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WASHINGTON — The United States is "deeply disappointed" the Netherlands released a former Venezuelan military intelligence chief detained over U.S. drug trafficking allegations, and is "disturbed" at reports indicating Caracas used threats to obtain his freedom, the State Department said on Monday. Instead of being extradited to the United States, retired Venezuelan General Hugo Carvajal flew home on Sunday from the Netherlands' Caribbean island of Aruba after the Dutch government ruled he had diplomatic immunity. He had been arrested on Aruba on Wednesday. Jubilant Venezuelan officials hailed Carvajal's release at a ruling Socialist Party congress, calling it a "victory" over...

Mexico ousts hundreds of police commanders Government is cracking down on corruption By James C. McKinley Jr. NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE June 26, 2007 MEXICO CITY – Mexico purged 284 commanders from the top ranks of its federal police forces yesterday as part of the government's effort to contain corruption and halt an underworld war between drug traffickers. “We know Mexicans demand an honest, clean and trustworthy police force,” Public Security Secretary Genaro García Luna said at a news conference. “It's obvious there are mafias that are acting to keep the situation from changing, to continue enriching themselves through...

WASHINGTON, March 6, 2006 – The end is drawing near for remnant Taliban, al Qaeda and other elements seeking to displace the Afghan government for their own purposes, the American general who oversees U.S. troops in Europe and NATO matters said here yesterday. "I think this is a turning moment for what's left of the insurgency and also for the criminal element, the narcotics traffickers and all the others, who are working on their own in their own way to destabilize the growth of the (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai government," Marine Gen. James L. Jones told "CNN Late Edition" host...

MEXICO CITY, Dec. 6 - The youngest brother of former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari was found strangled in a car in a rich suburb of Mexico City on Monday morning, law enforcement authorities said. Enrique Salinas de Gortari, a wealthy, 52-year-old engineer from Cuernavaca, was discovered at 7 a.m. by a passer-by in the front passenger's seat of a grey Volkswagen Passat on a quiet residential street. He had a yellow plastic bag over his head and had apparently been strangled. His face was bruised. The killing was the latest tragedy to strike the family of the former president,...

QUITO, Ecuador, Nov. 16 - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday that the ability of terrorist organizations to move people, weapons and money across the many borders of Central and South America could be constrained only by increased cooperation among the governments and militaries in the region. At the start of meetings with defense ministers from the Western Hemisphere, Mr. Rumsfeld cited the skill of the groups Hamas and Hezbollah - which are on the United States government's list of terrorist organizations - in raising money in the region. And he warned that smugglers' routes now used to move...

Four Mexican police officers from Palomas are in the El Paso immigration detention center seeking asylum after they reportedly fled under heavy gunfire, U.S. officials said. The saga started Tuesday night when a mob fired at the Mexican police station, about two blocks south of the international crossing between Palomas and the village of Columbus, N.M. "My understanding is that the police officers came under gunfire by a drug-trafficking family," Columbus Police Chief Clare May said. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the checkpoint heard "a lot of gunfire" coming from south of the border shortly before 11 p.m.,...

Drug lord Luis "Tun Tun" Figueroa Hernandez, whose cartel is thought to have shipped more than $500 million worth of drugs to the mainland, may be sentenced to life in prison this week, when a New Jersey jury will seal his fate after his conviction on trafficking charges. With former associates testifying against him, the Ciales native also faces two separate murder trials in Pennsylvania and New Jersey this year. But, while the 37-year-old is being held in a federal prison stateside, members of his gang in Puerto Rico, suspected in nine murders here, have yet to be charged and...