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CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez said Sunday he is putting relations with Colombia "in the freezer" after its president ended the Venezuelan leader's role mediating with leftist rebels in the neighboring country. The announcement drew a strong rebuke from Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who said Chavez's actions suggest he wants to see a "terrorist government" run by leftist rebels in Bogota. Uribe also suggested Chavez might be looking to stir up conflict to boost his image ahead of a referendum on constitutional changes next weekend. ...

Diplomacy: The peace-at-any-price crowd is outraged by the way Colombia's president yanked the right of Hugo Chavez to talk with terrorists. But all Alvaro Uribe did was signal that in diplomacy, results matter.Middle East peace-process negotiators, take note. Colombia's president, at the urging of France's Nicolas Sarkozy, last August gave Venezuelan dictator Chavez a chance to mediate the release of 45 hostages held in Colombia's jungle dungeons by FARC, a brutal Marxist narcoterrorist group at war with Colombia since 1964. The French wanted FARC hostage Ingrid Betancourt, a Franco-Colombian citizen kidnapped in 2002, freed. Three American contractors are also on...

The United States on Friday urged Colombian rebels to provide proof their hostages were alive, but stopped short of backing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in his stymied efforts to mediate in the crisis. "We continue to call on the FARC to present proof of life of all hostages," a US State Department spokesman told AFP when asked about Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's decision to end Chavez's mediation for a prisoner-swap deal with the leftist rebels. "It's a sovereign decision taken by the government of Colombia. We respect their right to make that decision," he added. Uribe said Wednesday that he...

Colombians reckon that Álvaro Uribe saved their country. It's a pity for them that so many outsiders don't see their president that way WHEN hundreds of thousands of Colombians poured into the streets on July 5th to protest at the killing of 11 hostages who had been held by the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), President Álvaro Uribe chose to read this as support for his tough security policies. “This demonstration is notice to the international community that we cannot, in this hour of pain, give in to the criminals,” he said. But much of the...

"We are not going to allow our relationship with the United States to become that of Master and Colombia as the servile republic" "We are loyal and sincere, we comply with this alliance with the United States" "Why U.S. Congress did not protest in 2000 and 2002 when the country was in hands of guerrillas and paramilitary forces, and now that Colombia is coming loose from that grip they are horrorized? "We are not telling the United States to look after Colombia as its only solid ally left in Latin America; we are instead telling the United States to respect...

How the U.S. Congress deals with U.S.-Colombian relations in the next few weeks will have a lasting impact on U.S. and regional security and prosperity. Colombia is an important country, among other factors because of its seldom-recognized strategic value. Colombia is the keystone of South America, with gateways to the Andes Mountains, the Amazon basin, two oceans, and its close proximity to the Panama Canal. Our enemies recognize that significance. And make no mistake, the Marxist guerrillas who have been fighting for nearly five decades to gain control over Colombia are enemies of the United States and ofthe freedoms we...

First... Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi refused to meet with the Pro-American President of Colombia Alvaro Uribe when he came to Washington to personally beg democrats to release funding to aid their military. Pelosi shut him out. In late April the American Spectator wrote this about the destructive actions by Speaker Pelosi: She has third parties (Far Left groups) who have encouraged her not to take the meeting," says a leadership aide, who said a coalition of labor organizations and MoveOn.org had been pressuring her to not meet with Uribe. "We've never seen anything like it. It's not like...

Despite domestic struggles and scandals, it deserves access to U.S. markets.May 26, 2007 IF ONLY EVERY American ally were a paragon of virtue that followed Washington's every wise counsel, U.S. foreign policy would indeed be a cakewalk. Alas, the Bush administration has been blessed with few such trouble-free allies — nor has it been a blameless international leader. And so, in his seventh year in office, President Bush is in a weak position to make the case to Congress in favor of one of our most troubled and yet still deserving allies, Colombia.

Latin America: As U.S. allies go, we can't get one better than Colombia. It helps us a lot and now seeks free trade. But all it gets from Congress is a slap in the face. We now risk losing a vital ally. President Alvaro Uribe is Colombia's greatest leader since its 1824 independence. His achievements in diminishing a 44-year war and turning Colombia into a free-market garden spot are on a par with Lincoln's and Reagan's. Yet as little as he has to be modest about, his leadership is derided and undercut in Congress. In six short years, Uribe has...

BOGOTA - Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe said on Friday the U.S. Congress must stop treating his government like a pariah over a scandal involving right-wing paramilitaries and approve a free-trade pact like those proposed with Peru and Panama. Uribe is Washington's closest ally in Latin America but is struggling to convince U.S. Democrats who control Congress that he has curbed suspected ties between some of his political allies and illegal paramilitaries accused of atrocities. "We will not accept approval of trade pacts for Peru and Panama and that Colombia, in this battle, gets treated like a pariah. That is unacceptable,"...

Consider the record of Alvaro Uribe, president of Colombia, since his election in 2002. A deal with paramilitary forces has resulted in more than 31,000 fighters surrendering their weapons. By boosting the size and strength of security forces and going after the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Mr. Uribe was able to reduce the guerilla's presence in central Colombia. The country is safer -- the annual murder count, on a steady increase before Mr. Uribe took office, has declined by more than one-third -- and Colombia is more prosperous. The rate of increase in gross domestic product has gone...

BOGOTA, Colombia – A roadside bomb planted by leftist rebels killed 10 soldiers as they patrolled in southwestern Colombia on Thursday, the deadliest attack on security forces this year, authorities said. A similar attack killed nine police officers a day earlier. The new attack, which also injured 13 soldiers, occurred shortly after midnight Thursday morning, said the commander of the army's 3rd Division, Gen. Hernando Perez Molina, who blamed Colombia's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

  FOR COLOMBIA, A CHILL ON HILL By ROBERT D. NOVAK May 10, 2007 -- COLOMBIA'S President Alvaro Uribe re turned to Bogota this week in a state of shock. His three-day visit to Washington to win over Democrats in Congress was described by one U.S. supporter as "catastrophic." Colombian sources said Uribe was stunned by the ferocity of his Democratic opponents, and Vice President Francisco Santos publicly talked about cutting U.S.-Colombian ties. (snip) dictator Hugo Chavez can only exult in Uribe's embarrassment as he builds an anti-U.S. bloc. (snip) A truer portent of the Colombian reaction to the rebuff...

BOGOTA -- Former Vice President Al Gore on Friday withdrew from an environmental conference in Miami and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said Gore had pulled out to avoid appearing with Uribe, who is battling new accusations that he aided far-right death squads. Phone messages left with press representatives for Gore were not immediately returned. But Uribe, the Bush administration's closest South American ally, said at a press conference in Bogotá that Gore's decision was a sign of the damage being done to Colombia by the constant accusations against the president. Uribe said he still planned to attend the Green Forum,...

War On Drugs: Just as Colombia comes up for U.S. aid, out come flimsy 'scandal' stories claiming it may not be fighting its enemies by Marquis of Queensbury rules. It's nothing but partisan politics to undercut our ally. Over the weekend, a report surfaced in the Los Angeles Times that the chief of Colombia's army, Gen. Mario Montoya, was 'collaborating' with Colombia's paramilitaries, one of three scourges Colombia is trying to end in its 44-year war. The intelligence was unverified and the source anonymous, leaving readers little to judge but rumors. Montoya calls it an 'immense slur.' Colombia's paramilitaries are...

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said Saturday he favored the extradition to his country of executives of U.S. banana producer Chiquita after the company's admission that it paid Colombian right-wing death squads more than $1.7 million. "That would be normal. Extradition should be from here to there and from there to here," Uribe said. Colombia's attorney general said he would ask the U.S. Department of Justice for full disclosure about the case and would investigate possible links to another case from 2001. In that case, weapons and ammunition were smuggled into Colombia through a port facility operated...

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: President and Mrs. Bush arrived in Bogota, Columbia today. His visit is a show of support for the Columbia, which is a staunch ally of the United States. The following AP/USA Today piece summarizes the visit. Bush pays brief call on Colombia Updated 41 mins. ago BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — President Bush renewed U.S. support to Colombia, a strong but drug and violence-plagued U.S. ally which receives more U.S. aid than any country outside the Middle East and Afghanistan. Bush arrived in the nation's capital on Sunday to meet with President Alvaro Uribe in a...

Troops have been deployed to boost police presence in Bogota US President George W Bush has arrived in Colombia as part of his five-nation Latin American tour.He will meet President Alvaro Uribe in a display of support for efforts to combat that country's insurgency. Colombia is one of the largest recipients of US aid to help fight a long-running war against left-wing guerrillas and drug traffickers. The visit is being overshadowed by a political scandal, which has raised questions about US support in Congress. The scandal has linked a number of President Uribe's government politicians to right-wing paramilitaries. Some...

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,...