Peru opposition leader says president behind probe

An opposition leader says a police investigation into alleged ties between members of his party and Colombian rebels is the result of political persecution by Peru's president.

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.

THE AMERICAS

U.S. trade accords face change

Future trade agreements -- including yet-to-be-approved pacts with Colombia, Panama and South Korea -- will land in a tougher political landscape in Washington after 'fair trade' candidates made gains.

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.

THE MIAMI HERALD

Opinion: Last chance for Colombia trade pact

Obama, Democrats should support deal with close ally

VERBATIM

Rights advocates aren't the enemy

Below are excerpts from Amnesty International's 2008 report on the state of human rights in Colombia. In Colombia, human-rights defenders have long played a pivotal role in denouncing abuses and supporting victims, and have often paid a heavy price for their dedication.

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.

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Body-count scandal mars Colombian victories

Inquiry finds the Colombian army killed slum dwellers, then said bodies were those of guerrillas

NEWSDAY

Alleged Colombian drug trafficker flown to U.S. for arraignment

A Colombian man, believed to be a major narcotics trafficker who threatened the lives of federal law enforcement officials, was secretly flown into the United States on a Customs Service plane and whisked yesterday morning to the federal court in Central Islip, New York, for arraignment.

Purging Colombia's army of bad soldiers

OUR OPINION: No reason for the United States to abandon its friend and ally.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Colombian cocaine ring linked to Hezbollah

U.S. and Colombian investigators have dismantled an international cocaine smuggling and money laundering ring that allegedly used part of its profits to finance Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based Shiite militia, officials said Tuesday.

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Acclaimed Colombian institution has 4,800 books, 10 legs

A whimsical riff on the bookmobile, Luis Soriano’s Biblioburro is a small institution: one man and two donkeys. He created it out of the simple belief that the act of taking books to people who do not have them can somehow improve this impoverished region, and perhaps Colombia

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

To go forward, Colombia looks back

For workers in the town of Trujillo, Father Tiberio Fernández helped them fight for their rights. For paramilitary chiefs and government forces, he was a rebel collaborator. In 1990, he was one of 342 victims in what came to be known as the Trujillo Massacre. Now their stories have been put down on a 300-page independent report on the massacre, the first of many intended to tell a fuller story of Colombia's hidden past.

Colombian diplomat dismisses rebel monument

Colombia's foreign minister isn't making an issue of a monument recently erected in Venezuela to honor the late Colombian guerrilla leader Manuel Marulanda.

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Skin disease takes toll on Colombian soldiers

A tiny but debilitating enemy is stalking Colombian soldiers as they hunt for Marxist rebels deep in the jungle: the sand fly, which carries a parasite that causes the flesh-eating disease called leishmaniasis.

AFP

Enfermero de Ingrid Betancourt recibe Premio de la Paz

Un cabo del Ejército colombiano que se tornó en el ángel de la guardia de la ex rehén Ingrid Betancourt durante su cautiverio y un periodista que desde 1994 lleva un mensaje radial de aliento a los plagiados recibirán en Colombia el Premio Nacional de Paz, informaron los organizadores.

EFE

Ingrid hace confesiones a diario español

Tras sufrir un cautiverio de más de seis años a manos de la guerrilla de las FARC, la colombiana Ingrid Betancourt, Premio Príncipe de Asturias de la Concordia 2008, asegura que conoció el dolor ``en todas sus dimensiones''.

MIAMI

Colombian paramilitary leaders receive stiff sentences in Miami

Two right-wing paramilitary leaders from Colombia were sentenced to decades in prison for their roles in drug trafficking.

FEDERAL COURT

Colombian paramilitary leaders to be sentenced

Two Colombian paramilitary leaders will be sentenced in Miami federal court on drug charges. Some victims say the Miami case hurts their quest for justice.