Detained guerrilla dies in Venezuela

Luis Freddy Rojas Rincón, a member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) detained in Venezuela on 19 September died hours after his arrest, apparently for injuries sustained in the shootout that preceded his capture, elcorreo.com reported on 20 September citing statements by the Colombian defence minister. Rojas belonged to Front 33 of the FARC and was sought for his role in a failed bomb attack in Bogotá last August. Separately, Colombian troops shot dead two guerrillas in an undated eight-hour battle in the southern Colombian department of the Cauca, El Correo reported on 20 September. One was Silvino Tapiero Castañeda - Aldemar - a 41-year-old junior commander and training officer thought to have spent  30 years with the FARC. The other - Robinson - was sought for his suspected role in a deadly bomb attack on the town of Villarrica in Cauca in February 2012.

Seven police officials killed around Mexico

Three security officials of the state of Tamaulipas were found dead in a car on 19 September in Nuevo Laredo by the US frontier, El Universal reported on 21 September. The three worked for the Tamaulipas Public Security Secretariat or police authority: they were its Police Strategy chief, the Armament officer and the head of Analysis, the state judiciary declared. On 20 September, three plainclothes policemen were shot dead outside a bank in Gómez Palacio, in the northern state of Durango, El Universal reported the next day. The policemen were gunned down from a convoy of three cars driving past; they were from the Estado de México, the state outside Mexico City. A municipal policeman was separately shot dead at an unspecified date in Atlahucan in the south-central sate of Morelos, the daily reported, citing declarations by the prosecutor-general's office. Also on 20 September three gunmen were killed in a shootout with police commandos in Piedras Negras by the US frontier, El Universal reported. Autorities were checking to ascertain if they were among 132 convicts who escaped from the Piedras Negras state prison on 17 September.