A peace deal is unlikely by the end of year, according to the FARC’s top commander; President Santos thinks the war on drugs has failed, and that former President Uribe doesn’t want peace. 

In Colombia a murdered journalist’s body guards had been pulled, and another was killed in Honduras, while mayors were killed in Peru. 

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos opened a new session of Congress calling on lawmakers to back government efforts to strike a peace deal; he also signed a decree granting relief to millions of internally displaced persons; former President Álvaro Uribe defended impunity for former paramilitary members, while victims of paramilitary violence were angered by the

Young members of Chile’s largest party seek to update doctrine to acknowledge a “human rights deficit” dating back to the atrocities of the dictatorship. 

Sandinistas were ambushed on the 35th anniversary of the Revolution, while the opposition alleges police and military use of disappearances against their members. 

Jared Genser, a lawyer defending opposition leader Leopoldo López, submitted a brief to Juan Méndez, the UN special rapporteur on torture, about the conditions under which López has been held. 

Costa Rican exports are being high-jacked to camouflage drug shipments. 

Chile upheld the convictions of former agents who disappeared two youths who belonged to the Communist Party, while witnesses in Guatemala told of how their family members disappeared. 

The Colombian government and FARC guerrilla have started a new round of talks focusing on the victims, though President Santos wants the military to keep up the pressure. 

The Dutch peace organization PAX must answer for “defamation, slander, and possibly criminal acts” said the American coal company Drummond, denying that it financed paramilitary groups in the northern department of César.  The Dutch remain unmoved.