Chavez accuses Colombia of spy plane incursion

An unmanned spy plane launched from Colombia violated Venezuelan airspace last week, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Sunday.

The army has been ordered to shoot down any further incursions, he said on his weekly television and radio show. Chavez said the aircraft quickly disappeared after flying near a military base in the western state of Zulia, on the border with Colombia.

Tensions between Colombia and Venezuela have been high for months over accusations by both sides of attempts to destabilize each other.

Colombia has accused Chavez's government of aiding leftist guerrilla groups that fight in Colombia. Chavez, meanwhile, has strongly objected to an agreement between Colombia and the United States to allow American troops to train at Colombian bases.

Chavez did not say who is suspected of launching the spy plane, but he said that such planes are "technology of the empire," referring to the United States.

"We will not fall for provocations, but, of course, we are on alert," Chavez said.

Colombian and American authorities did not immediately respond to the allegation.

Colombia must understand that violence is counterproductive

In the late 1940's, when David Bushnell was a student, Colombia was seen in positive light, as a forward looking democracy in a continent where such regimes were not the norm. Yet, these years of tranquility would shortly come to a close and that image would suffer great damage with the Bogotazo, the infamous day in 1948 when the leading presidential candidate for the liberal party, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, was assassinated. This event unleashed La Violencia, a prolonged period of political warfare that paralyzed and divided the country for more than 20 years. Yet, by that time, Bushnell had already decided to specialize in Colombia and its history. He wanted to identify the origins of Colombia's happiness, one which he hoped would soon return.

The peaceful times didn't return swiftly, but that did not stop Bushnell in his adventure, it only made it better. And after forty years of research and extended stays in the country, he published The making of Modern Colombia: a nation in spite of itself, a book that incorporated adaptations of previous works and lectures. The book is regarded by some as the best general history of the country ever written. Although it may seem odd that a foreigner was responsible for the best account of the nation's triumphs and woes, Bushnell simply states that "sometimes an outsider can identify particular characteristics or take note of things that the natives never talk about because they take for granted."

For him, Colombia's story is worth telling because there are some situations and experiences in which the country stands out and differs from other Latin American nations. He mentions two in particular: the history of elections and the lack of strong dictatorships. One of the most particular traits in Colombian history is the number and frequency of uninterrupted elections, which make it a great case study for anybody interested in elections. Also, Colombia was one of the very few countries in the region who lacked strong dictators. General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, who ruled in the early 1950's is perhaps the closest example of an authoritarian leader and, as Bushnell states, "in many countries Rojas would not have been a dictator at all." He also highlights that although there have been exceptions, Colombia has held a strong political record that respects the idea of a constitutional republic prescribed by heroes of the independence like Santander and others.

Bushnell also talked about Colombia's present situation. Hesitant to state his position on the issue of re-election, a growing trend in the region, he simply states that "although I am not one of those who is horrified by the possibility of another Uribe term- I do not think Uribe is trying to make himself a bloody tyrant- I think a constitution should not be reformed very often, it is written for the long term.."

The recognized historian also stated that nations must learn from their past to have a more prosperous future. In Colombia's case, the country must liberate itself from the stigma that "Colombia is all about violence." In fact, if one carefully looks at the country's history one sees that the first half of the twentieth century was relatively peaceful and progressive, and he hopes these days will soon return. According to Bushnell, for this to occur, "Colombia must understand that violence is counterproductive, violence leads you nowhere.". He leaves us with an optimistic outlook because he truly believes that if violence is controlled, as he hopes it will be in the next five or ten years, Colombia can expect a peace dividend and may even forget about the political turmoil and violence that have marked its recent years.

Ecuador: Report Says U.S. Aided Attack on Rebels

A report by Ecuador's government said American military personnel stationed at an air base in Manta helped with intelligence to plan the 2008 attack by Colombian forces on an encampment of Colombian rebels in Ecuadorean territory. More details from the 130-page report related to the claim of American military involvement in the attack on the rebels — members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC — were not immediately available on Thursday. A spokeswoman at the United States Embassy in Ecuador could not be reached for comment.

The attack, which killed Raúl Reyes, the FARC’s second-in-command, and two dozen others, soured relations with Colombia and led to a purge of Ecuador’s military command by President Rafael Correa. Although Mr. Correa ended a military deal that had allowed American soldiers to be stationed in Manta because he felt it compromised Ecuador’s sovereignty, Ecuador’s relations with the United States remain better than those between the United States and Venezuela or Bolivia.

Uribe's Constitutional Challenge

The heroic Colombian president is putting his gains at risk by trying for a third term.

The difference between a modern republic of self-governance and the ersatz "democracy" of many underdeveloped countries is that the former is ruled by institutions, the latter by men.
So which does Colombian President Álvaro Uribe want for his country?

In a republic, institutional order is bound by a rule of law designed to protect the rights of individuals against each other and against the power of the state. Property rights, civil liberties and human progress all fare better when state actors, even those who are wildly popular, are constrained by institutional checks and balances.

For most of the past seven years Colombia has seemed to be inching ever closer to this higher ideal. Many aspects of daily life here have improved immensely since Mr. Uribe took office in August 2002. The rebirth of personal security and the professionalism of the military that is largely responsible for it are both products of Mr. Uribe's leadership.

So too is the improved investment climate, and the fact that the state oil company can now make use of private capital. The state telecom company has been partially privatized. Teachers unions have had to accept some limitations on their generous pensions. Colombia has signed and ratified a free-trade agreement with the U.S. (yet to be ratified in Washington) and has begun to look to Asia for new trade, tax and investment treaties.

Having watched their country climb out of what seemed like a bottomless pit of despair in 2002, Colombians have had reason to believe that they were leaving the Latin American world of caudillo government. But now there is concern that Mr. Uribe's efforts to hang onto power by altering the constitution, so that he can run in the May presidential election for a third term, will undermine the gains the nation has made and jeopardize future progress.

On most days Mr. Uribe maintains that he is only a bystander in the project to change the constitution; it is the people who are trying to recruit him. Yet there is at least a grain of truth to claims that he has fomented the amendment drive.

The issue might have died in Congress last December had not his interior minister revived it. "He should have worked to create a government that isn't just about him," one Colombian legal expert from Mr. Uribe's side of the aisle complained to me. Instead, "he allowed the re-election project to go forward" and now election year chaos looms.

The chaos is due to the fact that time is running out. The constitutional court, which must rule on whether a popular referendum on the third term can be held, will recess next week. That could push a decision to mid-January.

Even if the court rules in Mr. Uribe's favor, it is not clear that the referendum could be organized before the March deadline for candidates to declare their intention to run. If the referendum is held and Mr. Uribe loses, which is possible, given the participation-rate hurdle that he has to clear, an uribista candidate is going to have a late start at campaigning.

Because of this time line, supporters of Mr. Uribe's vision for the country say that his re-election bid puts the party's chances to win the May election at risk, while opening the door to a president who is too soft on national security. This is troubling given the current state of affairs.

Organized criminal networks financed by U.S. and European drug consumption remain a threat to the Colombian population. One of those is the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which has an alliance with Venezuela's Hugo Chávez.

Mr. Chávez's military threats are not taken seriously here because the Venezuelan forces are known to be in shambles. But there is concern about Mr. Chávez's informal destabilization efforts. His militias roam the border area, and he has closed the busy crossing at the city of Cúcuta. Speculation that organized crime may be infiltrating the Colombian judiciary cannot be easily dismissed either.

Many of Mr. Uribe's cohorts say that Colombia would benefit most with a new uribista government to tackle these problems and continue with economic liberalization. Third terms, they point out, are notoriously tired. They also worry that he is setting a precedent that will harm the country later on. If he can stick around endlessly, what's to stop a Chávez-like figure from doing the same some time down the road?

Most importantly, they argue that a modernizing Colombia requires leadership that defends the rule of law, not one that manipulates it when convenient. "We believe that Colombian law should apply," Luis Carlos Villegas, president of the Colombian business group known as the National Association of Industries (and a longtime supporter of Mr. Uribe) said in a media interview earlier this year.

"We don't deny that Uribe has been one of the best presidents in Colombia," he said. But he went on to add that there are "dozens" of Colombians who are qualified for the job.

There can be no doubt that Mr. Uribe loves his country. What better way to show it than to stand for the rule of law by stepping aside as it demands?

Colombia's Increasing Hemispheric Isolation

November 12, 2009 —

These days, President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia has few friends in the hemisphere, and Washington is not explicit in supporting a feisty president, whose followers seek his extension for a third term in office. Colombia (45 million people) has a potential border war with Venezuela (26.4 million people), friction over guerilla encampments in neighboring Ecuador, rejection of the Bank of the South and sullen expressions of friendship from Brazil. What are the reasons for this isolation, and what might the Obama administration do to remedy the situation?

President Uribe stepped up to offer the U.S. Department of Defense access to seven of its airbases in Colombia when the 1999 agreement to base aircraft at Eloy Alfaro airbase outside Manta, Ecuador ended in June 2009. The agreement was a logical extension of strong U.S. and Colombian ties to counter narcotics shipments, but the manner in which the Colombian offer was communicated to both a domestic and South American audience was clumsy at best. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced a visit to the region and then cancelled it. Colombia’s Foreign Minister, Jaime Bermudez announced that "we are deepening cooperation agreements that already exist in our common struggle against narcotrafficking and terrorism" before the agreement had been finalized. This created a degree of uncertainty and opportunities for heightened opposition within Colombian political circles. In response to questions about the pending agreement, the U.S. Embassy in Bogota declined to comment, citing the sensitivity of the issue. It raised doubts as to whether the Obama administration would remain as firm in its commitment to Colombia counternarcotics and counterinsurgency strategy as its predecessor. For some in the hemisphere, the muddled message suggested a degree of doubt in Washington's commitment to the Uribe government. However, a strong U.S. commitment was reiterated to Colombian Vice President Santos when he visited Washington this week. In the meantime, hemispheric neighbors failed to move beyond the announcement, giving scope to those who seek to distance themselves from Washington.

The result of the announcement was strident "anti-gringoism", which played into the hands of Hugo Chavez and his colleagues within ALBA, the Bolivarian Alternative for the America. It also left Brazilian President Lula, the founder of the South American Defense Force that deliberately excluded U.S. participation, irritated that he had not been consulted sufficiently ahead of time. Good neighborliness surely indicated a formal "heads up" before U.S. aircraft acquired landing rights at airbases on Brazil's northern border. Uribe visited all countries in South America to explain the nature of the access agreement, but he did not receive any public endorsements. Only Mexico appreciated Colombia's dilemma.

Second, in September, the presidents of seven South American countries formalized the creation of BANSUR (the Bank of the South) with capital of $7 billion. This multilateral bank is a further addition to three other regional multilateral development banks, and its governance structure is based on consensus, in order to reduce real economic asymmetries between the member states, such as Brazil and Bolivia. Colombia had an opportunity to play a constructive political role in the new bank, but, along with Chile and Peru, it chose not to join.

Third, Colombia and Venezuela are engaged in a series of commercial spats across their 2,200 kilometer border that escalated on November 9 with Hugo Chavez's strident and bellicose statements directed at Uribe's government. At border posts, commercial tiffs have spiraled into the killing of border guards and others close to the border. On November 1, two Venezuelan soldiers were killed at a border checkpoint with Colombia. (It appears that the soldiers were killed in retribution for Venezuelan authorities' capture the previous week of ten suspected para-militaries.) In September, ten members of an amateur Colombian soccer team were kidnapped and killed near the border. Furthermore, Venezuela is holding three men - two Colombians and a Venezuelan – accused of spying for Colombia. Colombia’s relations with Venezuela are tense, with the hope that threats on the part of the latter to 'blast Bogota' are nothing more than Chavista bombast.

Fourth, President Uribe's strong commitment to free-market capitalism is in stark contrast to the socialist tendencies of Colombia's neighbors. Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia may pursue Bolivarian socialism with vigor, but Brazil pursues moderate socialist policies while seeking international capital investments. In response to the global economic recession, Uribe's administration has cut capital controls, arranged for emergency credit lines from the Inter-American Development Bank, and promoted investment incentives, such as Colombia's modernized free trade zone mechanism, as well as new bilateral investment treaties. Despite these measures, the business sector remains concerned about the depreciated value of the U.S. dollar, which makes the export of cut flowers and other goods to the United States more expensive. Chambers of Commerce remain concerned about U.S. Congressional approval of the Colombian Free Trade Agreement. Finally, Colombia has received approximately $6.8 billion of U.S. aid to combat the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), demobilize the paramilitaries, eradicate cocaine plants and coca manufacturing centers, and to provide alternative livelihood. The bulk of this assistance (79 percent) has gone to counternarcotics and security objectives in the years FY 2000 to FY 2008. The remaining 21 percent is dedicated to social and economic programs, as well as promoting the rule of law. This makes Colombia the leading recipient of U.S. aid money in the hemisphere. The perception of Colombian dependency upon Washington is ridiculed by neighboring countries in the face of continued Congressional opposition to a Colombian Free Trade Agreement. Colombia's neighbors wonder why Washington has not rewarded its good friend in South America.

What should Washington do, if anything, about Colombia's isolation? First and foremost for President Uribe is the passage of the Free Trade Agreement, which has been held up in Congress since 2008 by Democratic insistence that Uribe demonstrate his defense of human rights and the protection of trade union leaders. Uribe recognizes that it must await passage of the health reform bill, but free trade should not await passage of other key legislative measures, such as the cap & trade bill and regulation of financial markets. We can accomplish passage of the Colombian Free Trade Agreement as well as key domestic legislation before the mid-term elections in 2010.

Second, U.S. opposition to Uribe's pursuit of a third term may be offensive to those of us who respect term limits and consider that democracy is larger than any one person. But we should not be pious. Mayor Mike Bloomberg sought and obtained from New York's City Council a one time exception to the term limits, permitting him to run for a third term. Defense of the exception for Bloomberg was balanced against the need for experienced and effective management of New York City during the global economic recession. Colombia's Constitutional Court is currently debating the same issue. If the court approves, Uribe's supporters must also persuade 7.2 million Colombians in a national referendum that a third time is preferable. The institutional steps that must be taken before the people of Colombia extend Uribe's term create a relatively high bar. Elites are against a third term, but the popular vote wants Uribe to remain, out of fear that a new leader might not be strong enough to prevent a return to the violence of the 1990s.

Third, we need to stick with Plan Colombia and U.S. military and financial support to fight the cartels, and train police and the army in human rights, intelligence gathering skills and community policing. Our contribution is small compared to the revenues generated through additional Colombian taxes, but it is important and perhaps necessary to create sustainable public security, and provide sophisticated equipment and support for the development of alternative livelihoods.

Finally, we must find ways to encourage Uribe to be a team player in the hemisphere. If he fights with his back to the wall, we should not be surprised at his pugnacity and "go-it-alone" spirit. With the confidence that he has the backing of Panama, Mexico, the United States and potentially Chile and Peru, Colombia can be drawn back into strong relationships- if not leadership- within the hemisphere. Current Venezuelan goals make this difficult, but our rejection of policies considered critical to Colombia only drives Uribe further into his corner.

Venezuela Blows Up Two Foot Bridges to Colombia

SAN ANTONIO, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan soldiers on Thursday blew up two makeshift foot bridges that stretched across the border to Colombia in the latest incident to stoke a diplomatic dispute between the Andean neighbors.

Colombia's government criticized the destruction of the bridges as an aggression and a violation of international law, which it would denounce at the United Nations and the Organization of American States in Washington.

The long-simmering Andes spat has been mostly limited to diplomatic barbs in the past. But the current crisis is raising the risk of more violence along the volatile frontier where rebels, drug gangs and smugglers operate.

General Eusebio Aguero, Venezuela's army commander in the Tachira border region, ordered his soldiers to destroy the bridges using explosives. He said the crossings were unauthorized and used for illegal activities.

"They are two foot bridges that paramilitary fighters used, where gasoline and drug precursors were smuggled, subversive groups entered," he told reporters, adding that several other bridges would be destroyed. "They are not considered in any international treaty."

Colombian Defense Minister Gabriel Silva said troops from the Venezuelan army arrived in trucks and dynamited the bridges that cross into Colombia's Norte de Santander department.

The Colombian Foreign Ministry said in a statement: "This is a unilateral act and an aggression against the civilian population and the frontier communities."

MORE ACCESS FOR U.S. MILITARY

Tensions are high between U.S. ally Colombia and Venezuela over a Colombian plan to allow the United States more access to its military bases as part of anti-drug and counter-insurgency cooperation against FARC rebels.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, a fierce U.S. adversary, has sent more troops to the border and told his military commanders to "prepare for war" because he says the U.S. base plan could be used to stage an invasion of his OPEC nation.

In a document to justify a request for funds to expand one of the bases, the U.S. Air Force said Colombia was ideal to provide air access to most of South America and cited anti-U.S. governments as one of the reasons it needed that access.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe says the base deal is just an extension of current cooperation with U.S. troops. But he has urged the United Nations and the Organization of American States to investigate Chavez's "war threats".

The two countries have in the past managed to work out their differences. But the current crisis is already cutting into their $7 billion annual bilateral trade, making this dispute harder to resolve.

Many analysts say Chavez may be looking for political gain by stirring up tensions as a way to distract from domestic troubles, such as power and water shortages that are threatening to dent his popularity.

Colombia's four-decade guerrilla war often spills over the border, where killing and kidnapping are common. Chavez accuses Colombia of not protecting its border, while Colombian officials say he backs Colombia's FARC rebels.

Jaw-jaw war

HUGO CHÁVEZ’S belligerent rhetoric trades at a substantial discount. So when on November 8th he announced during his weekly television show that Venezuela’s army should “prepare for war”, apparently with Colombia, this was greeted with concern but not panic. Sure enough, three days later Mr Chávez was denying his message was meant as a threat. But his verbal salvoes aggravate the mistrust between the two neighbours.

The latest batch was triggered by an agreement signed on October 30th under which Colombia has granted the United States access to up to seven military bases. Both governments insist that this poses no threat to other countries. It formalises existing arrangements under which the United States helps Colombia combat drug traffickers and guerrillas; Colombia will now also host anti-drug surveillance flights over the Pacific by American planes previously operating from Ecuador.

Mr Chávez claims that the agreement is an “open aggression” aimed at ousting him from power. Any attack by the United States or Colombia would trigger “a 100-year war”, he said. When news of the accord broke in July, he responded by freezing cross-border trade (which was flourishing). That has thrown many people out of work in Venezuela’s border state of Táchira, aggravating a climate of lawlessness there. Recent weeks have seen the kidnap and murder of 11 men, eight of them Colombian, the murder of two Venezuelan national guardsmen; deportations of undocumented migrants and the arrest on both sides of alleged spies.

In early November Mr Chávez ordered the deployment of 15,000 national-guard troops to border areas. It is not clear how many have arrived. Some seem to have gone to the southern border with Brazil, to deal with illegal mining. Venezuela lacks the trucks and planes needed to move large numbers of troops quickly.

In any conventional war, Colombia’s army would surely win. It has been hardened by American aid and training and years of action against the FARC guerrillas. Venezuela’s only hope would be a quick air strike, using recently acquired Russian Sukhoi jets. It has doubtless occurred to Colombian officials that the presence of Americans at their main air bases might cause Mr Chávez to think twice before launching such a strike.

According to Alberto Müller, a retired general and former leader of Mr Chávez’s United Socialist Party, Venezuela is waging “a different kind of war”, for public opinion rather than territory. If so, Mr Chávez seems to be losing it. In a recent survey by Datanálisis, a polling firm, 80% of respondents opposed a war with Colombia, and a big majority opposed trade sanctions. To complicate matters further, several million Colombians live in Venezuela. Across the border, Mr Chávez’s constant threats seem to have caused Colombians to rally round their president, Álvaro Uribe, who may run for a third term in May.

Venezuela will hold a legislative election in September. Mr Chávez appears to be seeking an external enemy to distract attention from mounting problems, ranging from regular electricity blackouts to inflation and public-spending cuts.

Colombia this week said it would complain to the Organisation of American States and the United Nations about Mr Chávez’s unneighbourly behaviour. Brazil has offered mediation; so might Spain. That could be useful. After all, those who constantly talk of war sometimes trigger it, accidentally or on purpose.

Colombia to appeal 'war threats' by Venezuela

The Colombian government said it would appeal to international bodies over what it called a threat made over the weekend by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

On his weekly Sunday television show, Chavez ordered the Venezuelan military to begin preparations for a war with the neighboring country, warning of a conspiracy between Colombia and the United States to attack Venezuela.

"The two governments have joined together to fool the world or to try to fool the world," Chavez said.

Addressing his military commanders, he added, "Let's not waste a single day in the preparation of our main mission: to prepare ourselves for war and to help the people prepare for war. It's everyone's responsibility."

On Sunday Colombia's government responded, saying it has not undertaken any hostile actions toward Venezuela. Colombia said it would ask for intervention from the United Nations Security Council and the Organization of American States.

A Colombian government spokesman, Cesar Mauricio Velasquez, called Chavez's remarks "war threats."

On Monday Venezuela retorted by calling Colombia's response "hypocritical" and "immoral."
Chavez's accusations of threats from Colombia and the United States come from an agreement between the two countries that allows U.S. military personnel to be stationed at seven Colombian military bases.

The Venezuelan leader is the leading critic of the agreement and has said that the agreement is part of a plot to destabilize his leftist government.

"Don't be mistaken, Mr. Obama, and order an overt aggression against Venezuela using Colombia," Chavez said Sunday, in a reference to U.S. President Barack Obama. "Don't make that mistake, because we are willing to do whatever it takes. Venezuela will never again be a colony."

On Monday the U.S. State Department said it supported talks to defuse the conflict.

"We support Colombia's call for dialogue between Venezuela and Colombia to overcome recent tensions in the relationship," a State Department spokesman told CNN en Español. "As a member of the hemispheric community, we are prepared to work collaboratively to promote peaceful solutions to disputes in the region."

Relations between Colombia and Venezuela have been rocky since the summer.

In August, Colombia accused Venezuela of supplying guerillas with shoulder-fired anti-tank weapons. Such weapons seized from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, had been traced to Venezuela, Colombia said.

The FARC has been fighting the Colombian government for more than 45 years.

Chavez, at the time, said the accusation amounted to blackmail.

Last month Venezuelan authorities said they captured two Colombian spies. Colombia denied the claim.

Also in October, near the border between the two countries, Venezuelan authorities found the murdered bodies of 10 men that Colombia described as an amateur soccer team that had been kidnapped near the border. Venezuela said the men were paramilitaries.

Tensions were last stoked a week ago when two Venezuelan national guardsmen at an international bridge between the two countries were killed by gunmen on motorcycles.
Venezuela blamed Colombian paramilitaries for the attacks, and accused the Colombian government of complacency toward such groups.

Why Colombia's Leftist Guerrillas Are Defecting

At a ramshackle radio station nestled in former guerrilla territory, a Colombian soldier-DJ dedicates a country-and-western-style ballad to all the rebels out there having second thoughts about la revolución. In the song, a former guerrilla touts the benefits of disarming. "My life has changed," he declares. "Now I've got a girlfriend. I'm with my family. I give thanks to God."

The message-laden music is part of an army propaganda blitz that includes radio spots, billboards and leaflets dropped by helicopter. Guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — the nation's largest rebel group, known as the FARC — are told that by turning themselves in, their sins will be forgiven and they can start anew. The campaign is one of the pillars of a broader U.S.-backed military offensive that has driven the FARC out of the most important areas of Colombia and cut the size of the rebel army in half. Since President Alvaro Uribe was first elected in 2002, more than 12,000 FARC fighters have demobilized, including a record 3,027 last year, according to the Colombian army. And because they made the decision to desert on their own, the former guerrillas are more likely to remain on the war's sidelines.

That hasn't always been the case on the other side. Since 2003, about 30,000 right-wing paramilitary fighters who battled the FARC have disarmed. But the bulk of the paramilitaries were ordered by their commanders to lay down their weapons en masse as part of a peace process with the Bogotá government. Some did so only grudgingly and have since formed new militias that are dedicated to drug-trafficking. "If they haven't changed or don't want to change, it's much easier for these fighters to fall back into their former lifestyle," says Mariana Díaz Kraus of the Bogotá think tank Ideas for Peace.

By contrast, as the army hammers rebel positions, many of the FARC deserters say they were desperate to get out. "Every day it's one or two deaths in combat or five or six deaths in a bombing," says a 21-year-old former rebel explosives expert who goes by the nom de guerre Visages. "Many rebels decide that they better get out before it happens to them."

Even FARC higher-ups are throwing in the towel. Perhaps the most high-profile deserter was Elda Mosquera, a one-eyed female comandante better known as Karina, who led a series of devastating guerrilla attacks in the late 1990s. Hemmed in by soldiers last year, Karina cut a deal for herself and her rebel boyfriend. Now she appears on armed forces radio to urge her former comrades-in-arms to give up. "For us, it's much better for these terrorists to turn in their weapons than to die on the battlefield," says General Miguel Pérez, commander of the army's rapid reaction force, based in the southern town of La Macarena. "That's because when rebels desert, it demoralizes the remaining guerrillas."

The exodus has produced a virtuous circle for the army. Deserters often provide key intelligence for army operations, and as the military strikes more blows against the FARC, more guerrillas lose their will to fight. Last year, an army raid that killed FARC spokesman and No. 3 leader Raúl Reyes was based on information provided by a rebel turncoat. A few days later, the bodyguard of Iván Ríos, a member of the FARC's ruling secretariat, pulled off a mafia-style hit job. He executed his boss with a shot to the forehead, cut off his right hand as proof, then turned himself in to the army to collect a $2 million reward.

Visages, the rebel explosives expert, says he initially swallowed the FARC's rhetoric about Marxist revolution and social justice. But after joining, he watched as firing squads gunned down rebels who were unfairly accused of spying for the army. He says the final straw came when the guerrillas forced his pregnant rebel girlfriend to get an abortion. Visages wore civilian clothes and operated in towns, so it was easy for him to get out. When the FARC sent him to collect an extortion payment from a cattle rancher, Visages turned himself in at an army checkpoint. But for uniformed rebels operating in the jungle, escaping often involves hiking through the wilderness for days and avoiding rebel patrols, because the FARC executes deserters.

While in custody at the army base in La Macarena, Visages receives meals, new clothes, cigarettes and even stationery to write to his family. Wearing a T-shirt, jeans and crew-cut hair, the soft-spoken former rebel doesn't look or sound especially lethal as he sits on his bunk inside a well-guarded tent and composes letters to his girlfriend, who is still involved with the FARC. But some of the troops around him can barely contain their rage, because Visages admitted to setting off a car bomb last year that killed two soldiers and badly wounded three others. However, the good treatment pays off when Visages is questioned about his rebel activities. Eager to cooperate, he quickly gives up the identities and addresses of about two dozen FARC collaborators, many of whom are related. By the end of the hour-long interview, an army officer has filled two sheets of white paper with rebel code names like Fusible, Dumas, Chaleco and La Negra and has sketched out a kind of FARC family tree.

Like Visages, most FARC deserters are impoverished young men and women with long rap sheets and few marketable skills. Once transferred to Bogotá and other big cities, they temporarily settle in government-run halfway houses where they can earn high school degrees and take part in job-training programs. But given the FARC's nasty reputation for kidnapping and murder, few Colombians are willing to hire demobilized guerrillas. And there's always the danger that revenge-seeking rebels will track down the fugitives. But now that he has extracted himself from the war, Visages claims it's all good: "Let's see what new opportunities come along."

Arrest warrant derails Colombia-Ecuador talks

After nearly going to war last year over a Colombian military raid inside Ecuador, the two nations seemed to be patching relations when their foreign ministers met a few weeks ago.

Then an Ecuadorian judge issued an arrest warrant this week for the head of the Colombian armed forces, pushing relations back one giant step.

Colombian Gen. Freddy Padilla, the armed forces chief whose arrest is sought, canceled a meeting scheduled for Friday with Ecuadorian Gen. Fabian Varela. Padilla thought he might be arrested if he traveled to Ecuador.

It's not the first pothole on the path to normalization. Ecuador previously issued an arrest warrant for former Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, who held the post during last year's raid.

Colombia has dismissed both warrants, saying Ecuador has no jurisdiction to investigate and judge Colombian officials.

Analyst Patrick Esteruelas of the Eurasia Group consulting firm calls Ecuador's actions "schizophrenic."

Two former U.S. ambassadors to the area agree this is par for Ecuadorian foreign policy.
"That's the history of Ecuador, unfortunately," said Peter Romero, ambassador to that nation from 1993 to 1996. "One step forward, two steps back."

Myles Frechette, U.S. ambassador to Colombia from 1994 to 1997, said Friday that "Ecuador is a specialist in bonehead plays. It has been for years. Nothing's changed much."

Former Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Heinz Moeller, who served from 2000 to 2003, called the arrest warrant "lamentable."

"It's absurd that these things happen," he said Friday.

Tension between the two nations has existed for years. The latest enmity started in March 2008, when Colombia bombed a guerrilla base inside Ecuador. The raid killed a top leader for the Revolutionary Armed Force of Colombia, commonly known as the FARC. The Marxist guerrilla group has been waging war on Colombia since the 1960s and often takes refuge on the Ecuadorian side of the border.

At least 25 people were killed, most of them said to be FARC guerrillas.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe hailed the attack, saying "terrorism ... does not respect borders."

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa called the attack "aggression" and a "massacre" and severed diplomatic relations with Colombia.

Both nations went on war footing but stopped short of military action.

Over time, tensions seemed to dissipate and Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez and his Ecuadorian counterpart, Fander Falconi, met last month. After the meeting, Colombia signed a statement saying it would never attack inside Ecuador again.

Friday's meeting between the two nations' top generals was supposed to further repair the damage.

Then came the arrest warrant.

What happened? Perhaps politics. Definitely one branch of the government acting without the consent of the other.

Falconi quickly pointed out that the nation's judicial branch, not Correa's administration, decided to issue the warrant.

Analysts agree that it wasn't Correa's doing.

"That's not a very coordinated government," said Frechette, the former envoy to Colombia. "The executive branch didn't issue that order."

Moeller, the former Ecuadorian foreign minister, said the judge who issued the arrest warrant is "motivated by political criteria."

"I don't have another explanation," said Moeller, who also served as president of the Ecuadorian Congress three times.

Normalization of relations will be a slow process, Eurasia analyst Esteruelas said.

"We're going to see a lot of stops and starts," he said.

Alejandro Santos, editorial director of La Semana weekly news magazine in Colombia, said relations will not improve until the two countries "can close the chapter" on last year's bombing raid.

"That chapter can be closed when the Colombian government promises not to do that. They have done that (promise)," Santos said. "Now Ecuador needs to start avoiding those types of judicial measures against Colombian officials."

Esteruelas said Ecuador felt justifiably aggrieved over the attack and wants to make sure it never happens again. But he also sees another issue at play: Ecuadorian President Correa's plummeting poll numbers and domestic problems with indigenous movements and other political issues.

"It's usually convenient to remind everyone that Correa is fighting for Ecuadorian sovereignty," Esteruelas said, adding that such nationalism "resonates very broadly" across the political spectrum.

But Frechette said, "Correa really does want to reach some kind of agreement."

The problems between the two nations are long-standing and have a lot to do with the 45-year-old war between Colombia and the FARC.

From Ecuador's perspective, the war has displaced about 250,000 Colombians who have sought refuge in Ecuador. Those refugees need services and jobs, further straining a poor area that's already on the brink. Ecuador also resents that the FARC have set up camps inside the country, causing security problems for a nation that is not technically at war with the guerrillas.

From Colombia's point of view, Ecuador is not doing enough to combat the FARC and is allowing the guerrillas to have a sanctuary that Colombian troops cannot reach.

Further complicating the relationship, Ecuador's Correa is politically aligned with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is no friend of Colombia and its leader, Uribe. Chavez threatened to attack neighboring Colombia after the military raid in Ecuador.

"This has been developing for many years," Moeller said.

But there are great advantages to normalizing relations, most of them economic.

Ecuador, for example, is Colombia's third-largest export market.

Walter Spurrier, president of Grupo Spurrier and director of Weekly Analysis in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and Maria Velez de Berliner, president of the Latin Intelligence Corp. in Alexandria, Virginia, talked with the Inter-American Dialog policy institute last month about Colombia-Ecuador economic activity.

"Re-establishing relations could lead Ecuador to lift sanctions against Colombian products, which forced many small- and medium-sized businesses to collapse on both sides of the border," Velez told the Washington-based think tank.

Said Spurrier, "For Colombia, Ecuador is an important market. Not so the other way around. But the goods Ecuador sells Colombia are difficult to relocate to other markets. Ecuador now attempts to sell Libya and Iran the rice it would have otherwise sold Colombia. Also, Ecuadorian importers have to look for other sources."

Moeller, the former foreign minister, wants normalization to get back on track.

"We have to close the parenthesis," he said. "I hope this passes ... and that they start talking again."

Colombia's resilient economy

No recession here, But difficult to return to rapid growth

WHEN the figures are finally tallied, Colombia may prove to have weathered the world recession better than any other of the larger Latin American countries. After a slight contraction at the end of 2008, the economy has been growing modestly this year. This resilience stems from continued foreign investment, an increase in government spending on public works and easier money: since December the central bank has cut interest rates by six percentage points, to 4%, a steeper drop than anywhere in the region outside Chile.

But recovery risks being almost as gentle as the downturn. Whereas Brazil is bouncing back strongly, Colombia can expect growth of just 2.5% next year and 3% in 2011, reckons Óscar Zuluaga, the finance minister. Whereas Brazil, Chile and Peru benefit from China’s hunger for commodities, Colombia’s exporters face difficulties. Their biggest market, the United States, is depressed; Venezuela and Ecuador, which take many of their manufactures, have imposed trade barriers.

Even so, Colombia’s economy has dramatically improved in recent years. President Álvaro Uribe’s security policies have helped to restore confidence. Investment soared, from 15% of GDP in 2002 to 26% last year, says Mr Zuluaga. Private business has retooled. After many delays, the government has issued licences to expand several ports; this month it hopes to award a contract for the first of four big road schemes, costing a total of $7.5 billion over four years. It hopes for investment of up to $50 billion in mining and oil over the next decade.

Indeed Colombian officials, like their counterparts in Brazil, worry that a big increase in commodity exports will strengthen the currency (which has already risen sharply against the dollar) and hurt local manufacturers. They are thinking about setting up a Chilean-style offshore stabilisation fund in which to park some of the commodity revenues.

That is a nice problem to have. Others are more humdrum. Both unemployment (12%) and the poverty rate (46%) are above the regional average. Mr Zuluaga says that is because more women work, and the national poverty line is higher than elsewhere. Maybe, but the next president, due to be elected in May, will struggle to generate the feel-good factor that Mr Uribe has enjoyed.

Colombian Exhibition in Shanghai

Colombia's Gold Museum inaugurated "Gold: Prehispanic Art in Colombia," a 250-piece exhibit of pre-Columbian figures in Shanghai, China . It will last two months and more than 30.000 visitors are expected. This is the first time the Colombian museum opens an exhibition in China in more than 25 years.

Colombia looses chance to qualify to South Africa 2010 after defeat in Uruguay

Uruguay beat Colombia 3-1 in Montevideo in a definite game in the classifiers for the World Cup. The result leaves the Colombian team languishing in eighth place in the 10-team South American Zone with just two games to go. The first four go directly to South Africa 2010 and the fifth team classifies for a Play-off to fight for the last place. Colombia is now two points behind the fifth place and will play in October against Chile and Paraguay.

Race Car Driver Turns to a Fast-Track M.B.A.

Steven Goldstein has always been fast on the racetrack, winning the Formula 2,000 Championships in 2004, but it was not until he graduated from the accelerated M.B.A. program at SDA Bocconi in Milan last December that the race car driver's brand really took off.

"There are many elements you need to be a succesful driver," says Mr. Goldstein. "Driving quickly is one of them, but there is a whole busines aspect and that's where I needed to learn more."

At Bocconi, he says his class on return on shareholder value taught him how to maximize his resources. Mr. Goldstein has since begun working with three sports and entertainment management agencies in Colombia, Europe, and the U.S. A class on digital marketing opened his eyes to brand visibiity and led him and his manager to set up a Facebook fan page, a wikipedia entry and a blog. "When people are lecturing, in my head [I'm] thinking, 'How am I going to apply this to my own field?'" says Mr. Goldstein. "I had a whole year and four months of how do I apply this to me?"

Before pursuing the M.B.A., the now 28-year-old driver was on the Official Audi Sport Italia Team and had a sponsorship with Café de Colombia. In January, a month after graduating, Mr. Goldstein signed a contract with Ferrari and has since widened his portfolio to include four sponsors and endorsements with three companies and three non-profit organizations from Café de Colombia to Italian tire company Pirelli, to Nokia, to the Barcelona-based non-profit Arts Relief.

"There was a path I wasn't sure how to cross to speak with all those potential clients," he says. Learning about the importance of working with outside agencies gave him instant exposure to these many clients, he adds.

What's more, instead of putting his race winnings in the bank as he had for the previous five years of his racing career, this year Mr. Goldstein invested in the Ferrari race team, with a 120% return on investment so far. "The Bocconi M.B.A. is quite heavy on the financial part," says Mr. Goldstein. "The first thing that made a big difference for me was to understand the math."
Growing up in Colombia, Mr. Goldstein earned his undergraduate degree at American University in Washington, D.C.where he majored in marketing. He began racing in 2002 and three years later, realized he needed an MBA if he wanted to build his brand.

"By [looking at] different angles, you understand there is an equation for a company to sponsor you," he says. Instead of just approaching potential sponsors with his list of racing awards, he now comes to them with a business plan--counting the hours of TV coverage in Europe and how much it would cost to advertise in such channels, for example, to show potential clients that an investment in his brand would be a wise move. "I sell myself as a business instead of just an athlete," he says.

Venezuela's loss is Colombia's gain in oil fields

BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA — Until recently in a free fall because of terrorist attacks that scared off wildcat drillers, Colombia's oil production is staging a surprisingly robust rebound, boosted in no small part by the arrival of oil industry executives and engineers banished by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Increased production in Colombia, a U.S. ally, is important for U.S. consumers because it advances the goal of reducing the country's reliance on oil imports from unstable, unreliable or unfriendly governments.

At a public forum last month, Mining and Energy Minister Hernan Martinez said Colombian crude output would reach an average 700,000 barrels a day by December, cementing the nation's position as Latin America's fourth-largest producer after Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil.

Colombia's oil production for all of 2009 is estimated to average 645,000 daily barrels, up 10 percent from average daily output of 589,000 in 2008.

Shipping to the U.S.
Statistics from the U.S. Energy Department show that Colombia is a significant supplier to the United States. In May, it exported an average of 243,000 barrels of crude daily, making it the 13th-largest shipper of oil to the U.S.

“Colombia is ideally placed geographically to become an important exporter,” said Fred Kozak, an energy analyst at Canaccord Capital Corp. in Calgary, Alberta. Kozak and other observers expect production and exports to climb in coming months. The country is benefiting from an influx of investment attracted by its improved security. Oil pipeline attacks by leftist rebels, once the bane of the industry, totaled 32 last year, down from 261 in 2001.

Wildcat wells
Favorable terms and a low government “take,” or share of oil profits being claimed by the government of President Alvaro Uribe, are also luring investors. Exploratory oil wells drilled in Colombia totaled 98 last year, up from only 12 wildcat wells in 1999, said Alejandro Martinez, president of the Colombian Petroleum Association.

The expertise of scores of former employees of Petróleos de Venezuela, known as PDVSA, is providing added energy to production efforts. The majority arrived here after Chavez in 2003 fired 20,000 oil employees who participated in a strike in opposition to his policies.

Colombian production hit a high point in 1999 at 816,000 barrels a day after the discovery of two large oil fields, Cano Limon and Cusiana. Output declined over the next decade, dropping to 526,000 barrels a day in 2005.

No new discoveries
One discouraging aspect for investors about Colombian oil exploration is that no big oil fields have been discovered after three to four years of intensive drilling. Exxon Mobil Corp., Petrobras and other partners spent $135 million on a single deep- water well off Colombia's coast in 2007 and came up dry.

But unlike Mexico and Venezuela, where oil output is skidding, Colombia's is on the rise after years of decline, thanks to better recovery of oil at existing fields. National Hydrocarbons Agency Director Armando Zamora said Colombia's reserves rose 32 percent to 1.66 billion barrels of crude and equivalents in the year that ended in January.

The most promising source of new production is the Rubiales oil field in Meta state in Colombia's eastern jungle plains. The field has long existed, but rebel activity precluded its exploitation. Production there could double to 150,000 barrels a day over the next nine months. The field is controlled by Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. Its chief executive is Ronald Pantin, a former PDVA executive.

Colombia is only part of the PDVSA diaspora stretching from the Canadian tar sands to Houston to Mexico City and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. And foreign oil operations are the beneficiaries. Many top managers and scientists in PDVSA's research and development unit moved to Canada after the 2003 strike.

Backed Into a Corner

Rarely has there been such a show of unanimity in Latin America. Last week, in response to a new agreement between Washington and Bogotá that grants U.S. access to seven military bases in Colombia, almost every member of UNASUR—the South American group that some would like to replace the Organization of American States (perhaps because it excludes the U.S., Mexico, and Canada)—used a summit meeting to lambaste U.S. President Barack Obama and Colombian President Álvaro Uribe.

Some did it graciously, like the leaders of Brazil and Chile; others, like Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Rafael Correa of Ecuador, and Evo Morales of Bolivia, did it stridently, as is their wont. But everyone seemed to agree there was more to the arrangement than meets the eye. Despite U.S. and Colombian insistence that the deal will be limited to drug-enforcement and antiterrorism measures, most Latin leaders see it as an attempt to increase the U.S. military presence in the region. In this they are both right and wrong.

The agreement—at least the parts that have been made public—does stick to these issues, and does not call for an increase in U.S. personnel in Colombia (currently capped at 1,400). Nor does it entail the stationing of more U.S. aircraft, weapons, or surveillance equipment than was previously at the Drug Enforcement Administration base in Manta, Ecuador. Yet therein lies the crux of the problem. When the U.S. lease on Manta expired this year, Correa shut it down. Reasonably enough, Washington sought alternatives. Colombia seemed ideal, precisely because there is already a small U.S. military presence there.

As a result, however, Colombia now finds itself in exactly the state of isolation that Chávez warned would result at the UNASUR meeting. Colombia is threatened from the east by Chávez, who not only has initiated an arms race by purchasing huge amounts of Russian planes, tanks, Kalashnikovs, and personnel carriers, but also tolerates safe havens for Colombian FARC guerrillas on his side of the border. Many experts, and the Colombian government, claim that he also provides money, weapons, training, and medical treatment to the FARC. To the southwest, Colombia faces a similar menace from Ecuador, which also supports the narco-insurgents and grants them sanctuary. And at home, Uribe faces the challenge of trying to wipe up the rebels, who are mortally wounded but remain active in many parts of the country.

Given these constraints, Uribe reacted logically by tightening his bonds with Colombia's only real ally in the hemisphere (even Mexico has been lukewarm in its support). But the result is that Uribe and Obama are now pretty much on their own in Latin America—not at all what the U.S. president had in mind when he took office and hoped to initiate a new era of relations. On the surface, it seems that neither Obama nor Uribe had much choice.

In fact, they did have options. To recapture the diplomatic initiative, Uribe could and should take a bold step and decline to seek another term as president (his tenure expires in 2010). This would place all of Latin America's populists, who are seeking to perpetuate their own power, on the defensive. Second, Uribe and Obama should stop simply reacting to Chávez's diplomatic antics, and go on the offensive by showing the region and the world exactly how Venezuela and its allies are polarizing their societies and the hemisphere, as well as constantly meddling in everybody's domestic affairs.

They should make it clear that such activities, as well as growing ties with Russia and Iran, threaten regional peace and security—because of the increasing arms race, Iran's nuclear program, and Chávez's incessant rhetorical broadsides, which risk eventually escalating beyond the verbal. Ever since 1999—under three administrations—Washington has, to one degree or another, constantly turned its military, ideological, and diplomatic cheek every time Caracas provoked it. Uribe, by contrast, has fought back and then pulled back. The time has come for maintaining a "no-drama Obama" military posture while taking the diplomatic initiative. The two countries cannot scrap their agreement, but they should not go beyond its limited military scope. Meanwhile, they should work to reduce their isolation and increase Venezuela's. Otherwise Chávez will keep dragging the region with him—and Uribe and Obama will find themselves increasingly alone.

Colombia gives nod to Uribe third term

BOGOTA (AFP) – Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has cleared a major hurdle to serving a third consecutive term, after lawmakers approved holding a referendum that would allow him to stand for re-election.

The move, which came just minutes before midnight (0500 GMT Wednesday), must still be endorsed by the Constitutional Court before a referendum can be held later this year.
The House of Representatives gave its nod in an 85-5 vote, one vote more than the minimum required, after a grueling debate that lasted more than 12 hours.

Uribe, a conservative and close US ally, has a 68 percent popularity rating in the polls and would be well positioned to become the first Colombian since the late 1800s to serve three terms as president.

"President Uribe is a person who enjoys immense popularity in the country. Everyone recognizes the work he has done and the way he has transformed Colombia," Interior Minister Fabio Valencia told RCN radio in Bogota.

First elected president in 2002, Uribe was easily reelected in 2006 after Congress amended the constitution so he could run for a second term, a move still under investigation because a lawmaker said he was bribed for his vote.

The House vote late Tuesday was the last legislative hurdle needed to holding a vote on amending the constitution so that the 57-year-old president could present himself as a candidate in the May presidential elections.

Last month, the Senate also gave the nod to a referendum on allowing Uribe to run for a third presidential term.

But opposition parties -- and even some of Uribe's political allies -- strongly opposed the change.
The two main opposition parties -- the centrist Liberal Party and the leftist Democratic Party -- charged that he was engaging in illegal maneuvers to remain in power.

"We are convinced that everything was done within the most rigorous legal manner," Valencia said. "We are very comfortable, but obviously we're awaiting the court's review."

There has been a growing trend in Latin America for incumbents to prolong their time in power through the use of referendums, notably by leftist leaders in neighboring Venezuela and Bolivia.

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was overthrown in June after he tried to hold a referendum on extending term limits -- a move that the country's high court had declared illegal.

In Colombia, the plan to call the referendum has been punctuated with allegations of irregularities since it was launched in mid-2008 by the National Unity Social Party, one of six parties that make up the ruling coalition.

Uribe has not clearly indicated whether he would make a 2010 run for re-election but has repeatedly expressed his intent to ensure his policies would be continued.

Polls show he would have a large lead over potential rivals should he decide to run again.
Uribe remains popular thanks to his US-backed campaign against the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas and for achieving one of the country's best economic performances in 30 years, with GDP growth of 7.52 percent in 2007.

The FARC, Latin America's oldest and largest insurgency, has been battling the Colombian government for four decades.

The opposition says Uribe's military success has come at the cost of a rise in human rights violations and that his economic strategy only benefits big business.

But he remains popular despite scandals involving extrajudicial killings by the army and the wire-tapping of rivals.

A Gallup survey conducted in July found that 76 percent of those Colombians willing to vote in the referendum were in favor of the proposal.

Chavez: Ready to cut ties with Colombia

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he is preparing to break off diplomatic relations with Colombia over the neighboring country's plan to allow U.S. troops access to its military bases.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, shown this month, said a Colombia-U.S. deal is a declaration of war.

"It is going to happen," Chavez said on Tuesday in a state broadcast. "We are going to prepare for this, because the Colombian bourgeoisie hates us. And now, it just isn't possible to make up. No, it is impossible."

"The agreement of the seven bases is a declaration of war against the Bolivarian Revolution," Chavez added, referring to his socialist political movement, which he named after 19th-century Venezuelan leader Simon Bolivar.

Relations between the two countries have been tense since Colombia entered into negotiations with the United States to allow its troops to operate from seven bases.

Colombia says the troops will tackle drug traffickers and leftist guerillas. And the United States says it needs the bases because Ecuador has ordered the closing of a U.S. installation there.

Chavez says the troops have an ulterior motive: They could be used to unseat him.

Tension between the two countries heightened in recent weeks, after Colombia said Venezuela supplied Colombian guerillas with shoulder-fired anti-tank weapons.

Three anti-tank weapons seized from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, had been traced to Venezuela, Colombia said earlier this month.

FARC has been fighting the Colombian government for more than 45 years. Chavez, at the time, said the accusation amounted to blackmail.

"What a coincidence that this information comes from Colombia one day after we started to raise our voice against the installation of Yankee bases in Colombian territory," Chavez said in a televised news conference.

"Of course this is not a coincidence," he said. "This is the government of Colombia trying to blackmail us."

Colombian president has H1N1 virus

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is infected with the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu, his spokesman told CNN en Espanol on Sunday.
Uribe is in stable condition and under medical supervision at the presidential palace in Bogota, spokesman Cesar Mauricio Velasquez said.

Hilary Duff brings her charity work to Colombia

BOGOTA – Singer-actress Hilary Duff brought her Blessings in a Backpack program to Colombia Friday to distribute 3,000 knapsacks of food to poor children in a school district south of the capital city.

Duff will spend three days visiting children and participating in a vaccination campaign. She was greeted by Bogota Mayor Samuel Moreno, whom Duff said gave her "an amazing invitation" to bring the program to Colombia.

"We've been working for four years feeding children over the weekends," she said. "They invited us to come here, and we got our first school in Bogota."

Duff and USA Harvest founder Stan Curtis started Blessings in a Backpack for children who get their best meals at school, giving them backpacks of food every Friday to take home and share with their families when they're away from their main source of nutrition. The program serves 106 schools and 26,000 children in the U.S. and Canada.

Colombia is the third country to take on the program, said Duff, 21, who earned fame as the teenage character Lizzie McGuire in a Disney series of the same title. She has appeared more recently in "War, Inc." and "Material Girls" and recorded several hit songs and music videos.

Duff said she only has time to visit Colombia because of work. She is filming six episodes of the television series "Gossip Girl," followed by a romantic comedy and a remake of "Bonnie and Clyde."

When asked if she had a favorite Colombian singer, she said Shakira, who also does charity work with children in her home country.

"I think she's an amazing writer," Duff said. "She really has a strong idea of what she wants and she can play a lot of instruments and that really impresses me."

Venezuela Upset by Pending US-Colombia Pact

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez says Colombia should not underestimate Venezuela's concerns over the neighboring country's decision to forge stronger military ties with the United States.

From Venezuela's point of view, Chavez said Thursday, it's like ''opening your house for your neighbor's enemy.''

Colombian officials have said Venezuela should not be concerned by a pact being negotiated to let U.S. forces use three airfields and two navy bases in Colombia. They say the number of U.S. service personnel and civilian military contractors will not exceed the 1,400 mandated by the U.S. Congress.

Chavez has threatened to scale back Venezuela's ties with Colombia if Bogota and Washington reach an agreement.

From the guerrilla's mouth

Mistrust deepens between neighbours

SPEAKING earlier this month Ecuador’s foreign minister, Fander Falconí, observed that his country’s relations with Colombia had never been as bad. They just got worse: a video leaked to the Associated Press and published on July 17th showed the military commander of the FARC, Colombia’s biggest guerrilla group, saying that his organisation gave “aid in dollars” in 2006 for the election campaign of Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s president and had reached “agreements” with Ecuadorean officials.

There is no evidence that Mr Correa himself knew about any FARC donation, and he denies that any existed. Ecuador’s electoral commission approved his campaign’s accounts. Mr Correa was quick to claim the video was a “fabrication”. But that is implausible. The FARC commander, Jorge Briceño, is well-known. Colombian police found the video, which shows him reading a letter to a group of guerrillas last year, on the computer of a FARC organiser arrested in Bogotá in May. His remarks referred to the damage done by the leaking of guerrilla “secrets” contained in e-mails found on computer equipment belonging to Raúl Reyes, a senior FARC leader killed when Colombian forces bombed and raided his camp just across the border in Ecuador in March last year.

That raid prompted Mr Correa to cut diplomatic ties with Colombia. They have not been restored. Colombian officials say privately that their efforts to defeat the FARC, whose money comes mainly from drug-trafficking and kidnapping, are hindered by the complicity of some Ecuadorean officials with the rebels. In his e-mails, Reyes wrote of giving $100,000 to Mr Correa’s campaign and of a later meeting with his interior minister. This was to discuss the release of FARC hostages, said Ecuador. But the minister’s former deputy who also met Reyes was arrested this year on suspicion of drug-trafficking. He said he sympathised with the FARC.
Mr Correa complains that Colombia, an American ally, is trying to destabilise his socialist government. His government claims to have dismantled more than 200 FARC camps. It has filed a complaint at the International Court of Justice over Colombia’s spraying of coca fields along the border. It is preparing another suit over the raid on Reyes’ camp, which it says violated Ecuador’s sovereignty. A judge in Sucumbíos province recently asked Interpol for help in arresting Juan Manuel Santos, Colombia’s defence minister at the time of the raid and now a presidential candidate (the request was denied).

Colombia made no public response to all this. The leaking of the video marks a more aggressive approach, perhaps triggered by Mr Correa’s seeming radicalisation since he won a fresh election under a new constitution in April. Relations between Mr Correa and Colombia’s president, Álvaro Uribe, once reasonably close, are now marked by deep mistrust and personal antipathy. That is starting to hurt their countries’ close economic ties. Earlier this month Ecuador raised tariffs on hundreds of Colombian products.

Mr Correa remains popular, partly because he has lavished oil money on social programmes. He has won two presidential elections by comfortable margins. He has shaken off other embarrassments, such as recent revelations of government contracts awarded to his brother. But he has also picked many fights, defaulting on bonds and bullying foreign investors for example. Outside Ecuador, the FARC video will do nothing to encourage the idea that Mr Correa, whatever his political talents, is a responsible statesman.

EDITORIAL: Cut off Ecuador

Narco-guerrillas are too cozy in Quito

Several recent developments make it imperative for the United States to end the trade preferences it gives to the leftist government of Ecuador.

On July 15, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said that in his new role as president of the Union of South American Nations, he will try to create a regional organization to shut down critics in the media. This frightening move against a free press came two weeks after Mr. Correa began efforts to shut down Ecuador's Teleamazonas television network.

On July 16, Ecuador's state-owned Petroecuador oil company seized the oil fields of the Anglo-French Perenco Corp. This was despite a demand in May from an official arbitration body of the World Bank that the Ecuadorean government stop seizing oil. The expropriation of oil is nothing new. In 2006, Ecuador did the same thing to the American Occidental Petroleum Corp.

Most damning of all, Associated Press reported on July 17 that "an hourlong video" of a rebel leader "appears to dispel any doubts that Colombia's largest rebel army gave money to the 2006 election campaign" of Mr. Correa. That army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (known by its Spanish acronym, FARC), is officially labeled a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. The Council on Foreign Relations identifies the Marxist FARC as an outfit known for major cocaine trafficking, kidnapping, hijacking, assassinations and other murders.

The FARC leader on the video reads a letter discussing "assistance in dollars to Correa's campaign and subsequent conversations with his emissaries." FARC is known to operate out of camps on Ecuadorean soil and is one of the most destructive agents fighting against the Colombian government, which is a close American ally.

Mr. Correa has denied any knowledge of FARC funding of his campaign and has vowed to investigate, a pledge that may be akin to the wolf investigating who killed the sheep. As the Economist magazine concluded, with prototypical British understatement, "outside Ecuador, the FARC video will do nothing to encourage the idea that Mr. Correa, whatever his political talents, is a responsible statesman."

Despite all this, Ecuador still enjoys preferential trade treatment with the United States as part of the Andean Trade Preference Act, which was renewed in June for Quito for six more months by President Obama. On June 9, however, the Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and three other major business organizations protested, writing that because of "breaches in the basic rule of law that are occurring in Ecuador ... we believe that the automatic renewal of Andean preferences for Ecuador would send the wrong message to other developing countries."

Recent developments bring to mind the dispute with Chevron Corp., in which Mr. Correa's government is supporting a $27 billion lawsuit for ill-proven damages, involving purported pollution for which an earlier Ecuadorean government already had cleared Texaco (which is now part of Chevron) back in 1998. As we have noted before, Ecuador's court system has been denounced as unreliable or corrupt by the United Nations, the International Bar Association and the U.S. State Department.

A government that tries to destroy a free press while seizing foreign businesses and harboring terrorists is a government with no credibility. Ecuador merits neither trade preferences nor respect, but only suspicion.

U.S. Close to Deal With Colombia on Base Access

BOGOTÁ, Colombia (AP) — The United States and Colombia are nearing agreement on expanding the American military’s presence here, probably basing several hundred troops in a central valley to support Air Force drug interdiction missions.

Both countries said they hoped that a fifth round of talks scheduled for this month in Bogotá would seal a 10-year lease arrangement.

Opponents worry that an expanded role for the United States military in Colombia, the world’s No. 1 cocaine-producing nation, could antagonize Colombia’s leftist neighbors and draw the United States deeper into Colombia’s complicated, long-running conflict involving leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitary groups.

Most details of the negotiations have remained secret, but senior Colombian military and civilian officials said the goal was to make Colombia a regional hub for Pentagon operations.

At a public hearing Wednesday called in response to criticism of the secrecy surrounding the talks, three Colombian government ministers defended the negotiations as vital in the fight against drug trafficking and terrorism. “We’re not ceding even a piece of territory,” said the acting defense minister, Gen. Freddy Padilla.

The accord would not permit the American military to use force, and all its activities would have to be approved by the Colombian government, he said.

Colombia seeks arrest of Mexican student tied to FARC

At the request of the Colombian government, Interpol, an international police agency, has issued an alert for the arrest of a Mexican student linked to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Lucia Morett, 28, is wanted by Colombian authorities for organized crime, transnational crime and terrorism, according to Interpol's alert, known as a "red notice."
The notice is not an international arrest warrant but is an alert to police worldwide that she is wanted for extradition to Colombia.

Morett survived a March 2008 bombing in Ecuador by Colombian forces who were targeting a camp of FARC guerrillas.

The FARC's second-in-command, Raul Reyes, was killed in the bombing that Colombia's government viewed as one of the largest blows to the group.

Morett had returned to Mexico, but Colombian prosecutors consider her armed and dangerous.
"What is happening against her seems absurd to us, and what she is facing with this order is basically extradition to Colombia," Morett's father, Jorge Morett, said at a news conference in Colombia on Thursday.

Morett ran as a congressional candidate in Mexico's July 5 elections, which would have given her parliamentary immunity from the Interpol order. But she did not gain enough votes.

The Mexican government had not received a formal petition for Morett's extradition, Mexico's Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora, told reporters on Thursday.

Hail Colombia

President Obama, who withheld his support for a free-trade agreement with Colombia when he was a senator, recently sounded a more positive note on the issue. At a joint news conference this week with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Obama commended him for the progress his country has made in addressing human rights violations. In particular, he remarked on the more hospitable environment in Colombia today for labor organizers -- one of the sticking points for Obama and other Democrats in Congress.

"We've seen improvements when it comes to prosecution of those carrying out these blatant human rights offenses," Obama said. Furthermore, he added, he has instructed U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to work with his Colombian counterparts to bring the free-trade agreement to fruition. All of which suggested that Colombia has turned a corner since Obama's election, and that the United States may now be more favorably inclined to free trade with this Andean nation.

Obama is right to see progress, but wrong to assume that it began only recently. The improvements he cited this week were underway long before he became president; indeed, Colombia was moving in the right direction even when Sen. Obama opposed the trade pact that now, as president, strikes him as more appealing.

The concern over the hazards faced by labor organizers is legitimate. Colombia is the world's most dangerous country for union leaders, who risk their lives to seek working conditions that North Americans have long taken for granted. And until Colombia demonstrated a willingness to equalize the status of employers and employees, it was difficult to accept that free trade would benefit its people generally. Thankfully, Uribe too acknowledged those difficulties and began addressing them more than a year ago. Today, the government provides personal protection for labor leaders and has appointed a special prosecutor whose task is to improve the country's dismal record of prosecuting those who attack them.

Colombia is not done yet. The lure of the trade agreement has yielded positive results, which Democrats should acknowledge not by continuing to dwell on Colombia's grim history but rather by approving a pact that is in the interest of both nations. If dating Colombia's improvements to some point after his inauguration gives Obama the political capital he needs to support the pact, then fine. But it's historically inaccurate. It is Obama who's making progress today; Colombia did so long ago.

Colombia minister's arrest sought

A court in Ecuador has ordered the arrest of Colombia's ex-defence minister over an air raid against a rebel base in Ecuador last year.

The minister, Juan Manuel Santos, ordered the attack on a camp of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), which killed 25 rebels.

Colombia has said the raid, which took place in March 2008, was necessary in the "fight against terrorism".

Ecuador and Colombia severed diplomatic ties over the incident.

The attack was condemned by the Organization of American States.

Those killed in the operation included senior Farc commander Raul Reyes and an Ecuadoran national.

According to Ecuadorean media, Mr Santos is wanted for murder and violating Ecuadorian internal security.

He recently resigned as Colombia's defence minister.

Colombian Singer Juanes Strolls Through Havana

Colombian singer Juanes took a stroll through the streets of this capital on Thursday where he was recognized by dozens of Cubans, and he chatted with them, posed for photos and gave autographs.

Juanes arrived in Cuba on Wednesday on a private visit, sources at the Cuban Music Institute confirmed to Efe.

On Thursday morning, the singer went out to take a walk through Havana’s historic downtown and was unable to remain unrecognized.

“People recognized (him) on the street, photos were taken, he gave autographs, he spoke a lot with the people who stopped him,” an expert with the Havana Historian’s Office who accompanied Juanes on his stroll told Efe.

Juanes spent two hours visiting various museums and colonial squares in the Cuban capital’s picturesque historic center, taking an interest in the restoration work being carried out on the oldest part of the city.

The Colombian singer, 36, won a Grammy this year for best Latino pop album for “La vida... es un ratico.”

Juanes is the founder of the “Mi Sangre” foundation, which focuses attention on the victims of the conflict in Colombia and – in particular – on children injured by anti-personnel mines.

The FARC's Ecuadorean Friends

Previously undisclosed documents, fruits of the Colombian military's raid on a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (a.k.a. FARC) camp in Ecuador in 2008, came into my hands last week.

The FARC's second in command, Raúl Reyes, was killed in that raid. But he left behind laptop computers containing correspondence detailing a cozy relationship not only with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez but also -- the fresh documents reveal -- with the government of Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa.

Someone should tell the White House. Ten days ago, President Obama called Mr. Correa to, according to a spokesman, "congratulate him on his recent re-election." Mr. Obama also wanted to "express his desire to deepen our bilateral relationship and to maintain an ongoing dialogue that can ensure a productive relationship based on mutual respect."

Mr. Correa is anything but respectful of U.S. interests in the region. He's more like Fidel Castro -- albeit with a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Illinois. Under his rule, liberty has been evaporating faster than you can say bolivariano. Now the Reyes letters provide strong evidence that he has been actively supporting the Marxist FARC guerrillas, who see the U.S. as a major enemy.

Mr. Correa has publicly claimed that he is not a FARC accomplice. But Reyes reported otherwise. In a Jan. 5, 2007, letter to FARC leader Manuel Marulanda he wrote of an impending visit from "an emissary of Rafael Correa." The purpose of the meeting was, among other things, to come up with "bilateral collaborative agreements" in which "our captured guerrillas in their territory are handed over to us and none of them go into the hands of Colombian authorities."

Reyes said that the emissary was coming "to strengthen the binational committee -- made up of comrades of the [Colombian Clandestine Communist Party] and Ecuadorean friends -- that would denounce the violations of Ecuadorean sovereignty by [Colombian] troops and demonstrate the harmful effects of fumigation." In other words, Ecuador wanted to help the FARC in two of its most important objectives: establishing a safe haven over the border and ending fumigation of coca crops, a key source of the FARC's drug-trade income.

In another note to Marulanda on Jan. 28, 2007, Reyes mourns the death of his "amiga, the minister," referring no doubt to Ecuador's minister of defense, Guadalupe Larriva, who was killed in a helicopter crash four days earlier. But looking on the bright side, he said, another minister, this one "of finance, also wants to visit us on the 9th."

Then, on Jan. 18, 2008, Reyes wrote to the FARC secretariat summarizing "a visit from the Ecuadorean minister of security, Gustavo Larrea, who in the name of President Correa brought greetings" for Marulanda. According to Reyes, Mr. Larrea expressed "interest on behalf of the president to make official [Ecuador's] relationship with FARC leadership."

Reyes wrote that Mr. Larrea said he was ready to remove security-force commanders who were "hostile with communities" in the border area, and that Ecuador would not do anything to help Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in Colombia's internal conflict. "For [Ecuador]," Mr. Reyes explained, "the FARC are an insurgent organization of the people with social proposals and policies that [Ecuador] understands."

According to Reyes, Mr. Larrea asked if the FARC was interested in gaining belligerent status (i.e. international legitimacy). He also reported that Ecuador "would sue Colombia in international court for the damages caused by fumigating" the coca crops and revoke the license for the U.S. military base at Manta. (Ecuador did both.) Ecuador "has it clear that Uribe represents the interests of the White House, the multinationals and the oligarchs and considers him dangerous to the region."

Mr. Larrea has conceded publicly that he called on Reyes. But he claims it was in the interest of winning the release of FARC hostages. For sure that was one objective. Reyes reported that Mr. Larrea wanted to pull off a "swap" of hostages for prisoners because it would "energize" Mr. Correa's political career. But the Reyes letters reveal much more than a desire on the part of Mr. Correa to be a humanitarian hero. They paint a picture of a government bent on undermining its neighbor, Colombia.

It is possible that Reyes mistook Correa realpolitik for genuine goodwill toward the FARC. But the rebel leader seemed certain that six Latin countries are sympathetic to the Marxist cause. He proposed that Marulanda write to the presidents of Ecuador, Argentina, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Uruguay to seek "support from various friendly countries" that might advance the process of forcing a settlement with Colombia.

Mr. Uribe will visit the White House next week. It will be interesting to see if Mr. Obama is as concerned about the bilateral relationship with Colombia as he is about the relationship with Mr. Uribe's not very friendly neighbor next door.

U.N. Envoy Finds Colombia Soldiers Killed Civilians

BOGOTA -- Hundreds of innocent civilians have been slain by Colombian soldiers and falsely identified as guerrillas killed in combat as part of a "more or less" systematic practice by "significant elements" of the military, a U.N. human-rights investigator said Thursday.

Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, gestures during a news conference in Bogota.

After a 10-day visit interviewing more than 100 witnesses and survivors, special envoy Philip Alston told reporters he found nothing to indicate that such extra-judicial killings were state policy or that President Alvaro Uribe and his defense ministers knew of them.

However, the Australian investigator said it was "unsustainable" for officials in Mr. Uribe's government to argue that the killings were carried out "on a small scale by a few bad apples." The vast majority of the slayings occurred after Mr. Uribe's 2002 election.

Colombia's government, which under Mr. Uribe has put leftist rebels on the defensive and seriously curbed kidnapping and murder with the help of more than $4 billion in U.S. aid, said it would respond quickly.

Mr. Alston said he would issue a full report in four to five months.