Free Republic

Terrorism: The March 1 death strike by the Colombian army against FARC warlord Raul Reyes broke open a trove of contacts in his computer. So why did the name of Barack Obama turn up there?Admittedly, it pales compared with other material from the dead thug's computer — such as FARC efforts to obtain uranium or Hugo Chavez's $300 million support. But the little Obama reference within the 15 FARC letters released by the Colombian government signals a disturbing pattern of contacts with rogue actors. It's not the first time, and Obama has yet to distance himself. In a Feb. 28...

Until six weeks ago, no one knew if foreign-minister-designate, Fernando Araujo, was even alive. The then-economic development minister had been kidnapped in December 2000 and held hostage by the Marxist FARC narcoterrorists. ...Araujo spent six years in a jungle captivity... Fast forward to December 2006, when in a hail of machine-gun fire he escaped his captors and staggered five days in the wilderness to return to civilization. Then on Monday, President Alvaro Uribe asked the still-gaunt Araujo to be Colombia's foreign minister,... Putting a former hostage forward seemed to be Uribe's intention. He noted that Araujo "himself suffered our national...

War On Terror: Why would a sensible ally like Colombia pull a bit of magic realism and name a recently escaped hostage its new foreign minister? Because it's trying to tell us something. Until six weeks ago, no one knew if foreign-minister-designate, Fernando Araujo, was even alive. The then-economic development minister had been kidnapped in December 2000 and held hostage by the Marxist FARC narcoterrorists. Tied up and trustled into the worst nightmare anyone can imagine, Araujo spent six years in a jungle captivity as his nation awaited sporadic proof of life from his captors. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, left,...

Ninety per cent of cocaine reaching the United States comes from Colombia - most of it via Farc rebels, a senior US official has told a magazine. The Drugs Enforcement Agency's Michael Braun described the Farc as "half terrorists, half traffickers - the face of global crime in the 21st Century". The left-wing guerrilla army is thought to be one of the world's most powerful. Colombia's right-wing paramilitaries - players in the country's civil conflict - are also involved in the drug trade. Under what is known as Plan Colombia, the US has given $3bn in mainly military aid to...

BOGOTA, Colombia - Resilient rebels. Rebounding drug crops. Rogue American soldiers, snared in plots to smuggle cocaine and funnel stolen ammunition to paramilitary death squads. The bad news has been piling up fast, almost five years after the United States began spending $3 billion under its Plan Colombia aid program to wipe out cocaine and heroin production and crush a long-running leftist insurgency. The setbacks show U.S. efforts to help restore peace and the rule of law to this Andean nation still face huge challenges. But Washington's top diplomat here is unfazed, saying the mission to grind down the rebels...

US Government wants to increase soldiers in Colombia Bogotá. The government of George W. Bush asked the US Congress to authorize an increase from 400 to 800 the number of soldiers and from 400 to 600 the number of contractors that can operate in Colombia, according to diplomatic sources. Officials at the Pentagon and the State Department began a series of meetings at the House of Representatives and the Senate with the aim of obtaining authorization of an increase in the maximum number permitted, presently 400 soldiers and 400 contractors, according to the ambassador from Bogotá in Washington, Luis Alberto...