Colombian youths in fear over Facebook hitlist

Colombian police are investigating the killings of three youths whose names appeared on hitlists published on the social networking site Facebook.

The hitlists warned scores of teenagers in the town of Puerto Asis, in southern Colombia, to leave town or be killed.

Two of the youths named were shot on 15 August, while a third was killed five days later.

Police have sent an investigative team, including internet experts, to find out who is behind the threats.

A local official said a criminal gang had recently expanded its operations to the area and was intimidating locals.

Diego Ferney Jaramillo, 16, and Eibart Alejandro Ruiz Munoz, 17, were shot dead as they were driving along a road on the outskirts of Puerto Asis in Putumayo province on their motorcycle on 15 August.

Colombian ombudsman Volmar Perez Ortiz said that at around the same time, anonymous threats appeared on Facebook, listing 69 local youths and telling them to leave Puerto Asis within three days or be killed.

Panic and fear

The names of the two dead teenagers had been on the list. The ombudsman's office said the authorities at first thought they were dealing with a hoax.

But the killing of a third listed teenager, Norbey Alexander Vargas, on 20 August prompted officials to take the threats seriously.

Since then, a second threat has appeared, on leaflets left on cars and addressed to the families of the youths.

"Please, as relatives, ask them to leave town in less than three days, or we'll see ourselves forced to carry out more acts like that of 15 August," it read.

Another list was published on Facebook on Monday, this time naming 31 local girls.

Putumayo province official Andres Gerardo Verdugo said the threats had provoked panic among the town's families, some of whom had fled.

Police officials have not yet commented on who may be behind the threats or why the youths had been targeted.

But the ombudsman's office said a notorious gang, the Rastrojos, had recently stepped up its criminal operations in the area.

Colombian court blocks military agreement with U.S.

The agreement has been a source of tension between Colombia and neighboring Venezuela.

The court said that the agreement must be sent to the Colombian Congress for approval before it can become effective.

The court ruled that the agreement over use of the bases was not an extension of treaties signed between the two nations in the past, but a new treaty that requires the approval of the legislature to be valid.

"It's certainly a big bump in the road, but it's not a huge setback," Adam Isacson, senior associate at the Washington Office on Latin America organization told CNN.

The congressional make-up is about 80 percent backers of current president Juan Manuel Santos and former President Alvaro Uribe, who was in office when the agreement was signed, Isacson said. So congressional approval could come quickly.

But there is also the possibility that it could drag for a year, he said.

Because the military bases agreement had not yet been implemented, there would be no major changes on the ground, Isacson said, adding that under previous agreements, the United States already has some troops in Colombia who will continue to operate under those previous treaties.

The United States says it needs to operate on the bases to help in its fight against terrorists and narcotraffickers, especially since the closure a few months ago of a U.S. base in Ecuador. The United States maintains similar "forward operating locations" in El Salvador and Aruba-Curacao.

Colombia's agreement to host the Americans has come under criticism in Latin America, particularly from President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.

In the past, Chavez has likened the agreement to an act of war and accused the United States of wanting to stage military personnel nearby to destabilize his leftist government. More recently, he has said that Colombia has the right to pursue an agreement if it wants.

Santos Says Colombia Car Bomb Was ‘Terrorist Act’

Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Colombian President Juan Manual Santos said a blast from a car bomb that shook the capital this morning was a “terrorist act” that “won’t intimidate” the nation.

The pre-dawn explosion occurred in Bogota at the intersection of 67th Street and 7th Avenue, in front of the studios of Caracol Radio and five blocks from the city’s financial district and the stock exchange. No fatalities were reported.

The blast injured as many as nine people, Hector Zambrano, Bogota’s health secretary, said in comments broadcast by Caracol television.

“We can’t let down our guard,” Santos said while visiting the site of the blast. “They won’t intimidate us. They want us to fall into that trap.”

Santos took office Aug. 7 vowing to maintain the outgoing government´s offensive against Marxist rebels, whose half- century campaign to topple Colombia’s democracy claims hundreds of civilian lives every year.

The blast blew out the windows of nearby businesses including branches of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA and Bancolombia SA. Residents picked glass as helicopters flew overhead and soldiers in camouflage patrolled inside cordoned off streets nearby.

A twisted black ball of metal remained from the car, which held 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of explosives, Bogota Mayor Samuel Moreno said.

No Structural Damage

The blast caused no structural damage to buildings, Santos said.

Authorities yesterday deactivated a car bomb in the city of Neiva, in Huila province, newspaper El Espectador reported.

In 2003, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia killed 37 people and injured 200 with a car bomb at social club El Nogal. Military strikes have since weakened guerrilla groups, helping to fuel international investment in oil and mines and gains by the Colombian peso.

The peso has rallied 13 percent this year against the U.S. dollar, the best performance among 26 emerging market currencies tracked by Bloomberg. The peso strengthened by 0.1 percent to 1799.25 per dollar at 9:28 a.m. New York time.

The attack may be “designed to test the mettle” of the new government, analysts Roberto Melzi and Jimena Zuniga at Barclays Capital said today in a report. It won’t affect the economy or the currency, according to the report.

A wistful Uribe bids Colombians adios

A humble, sometimes wistful Alvaro Uribe bid Colombians adios Thursday, two days before his two terms and eight years as president are to end.

"I tried to carry out in the best way this big responsibility," he said in a 16-minute televised address during which he praised Vice President Francisco Santos as loyal and frank, and the members of his administration as honorable.

Uribe, 58, who gained plaudits for weakening the guerrilla movement that had controlled much of the country, said he was leaving seeds he hoped would take root and grow, one of them being "a country convinced that security is possible; that we have to recover security fully."

Uribe said he is leaving another seed -- "a country convinced that Colombia is a great destination for investment; that investment with brotherhood is the only road to employment."

Employment, linked to social security, is the way to overcome poverty and to build equity, he said.

Yet another seed: "A country convinced that it is possible to advance in social class."

Uribe praised Colombia's workers as "excellent" and said the international community has come to regard them that way too.

The president, who was denied running yet again by term limits, described his eight years of dialogue with Colombians as "a heaven on earth."

And he asked that his countrymen pardon him for any mistakes or failures that may have occurred under his watch. "The errors are mine," he said.

Finally, Uribe asked Colombians to support Juan Manuel Santos, his former minister of national defense, who is to succeed him for the next term. "I hope that it will be a period of great prosperity for the country," he said.

Colombia refutes Chavez, says it has no plans to attack Venezuela

(CNN) -- A spokesman for Colombia's president says the country has never had any intention of attacking Venezuela.

The comments came a day after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he was deploying troops toward the border in case of an invasion.

"It is a clear political deception of his own nation," Colombian presidential spokesman Cesar Mauricio Velasquez told reporters Saturday.

On Friday, Chavez said special forces were moving to 10 districts near the Colombian border to be prepared in case Colombian President Alvaro Uribe issues an invasion order before he leaves office August 7. He also said he was reviewing war plans as tensions between the two countries rises.

Colombia and Venezuela are at odds over accusations that leftist rebels have found refuge in Venezuela.

Colombia says it has photographic evidence of camps belonging to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- known by its Spanish abbreviation, FARC -- in Venezuela. Colombia made its case before the Organization of American States earlier this month and asked for international observers to be allowed into Venezuela to verify the presence of the guerrilla group.

Venezuela denied the accusations, and in response broke off diplomatic ties with Colombia.
On Friday, Chavez told VTV that the Colombian government's accusations "have become a threat against our sovereignty, [against] our people and against the revolution."

Chavez said surveys by the Venezuelan National Guard have proven that rebel camps do not exist within the country's borders.

He accused Colombian officials and right-wing paramilitary units of plotting his assassination, while the Colombian government has accused Chavez of supporting the rebels.