Ingrid Betancourt’s husband won’t read her book

“I will not read it, I prefer to leave that chapter behind”, said Juan Carlos Lecompte, Ingrid Betancourt’s husband, about the book she wrote, which was published this week, entitled “Even Silence Has an End”. In addition, her estranged husband demands part of the assets of the politician, who was kidnapped by the FARC in 2002 and released in the Jaque military operation in 2008. He also wants to include part of the royalties from Betancourt's book in their divorce settlement.

Santos meets Obama in New York

Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos declared himself “very satisfied” with the meeting he held on Friday with United States President, Barack Obama. The leaders spoke about the pending Free Trade Agreement between the two countries. Santos was one of the five presidents Obama invited for a private discussion in New York after attending the United Nations General Assembly. He revealed that they also discussed ecological issues, after being congratulated by Obama on Colombia military’s success in killing FARC No. 2, “Mono Jojoy”.

Santos to offer speech before the UN in New York

Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos will attend to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, and will offer a speech in which he is expected to expose Colombia’s advance’s in security issues. “In New York we will take advantage as is usual in these types of meetings to have bilateral meetings with many heads of state”, said president Santos, referring to Colombia´s intentions to use this trip to improve relations with other countries. Santos is also set to meet for the first time with President Barack Obama on Friday September 24.

Colombian army kills top Farc rebel leader Mono Jojoy

One of the most senior leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) has been killed, say reports.

Jorge Briceno, also known as Mono Jojoy, died in a military air strike in the Macarena region, known to be a Farc stronghold, local media said.

President Juan Manuel Santos said Jojoy's death was "the hardest blow" in the history of the rebel movement.

The Marxist Farc rebels have been fighting the Colombian authorities since the mid-1960s.
Jojoy was believed to be leader of the Farc's strongest fighting division, the Eastern Bloc, and had eluded Colombian security forces for almost 10 years.

The United States had offered a reward of up to $5m (£3.2m) for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

"A military source has confirmed that it defeated a group of rebels during an operation involving the four branches of the military," Colombia's attorney general Guillermo Mendoza said in a radio interview.

He said soldiers had found the body of Jojoy.

"The symbol of terrorism in Colombia has fallen," Mr Santos said.

"To the rest of the Farc: we are coming after you, we are not going to let down our guard."

A White House spokesman welcomed the news, calling it an "important victory" for Colombia.
Another 20 rebels were also killed in the attack, an official at the defence ministry told the AFP news agency.

The BBC's Jeremy McDermott in Bogota says Jojoy's death will be a major coup for Colombia's new President Juan Manuel Santos.

It also leaves the Eastern Bloc without a leader, which is likely to seriously affect rebel morale, says our correspondent.

The rebels have said they are prepared to find a political solution to the conflict, and have appealed to Mr Santos to enter talks.

But they have stepped up their violent campaign since Mr Santos took office on 7 August, killing more than 40 security personnel in the past month.

Mr Santos has said the rebels must give up their arms and release all the hostages they are holding before talks can take place.

It comes a few days after another guerrilla Farc commander, Sixto Cabana, was shot dead along with 27 other rebels close to the border with Ecuador.

The US State Department said Mr Cabana has been behind the export of hundreds of tons of cocaine around the world and was responsible for hundreds of murders.

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.