FARC leader urges Colombia to save talks

Peace talks stalled since January after government refused to extend truce with Latin America's largest rebel group.

FARC rebels freed two police officers on February 15 ahead of the next round of peace talks in Cuba [AFP]

A top commander of Colombia's FARC rebels has called on President Juan Manuel Santos to save peace talks started three months ago in Cuba, even as he accused government negotiators of strangling efforts to reach a final deal.

Timoleon Jimenez, leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) made the statement in an open letter, which was read by a FARC negotiator in Havana on Friday where negotiations have been taking place.

"While it is true that things have moved forward and there have been advances at the negotiating table, the government's attitude repeats the same excuses, and threatens to throw it all in a swamp," Jimenez said. "Let's get away from that already."

Confusion over Mexico drug-lord death reports

Guatemalan official apologises for misunderstanding over reports that Joaquin "El Chapo" died amid clashes.

A Guatemalan official has said there was no evidence that Mexico's most-wanted drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, had been killed in a shootout in the rural north, calling such reports a misunderstanding.

Mauricio Lopez Bonilla, interior minister, told local media on Friday that the original account was based on testimony from residents in San Valentin near the Mexican border, but that soldiers and police scanning the area found no sign of any confrontation.

"I apologise if where was a misunderstanding," Lopez told the Guatemalan radio station Emisores Unidos.

"It was a mix-up. We were referring to information generated from the area that there was possibly a crime scene with a dead person resembling El Chapo."

Venezuelans hold vigils for Chavez's health

Hundreds of well wishers light candles and pray for recently returned president who is suffering from an unnamed cancer.

Hundreds of Venezuelans have lit candles, cried and prayed for Hugo Chavez's health at hillside park near the presidential palace, as the president continues to receive treatment in a military hospital.

Since returning from his fourth operation in Cuba on Monday with minimal fanfare, Chavez’s supporters have taken to the streets to welcome him home and wish him good health.

On Friday at the vigil, they sang along to a recording of a healthy Chavez belting out the national anthem.

"We're praying for the president, for him to get through all of this," said Ana Perez, a seamstress.

"There is no other president like this one. He's unique. He's going to come out of all of this, and he's going to get better."

Rights group faults Mexico over abductions

Report by Human Rights Watch accuses military and police of abducting and killing dozens during six-year drug war.

Dozens of people were abducted and killed by Mexican security forces over the past six years, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch.

The report, released on Wednesday, said that the disappearances of 149 people, many of them civilians, followed a pattern in which security forces detained them without warrants at checkpoints, homes or workplaces, or in public.

When families ask about their relatives, security forces deny that they were detained, or urge family members to look at police stations or army bases. 

The group criticised former president Felipe Calderon for ignoring the problem, calling it "the most severe crisis of enforced disappearances in Latin America in decades."

Venezuela VP says Chavez 'gaining strength'

Nicolas Maduro says absent president is "conscious" and that his "vital signs and organ function are stabilising".

Hugo Chavez has designated Vice President Maduro as the country's caretaker in his absence [AFP]

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is "gaining strength" and entering a "new phase" of cancer treatment in Cuba, his anointed political heir said, as doubts about his health mount in Caracas. Vice President Nicolas Maduro said in a statement on Sunday that the absent leader's "vital signs and organ function are stabilising, he is conscious and gaining strength for the next stage". Maduro's remarks did not go far to address speculation among Venezuela's political foes that Chavez, who has not spoken publicly since December 10, is more ill than has been reported. Chavez designated Maduro as his deputy before flying to Cuba for a fourth round of cancer surgery on December 11.