Latin America’s production of conventional oil reached its peak during the last decade and is now in a process of inexorable decline, according to data released by ASPO, the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas.

Pablo Stefanoni reports in Pagina 12 about the removal of shoulder-launched, surface-to-air missiles that belonged to the Bolivian military. The Argentinian paper claims to have access to classified documents that reveal that the missiles were taken out of Bolivia in early October by a C-130 U.S. military cargo plane.

As part of the ongoing talks aimed at creating a free-trade area between the United States and the countries of the Andean region, the government of Ecuador has agreed to let U.S. companies bid on contracts for state-owned enterprises, including the national oil company, local Ecuadorian news sources reported.

A judicial inspection in the trial over environmental damage that pits giant U.S. oil company ChevronTexaco against a group of Ecuadorian indigenous people was prevented last week when the firm’s lawyers submitted a petition along with a report prepared by an Ecuadorian Army intelligence officer, said a press release issued by an indigenous organization.

DynCorp International, the U.S. Department of State’s main contractor in the spraying of South America’s coca fields, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last month to sell $450 million worth of stock in an initial public offering.

According to the SEC filing, Dyncorp intends to use the proceeds from the offering to pay some debt and to reward unnamed insiders with a special $100 million dividend.

Lucio Gutiérrez, Ecuador’s ousted president, renounced Thursday to the asylum that the government of Colombia granted him last week.

According to various news reports, Gutiérrez, who has followed a sojourn across several countries since he was forced out of power in April, has decided to abandon Colombia and head to Ecuador.

The Colombian government decided last week to grant asylum to former Ecuadorian president Lucio Gutiérrez, whose corruption-ridden administration ended in April following a revolt.

By granting asylum to Gutiérrez, the administration of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has given protection to a political figure whose presidential campaign was connected to a convicted narco-trafficker.

In this BBC story, John Walters, Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), is quoted as saying, "We have not yet seen in all these efforts what we're hoping for on the supply side, which is a reduction in availability." This flies in the face of all public statements and statistics released by his office so far, which always stick to the party line.

It must be said, however, that the candor of this admission is only partial since, according to the same story, Mr. Walters hopes to see a reduction in the drug supply during the next 12 months.

An interesting quote nonetheless.