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War: A Spanish court has charged Venezuela with collaborating in a terrorist plot to assassinate President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia. That's an attempt on a top U.S. ally, and calls for a hard response. If it's not predator-drone time, it's time to name Venezuela as a state sponsor of terror. What came to light Monday isn't the first time Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has been caught aiding terrorists, but it may well be the most egregious. Spanish Judge Eloy Velasco named a Venezuelan government official as a key link between 12 FARC and ETA terrorists who were indicted in a 2003...

None of us who are believers of individual freedom are fans of Hugo Chavez. But it seems that the situation is growing more worrisome by the day. The Washington Post outlines the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued a searing and authoritative report on the destruction of Venezuela's political institutions and the erosion of freedom under President Hugo Chávez. It details the fearful deterioration of rights in the country, and the blind eye the Organization of American States (OAS) has turned to those events. The report details facts and events that document how Mr. Chávez's regime has done away with...

A Spanish judge has charged 13 members of the Basque separatist group ETA and the Colombian rebel group FARC over an alleged plot to assassinate Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, judicial sources said on Monday. Judge Eloy Velasco said he believes FARC asked ETA's help with a plot to kill a number of Colombian officials in Spain, including Uribe.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama and pop superstar Shakira are talking about U.S. policy toward children at the White House. Obama and the Colombian entertainer met briefly after she had meetings with staff from the National Security Council and the Domestic Policy Council to talk about early childhood development. A White House official, speaking only on the condition of anonymity because the meeting was not on the president's public schedule, says Shakira stopped by to say hello to Obama when the meetings ended. Shakira is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and has been an advocate for children in poverty.

Note: Photo included. SNIPPET: "Bout and American-born pal Richard Chichakli were accused of creating a new business, Samar Airlines, which they thought was clean of any connection to their own bloody dealings. Starting in the summer of 2007, Samar Airlines started making deals for airplanes and crews to ferry contraband between the United States and Tajikistan, the indictment said." SNIPPET: "The Russian-born Bout is accused of wiring $1.7 million from bank accounts in Kazakhstan, Cyprus, Russia through banks in New York City and Salt Lake City to finance the scheme." SNIPPET: "Bout, who is accused of supplying weapons to real...

The FARC and the Quest for Surface to Air Missiles By Douglas Farah SNIPPET: "The Miami Herald today reports that the Colombian FARC has likely already fulfilled its long-time goal of purchasing surface to air missiles to be used against U.S.-supplied helicopters in Colombia. The FARC has long placed a very high strategic priority on acquiring SAMs, going back to at least 2003. The commanders officially requested money from Libya and Nicaragua at that time to purchase the weapons because the insurgency was being so badly hurt by helicopters acquired by the military and police." SNIPPET: "It is not a...

CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez has turned to his friends in Cuba for help in tackling Venezuela's energy crisis, drawing criticism for seeking advice from the communist-led island that has struggled with its own electricity woes. Chavez gave few details on Wednesday about what is expected of Cuba, but insisted that "it's valuable experience that's serving us well." He said that he spoke for hours Tuesday with Cuban Vice President Ramiro Valdes after his arrival in Venezuela to lead the consulting team. The decision to seek help from Cuba bewildered Venezuelans coping with the nation's power shortage. "It's laughable...

Colombian guerrillas have entered into "an unholy alliance" with Islamic extremists who are helping the Marxist rebels smuggle cocaine through Africa on its way to European consumers, a U.S. official told Reuters.

Osama Bin Laden's terrorist organization has become increasingly reliant on organized crime, including cocaine smuggling, human trafficking and kidnapping, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Friday in Manhattan's federal court. The charges filed against three alleged al-Qaeda associates by the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan is the latest chilling evidence of a convergence between terrorism and organized crime. Oumar Issa, Harouna Touré and Idriss Abelrahman were snatched in Ghana on Wednesday by a Drug Enforcement Administration sting and shipped to New York, where they arrived on Friday to face charges of conspiracy to commit acts of narco-terrorism and providing material support...

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan unsealed narcotics and terrorism charges on Friday against three West Africans they identified as associates of Al Qaeda and a related terrorist group. While the United States Drug Enforcement Administration has long maintained that Al Qaeda has been involved in drug trafficking, officials at the agency said the case represented the first time such charges had been brought against people linked with the group. The three men — identified as Oumar Issa, Harouna Touré and Idriss Abelrahman — were arrested on Wednesday in Ghana and flown to the United States on Thursday night, law enforcement officials...

Note: The following text is a quote: Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Capture of Three Members of Colombian Terrorist Group Charged with Hostage-Taking of U.S. Citizen PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, JOHN V. GILLIES, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the Miami Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") and MICHELE M. LEONHART, the Acting Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration ("DEA"), announced today the arrest of EDILBERTO BERRIO ORTIZ, a/k/a "El Gavilan," ALEJANDRO PALACIOS RENGIFO, a/k/a "El Gato," a/k/a "Yimi," and ANDERSON CHAMAPURO DOGIRAMA, a/k/a "El Tigre," a/k/a "Dairon," three members of the...

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...

Colombia: Pastor Martyred On Sept. 21, Pastor Manuel was shot and killed by The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas in San Jose del Guaviare, Colombia, according to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts. FARC guerrillas made an appointment with Pastor Manuel and his family. “He thought they were going to authorize him to have a church officially, which he had discuss[ed] and asked [for] before,” said VOM contacts. “One of them came in [the house] with the pastor’s wife, Gloria, and his daughter while the pastor was outside. He was shot five times.” A FARC guerrilla who was...

Note: The following text is a quote: Manhattan U.S. Attorney Charges Members and Associates of Colombian Guerilla Front with Terrorism and Hostage-Taking of U.S. Citizen Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Michele M. Leonhart, the Acting Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and Michael J. Folmar, the Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the Miami Division of the FBI, announced today the unsealing of two indictments charging a total of 12 members and associates of the 57th Front of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), a Colombian terrorist group, with conspiracy to provide...

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.

SNIPPET: "Most importantly, Chavez has friends - powerful friends -- around the world who are assisting him in his goal of establishing communism as the dominant force in the world. Both Russia and China are assisting Chavez in spreading the message that the United States is "the most savage, cruel, and murderous empire that has existed in the history of the world," and Chavez's solution: 21st Century Socialism." SNIPPET: "The Moscow elite are not only supporting Chavez the dictator with weapons, but also Chavez the Marxist revolutionary with a high profile platform for his revolutionary rhetoric. In early September 2009...

(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...

BOGOTA (AP) — A captured leftist rebel who unwittingly helped officials rescue 15 hostages — including three American military contractors — was bundled aboard a plane to Florida on Saturday to face charges of terrorism in a U.S. federal court. Prosecutors say that Nancy Conde Rubio, 37, led a finance and supply operation for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. She is also the former girlfriend of rebel Gerardo Aguilar, who helped keep watch over the hostages. Aguilar, alias "Cesar," was extradited to the U.S. in July. Colombia also sent back another woman and eight men to face...

The government of Andorra has frozen “billions of dollars” in bank accounts linked to Iran, Venezuela, and a variety of terrorist groups, according to the daily Diairi d’Andorra, which publishes in Catalan. The Andorran move, announced on Thursday, was carried out in conjunction with a top secret U.S. Treasury investigation in Miami involving money laundered through Venezuelan banks that was transferred to corresponding banks in the United States. From Miami, the funds were then wired to accounts in Andorra that were controlled by Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, members of his family and his regime. But the funds were also used...