lula's children and several senators and federal judges to buy their freedom.

A former senator close to President Alvaro Uribe was freed from prison on Wednesday, four months after his arrest on charges of colluding with far-right death squads.

Mario Uribe was released after Colombia's No. 2 prosecutor said there was insufficient evidence to hold him. He remains under investigation, however, and is barred from leaving the country.

The Chilean Supreme Court on Thursday stripped former military dictator Augusto Pinochet of his immunity. That leaves the courts free to prosecute him for the deaths or disappearances of opposition figures in the 1970s.

Just a few hours earlier, Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso was pardoning four Cuban exiles, one of whom collaborated with Pinochet’s secret police.

Deep in the northernmost reaches of the Amazon jungle, a land conflict between rice farmers and a handful of Indian tribes has turned so violent that the country's Supreme Court warns it could escalate into civil war.