Boz on Bolivia: After 19 days, Potosi protesters ended  their strike and were given a huge celebration by the town for what its citizens perceive as a victory over the government. As part of the agreement to end the strike, the national government promised to fund:

    * Construction of an international airport.
    * Reactivation of Karachipampa.
    * Building of cement factories.
    * An environmental commission to preserve the Cerro Rico mountain.
    * A political commission to review the border between Potosi and Oruro.
    * Debate over highway construction continues, but will likely also be partially funded.

San Andres, Colombia: A Boeing 737 jetliner (Aires Flight 8520) carrying 131 people crashed in a thunderstorm and broke into three pieces as it slid onto the runway on the Colombian island of San Andres Island today. The region's governor said it was a miracle that only one person died.

Haiti: More than six months after Port-au-Prince was levelled by the January 12 earthquake, displaced women and girls live in fear of rape in camps that lack lighting, privacy and security. National and international NGOs, the Haitian National Police and the UN Police report that there has been an increase in sexual violence against women during the first few months following the earthquake. MINUSTAH

NASSAU, Bahamas (GNC) -- The Bahamas government says it will deport illegal Haitians migrants after complaining of "a noticeable increase" in the number of people from the earthquake battered country trying to "gain illegal entry" into The Bahamas.

Bloomberg: Mexico will impose import tariffs on pork, oranges and other U.S. goods because of the U.S. government's failure to restore a program allowing Mexican trucks to operate north of the border, a Mexican official said. The new U.S. goods subject to tariffs also include grapefruit, pistachios, chewing gum, cheese and ketchup, said the official, who declined to be identified because he wasn't authorized to speak on the subject. The U.S. National Pork Producers Council also said in an e-mailed statement that pork will be added to the list of products facing tariffs.

Bloomberg: Rusoro Mining Ltd., which mines for gold in Venezuela, expects to quadruple output of the metal by 2013 after President Hugo Chavez's government relaxed export limits, Chief Executive Officer Andre Agapov said. "Finally the miracle took place," said Agapov in a telephone interview from London today. "It changes completely the financial aspects of operations." Venezuela will allow the largest mining companies and joint ventures with the government to ship as much as 50 percent of their gold output abroad, up from a previous cap of 30 percent. Current restrictions on smaller producers weren't changed, the government said in the official gazette today, without specifying what constitutes a small producer.

Special to The Narco News Bulletin, August 17, 2010: The name commonly used to refer to the Medium and High Security Penitentiary of Valledupar is "La Tramacúa." What that name means exactly, no one is certain. But it is a name that is infamous throughout Colombia and has become synonymous with reports of torture, beatings and hellish conditions. It conjures up images similar to what we in the United States imagine when we hear the words "Abu Ghraib" or "Guantanamo." Unlike those prisons, La Tramacua is not directly staffed by the United States government. It was, however, the first of a series of prisons in Colombia to be designed and overseen by the US Bureau of Prisons. The US government provided at least $4.5 million toward the development of La Tramacúa.

From Jamaica, the Dudus Chronicles.

"Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark." Cheyenne