Governor Daniel Peralta is threatening to call a security emergency in the province of Santa Cruz if police officers reject his latest offer and continue to strike.

“We do not want to involve national forces but we may be forced to call a security emergency because if this is not an emergency, than what is?” said Peralta in a statement to the province.

The strike has been going on for 13 days and with the police absence the number of thefts has been steadily increasing.

Places like Caleta Olivia have been forced to close their shops for fear of theft after one case of armed robbery within the city and five cases reported in Rio Gallegos. In the tourist town of Calafate there are only 17 policemen patrolling the entire area according to La Nacion.

If a security emergency is called national police officers will be called in to ensure the safety of the province.

Peralta will give police officers 24 hours to accept the offer of a 34% increase in salaries starting this month and going till June 2013. In his initial proposal he offered the same increase but not starting until January.

Peralta has also offered to change the starting salary of a police officer to $6627.

However, police say they will not budge from a starting salary of $9000 and an increase of up to 90%.

Yesterday negotiations failed between the Minister of Government, Paola Knoop, the Economy
Minister, Ariel Ivovich, and the Chief of Police, Jorge Hassan.

According to Hassan the police officers will look at the proposal and in the meantime develop a security scheme for the people.

After a series of protests over the last few days, government officials signed an agreement this morning with police officers who were demanding a salary increase in Bolivia. Throughout the last five days, the police officers’ demands, and their rejection of an offer made by Minister of the Interior Carlos Romero on Sunday had led to escalating riots in the city of La Paz that ended today after the agreement was announced.

The National Police in Bolivia stated that the new agreement includes a monthly salary increase of 100 bolivianos (about 14 dollars) and the suspension of the law Ley 101, introduced by President Evo Morales in April 2011, that lays out disciplinary measures that can be used against police officers. The agreement also includes the creation of a Police Defense Group and the formation of a commission to investigate and analyze retirement funds.

In a press conference this morning, Minister of Interior Romero also announced that the government has promised to not persecute any of the protestors involved in rioting and violence during the past few days. Vice-President Álvaro García Linera who, along with President Evo Morales, had warned that the instability resulting from the officers’ protesting was being manipulated by the opposition in order to attempt a coup, announced the importance of peaceful negotiations for resolving tensions like this one. García Linera, as quoted in Telesur, stated that the government has, in cases like this one, always “employed a strategy of peaceful resolution for situations of high conflict…without falling into populist or irresponsible temptations.”

The relatives of Darío Santillán and Maximiliano Kosteki, two activists assassinated in 2002, along with members of various political and social organisations, held a press conference and a “caravan against impunity” today to denounce the transfer of former Superintendent Alfredo Fanchiotti to an ‘open’ prison in Baradero. The caravan, comprised of buses and cars, set out to Baradero in order to, as Federico Orchani of the Darío Santillán Popular Front (FPDS) said at the press conference, “tell the neighbours …that an assassin will be walking through the streets of their city.”

Former Superintendent Alfredo Fanchiotti and Alejandro Acosta, who both used to work for the Buenos Aires Police, were sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of these two activists on 26th June 2002, during an infamous act of police repression known as the Avellaneda Massacre. The massacre occurred when militants and protesters that formed part of the piquetero movement attempted a roadblock at the Pueyrredon Bridge. At the bridge, they were met by police who opened fire and killed Santillán and Kosteki as the two men tried to run to safety to the Avellaneda Train Station.

At the press conference, activists and family members emphasised the irregular nature of the prison transfer, since criminals sentenced to life usually spend at least ten years formally imprisoned. At the institution where Fanchiotti is being transferred, prisoners have a large degree of freedom. They can leave for twelve hours at a time, during the day, and the only requirement is that they sleep in the ‘open’ prison. Usually, prisoners are transferred to such institutions right before they are released, but not if they have been convicted of a serious crime and sentenced to life imprisonment like Franchiotti was.

The Kosteki family’s lawyer Claudia Ferrero explained this morning that this “is a measure that could lead to his complete liberty… the ‘open’ prison is usually the last step before freedom.” Orchani of the FPDS said at the press conference that “the measure opens the door to impunity just a few days before the 26th June, the 10th anniversary of the assassinations of our comrades: this is a provocation.”

Thirteen police officers were arrested yesterday after a shootout between military and a group of civilians killed 12 people earlier that morning.

The news outlet Milenio in Mexico City reported that the Ministry of National Defense released a statement, which said military troops doing ground patrols were attacked by an unknown number of people suspected of involvement in organised crime.

The release also stated that 10 attackers and two soldiers died in the clash, which took place in Bamoa station, in the municipality of Guasave, Sinaloa.

According to the north Mexico news outlet Vanguardia, the army seized 14 rifles, four handguns, a grenade launcher, four 40mm-caliber grenades, 95 magazines of various calibres, 1,600 cartridges of different calibers, uniforms and four vehicles (one semi-shielded).

The outlet also notes that the 13 arrested officers were taken to the Attorney General’s Office to give their statements. The office has not made an official statement as to whether the officers are still being detained.

About 50,000 people have died in Mexico from drug-related violence since President Felipe Caldarón began a cartel and trafficking crackdown in 2006. The northwestern state Sinaloa has been one of the most dangerous places in the country.

A federal police officer who was shot while resisting a robbery on Sunday in Buenos Aires died this morning, according to reports from local media.

Police sources confirmed to Telam that Alejandra Carina Andrada died in Hospital de Morón, while her husband who was also shot during the robbery remains in hospital. He suffered a bullet wound in his foot and another in his right shoulder.

Andrada and her husband – Juan Luis Muñoz, who is also a police officer – were in civilian clothing with their two daughters on Sunday when they reached their home in Morón in the western suburbs of Buenos Aires. They were surprised and attacked by three robbers.

A shootout began, which left the two officers and one robber injured.
The neighbours came out to assist victims and called the police and ambulance. The two daughters – two and five years old – were uninjured, but Telam reports that neighbours noted the girls’ nervousness and state of shock.

Investigators are now trying to find a security camera in the area.

Police disclosed today that two young men were found dead nearby the woods in Palermo. One of the victims suffered a bullet wound to the chest and the other was found with several stab wounds.

One of the young men has been identified as a street vender who regularly sells DVDs of movies and videogames, while the other has yet to be identified.

A police spokesman stated that the bodies were found about 100 metres apart from one another.

The tip was pursued after a 911 call from a pedestrian who spotted one of the bodies while walking along the Tres de Febrero park. Both victims were dead by the time responders arrived.

Investigators believe that the deaths may have occurred as a result of a fight between the two victims, but they are also fully exploring the possibility of involvement by a third party. Neither a knife nor a gun has been found at the scene, supporting the theory that another person may have been involved.

The incident will remain under investigation by personnel from the police station 51a.

Chilean students clashed with police Thursday, after resuming protests that began last year and continued for seven months.

Agence France-Presse reported that police used water jets and tear gas to disperse about 5,000 people, who gathered in the central Santiago Parque Bustamante to resume last year’s student protests. Invited by Co-ordinated Assembly of Secondary Students (ACES), protestors campaigned for lower tuition fees as well as higher quality education in the secondary and post-secondary systems.

According to the Chilean daily La Tercera, the violence began around 10:45am yesterday, when masked men began fighting with police. Protesting students had gathered in the plaza half an hour earlier.

The newspaper points out that students had not been authorized to protest. It also says 103 people were arrested, and six police officers were injured.

According to ACES, about 10,000 people were at the protest.

“We hope that the government will authorize the marches and order the end of this repression,” said ACES spokesperson Maximiliano Salas. “We accept the fight of the most aggressive ones, because they have demands. We did not see the damage as excessive, but as self-defense against the police.”

Education minister Harald Beyer said the violence was “incomprehensible,” and not in “the spirit that I have seen in the establishments of the country.”

“What I have seen (…) is that the main interest is that this become a very productive year in terms of learning,” he said. “The demonstrations we’ve seen today do not reflect that spirit. And so, we find it regrettable – we do not understand the meaning of the protests.”

Student Protests

Beginning in May 2011, students began protesting the largely-private school system in Chile. The protests continued through December 2011, sometimes pulling out as many as 100,000 people. On August 4 alone, the BBC reports that there were more than 900 people were arrested in protests throughout the country, and almost 100 police officers injured.

Chile’s system is considered to be the best in Latin America in some respects, but few students have access to the high points of the system. Many poorer students are relegated to “shabby, under-funded state schools,” according to the BBC.

Protests by informal miners in the region of Madre de Dios have escalated to the point of violence after ten days of mobilisation. Three people have been pronounced dead and 38 are injured, including nine police officers.

Madre de Dios, which is located in Peru’s south-eastern Amazon basin, has become a site for extensive illegal mining. The area has already suffered large swaths of deforestation and mercury-contamination of rivers as miners push further into buffer zones and wildlife preserves.

The protesters organised to call on the government to revoke new decrees that impose harsh penalties on them for pollution and mining in unauthorised areas.

According to the current Minister of the Environment, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, talks with the informal miners broke down when they continued to increase their demands with each meeting. Protesters blocked the main streets of Madre de Dios and attempted to seize an airport.

More than 40 people have been arrested over the past ten days as tensions continue to mount. Former minister of the environment, Ricardo Giesecke, has joined regional leaders and members of Congress in calling for a state of emergency to be declared.

A group of 700 members of the police force have taken over the main communications centre in Misiones, northern Argentina.

The protest began on Tuesday night at 11pm, when 300 policemen broke in to the Comando Radioeléctrico communications centre in Posadas, the capital of Missiones province. More police, including retired members as well as firefighters joined the group as the night went on. The protesters came from all over the province, and family members have been waiting outside in support.

The police are demanding better working conditions, including new uniforms and equipment, and to be unionised. They are also calling for a raise in salaries, protesting for a basic annual wage of two million pesos.

Julio Lezken, the under-Secretary for Security of Misiones, visited the scene and said that an increase of salary “depends on the national collective bargaining talks”.

According to reports, announcements are scheduled for today for the protesting police.

Police and firefighters temporarily ended their strike in Rio de Janeiro last night, just days before Carnival’s start date.

Last week, strikes in the city of Rio and the state of Bahía concerned officials and tourists, as millions of people are set to take the streets on 17^th February for the world-famous festival.

The strikes, which started last Thursday, were over wage increases.

A 12-day police strike in Salvador saw a spike in murders and crime, increasing fears the same would occur in Rio during Carnival week. Rio sees nearly one million tourists bring in an estimated US$ 640.5 million during this period.

Although the strike has been suspended, the unions have threatened to resume next Wednesday.

“The timing is critical [and] security … comes first. Out of caution and respect, the best decision is to suspend [strike action],” said Francisco Chao, head of Sindpol (the civil police union).

Representatives from Sindpol issued a statement claiming that their focus has shifted to freeing the 20-plus prisoners detained during the strikes. The imprisoned police have been refused contact to family and lawyers, an action that Matias Ana Paula, a wife to one of the imprisoned policemen, called “against the Constitution.”