Colombia’s FARC suspends hostage release

Guerrillas suspended the release of six hostages and were accused of a lethal bombing in the Colombian port town of Tumaco.

Courts

Last of seven fake cheerleaders from Colombia sentenced in Miami

Nine adults and seven juveniles, posing as a visiting cheerleading team from Colombia, have little to cheer about now.
Colombia

Study shows shrinking power of Colombian cocaine trade

Drug trade isn’t the economic driver many suspected, according to the report.
Colombia

Colombian FARC hostage describes narrow escape

In one of his first interviews since escaping from Colombia’s rebels after 12 years, Luis Alberto Erazo described his narrow escape.
Federal Court

Miami federal lawsuit accuses Colombian warlord of murders in homeland

A lawsuit filed in Miami federal court is the first in the nation to accuse a convicted Colombian paramilitary leader and drug trafficker of committing violent acts against people in his homeland.
Colombia

Colombian ad campaign aimed at FARC child soldiers

As Colombia keeps ratcheting up pressure on the FARC guerrillas, it’s rolling out a new ad campaign designed to stem the flow of child recruits.
Space exploration

A long mission to ‘Mars’ for Colombian man

While the future of U.S. manned space flight in doubt, one Colombian is coming back from ‘Mars.’
LOS ANGELES TIMES

Tensions linger between Colombia and Ecuador

Ecuador today will begin imposing stiff tariffs on hundreds of Colombian imports, the latest round in a festering dispute between the neighbors.
THE WASHINGTON POST

Ecuadoran town a hub for drug-running rebels, Colombia says

Authorities in neighboring Colombia contend that the Ecuadorean border town of Puerto Nuevo is the thriving nerve center for an elite Colombian rebel unit that helps keep a 44-year-old insurgency alive by trafficking cocaine through Ecuador's ports.
KCJA

Colombian blogs use acid humor to reflect polarization

Whether they criticize President Uribe or his opponents, bloggers from Bogot� and other cities employ irreverent humor�borrowing from the British and Argentine traditions�to illustrate Colombia's political tensions. �Behind the liberty that their pseudonyms give them, (the bloggers) loosen the reins of their political passions," the weekly magazine Semana says.
LOS ANGELES TIMES

A key to Colombia peace: Reintegrating ex-fighters

Programs that help former FARC rebels and paramilitary troops reenter society is seen as crucial to the nation's long-term peace. The U.S. is on board, checkbook in hand.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

Colombian drugs behind Guinea-Bissau murders?

The murder of the president and the Army chief on Monday raises questions about the nature of the instability in the African nation.
EFE

Mexican student visited other FARC camps (Spanish)

El ex director de Inteligencia del Ej�rcito ecuatoriano Mario Pazmi�o confirm� hoy a Efe que informes y fotograf�as que se�alaban la presencia de la estudiante mexicana Luc�a Morett en varios campamentos de las FARC el a�o pasado est�n documentados en la Direcci�n de Inteligencia Militar.
LOS ANGELES TIMES

Colombia is asked to probe slayings of Indians in Narino state

Human rights groups Tuesday called on the Colombian government to investigate the disappearance and slayings of members of an indigenous community in southwestern Colombia.
LOS ANGELES TIMES

Shine is off FARC rebel army

Colombian military officials say the 20% increase in FARC desertions last year from the 2007 level is compelling evidence of their increasing battlefield dominance over the FARC, which the military has been fighting for more than 40 years.
LOS ANGELES TIMES

Q & A with Colombian Defense Minister

Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos will meet with Barack Obama soon after inauguration to try to persuade him to continue Plan Colombia, the $556-million-a-year U.S. aid plan. He discusses the case he will make.
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES

Turmoil, violence constant in Colombian cocaine hub

Renowned as Colombia's most violent city, Buenaventura is on the front line of Colombia's drug war, a choke point for lucrative cocaine smuggling routes up the Pacific Coast.
WALL STREET JOURNAL

Colombia rebels wield power inside Venezuela

This sweltering market town on Venezuela's southwestern frontier has its own mayor, council and police force. It also has a parallel government of sorts - a group of Communist guerrillas from the neighboring country of Colombia.
LOS ANGELES TIMES

Ground crews a bigger part of Colombia's cocaine battle

Aerial spraying is still the preferred method of coca eradication in Colombia, but the use of manual laborers is expanding. Many take the dangerous job because of good wages; some have more personal reasons.
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES

Colombia inches toward justice in paramilitary killings

For months the sometimes headless bodies, cut up by chain-saws, washed up on the banks of the muddy Cauca River.