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washingtonpost.com - South America
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Ecuador Giving U.S. Air Base the Boot (Thu, 04 Sep 2008)
MANTA, Ecuador -- When U.S. officers stationed in this humid coastal city give reasons they should continue their decade-old airborne surveillance mission, they talk not only about fighting drug runners on the open seas but about the $71 million they've spent to renovate and maintain the city's...

Author: Joshua Partlow | Category: Ecuador | More...
Despite U.S. Aid, Coca Cultivation On Rise in Andes (Wed, 03 Sep 2008)
COROICO, Bolivia -- Benito Cocarico admits that some of the coca leaves he grows to sell as tea and a traditional pick-me-up are channeled off into the broad stream of the global cocaine trade. But as he trudges on the muddy trails of his farm, located in a region where the raw material for the d...

Author: Juan Forero and Joshua Partlow | Category: Despite | More...
Unearthing Secrets of Colombia's Long War (Wed, 27 Aug 2008)
ANORI, Colombia -- A team of forensic anthropologists painstakingly dug up the bodies -- two from the town's decaying mausoleum, others from the moist earth in the cemetery, a couple from a field nearby. The preferred method of death: a single gunshot to the head. One young man had been beheaded,...

Author: Juan Forero | Category: Unearthing | More...
U.S. Extraditions Raise Concerns in Colombia (Tue, 19 Aug 2008)
MEDELLIN, Colombia -- In a small courtroom here, Ever Veloza has over the past year confessed to nearly 1,000 slayings in Colombia's conflict and recounted how the death squads he helped run were supported by army officers and prominent politicians.
Author: Juan Forero | Category: U.S. | More...
Interview With Colombian Paramilitary Commander (Mon, 18 Aug 2008)
Ever Veloza, a paramilitary commander in the now-defunct United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, spoke to The Washington Post on July 26 in his cellblock at Itagui prison, just outside of Medellin, Colombia. Once the commander of two powerful militias, Veloza is now participating in special judic...

Author: Post | Category: Interview | More...
Bolivian Deadlock Remains as President, Foes Are Returned to Office (Mon, 11 Aug 2008)
LA PAZ, Bolivia, Aug. 10 -- Bolivians voted Sunday to keep President Evo Morales in office, with unofficial returns on a recall referendum giving him a victory even larger than the one that put him in office more than two years ago.

Author: Joshua Partlow | Category: Bolivian | More...
In a Conflict that Crosses Borders, Ecuadorans Track an Elusive Foe (Fri, 08 Aug 2008)
ALONG THE SAN MIGUEL RIVER, Ecuador -- The captain held a finger to his lips, and his soldiers crouched on either the side of the jungle path. He saw the pair of footprints pressed into the mud behind a tree, which he recognized as marks from the rubber boots preferred by the Colombian guerrillas he...

Author: Joshua Partlow | Category: In | More...
A Walk in the Ecuadoran Rain Forest (Thu, 07 Aug 2008)
ALONG THE SAN MIGUEL RIVER, Ecuador -- My Spanish is rusty and I wasn't sure I had heard the pilot correctly. You want me to rappel? From the helicopter?
Author: Joshua Partlow | Category: A | More...
Bolivian Referendum Points Up Clashing Visions (Wed, 06 Aug 2008)
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia, Aug. 5 -- Henrri Zeballos, a lawyer, and his wife, a dentist, gathered the kids in their minivan for a Sunday-morning drive through their home town of Santa Cruz.

Author: Joshua Partlow | Category: Bolivian | More...
Alleged Drug Lord Captured (Sat, 02 Aug 2008)
MEXICO CITY, Aug. 1 -- An alleged Colombian drug kingpin who escaped from prison in 2001 and is believed to be the main cocaine supplier to a violent drug gang in the Mexican state of Sinaloa has been captured here, federal police announced Friday.

Author: Manuel Roig-Franzia | Category: Alleged | More...
FARC Dissidents Assist Colombia (Sat, 02 Aug 2008)
BOGOTA, Colombia -- Raúl Agudelo was a fearsome commander of Colombia's largest rebel group, carrying out killings, kidnappings and extortions for more than 20 years. It was the only life he really knew. But going back to that life is now the last thing he wants to do.

Author: Juan Forero | Category: FARC | More...
Millions Rally for Colombian Hostages (Mon, 21 Jul 2008)
BOGOTA, Colombia, July 20 -- In the letters María Teresa de Mendieta received from her husband, he spoke of a jungle-borne disease that had so infected his legs that he had to drag himself through the mud to go to the bathroom. He wrote of being chained at the neck with other hostages held by Col...
Author: Juan Forero | Category: Millions | More...
Takeovers Captivate Ecuador (Sat, 19 Jul 2008)
QUITO, Ecuador, July 18 -- The tip came to the old journalist at midnight about the decision at the presidential palace: The police were on their way.

Author: Joshua Partlow | Category: Takeovers | More...
Sustaining the Medellin Miracle (Fri, 11 Jul 2008)
MEDELLIN, Colombia -- This labyrinthine metropolis transformed over the course of a decade from a battlefield of drug lords, paramilitaries and leftist guerrillas into one of the safest, most dynamic cities in Latin America. Visionary inner-city renewal projects and a push to take back the lawles...

Author: Anthony Faiola | Category: Sustaining | More...
Rescued Hostages Express Gratitude (Tue, 08 Jul 2008)
Three American defense contractors expressed public gratitude yesterday for their rescue from rebels in Colombia last week and urged Americans not to forget hundreds of Colombians still held hostage in punishing conditions.

Author: William Branigin | Category: Rescued | More...
Chávez, Seeking Colombia Role, Distances Himself From Rebels (Tue, 08 Jul 2008)
BOGOTA, Colombia, July 7 -- At a May presidential summit in Brazil, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela sought out his Colombian counterpart and regional rival, Álvaro Uribe. The two had not spoken in months. But Chávez got right to the point, telling Uribe: "We haven't been giving money to the...
Author: Juan Forero | Category: Chávez, | More...
Colombian Officials Recount Rescue Plan (Sun, 06 Jul 2008)
BOGOTA, Colombia, July 5 -- Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos told a special team of intelligence agents assigned with drawing up a hostage rescue operation to be inventive and bold.

Author: Juan Forero | Category: Colombian | More...
Latin America Policy at a Crossroads (Fri, 04 Jul 2008)
MEXICO CITY, July 3 -- Sen. John McCain's trip to Colombia and Mexico this week made one thing clear: The shape of the United States' relationship with Latin America will hinge on the outcome of the 2008 election.

Author: Juliet Eilperin and Manuel Roig-Franzia | Category: Latin | More...
Hostages Freed in Colombia Are Reunited With Families (Fri, 04 Jul 2008)
BOGOTA, Colombia, July 3 -- On their first full day of freedom, the hostages rescued from guerrilla captivity in Colombia were reunited with relatives, as new details emerged Thursday about their captors and the conditions under which they were held.

Author: Travis Fox and William Branigin | Category: Hostages | More...
Colombians Briefed McCain Before Rescue (Thu, 03 Jul 2008)
CARTAGENA, Colombia, July 2 -- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) spoke repeatedly Tuesday and early Wednesday about how he would work as president to free three American hostages held by leftist guerrillas in Colombia, but he declined to reveal one key fact: Colombian President Álvaro Uribe and his aides...
Author: Juliet Eilperin | Category: Colombians | More...
15 Hostages Rescued in Colombia (Thu, 03 Jul 2008)
Colombia's military yesterday rescued the most prominent of several hundred hostages held by Marxist rebels, a group of 15 that included the French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three American Defense Department contractors who had been imprisoned in remote jungle camps since 2003.

Author: Juan Forero | Category: 15 | More...
In Testimony, Former Spy Chief Says Peru's Fujimori Is Innocent (Tue, 01 Jul 2008)
LIMA, Peru, June 30 -- Former president Alberto Fujimori and his security chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, who together wielded unprecedented powers in Peru throughout the 1990s, faced one another in a Lima courtroom Monday, the first time the two had seen each other since fleeing the country nearly...

Author: Lucien Chauvin | Category: In | More...
Colombia's President Seeks Referendum on Disputed '06 Reelection (Sat, 28 Jun 2008)
Colombia's Supreme Court on Thursday questioned the legitimacy of President Álvaro Uribe's reelection in 2006, prompting Uribe to call on Congress to enable a new presidential election that could ultimately extend his stay in office.

Author: Juan Forero | Category: Colombia's | More...
Coca Cultivation Rises In Colombia, U.N. Says (Thu, 19 Jun 2008)
BOGOTA, Colombia, June 18 -- The amount of land devoted to production of coca, the leaf used to make cocaine, has grown at a dramatic pace in Colombia despite a huge American-funded counter-drug program of aerial fumigation and aggressive interdiction, a U.N. agency said Wednesday.
Author: Juan Forero | Category: Coca | More...
In Venezuela, the Newest State Business Is a Dairy (Sat, 07 Jun 2008)
BARQUISIMETO, Venezuela -- Mauricio Herrera describes himself as a devoted soldier in President Hugo Chávez's self-styled revolution. So when oil workers opposed to Chávez went on strike in 2002, Herrera was among loyalists at the state oil company who revived production.

Author: Juan Forero | Category: In | More...
In Argentine Drug Courts, A Shocker at Sentencing (Sat, 07 Jun 2008)
BUENOS AIRES -- After getting caught with contraband like ecstasy tablets and marijuana, a few young Argentines have been asked by judges recently to pay an unexpected price for breaking the nation's drug laws: None at all.

Author: Monte Reel | Category: In | More...
Overseas, Excitement Over Obama (Thu, 05 Jun 2008)
LONDON, June 4 -- For much of the world, Sen. Barack Obama's victory in the Democratic primaries was a moment to admire the United States at a time when the nation's image abroad has been seriously damaged.

Author: Kevin Sullivan | Category: Overseas, | More...
Once Again, Argentines Feeling on Edge (Tue, 03 Jun 2008)
BUENOS AIRES -- Today's Argentina is not gripped by crisis. It's gripped by the fear of crisis.
Author: Monte Reel | Category: Once | More...
FARC Rebels Vow To Continue Fight (Mon, 26 May 2008)
BOGOTA, Colombia, May 25 -- Colombia's largest rebel group pledged Sunday to carry on in its decades-long war against the U.S.-backed government after confirming that the group's legendary commander had died of natural causes. The Defense Ministry had said the day before that Manuel Marulanda, who...

Author: Juan Forero | Category: FARC | More...
Top Colombian Rebel Dead of Heart Attack (Sun, 25 May 2008)
BOGOTA, Colombia, May 24 -- Manuel Marulanda, the leader of a guerrilla army that has bedeviled this country for more than four decades, has died of a heart attack, the Colombian government said Saturday.

Author: Juan Forero | Category: Top | More...
In Venezuelan Schools, Creating 'a New Man' (Mon, 19 May 2008)
CARACAS, Venezuela -- At the sprawling Fermin Toro School, students take classes that extol President Hugo Chávez's brand of socialism and highlight the menace posed by the imperial power to the north, the United States.

Author: Juan Forero | Category: In | More...
FARC Computer Files Are Authentic, Interpol Probe Finds (Fri, 16 May 2008)
CARACAS, Venezuela, May 15 -- Interpol, the international police agency, said Thursday that computer files seized by Colombia's army in a raid on a rebel camp belonged to a top guerrilla commander and had not been modified, falsified or forged.
Author: Juan Forero | Category: FARC | More...
Venezuela Offered Aid to Colombian Rebels (Thu, 15 May 2008)
CARACAS, Venezuela, May 14 -- High-ranking officials in Venezuela offered to help Colombian guerrillas obtain surface-to-air missiles meant to change the balance of power in their war with the Colombian government, according to internal rebel documents.

Author: Juan Forero | Category: Venezuela | More...
Colombia Sends 13 Paramilitary Leaders to U.S. (Wed, 14 May 2008)
CARACAS, Venezuela, May 13 -- Colombia's government extradited 13 top paramilitary warlords to the United States on Tuesday, effectively handing over the most brutal commanders of the country's once-fearsome paramilitary movement.

Author: Juan Forero | Category: Colombia | More...
Storied Paper Bets on a Daily Future in Colombia (Mon, 12 May 2008)
BOGOTA, Colombia, May 11 -- El Espectador, Colombia's oldest newspaper, has been bombed, torched and occupied by troops, and its most legendary editor, Guillermo Cano, was slain in a hail of gunfire. The paper published Gabriel García Márquez's first stories, long before he became a Nobel Prize...

Author: Juan Forero | Category: Storied | More...
State Autonomy Vote May Reshape Bolivia (Sun, 04 May 2008)
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia, May 3 -- The dates on a 20-foot-high countdown calendar that hangs in this city's main square do not go past Sunday, when voters decide whether their state will declare autonomy from Bolivia's central government.
Author: Monte Reel | Category: State | More...
Argentina Tries to Reconcile Exporting Food With Prices at Home (Sat, 26 Apr 2008)
BUENOS AIRES, April 25 -- Inside a busy church hall early Friday morning, many of the 60 men waiting for a free breakfast tilted their heads upward to watch news flashes periodically scroll across a wall-mounted television.

Author: Monte Reel | Category: Argentina | More...
Applying Capitalism to Protect Dwindling Brazilian Forestland (Fri, 25 Apr 2008)
AGUA BOA, Brazil -- Driving a farm truck across the mud roads of the eastern Amazon region is agony on axles, a careful slalom around slippery ruts and yawning craters. The scenery is unromantic: mostly cattle pasture and soybean fields, with the occasional stand of naked tree trunks charred by l...

Author: Monte Reel | Category: Applying | More...
Cousin of Colombian President Arrested in Death Squad Probe (Wed, 23 Apr 2008)
BOGOTA, Colombia, April 22 -- Authorities on Tuesday arrested former senator Mario Uribe, a cousin and close ally of President Álvaro Uribe, for alleged ties to death squads in a widening inquiry that has implicated nearly a quarter of Colombia's Congress.

Author: Juan Forero | Category: Cousin | More...
Former Bishop Is Victor Over Party Long in Power (Mon, 21 Apr 2008)
BUENOS AIRES, April 20 -- A former Roman Catholic bishop ended the 61-year rule of Paraguay's dominant political party on Sunday, promising to replace the country's reputation for corruption with one of honesty.
Author: Monte Reel | Category: Former | More...
Fire Haze Shrouds Argentine Capital (Fri, 18 Apr 2008)
BUENOS AIRES, April 17 -- The Argentine capital has been veiled in a malodorous fog this week, as smoke spreads from massive grass fires centered in a neighboring rural province.

Author: Monte Reel | Category: Fire | More...
D'oh! 'Simpsons' Again Angers South Americans (Thu, 17 Apr 2008)
BUENOS AIRES, April 16 -- If Homer Simpson and his family are planning any South American vacations in the near future, they might want to come up with a backup plan.

Author: Monte Reel | Category: D'oh! | More...
D'oh! 'Simpsons' Again Angers South Americans (Thu, 17 Apr 2008)
BUENOS AIRES, April 16 -- If Homer Simpson and his family are planning any South American vacations in the near future, they might want to come up with a backup plan.

Author: Monte Reel | Category: D'oh! | More...
Bush Concedes Defeat On Colombia Trade Pact (Tue, 15 Apr 2008)
President Bush said yesterday that a trade agreement with Colombia is "dead" unless House Democrats agree to hold a vote on the pact, effectively admitting defeat on a White House priority.
Author: Post | Category: Bush | More...
House Delays Deliberation of Colombia Pact (Fri, 11 Apr 2008)
The House voted yesterday to delay consideration of a trade agreement with Colombia, despite fierce opposition from the Bush administration and accusations by Republicans that Democrats were subverting long-standing laws on such pacts.

Author: Paul Kane | Category: House | More...
Taking On the President's Family (Wed, 09 Apr 2008)
BARINAS, Venezuela -- Wilmer Azuaje is baby-faced, and his house here in this provincial capital is decorated with kitsch, including a giant painting of a voluptuous, naked blonde.

Author: Juan Forero | Category: Taking | More...
Bush Backs New Trade Pact With Colombia (Tue, 08 Apr 2008)
President Bush announced yesterday that he is sending a Colombian free-trade agreement to Congress, moving toward a confrontation with Democrats and labor unions that he could lose during a hotly contested election year.

Author: Dan Eggen | Category: Bush | More...
An Ambassador Born of the 'Dirty Wars' (Tue, 08 Apr 2008)
Outside the office of Hector Timerman, Argentina's new ambassador to Washington, across from an oval ballroom, are photographs of his 50 predecessors.
Author: Nora Boustany | Category: An | More...
Venezuela Steps Up Efforts To Thwart Cocaine Traffic (Mon, 07 Apr 2008)
ELORZA, Venezuela -- Facing criticism that cocaine trafficking is out of control, Venezuela's government this year has embarked on an aggressive program to track drug-smuggling planes and destroy clandestine airstrips used by Colombian drug clans, Venezuelan drug enforcement and military official...

Author: Juan Forero | Category: Venezuela | More...
Brazil's Military Mobilizes Against Dengue (Thu, 03 Apr 2008)
RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazilian military troops joined public health workers this week to battle the deadliest outbreak of dengue fever to hit this city, which in recent years has been the epicenter of the disease's resurgence throughout Latin America.

Author: Monte Reel | Category: Brazil's | More...
Colombian Troops Kill Farmers, Pass Off Bodies as Rebels' (Sun, 30 Mar 2008)
SAN FRANCISCO, Colombia -- All Cruz Elena González saw when the soldiers came past her house was a corpse, wrapped in a tarp and strapped to a mule. A guerrilla killed in combat, soldiers muttered, as they trudged past her meek home in this town in northwestern Colombia.

Author: Juan Forero | Category: Colombian | More...
Colombia's Rebels Face Possibility of Implosion (Sat, 22 Mar 2008)
PEREIRA, Colombia -- Hungry, desperate and afraid for his life, Pedro Pablo Montoya shot the commander he was supposed to protect. He then severed the commander's right hand -- as proof he'd killed one of Colombia's most wanted men -- and deserted the once-powerful rebel group to which he had ple...
Author: Juan Forero | Category: Colombia's | More...
Brazil Pursues Crackdown on Loggers After Surge in Cutting (Fri, 21 Mar 2008)
TAILANDIA, Brazil -- The Brazilian government has launched an aggressive crackdown on logging in the Amazon, an operation that pits environmental regulators against people who say they depend on those protected resources to survive.

Author: Monte Reel | Category: Brazil | More...
Latin American Crisis Resolved (Sat, 08 Mar 2008)
BOGOTA, Colombia, March 7 -- The presidents of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela on Friday agreed to end a bitter standoff that had resulted in troop deployments, a downturn in trade and a rupture in diplomatic relations.

Author: Juan Forero | Category: Latin | More...
Colombian Rebels' Ties to Chávez Come Into Focus (Fri, 07 Mar 2008)
BOGOTA, Colombia, March 6 -- A trove of correspondence recovered during a raid on a guerrilla camp is providing a rare window into how Colombia's largest rebel group has drawn closer to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in an effort to acquire money, arms and the political recognition the organiza...

Author: Juan Forero | Category: Colombian | More...
Diplomats Closer To Ending Crisis In Latin America (Thu, 06 Mar 2008)
BOGOTA, Colombia, March 5 -- As Venezuelan troops took up positions on Colombia's border, diplomats at the Organization of American States moved closer Wednesday to resolving a crisis that ignited when Colombia launched a strike against Marxist rebels just inside Ecuador.
Author: Juan Forero | Category: Diplomats | More...
Bush Attends to Foreign Policy Issues (Wed, 05 Mar 2008)
President Bush sought to cope with foreign policy crises on multiple fronts yesterday, reaching out to the president-elect of Russia for the first time and seizing on military tensions in Latin America to renew his quest for congressional approval of a free-trade pact with Colombia.

Author: Michael Abramowitz | Category: Bush | More...
Heated Words in Wake of Colombian Raid (Wed, 05 Mar 2008)
RECIFE, Brazil, March 4 -- While troops in Ecuador and Venezuela moved toward their borders with Colombia, the leaders of those three countries moved further from a negotiated solution Tuesday. One ratcheted up his rhetoric, another cut trade ties, and the third warned of a broader regional conflict...

Author: Monte Reel | Category: Heated | More...
Stress Builds Over Colombia Raid (Tue, 04 Mar 2008)
RECIFE, Brazil, March 3 -- More accusations of cross-border meddling intensified diplomatic tensions Monday between Colombia and its neighbors Ecuador and Venezuela, as other Latin American leaders tried to defuse a crisis they fear could threaten regional stability.

Author: Monte Reel | Category: Stress | More...
After Deadly Assault on Guerrillas, Chávez Orders Troops to Colombian Border (Mon, 03 Mar 2008)
Calling a Colombian military strike that killed a guerrilla commander "a cowardly assassination," Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on Sunday closed his country's embassy in Colombia and ordered tanks, planes and thousands of troops to the 1,300-mile border the two countries share.
Author: Juan Forero | Category: After | More...
Colombian Rebel Commander Killed (Sun, 02 Mar 2008)
Colombia's U.S.-backed security forces struck a major blow against the