Colombia’s fight against coffee blight may show the way for stricken Central America

As coffee-leaf rust sweeps through Central America and Mexico, Colombian farmers are just beginning to emerge from their own battle with the blight. But will the lessons they’ve learned also be useful in Central America?

Colombia

U.S. exports gain in first year of U.S.-Colombia trade pact

The U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement marked its first anniversary Wednesday.
Colombian Saint

Madre Laura named Colombia’s first saint

Laura Montoya dedicated her life working for Colombia’s indigenous groups and the marginalized. On Sunday, she was declared this Catholic nation’s first saint.
Colombia

Colombia’s capital banks on marijuana cure for hard drug addicts

Hoping to wean people off bazuco, a crack-like drug, the city of Bogota will be experimenting with marijuana.
Colombian kingpin faces drug charges in Miami, New York after extradition

The accused drug kingpin, designated by the U.S. government as one of the “most significant” narco-traffickers in the world, is accused of producing and smuggling cocaine, and money-laundering.
THE AMERICAS | ECONOMIC GROWTH

IDB: Challenges ahead despite growth in Latin America, Caribbean

The Inter-American Development Bank concludes its 54th annual meeting with a call for more reforms to spur economic growth.
Colombia

Even the young are caught up in Medellín gang wars

Two 11-year-old boys were hacked to death after they apparently unwittingly crossed rival gang boundaries.
Venezuela

Isla Presidencial: Venezuelan Internet spoof on presidents attracts serious fans

‘Isla Presidencial,’ an Internet cartoon that pillories politicos, may be at a crossroads now that Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez is out of view.
“Cocaine godmother” Griselda Blanco gunned down in Colombia

Griselda Blanco was believed to have ordered dozens of vicious drug-related slayings in the 1970s and 80s, and was convicted of the murder of a 2-year-old in Miami.
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.