hard times: politics and paramilitaries

Venezuela is starting to cooperate with its neighbor, Colombia, again. The New York Times is reporting that Venezuelan National Guard troops have captured Álvaro Araújo Noguera, a former Colombian senator and agriculture minister who fled Colombia after being accused of conspiring with paramilitary operatives to kidnap a regional political leader. The soldiers took Mr. Araújo into custody Thursday at a checkpoint in the western city of Maracaibo, Venezuela’s official news agency reported. He was flown to Caracas to await his return to Colombia. Mr. Araújo’s daughter, María Consuelo Araújo, resigned last year as Colombia’s foreign minister after accusations surfaced of ties between paramilitaries and her father and brother.