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The situation in neighboring Venezuela is going from strange to foreboding. President Hugo Chavez has been unsuccessful in getting the voters to make him president for life, but he has used his presidential powers to replace thousands of key officials with people selected mainly for their loyalty to Hugo Chavez. Since the government controls so much of the economy (mainly because of the oil industry), this has had disastrous results. There are increasing power blackouts, and an increasing number of state employees are not getting paid, or paid on time. There are increasing shortages of consumer goods. There is growing...

The situation in neighboring Venezuela is going from strange to foreboding. President Hugo Chavez has been unsuccessful in getting the voters to make him president for life, but he has used his presidential powers to replace thousands of key officials with people selected mainly for their loyalty to Hugo Chavez. Since the government controls so much of the economy (mainly because of the oil industry), this has had disastrous results. There are increasing power blackouts, and an increasing number of state employees are not getting paid, or paid on time. There are increasing shortages of consumer goods. There is growing...

Note: The following text is a quote: Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, November 23, 2009 Arms Dealer Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Supply U.S. Fighter Jet Engines to Iran Jacques Monsieur, a Belgian national and resident of France suspected of international arms dealing for decades, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama to conspiracy to illegally export F-5 fighter jet engines and parts from the Untied States to Iran. Monsieur along with Dara Fotouhi, aka Dara Fatouhi, an Iranian national currently living in France, was charged in a...

The threat of a war between Venezuela and Colombia increased over the weekend after both countries deployed more troops along their border and President Hugo Chavez branded his Colombian counterpart a "mafioso". Tensions between the countries reached a new high after the Colombian military arrested four Venezuelan soldiers, just days after Mr Chavez told his army to "prepare for war" with Colombia. The Venezuelan ambassador to Bogota, Gustavo Marquez, said that the seriousness of the situation could not be overstated and that "there is a pre-war situation in the entire region". Diplomatic relations between the South American neighbours are frozen...

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombia's top electoral body ruled late Thursday that millions of signatures endorsing a referendum on President Álvaro Uribe's second re-election bid are invalid, dealing a major setback to the president's contentious bid for a third term. Colombia's National Electoral Council said the organization of Uribe supporters that obtained the signatures had spent about six times the legal limit in their campaign to change the constitution. Voters must approve the change before Mr. Uribe can run in elections scheduled for May. A spokesman for Mr. Uribe declined to comment. Luis Guillermo Giraldo, who headed the vote-gathering effort, said...

Hugo Chavez is stirring trouble with Colombia to disguise domestic failures and Venezuela would be "mad" to enter a conflict with its neighbor. Perez said the Venezuelan leader's recent controversial exhortation to his army to "prepare for war" was a political smoke screen. "He is obviously trying to distract attention from the immense failure of his government after 10 years in power," Perez said at his home in San Cristobal, capital of Tachira. "In Venezuela today, there is neither electricity nor water on a permanent basis. The crime figures are battering us all. The country has gone backward enormously in...

CARACAS, Venezuela – A prominent opponent of President Hugo Chavez accused the socialist leader's government on Wednesday of turning a blind eye to leftist Colombian rebels taking refuge in border areas of Venezuela. Tachira state Gov. Cesar Perez said both leftist guerrillas and righist paramilitary groups from Colombia operate in nearly a third of his border state, but he said Venezuelan troops ignore the rebels and try to root out only the right-wing militias. "The guerrillas are there with the government's blessing and the military has orders to leave them alone," Perez told The Associated Press in an interview. "The...

BOGOTA (AFP) – Colombia has said it will seek UN help after Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez instructed his military to ready "for war." "Faced with these threats of war by the government of Venezuela, the government of Colombia is weighing heading to the Organization of American States and UN Security Council," said a statement from President Alvaro Uribe, read out by his spokesman Cesar Velasquez. "Colombia has not made nor will it make any bellicose move toward the international community, (and) even less so toward fellow Latin American nations," the statement said. "The only thing we are interested in is...

CARACAS, Venezuela – Two soldiers in Venezuela's National Guard have been shot to death near the border with Colombia. State television says unidentified assailants gunned down the soldiers at a roadside checkpoint in the western state of Tachira. It says Monday's slayings were confirmed by the National Guard and police.

Oct 30, 2009 — “Plant fossils give first real picture of earliest Neotropical rainforests,” announced a press release from University of Florida.  The fossils from Colombia show that “many of the dominant plant families existing in today’s Neotropical rainforests – including legumes, palms, avocado and banana – have maintained their ecological dominance despite major changes in South America’s climate and geological structure.” The team found 2,000 megafossil specimens from the Paleocene, said to be 58 million years old.  This is only 5 to 8 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs according to conventional dating.  “The new study provides...

BOGOTA – In a private, low-key ceremony, the U.S. ambassador and three Colombian ministers on Friday signed a pact giving American personnel expanded access to military bases in this drug-producing country, a deal that Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has called a threat to the region's security. Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez said the 10-year deal takes effect immediately and restricts U.S. military operations to Colombian territory — alluding to fears expressed by leftist leaders in the region that it would make Colombia a base for asserting U.S. power in South America. Details of the pact, which aims to boost drug and counterinsurgency...

Soccer team slayings fuel Venezuela-Colombia rift Enrique Andres Pretel REUTERS NEWS AGENCY CARACAS, Venezuela | Venezuela said Sunday that at least 10 members of an amateur Colombian soccer team had been found dead after being kidnapped on its side of the border. The slayings added another complication to fractious ties between the two South American neighbors. Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chavez, further stirred things up by calling the Colombian defense minister a "mental retard." Venezuela broke off relations and minimized trade with Colombia earlier this year because of the country's acceptance of U.S. military bases on its soil. Colombia is...

Venezuela said on Sunday at least 10 members of an amateur Colombian soccer team had been found dead after being kidnapped on its side of the border. - The incident adds another complication to fractious ties between the two countries. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez broke off relations and minimized trade earlier this year due to Colombia's acceptance of U.S. military bases on its soil.

Colombian Football Team 'Killed' By Will Grant BBC News, Caracas At least 10 bodies - believed to be those of a kidnapped Colombian football team - have been found across the border in Venezuela. The bodies, with multiple gunshot wounds, were found in Tachira. One of the team is reported to have survived. State authorities say they suspect a left-wing Colombian guerrilla group, the ELN, is to blame for the deaths. The team, kidnapped two weeks ago, was known as Los Maniceros or Peanut Men, as they sold nuts along the border. The Venezuelan authorities say they are still investigating...

[NOTE: Posted here at this time for archival purposes.] Note: The following text is a quote: YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Warden Message: Possible Attacks in Colombia CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS Americas - Colombia 9 Oct 2009 The following Warden Message was distributed by U.S. Embassy Bogota on October 9, 2009: This Warden Message is to advise American citizens traveling to or residing in Colombia that the U.S. Embassy has received information that attacks against Government of Colombia facilities may take place in Cali and Santander de Quiilichao on or about October 12, 2009....

Trade: Colombia got another brushoff Tuesday, when Commerce Secretary Gary Locke pronounced its free trade pact dead for the year because Washington is too busy with health care. Why doesn't Cuba ever hear that? Speaking at the sidelines of a conference in Chile, Locke told Dow Jones: "It's pretty doubtful that the pact will be ratified this year, although the Obama administration is pushing forward with Colombia, Korea and Panama." Yeah, sure. Pushing and pushing, it's all we've heard about from this crew. But the only visible moves on trade have a string of protectionist measures to make Big Labor...

ngrid Betancourt, the French-Colombian politician held hostage for more than six years by guerrillas in the Colombian jungle, told CBC News in an exclusive interview that her captors despised her. "I was a politician. They hated politicians. I was a person with some education. They had none, so they thought I [had] a privileged social background and they hated me for that," Betancourt told the CBC's Mellissa Fung in an excerpt from an interview that will air on The National on Monday at 9 p.m. ET.

(English-language translation) BOGOTA - On Saturday, Colombia extradited to the United States FARC [member] Nancy Conde Rubio, from whom the authorities intercepted her telephone conversations and thus secured the rescue of 15 kidnapping victims in the guerrilla [organization's] power. There were three Americans among the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) captives. Thirty-seven-year-old Conde was extradited on an airplane belonging to U.S. anti-drug authorities, said General Luis Ramírez with the Police Criminal Investigation Directorate. He added that the airplane was initially headed for Florida and, from there, the detainee, who was wearing handcuffs and a bulletproof vest, will be taken to the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents along with Colombian customs inspectors and Colombian National Police (CNP) officers seized approximately $11.2 million Wednesday at the port of Buenaventura, Colombia. The seizure was the result of a joint investigation conducted by the CNP and ICE Attaché Bogota. The U.S. currency was hidden in two shipping containers, each containing 20 big bags filled with ammonium sulfate. Sixteen of the 40 bags contained $700,000 in $20 dollar bill denominations. The containers departed from the port of Manzanillo, Mexico, destined to the west coast port of Buenaventura, Colombia. According to...

Baruch Vega's cellphone hardly rings these days. It's not like 10 years ago, when the Colombian photographer of models was an intermediary between the Drug Enforcement Administration and powerful drug traffickers, and his phone rang off the hook with calls from federal prosecutors and attorneys in South Florida while he discussed poses with European models at his Miami Beach penthouse. Now Vega, 61, seems to be tired of living on the razor's edge. He wants to put behind him the world that in 2000 took him to jail in the United States on charges of obstruction of justice and money...

BOGOTA -- Opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez held protests Friday against the leftist leader in cities across Latin America, in an effort coordinated through Twitter, Facebook and a Web site titled "No More Chavez!" They grasped banners and signs with images of Chavez in a straitjacket and wearing a red clown nose. "Chavez, the shame of Bolivia," read a banner in the Bolivian capital of La Paz. Police in Colombia estimated more than 5,000 marched in Bogota waving flags. Thousands also took to the streets in the capitals of Venezuela and Honduras. Some said they were protesting what they...

(English-language translation) During a meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in Caracas, American essayist and political analyst Noam Chomsky yesterday criticized the use of Colombian military bases by the United States Army. "The U.S.'s justification to establish military bases in Colombia is narcotraffic. However, this justification is not very serious," the essayist said and added: "There exists an intervention attitude under the pretext of narcotraffic." President Chávez greeted Chomsky at Miraflores Palace, where he received "the warmest welcome". "It was time you visited us and for the Venezuelan people to see and hear you directly," Chávez told the Professor Emeritus...

Leadership: Gen. Ulysses Grant won our Civil War by doggedly pursuing the enemy even after winning battles. That's occurring in Colombia, where President Uribe is stepping up an already impressive war effort.As we went to press, Colombia was set to sign a pact over the weekend with the U.S. for access to seven military bases on its territory. It's an unprecedented vote of confidence in U.S. troops and will substantially expand both countries' capacity to fight drugs and terror. But more than that, it's a strong sign President Alvaro Uribe intends to crush FARC's Marxist narcoterrorists, the group that's been...

Leftist leaders from Venezuela and Ecuador have angrily denouced a US military presence in Latin America, warning the "winds of war" were blowing across South America. Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, led the charge, attacking Colombia's decision to host American forces at seven of its bases, a move also condemned by Rafael Correa, Ecuador's leader. Speaking in Quito at a regional summit, Mr Chavez said he was fulfilling his "moral duty" by telling fellow leaders that the "winds of war were beginning to blow," because of the July accord between Bogota and Washington. "This could generate a war in South...

10:28 Bogotá, AFP An officer, a non-commissioned officer, and nine soldiers of the Ecuadorian Army were captured on Colombian territory, on the border with Putumayo department, according to the Colombian chancellor of communications. “Yesterday, August 8 of 2009, at 12 noon (17:00 GMT), at the location known as La Reforma, Puerto Leguízamo municipality, Putumayo department, the army of Colombia captured an officer, a non-commissioned officer, and nine soldiers belonging to the Ecuadorian Army, some 300 meters from the border, said the chancellor. “According to the pertinent agreements... they were handed over today to the Ecuadorian military authority, captain Michael Cadena,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Friday denied the United States is planning to set up military bases in Colombia as part of an upgraded security agreement with the South American nation. "There have been those in the region who have been trying to play this up as part of a traditional anti-Yankee rhetoric. This is not accurate," Obama told Hispanic media reporters. Leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez -- a persistent critic of Washington -- has said the enhanced U.S.-Colombian security plan could be a step toward war in South America. On Sunday, Chavez called on Obama not to...

Brasilia, ANSA General Jim Jones, security advisor to president Barack Obama, said today that members of FARC are in Venezuela organizing attacks on Colombia and the government of Hugo Chavez “is not doing much to combat it”, according to Estado de Sao Paulo. “We know with some certainty that significant elements of Farc are active inside Venezuela and the Venezuelan government has done little to combat this” declared Jones, who met yesterday in Brasilia with the Brazilian chancellor Celso Amorim. “Venezuela and other countries in the region have their differences with the United States” and the installation of US bases...

MOSCOW, August 6 (RIA Novosti) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said at a press conference the country plans to buy weapons and Russian tanks over a possible increase in U.S. military personnel in neighboring Colombia. Chavez urged U.S. President Barack Obama not to increase the country's military contingent at bases in Colombia and said the move could lead to a war in the region. "These bases [in Colombia] could become the beginning of a war in South America," Chavez said. The United States and Colombia are currently holding talks which could see a boost in U.S. troop numbers at Colombian...

Americas: Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has been caught arming Colombia's FARC — again. It's more than state sponsorship of terror. The persistence of his acts signals a proxy war against the U.S. It's time to recognize that.Over the weekend, the New York Times reported that top officials in Venezuela, as recently as May, were shipping weapons to FARC, the Marxist narcoterrorists trying to overthrow the Colombian government. It's an eye-opener, given that a month earlier, President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had "turned the page" with Venezuela's strongman, laughing, shaking hands and backslapping with him as Chavez declared: "I...

BOGOTA (Reuters) - A plan to increase U.S. troops in Colombia is drawing opposition not just from left-wing populist leaders in the region but from the moderate governments of Brazil and Chile as well. The spreading criticism threatens to isolate Colombia from its neighbors as it combats a cocaine-funded insurgency. The government is expected to sign an expanded U.S. military pact this month after a final round of talks. Colombia, Washington's main ally in the region, says the plan is aimed at strengthening anti-drug efforts. But leftist Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez accuses the United States of setting up a military...

Members of the FARC used a homeless woman as a human bomb to attack a police station in the south of Colombia, authorities say. The woman was sent to deliver a package at a local police station that exploded when she arrived. The woman died and fourteen others were injured, authorities say. According to police sources, the bomb was given to the woman by guerrillas of the FARC's 'Mariscal Sucre front' who activated the bomb when the woman arrived at the target. The woman died immediately.

CBS) U.S. forces are about to get some much-needed help as they fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, reports CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan in an exclusive report. The Colombian commandos are U.S. trained and battle-tested from having defeated terrorists in their own country. Ten years ago, they didn't even exist. Today, elite Colombian Special Operations troops are preparing to fight alongside the U.S. in Afghanistan, reports CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan.

BOGOTA -- Swedish-made anti-tank rocket launchers sold to Venezuela years ago were obtained by Colombia's main rebel group, and Sweden said Monday it was demanding an explanation. Colombia said its military found the weapons in a captured rebel arms cache and that Sweden had recently confirmed they originally were sold to Venezuela's military. The confirmation strengthens Colombian allegations that Hugo Chavez's government has aided the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The bazooka-like AT-4 single-use launchers, made by Saab Bofors Dynamics, lack the precision and range of surface-to-air weapons and there is no evidence FARC rebels have used...

(English-language translation) The government of Venezuela will purchase tanks from Russia to double its fleet and strengthen its armed forces. [Venezuelan] President Hugo Chávez made the announcement amid growing tensions with Colombia over its military agreement with the United States, which would allow troops from that country to operate from Colombian bases. "We are going to bring several new tank battalions in order to double the armored force we presently have....I am not going to pay attention to what the neighbors say, or up north, forget the Yankees," said Chávez in "Hello, Theoretical President", the new version of his Sunday...

BOGOTA — He calls himself "Cesar," but his real name is Gerardo Aguilar Ramirez. As "comandante" of the 1st Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — and one of the top 10 leaders of the hyper-violent FARC — he has well-earned credentials as a drug-dealing terrorist with a penchant for trading in hostages. This Thursday, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents put Ramirez, aka Cesar, in shackles, marched him aboard an aircraft here in Bogota, and took him to the U.S. to stand trial for his crimes. Our Fox News' "War Stories" team was here to record the event...

President Obama meets with Colombian president Álvaro Uribe this afternoon as his administration monitors the repercussions of the military coup in Honduras and the impact on its Latin American neighbors. Aides had said last week that the Oval Office meeting would focus on efforts to shut down the drug trade and the stalled Colombian-U.S. free trade agreemeent. But the world's attention shifted over the weekend to Honduras, where the region's first military coup in more than a decade ended with the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya during a dawn raid of the presidential palace in the capital of Tegucigalpa. In...

Trade: President Obama's encouraging words to Colombia's president Monday signaled an improving outlook for the two nations' long-delayed free trade treaty. It's good news, but he must take that message to Congress.Contrary to what you might think from the administration's responses to Iran and Honduras, not all of our friends are being snubbed or our enemies embraced. Obama showed considerable respect for our friend and ally Colombia at a working meeting with President Alvaro Uribe at the White House Monday, declaring at a joint press conference that "we are grateful for his friendship." It was a commendable show of leadership,...

A Colombian associate of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is once again linked to FARC terrorists and Marxist Dictator Hugo Chavez with the revelation of damning new messages concerning Colombian Senator Piedad Córdoba that are currently being investigated by Colombian military officials.

PICTURE: IAI delivers Colombia's first upgraded Kfir fighter By Arie Egozi Israel Aerospace Industries has delivered the first upgraded Kfir fighters to the Colombian air force. The company was contracted in late 2007 to modernise 12 Kfirs from Colombia's air force inventory, and to provide several additional examples that had been stored at Israeli bases since the locally built type was phased out of service. Upgrade activities include equipping the aircraft with new avionics, an EL/M-2032 fire control radar from IAI subsidiary Elta Systems, and a new electronic warfare suite. The modified aircraft will be designated as Kfir C-10s or...

The District of Columbia has approached the Justice Department about security concerns arising from the housing of more than 10 suspected narcoterrorists in its jail - concerns that foreshadow problems the Obama administration might face if it brings Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States for trial. D.C. Attorney General Peter J. Nickles brought up the narcoterrorists when asked during an interview about the prospect of detainees from the U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, being brought to the District for trial. Although the attorney general did not directly link the District's situation with the decisions facing the federal government,...

Note: The following text is a quote: YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Warden Message: Colombia High Threat Environment for Terrorism & Crime CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS Americas - Colombia 22 May 2009 RELATED REPORTS 14 May 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: COLOMBIA CONFIRMS H1N1 2009 INFLUENZA CASES 20 Apr 2009 FARC CONTINUES TO TARGET COMMERCE IN EXTORTION CAMPAIGN 25 Mar 2009 TRAVEL WARNING: COLOMBIA 20 Mar 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: COLOMBIA BLACK MARCH ADVISORY 27 Jan 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA, EXPLOSION; REPORTS OF TWO FATALITIES The U.S. Embassy Bogotá issued the following Warden Message on May...

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Note: The following news brief is a quote: - In cooperation with various other countries, Dutch authorities have rounded up a big cocaine gang that had links with Hezbollah. Seventeen suspects were arrested on Curacao, the biggest island of the Netherlands Antilles, the Public Prosecutor's Office (OM) has revealed. International cooperation between police and judicial services of the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles, Belgium, Colombia, Venezuela and the US led to the arrest of the 17 suspects by the Curacao police. They are believed to be part of a drugs and money-laundering organisation with international branches, thought to be responsible...

Trade: Hugo Chavez may have gotten a grinning handshake from President Obama in Trinidad. But it was our authentic friend and ally, Colombia, that got substance. The president got one right.There was quite a media din over the president's greeting of Venezuela's strongman at the Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain over the weekend. Sure, it was a first. But along with bones he threw to Cuba, it crowded out weightier news. Obama may have shaken hands, accepted an idiotic book and politely listened to diatribes from regional troublemakers. But for our ally Colombia, he wasn't just gesturing....

Leadership: Amid all the boilerplate about dialogue and partnership at Trinidad's Summit of the Americas, the Obama administration has shown no real leadership on its goals. If they matter, why is it left to Canada to lead?Thus far, the Obama administration seems more interested in continuing its global apology tour, Latin edition, during this weekend's Fifth Summit of the Americas than he is in leading. His accusations against America are stronger than his promotion of the institutions and treaties that bring authentic democracy and prosperity to our hemisphere. "Too often, the United States has not pursued and sustained engagement with...

Bogota (AP) - It's a game played out regularly on the high seas off Colombia's Pacific coast: A U.S. Navy helicopter spots a vessel the size of a humpback whale gliding just beneath the water's surface. A Coast Guard ship dispatches an armed team to board the small, submarine-like craft in search of cocaine. Crew members wave and jump into the sea to be rescued, but not before they open flood valves and send the fiberglass hulk and its cargo into the deep. Colombia has yet to make a single arrest in such scuttlings because the evidence sinks with the...

Note: The following text is a quote: YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Travel Warning: Colombia CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS Americas - Colombia 25 Mar 2009 RELATED REPORTS 20 Mar 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: COLOMBIA BLACK MARCH ADVISORY 27 Jan 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA, EXPLOSION; REPORTS OF TWO FATALITIES 19 Nov 2008 WARDEN MESSAGE: COLOMBIA DEMONSTRATION NOVEMBER 20 23 Oct 2008 WARDEN MESSAGE: COLOMBIA EXPLOSIONS The U.S. Department of State issued the following Travel Warning on March 25: The Department of State continues to warn U.S. citizens of the dangers of travel to Colombia. While...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/states/newsrel/2009/nyc031909.html U.S. Announces Indictment of Heads of Colombia's D.M.G. Group for Money Laundering MAR 19 -- JOHN P. GILBRIDE, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York Field Division (“DEA”), LEV L. DASSIN, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, RAYMOND W. KELLY, Police Commissioner of the City of New York (“NYPD”) and HARRY J. CORBITT, Superintendent New York State Police (“NYPD”) announced today the unsealing of an Indictment against DAVID EDUARDO HELMUT MURCIA GUZM�N, 28, MARGARITA LEONOR PABON CASTRO, a/k/a "Margarita Castro Pabon," 35, WILLIAM SU�REZ‑SU�REZ,...

MEXICO CITY, March 9 (RIA Novosti) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said the armed forces are ready for a war with Colombia should the country provoke it. "In case of a provocation on the part of Colombia's armed forces or infringements on Venezuela's sovereignty, I will give an order to strike with Su aircraft and tanks. I will not let anyone disrespect Venezuela and its sovereignty," Chavez said Sunday on his weekly TV show, "Hello, President." Chavez said this in response to Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos's recent statements, which said that Colombia's military will keep killing rebels...

WASHINGTON, March 9, 2009 – Three U.S. defense contractors held captive for more than five years by Colombian narcoterrorists will receive the civilian equivalent of the Purple Heart award this week at the U.S. Southern Command headquarters in Miami. Southcom Commander Navy Adm. James Stavridis will present the Defense of Freedom Medal to Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes during the March 12 ceremonies. All three were injured during 1,967 days of captivity in the jungles of Colombia at the hands of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces, known as the FARC. The Defense Department established the Defense of...