BOGOTA - The Public Enterprises of the Colombian city of Medellín have opened bidding to build the country's first wind energy park in La Guajira, near the Caribbean coast.

The project, named Jepírachi ('winds of the northeast' in the indigenous Wayuu language), is to cost 21 million dollars and be up and running by the end of 2003, with output of 20 megawatts.

It is an experimental plan, the first of several being developed in Colombia, that could foment economic development in La Guajira, a desert area.

The international call is for suppliers of the wind-propelled electrical turbines and an energy substation for the park.

MONTEVIDEO - The local governments of Mercosur (Southern Common Market), Bolivia and Chile are at the Rio+10 Summit in Johannesburg voicing demands for the renegotiation of foreign debt of poor countries, the elimination of tax havens and a tax on international financial flows in order to create a global anti-poverty fund.

The Merco-Cities Network, representing 70 urban centers in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay home to 70 million people, will demand that municipal delegates be seated with the official delegations at the World Summit on Sustainable development, instead of relegating them to the backseat as "interest groups".

"The vast majority of our population lives in cities, and the serious environmental and development problems are found in the cities," said Sao Paulo's environment secretary Estela Goldenstein in her presentation of the Network's declaration.

The declaration was drawn up during a conference organized by the city of Montevideo, in collaboration with SEMA (Secretariat of Environmental Management for Latin America and the Caribbean).

BUENOS AIRES - The government of the Argentine capital will change is garbage collection system to facilitate the work of informal paper and cardboard gatherers who make their living selling the material.

Beginning in March 2003, the 2.7 million residents of Buenos Aires will be asked to separate their garbage in two bags: one with organic waste and the other with paper and cardboard. The first will be picked up by the garbage companies, and the second by the so-called 'cartoneros', or informal vendors of the recyclable material.

The authorities are hoping this will provide some order to a phenomenon that began in the last several months as a result of sharply increased poverty and unemployment: hundreds of families digging through garbage to sell recyclable items, leading to waste being spread throughout city streets.

The plan entails help for the cartoneros to organize cooperatives, establishing operating rules and a health campaign to promote vaccinations and the use of gloves.

MANAGUA - The Nicaraguan Army will begin deactivating the anti-personnel mines along the banks of the Coco River, which runs along the Honduran border, and were planted with the devices during the civil war of the 1980s.

The work will start at the end of August under the supervision of experts from the Organization of American States (OAS) and will benefit the indigenous communities of the Bilwi, Wasán, Leimus and Prinzapolka.

Spiro Bassi, head of the army corps of engineers told Tierramérica that this is the beginning of the second phase of the mine removal plan fro the autonomous North Atlantic region.

During the war between the U.S.-financed "contra" and the government of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (1979-1990), the army planted 135,643 mines in at least 70 of the country's 151 municipalities. With the support of the international community, nearly 80,500 of these explosives have been removed and destroyed.

SAN SALVADOR - The municipal government of the Salvadoran capital is debating a proposal to impose fines of up to 571 dollars on individuals or companies that produce noise that disturbs the city's peace.

The initiative proposes a list with tolerable levels of noise for fixed and mobile sources, based on times of day and areas of San Salvador.

For example, in residential or hospital areas, noises of up to 55 decibels would be allowed during the day, and 45 decibels at night. In public spaces, noises of up to 100 decibels would be allowed for bus engines, and 118 decibels for their horns.

The city statute would punish repeat offenders by seizing the noise-producing item or closing the noise-producing business.

TEGUCIGALPA - Honduran fishing communities have presented the government with a plan for the rational use and management of the resources in the Gulf of Fonseca, a natural maritime border shared with Nicaragua and El Salvador.

United in the Committee for the Defense and Protection of the Gulf of Fonseca, the fisherfolk maintain that the deterioration of the mangroves in the area is due to the lack of a coordinated plan for sustainable forms of using the natural resources.

"We are proposing that the states execute a joint policy, because the fishing communities, the people living in the border areas of the three countries are aware of the damage, but ongoing monitoring is needed," said Jorge Varela, president of the Committee.

An estimated 25,000 people from Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador fish the waters of the Gulf of Fonseca, and although there are treaties on fishing limits, "there is always someone who violates the rules, and we are worried that the mangroves are disappearing, as are the giant turtles, crabs, iguanas and other species," Varela said.