Photos released in campaign to save uncontacted Amazonian tribe

Illegal loggers in Peru are threatening the existence of healthy uncontacted tribe in the Amazonian rainforest

guardian.co.uk, John Vidal, Monday 31 January 2011 15.48 GMT

Uncontacted Amazonian tribe members living in Brazil, near the Peruvian border.
 Photograph: Gleilson Miranda/Funai/Survival/PA

Some of the most detailed pictures ever taken of an uncontacted Amazonian tribe have been released by the Brazilian government. They show a thriving, healthy community with machetes, baskets full of manioc and papaya from their gardens.

The tribe, which lives near the Peruvian border, is said to be in grave danger from illegal loggers known to be close to its territory. If contact is made, it is likely to result in deaths and the possible extinction of the group.

Indian leaders and forest protection groups today appealed to the Peruvian government which has been reluctant to stop the loggers' invasion of their territory. "We are deeply troubled by the authorities' lack of action. Despite complaints from Peru and abroad against illegal logging, nothing has been done," said a spokesman for Peru's Amazon Indian organisation Aidesep.

"The place where the Indians live, fish, hunt and plant must be protected. That is why it is useful to show pictures of the uncontacted Indians for the whole world to know that they are there in their forest and that the authorities must respect their right to live there," said Brazilian Indian leader Davi Kopenawa Yanomami.

Marcos Apurinã, the coordinator of Brazil's Amazon Indian organisation, Coordenação das Organizações Indígenas da Amazônia Brasileira, said: "These peoples have had their most fundamental rights, particularly their right to life, ignored. It is therefore crucial that we protect them."

The pictures, obtained by the campaigning group Survival international, will be included in the jungles episode of BBC1's Human Planet series on Thursday.

"This area is now at real risk and, if the wave of illegal logging isn't stopped fast, their future will be taken out of their hands. This isn't just a possibility: it's irrefutable history, rewritten on the graves of countless tribes for the last five centuries," said the Survival International director, Stephen Corry.

"The illegal loggers will destroy this tribe. It's vital that the Peruvian government stop them before time runs out. The people in these photos are self-evidently healthy and thriving. What they need from us is their territory protected, so that they can make their own choices about their future."

Evacuations after deadly arms depot blasts in Venezuela

BBC News, 30 January 2011 

At least one person has been killed in a series of explosions at an arms depot in Venezuela, officials say.

Residents spoke of a "ball of fire" after the blasts

The blasts were set off by a fire in the depot in the city of Maracay, about 100km (60 miles) west of Caracas.

Thousands of people living near the depot have been evacuated.

The interior minister said fire-fighters were at the scene but the situation was not yet under control, reports say. The cause of the blaze was not immediately known.

Officials said began shortly after 0400 local time (0800GMT), and television pictures showed thick white smoke rising up from the area.

Local resident Yandry Rey said she saw a "ball of fire" after hearing the explosions.

"It seemed as though they were bombing us. It was horrible," Ms Rey told the Associated Press.

Officials said that fire-fighters were waiting until the explosions died down before investigating further.

Earlier reports quoted officials as saying that at least three people were injured.

Inquiry into 1973 death of Chile's Salvador Allende

BBC News, 7 January 2011

Chile's authorities have said they will launch the first inquiry into the death of socialist President Salvador Allende.

Salvador Allende's death was
officially ruled a suicide

His death, during the 11 September 1973 coup that brought Gen Augusto Pinochet to power, had officially been ruled a suicide until now.

The inquiry is said to result from one of hundreds of human rights complaints made against Pinochet's military rule.

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Allende was found dead in the presidential palace during the coup.

Some 726 complaints of alleged human rights violations never before examined by the judicial authorities were put before a special judge in the Chilean capital, Santiago, on Wednesday.

Thousands of activists were killed or disappeared during Pinochet's 1973-1990 rule.

Bolivia: Coca-chewing protest outside US embassy

BBC News, 26 January 2011

Indigenous activists in Bolivia have been holding a mass coca-chewing protest as part of campaign to end an international ban on the practice.

Chewing coca is an ancient tradition in Bolivia

Hundreds of people chewed the leaf outside the US embassy in La Paz and in other cities across the country.

Bolivia wants to amend a UN drugs treaty that bans chewing coca, which is an ancient tradition in the Andes.

But the US has said it will veto the amendment because coca is also the raw material for making cocaine.

The protesters outside the US embassy also displayed products made from coca, including soft drinks, toothpaste, sweets and ointments.

They were supporting a Bolivian government campaign to amend the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs to remove language that bans the chewing of coca leaf.

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The convention stipulates that coca-chewing be eliminated within 25 years of the convention coming into effect in 1964.

Bolivia says that is discriminatory, given that coca use is so deeply rooted in the indigenous culture of the Andes.

Eradication

The US is opposed to changing the UN convention because it says it would weaken the fight against cocaine production.

The protest was good-natured

In a statement, the US embassy said Washington recognised coca-chewing as a "traditional custom" of Bolivia's indigenous peoples but could not support the amendment.

"The position of the US government in not supporting the amendment is based on the importance of maintaining the integrity of the UN convention, which is an important tool in the fight against drug-trafficking," it said.

The US is the world's largest consumer of cocaine and has been leading efforts to eradicate coca production in the Andes for decades.

Bolivia is the world's first biggest producer of cocaine after Peru and Colombia, and much of its coca crop is used to make the illegal drug.

Bolivian President Evo Morales has long advocated the recognition of coca as a plant of great medicinal, cultural and religious importance that is distinct from cocaine.

As well as being Bolivia's first indigenous head of state, Mr Morales is also a former coca-grower and leader of a coca-growers trade union.

The Bolivian amendment would come into effect on 31 January only if there were no objections.

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Workers feared trapped in Colombia mine explosion

Associated Press, Jan 26, 2011

BOGOTA, Colombia – A mayor says there has been an explosion at a coal mine in Colombia and some workers are feared trapped.

Sardinata Mayor Yamile Rangel Calderon tells The Associated Press that so far "we only know that there was an explosion and that about 40 workers work there."

She says there are no firm details on the number of injured or whether there are any dead at the La Preciosa mine in Norte de Santander province. Rescue workers and police are trying to reach the area.

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Indonesia should learn from Brazil in moving capital city: Observer

Antara News, Wed, January 26 2011

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia should learn from Brazil`s experience in the matter of moving its capital city by promoting and improving the economies of underdeveloped areas, a former diplomat said.

"Moving the capital city from Jakarta is now a current issue but before implementing it, we could learn from Brazil`s experience," former Indonesian Ambassador to Brazil Bali Moniaga said here at a Roundtable Discussion on Improving Bilateral Relationships between Indonesia and Brazil Wednesday.

Brazil had moved its capital three times, first from Salvador, and then to Rio De Janeiro and lastly to Brasilia.

According to Bali, the main reason for Brazil to move its capital city was different from Indonesia.

Brazil moved its capital in order to move its economy and political field, he said adding that the reason of such move was actually to develop the economy in remote and underdeveloped areas in Brazil.

"And Brazil managed to do that," Bali said.

Meanwhile, the reason of the capital moving idea in Indonesia is due to population density, Bali said.

"We should work on how to develop underdeveloped areas in Indonesia as the main reason of the capital moving," Bali said.

On the occasion, Bali also mentioned several important sectors from which Indonesia could gain benefit in the bilateral relationship between Indonesia and Brazil.

Those sectors were agriculture and trade, tax policy, environment and forest preservation and free visa agreement.

Meanwhile, on the same occasion, Teiseran Foun Cornelis, Head of Centre for Policy Analysis and Development on American and European Regions of the Indonesian Foreign Affair Ministry said Brazil served as a strategic partner for Indonesia.

Indonesia should coordinate and focus on how to gain and harness benefit from Brazil`s economic potentials, as well as its Research and technology, agriculture, farming, forestry and renewable energy sectors.

"To gain benefit, we should identify and familiarize the use and the opportunity in the agreement to potential business enterprises in Indonesia," Cornelis said.

Brazil is a strategic partner for Indonesia in many sectors, he said, adding that Indonesia and Brazil could partner to solve global issues such as Food, Energy, and Water Security (FEWS), climate change, peacekeeping and also global governance.

UFOs In South America - Disclosure Has Begun - Full Feature

Scientists, researchers, military personnel and astronauts have been talking about UFOs for years. Recently some major governments have begun to make their files on UFOs public.

Some people swear they've seen, photographed and filmed UFOs. But all too often, government documents remain secret. France, England and Ecuador have all recently released documents about UFO encounters to the public. Even the Vatican has recently stated that the existence of UFOs does not go against the Catholic faith. Of the secret documents that are now available to the general public, the information from the Ecuadorian Government is the most significant and the most fascinating. Get the facts about these amazing new discoveries as we investigate UFOs In South America and UFO / ET disclosure by governments around the world.

Peru recognises Palestinian state

Nation is seventh South American country to do so, bolstering Palestinian hopes of momentum towards global recognition

guardian.co.uk, Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent, Tuesday 25 January 2011 09.17 GMT

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has thanked South American
countries for recognising Palestine as a state Photograph: Khaled El Fiqi/EPA

Peru last night announced it recognises Palestine as a state, becoming the seventh South American country to do so in a rapid diplomatic domino effect which has alarmed Israel.

The declaration came on the eve of a Latin American-Arab summit to be hosted in the Peruvian capital, Lima, reflecting growing political and economic ties between the two regions.

"Palestine is recognised as a free and sovereign state," Peru's foreign minister, José Antonio García Belaúnde, told RPP radio. "There was no pressure from any side. We have acted with freedom and independence." He expressed Peru's continued support for peace talks.

The announcement followed similar decisions by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Guyana in recent weeks, bolstering Palestinian hopes of momentum towards global recognition.

It came as a chink of good news for Palestinians amid controversy and despair over leaked peace talks documents showing negotiators' apparent weakness in dealings with Israel and the US.

"Peru's decision is very good news," said Mauricio Abu-Ghosh, president of Chile's Palestine Federation. "It recognises the existence and sovereignty of the Palestinian state."

Israel warned that South America's rush to recognition was "highly damaging interference" by countries that were never part of the Middle East peace process.

The US has lobbied the region to say recognition is premature. That argument has fallen flat with conservative and left-wing governments but Washington will be pleased that Peru, like Chile, hedged its position on Palestinian claims for borders that existed before 1967, encompassing the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Waves of emigration from Lebanon, Syria and Palestine to South America over the past century has dotted the region with small but influential Arab minorities, with some boasting politically connected tycoons.

Increasing trade – which will be trumpeted at next month's Lima summit – has given an economic edge to cultural ties. Brazil, which has tripled its trade with Arab nations in the past decade, was thanked last month by President Mahmoud Abbas for allowing Palestine to open its first embassy in the Americas.

Argentina's support for the Palestinian state's pre-1967 borders is tinged with its own territorial claim over the Falkland Islands, which it calls the Malvinas. It lost a brief 1982 war against Britain for the archipelago and has complained that Britain violates UN agreements by refusing to discuss sovereignty.

Venezuela previously recognised the Palestinan state in 2005. Analysts say Uruguay and Paraguay may be next.

Related Article:

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Brazil flood deaths top 800 with 400 still missing

BBC News, 23 January 2011

Officials in Brazil say more than 800 people are now known to have died in floods and landslides in the south-east of the country this month.

Buildings were swept away by the force of the
water and mud coming down sodden hillsides

More than 400 people are still missing after torrential rain caused whole hillsides to collapse.

The Brazilian government has said it will set up an early warning system to alert communities of impending danger.

The flooding is considered the worst natural disaster Brazil has ever experienced.

According to figures compiled by the newspaper O Globo, a third of all victims were under age.

The youngest fatality was a five-day-old baby buried in a mudslide in Nova Friburgo, the worst affected town with 324 dead.

Continuing danger

The number of missing has been declining as forensic experts identify more bodies, but rescue workers fear the full extent of the disaster is not yet known, with some remote communities still only reachable by helicopter.

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Emergency workers say their priority is to make sure no new deaths occur.

They are warning of the risks of contaminated water.

Funeral workers said some dogs were
guarding their owners' graves for days

Three people are known to have contracted leptospirosis, an infectious bacterial disease, which is caused by exposure to water contaminated with rats' urine.

In Teresopolis, doctors have been administering thousands of tetanus vaccines.

In Sao Jose do Vale, workers were erecting more than a hundred tents sent from the UK to house those whose homes were swept away or flooded.

Volunteers in Rio de Janeiro held an adoption fair in the hope of re-homing some of the 5,000 animals left without owners as a result of the disaster.

The government has allocated $240m (£150m) in emergency reconstruction money for the area.

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and floods. (Vanderlei Almeida/AFP/Getty Images)

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Venezuela-Cuba undersea cable link work starts

BBC News, 22 January 2011

Work has begun on laying an underwater fibre-optic cable to link Venezuela and Cuba.

The cable is expected to reach Cuba in February
and be operational in July

It will stretch 1,600km (1,000m) and considerably improve telephone and internet services to Cuba, which currently relies on a costly and slow internet connection via satellite.

The new connection is expected to increase data capacity 3,000 times.

The cable, laid by French company Alcatel-Lucent, is expected to be operational in July.

In a televised ceremony, divers attached the cable to the seabed to the applause of Cuban and Venezuelan officials.

Cuban officials praised the cable for breaking the country's "historic dependence [on the United States] in the sphere of telecommunications".

And Venezuelan Minister for Science and Technology Ricardo Menendez was heard shouting "Venezuela's breaking the embargo!".

Broader access?

The cable will connect Camuri in Venezuela to Siboney
in Cuba, with a side link to Jamaica

Cuban officials blame the decades-old US trade embargo, imposed shortly after the Cuban revolution, for the slow connection and low internet take-up.

According to Cuban government figures, only 16% of the population have access to the web - one of the lowest internet usage rates in South America.

But it is not just low bandwidth and high cost which are making web access difficult for Cubans.

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Analysts say government restrictions demanding that people using the internet obtain official permission are keeping many from using the web.

And in November, the official communist party newspaper Granma already dashed the hopes of those who had thought the new cable would bring the internet to more homes.

In an article, praising the undersea communication line, an official said it would provide higher quality communications, "but not necessarily mean a broader extension of the same".

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Bouterse involved in drug crime after conviction

RNW, 22 January 2011

The President of Suriname Desi Bouterse allegedly continued to be involved in international drug crime after being convicted of drug smuggling by the Netherlands in 1999. The revelations were made by Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad based on cables by US diplomats in Surinam and neighbouring Guyana released by WikiLeaks.

President of Suriname Desi Bouterse

The cables indicate the Surinamese president was involved in drug smuggling until 2006, when he was still an MP. He allegedly had links to Shaheed 'Roger' Khan, Guyana’s biggest drugs baron, who is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence in the United States.

A spokesperson for President Bouterse told RNW correspondent Harmen Boerboom that he did not think the revelations would pose a problem for the president. “He is democratically elected by the Surinamese people.”

Voters already knew that Bouterse had been convicted of drug smuggling in the Netherlands and that he is suspected of giving the order for the December murders, in which 15 members of the opposition were killed in 1982 during an earlier term as president.

The 'cables' report a number of locations where Bouterse and Khan are believed to have met. Desi Bouterse also visited Guyana a number of times in spite of an international warrant for his arrest.

The two men are believed to be involved in various murders and plots to murder former Surinamese Minister of Justice Chandrikapersad Santokhi and procurer general Subhas Punwasi, who were responsible for a clampdown in drug crime.

The cables do not reveal whether the President Bouterse was involved in drug crime after 2006. Surinam is a former Dutch colony.

Saving Hemingway's home in Cuba

CNN News, By Patrick Oppmann, January 21, 2011

Saving Hemingway's Cuban home

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Ernest Hemingway lived at Finca Vigia outside Havana for over 20 years
• The house, now a museum, receives over 40,000 visitors a year
• Despite its popularity, Finca Vigia nearly fell victim to Cuba's humid, hurricane-prone environment
• A team is navigating U.S. embargo restrictions to bring restoration experts to the project

Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- Ernest Hemingway hasn't lived here in over 50 years but Finca Vigia is still his home.

In the garden there's his boat "the Pilar" used to hunt marlin and then Nazi subs off Cuba during World War II. Scrawled on a bathroom wall next to a scale are the daily records of what the writer weighed.

Lizards and frogs he caught rest in jars filled with formaldehyde. Antelopes and buffalo heads taken as trophies from African safaris decorate the walls. Yellowing Time and The Field magazines are still on the shelves.

Now a museum, a visitor to Finca Vigia or "lookout farm," could be mistaken for thinking Hemingway might walk in the door at any second.

"Our philosophy was to recover the environment and surroundings," said Ada Rosa Alfonso Rosales, the museum's curator. "This was not just a mere house, this was his home."

Hemingway lived in the home on a hilltop on the outskirts of Havana from 1939 to 1960. The years were pivotal ones for the famed American writer and for his adopted home of Cuba.

Life.com: Ernest Hemingway's life in photos

Ernest Hemingway speaks with Cuban leader Fidel Castro in late 1959.

In 1953, Hemingway won the Pulitzer Prize for his book the "Old Man and the Sea" about an aging Cuban fisherman's epic duel with a marlin. Six years later revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro took control of the island, leading to the eventual breakdown in relations with the United States.

Battling depression, Hemingway killed himself in Ketchum, Idaho in 1961. Even though the Finca Vigia receives over 40,000 visitors a year, the house nearly fell victim to Cuba's unforgiving environment.

"This is a very humid climate," Alfonso said. "We're on top of a hill where winds and even hurricanes batter the house."

In 2005, the National Trust for Historic Preservation called the house "a preservation emergency," citing roof leaks and shifting foundations that endangered the house.

One of the people who came to the house's rescue was Jenny Phillips, the granddaughter of Maxwell Perkins, the editor who first pushed for Hemingway's work to be published and worked with the writer for the rest of his life.

"I realized we could help because of my connection to Ernest Hemingway through my grandfather," Phillips said. "That we could bring about a collaboration between the United States and Cuba which after 50 years of embargo little collaboration has happened between the two countries and yet here was this shared cultural legacy, deeply appreciated by the Cuban people and the American people."

Phillips started the Finca Vigia Foundation, navigating the bureaucracies of two countries and restrictions of the U.S. embargo to bring restoration experts to the project.

One of those experts was home improvement icon Bob Vila, who is also Cuban-American.

Vila said helping to save Hemingway's house transcends politics.

"It's the best cultural bridge we could have hoped for between the American people and the Cuban people. And I emphasize people, I am not talking governments," Vila told CNN. "The Cuban people and the American people have a warm relationship that goes back many decades. It's a very important project."

Life.com: Fidel Castro mingles with celebrities

In $1 million renovation, the Cuban government restored the main house on the property.

Curators estimate another $1 million is needed to save a collapsing guest house on the property, repair Hemingway's cracked swimming pool and build a workshop to restore thousands of original documents.

Until then, restorers are carefully packing up Hemingway's letters and writings to protect them from further decay.

"He gathered ideas and wrote about them in the margins in the books," Phillips said. "And that 'marginalia' has never been seen before by scholars outside of Cuba."

Eventually those writings will be digitized and exhibited at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Massachusetts.

Already, Hemingway's Cuba writings have solved one mystery for Jenny Phillips.

"What I always noticed was that they called each other 'Dear Mr. Perkins, Dear Mr. Hemingway,' she said. "Then one day they started saying 'Dear Max, Dear Ernest." How did that happen?"

A letter from Cuba following Hemingway's father's suicide in 1928 provided the answer.

"Hemingway was extremely distraught," Phillips said. "There's a post-script in that letter, 'For God's sake will you unmister me anyway .' "

"Perkins was quite a bit older than Hemingway," his granddaughter Phillips said, "and who Hemingway felt safe with and nurtured by, so this was a deepening in their relationship."

Guatemala ex-president Alfonso Portillo goes on trial

BBC News, 21 January 2011

Former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo has gone on trial in Guatemala City on charges of embezzlement.

Mr Portillo fled Guatemala shortly after leaving office

Mr Portillo denies stealing $15m (£9.7m) from the defence ministry while he was in power between 2000 and 2004.

The trial had been postponed repeatedly as Mr Portillo's lawyers presented a series of objections to the legal process.

Former Defence Minister Eduardo Arevalo and former Finance Minister Manuel Maza are also on trial.

'Political trial'

The prosecution said it would present more than 700 documents and call 36 witnesses to prove that Mr Portillo authorised some $15m in public funds to be transferred to the defence ministry.

Prosecutors say officials close to him then sent the money from the defence ministry to personal bank accounts in the US and Europe.

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Mr Portillo's lawyers say the case is politically motivated and have questioned the impartiality of the presiding judge, Morelia Rios.

Mr Portillo, 58, is also wanted in the US for allegedly embezzling foreign donations for education projects. But under Guatemalan law, he must be tried in his own country before he can be extradited.

During his time in office, Mr Portillo promised to campaign against corruption and impunity in Guatemala.

He fled to Mexico shortly after leaving office but was sent back to Guatemala in 2008. He said he fled because he could not get a fair trial in Guatemala.

Ships of Light - The Carlos Diaz UFO Experience – Video 1-2

The most spectacular UFO contact case of the 21st century with 23 original UFO films, most of which have never been published.

One of the first of many UFO photographs taken by Carlos Diaz-Mexico.

In 1981 on a lonely road in the mountains of Mexico, Carlos Diaz had an encounter with UFOs that changed his life forever. 20 years later, the contacts continue. 12,000 eyewitnesses including journalists, scientists and the Mayor of Mexico City have now encountered this phenomenon.

Learn about messages received by Carlos Diaz from his UFO encounters and what we may learn from them. Get all of the facts in what is considered the most comprehensive investigation of a UFO case ever.

Ships of Light - The Carlos Diaz UFO Experience (Part 1) from Ritchy_Niburu_2 on Vimeo.

Ships of Light - The Carlos Diaz UFO Experience (Part 2) from Ritchy_Niburu_2 on Vimeo.

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Bolivia energises campaign to legalise coca leaf

Bolivia and the US set for more battles over the coca leaf as Evo Morales attempts to overturn legality of the indigenous plant

guardian.co.uk, Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent, Wednesday 19 January 2011

Bolivians chew coca leaves in Las Yungas, north-east of La Paz. Bolivia are demanding
the decriminalisation of the coca leaf, taking into account the social, religious and nutritional
content of its ancestral use in the Andean region. Photograph: Aizar Raldes/AFP/Getty Images

The Incas chewed it in sacred ceremonies but the United States will be rather less respectful of the coca leaf in a modern ritual: battling Bolivia over drugs policy.

The US is expected to push this week for a continued international ban on coca leaf chewing in its latest clash with Bolivia over the Andean plant, Erythroxylum coca.

US diplomats are due to file a formal objection to Bolivia's attempt to amend a half-century-old UN ban, claiming it would promote the raw ingredient for cocaine and undermine the "war on drugs".

President Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian and former coca grower, called the prohibition, enshrined in the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, absurd and an affront to Andean culture.

The leaf, a mild stimulant, has for centuries been chewed and brewed in tea to combat hunger, fatigue and altitude sickness. The Aymara and other indigenous groups use it in religious and cultural ceremonies. "How can it be possible that the coca leaf, which represents our identity, which is ancestral, be penalised," Morales said last week.

Both sides have clashed repeatedly over the leaf since Morales became Bolivia's first indigenous president in 2005 on the promise of championing a culture long oppressed by European settlers and US-led "imperialism".

Morales expelled Drug Enforcement Administration agents, accusing them of spying, and asked the UN to decriminalise the leaf and bring the narcotics convention in line with the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

La Paz has pledged zero tolerance for cocaine, which is distilled from coca, and supported alternative, licit coca-based products, including a pale green energy drink called Coca Brynco launched yesterday. "We want to reaffirm with this product that the coca leaf is healthy," said Nemesia Achacollo, the rural development minister. "We must defend our coca leaf and show it's not a drug."

Scientists have found that chewing coca is not harmful to health. It takes 200kg of coca, and a lot of chemicals, to produce 1kg of cocaine. Liberal advocacy groups such as the Washington Office on Latin America and the Transnational Institute, among others, have attacked the UN ban.

"The international community needs to get its priorities right and resist this culturally ignorant attempt to dictate to indigenous people in Bolivia," said Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn.

The European Union's stance remains unclear but Bolivian lobbying appears to have convinced Colombia and Macedonia to withdraw objections to its amendment, leaving the US potentially isolated.

A senior US official told the Associated Press a formal objection would be filed today to shore up the 1961 convention, which along with coca chewing prohibits 119 substances such as opium and herion. Bolivia's amendment would encourage other countries to pick the document apart for their own reasons, he said. "Over the long term [it] is not good for the planet's efforts to control and eventually solve the problem of drug abuse."