Free Republic

A Guatemalan court on Friday found former dictator Efrain Rios Montt guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity during the bloodiest phase of the country’s 36-year civil war. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison on the genocide charge and 30 years for crimes against humanity. It was the first time a former head of state had been found guilty of genocide in his or her own country. … Prosecutors say Rios Montt turned a blind eye as soldiers used rape, torture and arson to try to rid Guatemala of leftist rebels during his 1982-1983 rule, the most violent...

<p>SARAVENA, Columbia—The arrival of US special forces trainers in this battered town last month signaled that the US military will play a more direct role in Columbia’s long civil war, a challenge that could lead the country’s two leftist guerilla armies to broaden attacks against US targets.</p> <p>Late last month, the smaller of the two Marxist-oriented guerilla movements, the National Liberation Army, kidnapped two journalists, a Briton and an American, in this oil-rich region of eastern Columbia, saying the province had become a “war zone declared by the North American government and the Columbian state.”</p>

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Suspected leftist rebels posing as tourists planted two bombs that ripped through hotel rooms late on Tuesday in the coastal Colombian city of Santa Marta, killing one person and injuring five others, police said. The first bomb exploded in a hotel room in the city center, about 620 miles (1,000km) north of Bogota. That blast injured four people. Another hotel attack followed on Santa Marta's outskirts, killing one person and injuring another. Police said that in both cases the bombers checked into hotel rooms as tourists, planted the explosives and exited the buildings before the bombs detonated,...