He was the brains behind ‘Charlie Wilson’s War.’ Now his tactics are hot, from Pakistan to Colombia.
Strange things are happening in the jungles of Colombia. After years of fighting a fierce, conventional war against the leftist guerrilla group known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country’s military accomplished a major feat earlier [...]

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Today the two leaders, often partners but sometimes rivals, offer starkly different paths toward development, and it is Brazil’s milder and more pragmatic approach that appears ascendant. Amid the decline of American influence in the region, the Brazilian president is discreetly outflanking Chávez at almost every turn in the struggle for leadership in South America.
Chávez [...]

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Attracted by the climate, favorable tax policy and laid-back lifestyle, home buyers and investors are flocking here from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Europe and the United States.
The skyline increasingly resembles a mini-Sao Paulo, a dense forest of steel and concrete towers that includes dozens of new high-rise condominiums and apartment buildings. (Not enough of the buildings [...]

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Speak fraternally but carry a stick. Is there a new arms race—or just overdue retooling of armies?
Even as its leaders talk, Latin America is re-arming—or rather some South American countries are. In the broader region, including Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, total defence spending shot up to $38 billion in 2007 from $25 billion [...]

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Russia is one of the least peaceful places in the world, according to a new study, which ranks it among countries mired in drug trafficking, guerilla wars and political instability.
Russia took 131st place out of 140 countries on the Global Peace Index, just below Colombia and above Lebanon, says the study, released late Monday. Iceland [...]

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Evidence of Venezuela’s support for terrorism could carry Hugo Chávez to the pariah status he deserves.
THE CONFIRMATION by an international forensics team that laptops and hard drives captured by Colombia originated in a camp of FARC terrorists ought to open a new era in relations between the democratic world and Hugo Chávez’s Venezuelan government. Whether [...]

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The United States and Colombia have long been wary of Venezuela’s peacetime military buildup, suspecting the weapons could end up in the hands of drug-trafficking Colombian rebels.
Now they have documented reasons for their worries — certified by Interpol.
Colombian rebel computer files described Thursday as authentic by the international police agency suggest a dramatic arms buildup [...]

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Documents that Colombia says it recovered from a slain guerrilla leader give the clearest indication yet that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sought to arm and finance insurgents across the border.
The documents — more than a dozen internal rebel messages — detail several years of close cooperation between top officials in Venezuela’s government and military and [...]

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A spectacular find may prove what many have long suspected. E-mails and other files found on a FARC laptop in the jungles of Ecuador show that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez may have close relations with the terror group. By Jens Glüsing more…

Photo Gallery: Colombia’s Struggle against FARC
Sarkozy to the Rescue: France Announces Mission to Broker [...]

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The escalating crisis between Colombia and its neighbors is more than just a case of Andean road rage. It exposes volatile political fault lines not seen in the Americas in a generation. On one side stand President Bush and regional allies led by conservative Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, whose army is accused of invading Ecuador [...]

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The real news behind South America’s latest border fracas is Colombia’s looming victory in its own narcotics-powered civil war.
This is a victory Colombia’s chief international antagonist, Venezuelan caudillo Hugo Chavez, fears — for several calculating reasons.
Let’s start with Colombia’s slow and grueling democratic accomplishment. On Feb. 5, hundreds of thousands of Colombian citizens [...]

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Britons tend to regard wars between South American countries as Ruritanian affairs. And the escalating dispute between Colombia and Venezuela certainly has its opéra bouffe aspects, not least because of the language of the Venezuelan strongman, Hugo Chávez: “Colombians must be liberated from the US empire”, “Dracula’s fangs are covered in blood”, etc. But the [...]

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The governments of Ecuador and Venezuela have sent troops to their borders with Colombia. It’s an angry response to a Colombian attack on FARC rebels in Ecuador on Saturday. Is war about to break out in South America? By Jens Glüsing in Rio de Janeiro more…

The World From Berlin: ‘Colombia Is Risking a Regional Escalation’
The [...]

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And this shocker: Colombia says some documents suggest the rebels have bought and sold uranium.
“When they mention negotiations for 50 kilos of uranium this means that the FARC are taking big steps in the world of terrorism to become a global aggressor. We’re not talking of domestic guerrilla but transnational terrorism,” Gen. Oscar Naranjo said [...]

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Venezuela and Ecuador have ordered troops to their borders with Colombia, raising concerns of a broader conflict after Colombia killed a top rebel leader on Ecuadorean soil.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday promised Venezuela would respond militarily if Colombia violates its border, where he ordered tanks as well as thousands of troops. He also ordered [...]

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