The Latin American Report # 486

Italy's Eni confirmed this Sunday that OFAC no longer allows it to extract oil from Venezuela as payment for its gas production in the South American nation. It is a sign of the abuse of Washington's power that many do not want to understand or even know about. A company from the other side of the ocean must have the blessing of the U.S. Treasury Department to do business in a third country because, as I commented to some friends yesterday, nobody wants to go against such a heavyweight, the owner of the financial market for the times to come. “Eni continues its transparent engagement with US authorities on the matter to identify options for ensuring that non-sanctioned gas supplies, essential to the population, can be remunerated by PDVSA,” the Italian company said in a statement cited by Reuters, adding that it ”always operates in full compliance with the international sanctions framework.” Where it says “international sanctions,” it should read U.S. unilateral sanctions.

Colombia

One soldier died and another was wounded as a result of an explosive attack in the violent department of Norte de Santander, in the continuation of an exhausting and decades-old internal armed conflict that kills people in dribs and drabs as well as in spurts, as happened in the first month of the year. The soldiers were stationed at a checkpoint on the road linking the capital of the department—bordering Venezuela—and Puerto de Santander when they were hit by an explosive device. “In the criminal action[,] the soldier Jhon Pernett Barrios was killed and a non-commissioned officer was wounded, who was treated by combat nurses and is out of danger,” said in a statement quoted by the Spanish agency EFE the Command of the Thirtieth Brigade of the Colombian Army.

Earlier this March, two soldiers were wounded in Cúcuta in an action attributed to the National Liberation Army, the oldest active guerrilla group on the continent. The latest conflict broke out between this and a front of FARC-EP dissidents. According to Human Rights Watch, the attacks caused the displacement of more than 56,000 people. President Gustavo Petro came to power intending to pacify the country, but not even with him, a left-leaning president, the first in Colombia's history, guerrillas like the ELN—born precisely with that orientation inspired by the Cuban Revolution—have had any real intention of abandoning a guerrilla life that today looks more like a fight for control of territories overloaded with coca crops and people to extort than a real war of liberation.

Costa Rica

In an operation supported by U.S. forces, Costa Rican security agents seized more than one ton of cocaine and nearly 450 kilograms of marijuana that were being transported in a boat crewed by three Nicaraguan nationals. A U.S. MPA aircraft participated in the pursuit of the boat. “At 40 nautical miles from Cabo Matapalo, south zone of the country, officers of the Special Operations Group of the National Coast Guard Service, intercepted a fast boat with three subjects on board, who ignored the first stop voice of the Police (...) The officers gave chase and observed that the subjects threw part of the drug load into the sea,” reported the Ministry of Public Security. The news confirms Costa Rica's insertion in the route of the lucrative business that bathes the entire region in blood and which has muddied the once relatively safe social ecosystem in the Central American nation.

In the border