After declaring a state of emergency following Monday’s capture of 30 gas workers by suspected Shining Path rebels, the Peruvian government has deployed 1,500 troops to the Echarate district in the southeast Cuzco region.

Forming a joint command of the armed forces and the national police, the government released a statement emphasising the need for “reserve and discretion in a case of this delicate nature.”

Reports have been conflicted about the number of hostages kidnapped by the Maoist rebel group that some in the Peruvian government proclaimed was largely decimated.

Initial reports suggested that 30 Peruvian employees of Swedish construction company Skanska were briefly detained by the rebels before 23 were released. The statement form the Peruvian government suggests that 43 people in total were taken hostage.

The government’s decision to send troops to the region comes after a report from Peruvian national newspaper, Perú21, that the rebels are demanding a ransom of $US 10 million and dynamite.

In its statement, the government said that the mission will seek to “isolate the narcotraffickers” and take “all measures necessary to safeguard the constitutional right to life, liberty, and the security of those taken hostage.”

The president, Mauricio Funes, has apologised to the victims of the El Mozote slaughter’s families as part of the 20^th anniversary memorial of the peace agreements which ended the armed conflict in the country.

The president has finally acknowledged the Salvadorian army’s special troops, the Atlacatl counter-insurgency battalion, as guilty. During his speech, he stated that between the 11^th and the 13^th of December 1981, the Salvadorian army killed nearly a thousand people in the village of El Mozote, La Joya and Los Toriles.

The Atlacatl battalion troops initially entered the village of El Mozote to kill the guerrilla group Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, but during the operation, killed an astonishing amount of innocent civilians from the village and surrounding hamlets. The three top leaders of the battalion were charged over a decade ago after a report published in 1993.

Funes has announced moral and material reparations for the victims of the slaughter, following a discussion between the government and the representatives of the victims. The president has since called on prosecutors and judges to “review what they have to review” to end impunity in Salvador.

Though the civil war ended over 20 years ago, not one soldier has been tried for the crimes committed during its 12 years.

Courtesy of Pulsar

President Hugo Chávez ordered the National Guard troops, one of the four components to the Venezuelan National Armed Forces, to help fight local crime.

The newly created People’s Guard, which consists of a selection of troops from the National Guard, will operate in the capital city of Caracas as well as in the neighbouring states of Miranda and Vargas.

In recent years, Venezuela has become one of the most dangerous countries in Latin America. The measure is a result of the rising levels of violent crimes in the country such as murder, kidnap and robbery.

According to President Chávez, who is taking the matter very seriously – especially because of next year’s president elections- the People’s Guard was created “for the benefit of the security of the streets of Venezuela, to reinforce the fight against crime and to give more life to our people”

Government officials stated the People’s Guard will comprise of 3,650 troops.