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Undercover Officers Got Acting Lessons; 'Crocodile Dundee' BOGOTÁ, Colombia -- New details have emerged about an important supporting role for the U.S. in Colombia's daring rescue of 15 hostages held by the country's Marxist guerrillas. One area where the Americans were directly involved: Giving Hollywood-style acting classes to the Colombian undercover military officers who duped the guerrillas into handing over the hostages. Preparation for the rescue mission, which freed three Americans and former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, involved mounting a makeshift studio on an army base and drilling the undercover military officers in their acting roles, according to senior...

War On Terror: A foreign country puts its men on the line to rescue American hostages and pulls off one of the greatest rescues in history. Might a little gratitude from Congress be in order?Not since the 1976 Israeli raid on Entebbe has a rescue of hostages held by terrorists ended so spectacularly. Wednesday's liberation by the Colombian army of three Northrop contractors and 12 others will go down as one of history's great strikes against terror. In the wake of the rescue, Democrats' caricature of Colombia as a night-haunted right-wing dictatorship, a la 1976 Guatemala, looks increasingly hollow. The...

You will REALLY enjoy this 2-minute clip. Great little short mini-documentary showing the release yesterday of the Colombian and American hostages who had been kidnapped years ago by pro-Communist, pro-Che Guevara FARC guerillas.The former Presidential Candidate, (female), lead hostage and one of the main speakers on the airport tarmac, profusely thanks the pro-US President Uribe, and then, rolling her eyes still in disbelief, says she was "amazed by the BRILLIANCE of the Army of Colombia" in their plan to seize the hostages, faking as if they were leftists rebels themselves.Another of the liberated, a man, shouts, LONG LIVE LIBERTY! and...

MEXICO CITY—Senator John McCain congratulated President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia on Wednesday for the Colombian government’s rescue of 15 hostages, including three Americans, held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a Marxist-inspired insurgency that Mr. McCain repeatedly criticized this week during a trip to Latin America. “This is great news,” Mr. McCain told reporters on his campaign plane enroute to Mexico City from Cartagena, Colombia, after Mr. Uribe called Mr. McCain in the air to inform him of the success of the operation. “Thank God they are released.” The timing of the rescue, which occurred while Mr....

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and top military officials addressed the country late Wednesday to explain the daring rescue operation to freed former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages held by leftist rebels...

<p>BOGOTA (Reuters) - French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, three Americans and 11 other hostages were rescued from leftist guerrillas by Colombian troops on Wednesday after years in captivity, the government said.</p>

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is expressing his condolences over the death of the leader of Colombia's largest rebel group, calling him "our brother" in the fight against social injustice. Ortega spoke Sunday in Uruguay at a gathering of leftist parties and organizations in Latin America. He praised rebel commander Manuel Marulanda, who the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia confirmed died in March of a heart attack. Ortega called Marulanda an "extraordinary fighter" who struggled for decades to reverse "profound inequalities." The Nicaraguan president urged attendees at the Sao Paulo Forum to topple "the tyranny of global capitalism," and accused Washington...

President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela has been caught. Despite his protestations of innocence, Interpol has corroborated the authenticity of thousands of computer files captured during a Colombian Army raid on a FARC rebel camp in Venezuela. Only a small share of this trove has been released, but it leaves little doubt that Venezuela has been aiding the guerrillas’ effort to overthrow Colombia’s democratically elected government. The Colombian government released documents from the computers that suggest Venezuelan intelligence officials tried to secure weapons for the FARC and that Mr. Chávez’s government offered the rebels oil and a $250 million loan. Information...

Lenin once diagnosed his opponents as suffering from an infantile disorder. Who could blame President Uribe of Colombia if he came to the same conclusion about the other presidents of the South American republics? The disorder is characterized by revolutionary romanticism, the view that anyone who takes up arms against an established government in the name of social justice must be motivated by a deep love of humanity. To believe this, it is necessary to understand neither history nor human nature. To pretend to believe it requires considerable cynicism and moral turpitude.

Excerpt - BOGOTA, March 28 (Reuters) - Colombia will free hundreds of guerrilla fighters if rebel leaders release politician Ingrid Betancourt, who is in ill health after being held hostage for years in secret jungle camps, the government said. President Alvaro Uribe signed a decree late on Thursday allowing the massive release of guerrillas from jail if French-Colombian Betancourt, kidnapped during her 2002 presidential campaign and ailing from hepatitis B, is set free, Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo told reporters. The decree was a bid to speed up efforts at swapping rebel-held politicians, police and soldiers for jailed guerrillas after...

But in their totality, the hundreds of pages of documents so far made public by Colombia paint an even more chilling picture. The raid appears to have preempted a breathtakingly ambitious "strategic plan" agreed on by Chávez and the FARC with the initial goal of gaining international recognition for a movement designated a terrorist organization by both the United States and Europe. Chávez then intended to force Colombian President Álvaro Uribe to negotiate a political settlement with the FARC, and to promote a candidate allied with Chávez and the FARC to take power from Uribe. All this is laid out...

What is it about Democrats and Hugo Chávez? Even as the Venezuelan strongman was threatening war last week against Colombia, Congress was threatening to hand him a huge strategic victory by spurning Colombia's free trade overtures to the U.S. This isn't the first time Democrats have come to Mr. Chávez's aid, but it would be the most destructive. The Venezuelan is engaged in a high-stakes competition over the political and economic direction of Latin America. He wants the region to follow his path of ever greater state control of the economy, while assisting U.S. enemies wherever he can. He's already...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez reached for what he considered the ultimate insult when he called Colombia "the new Israel." If by that he means a country better governed than its immediate neighbors, that dares to protect itself against terrorists across its border despite getting bludgeoned for it by the international left -- he had a point. Colombia killed Raul Reyes, the second in command of the narco-terrorist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in a raid about two miles inside Ecuador. Usually when a terrorist leader dies, it's cause for celebration. But Ecuador broke off diplomatic relations, and Chavez mobilized...

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - A single laptop can reveal much, and so it is with the digital treasure chest that Colombian commandos found in the jungle quarters of slain rebel leader Raul Reyes. Files in the computer seized in Saturday's raid into Ecuador that claimed the lives of Reyes and 23 of his comrades offer an intimate portrait of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's desire to undermine Colombia's U.S.-allied government. If authentic, the documents show that sympathies Chavez first aired publicly in January grew out of a relationship that dates back more than a decade. But Chavez is not one of...

BOGOTA, Colombia — President Alvaro Uribe said Tuesday that his government would ask the International Criminal Court to try Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez for financing and supporting Colombia's main rebel group while it was engaging in genocide. The Uribe government claims documents found in the laptop of a slain commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia indicate Chavez's government recently gave $300 million to the group known as the FARC

As reported by CNN (CNN en Espanol?), Alvaro Uribe (president of Colombia) has just announced a few minutes ago that the Colombian government will submit a criminal complaint against the President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez before the International Criminal Court for his ties with the FARC and having financed and supported a terrorist organization. Video coming soon.

Venezuela and Ecuador sent troops to their borders with Colombia on Sunday after their Andean neighbor bombed Colombian rebels inside Ecuador in an attack Caracas said could spark a war. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez also deployed tanks to the frontier, mobilized warplanes and withdrew his diplomats from Bogota in the worst dispute in the unstable region for years. Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, a close ally of the leftist, anti-U.S. Chavez, expelled Colombia's ambassador and recalled his own envoy from Bogota in protest over what he said was an intentional violation of his nation's sovereignty. Colombia responded to Correa by offering...

Friday, January 25, 2008 WASHINGTON -- Traveling salespeople always have a hard job. That's especially true when the economy isn't exactly booming -- and the product you are selling will go off the market in a year. That kind of describes Secretary of State Condi Rice as she tries to pitch American foreign policy to domestic and international "customers" in the last 12 months of the Bush administration. That's not to say she isn't trying, but it's proving to be a tough sell. January started with Ms. Rice trying to convince "moderate Arab regimes" that Iran is a major threat;...

It was Christmas week in the Colombian city of Villavicencio and the events, as they were set to unfold, had all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster. If only the "heroes" hadn't been exposed as liars. A 3-year-old boy, his mother and another woman, all hostages of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), were about to be freed. Credit for their release was to go to Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela. Former Argentine President Néstor Kirchner had flown up from Buenos Aires to take part in the show. Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone was on hand too, eager to document...

Excerpt - Hours after welcoming hostages freed by the Colombian rebel group FARC, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged European and Latin American governments Friday to stop branding Colombia's guerrillas terrorists as does the United States. "I am asking the governments (across Latin America) to take the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and ELN (National Liberation Army) off their lists of global terrorist groups," Chavez told the National Assembly, saying he asked European nations to do the same. "Because those lists exist for one reason alone -- US pressure," Chavez said in his address on the year 2007. The leftist...

via machine translation - Bogota present evidence of life of Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans HOSTAGES. The Colombian government has made public Friday evidence-videos, photographs and letters showing that 16 hostages of the Colombian guerrilla, whose Franco-Colombienne Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans were alive. A video that was broadcast without the soundtrack by television Colombian Ingrid Betancourt demonstrated in extreme thinness, and chained hands crossed, head down and apparently quite tired. Ingrid Betancourt who was in pants and a blue shirt, remained silent. She has very long hair tied up on the shoulder. The hostage, kidnapped on February 23, 2002...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday he was cutting off all contacts with the Colombian government, but fell short of announcing an end to diplomatic relations between the two countries. Chavez's announcement came after a series of sharp exchanges with President Alvaro Uribe set off when the Colombian leader last week abruptly ended the Venezuelan's mediation between Colombia's government and leftist rebels. "While President Uribe is president of Colombia I will have no type of relationship with him or with the government in Colombia," Chavez said. Speaking in the southwestern state of Tachira, Chavez said he will...

CARACAS, Venezuela — A diplomatic crisis between Venezuela and Colombia deepened on Tuesday as the government said it has called home its ambassador to Colombia for consultations. The presidents of the two countries have exchanged increasingly sharp words since Colombia's conservative Alvaro Uribe halted efforts by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez to mediate a swap of prisoners for hostages held by Colombian rebels...Colombia's foreign minister, Fernando Araujo, however, said that his government will not order its ambassador to return home and said the dispute was with the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, rather than Venezuela. "The enemy...

Latin America: Hugo Chavez's reaction to being fired as mediator between Colombia and his narcoterrorist pals shows the evil game Venezuela's dictator has played against his neighbor. It also signals trouble at home. In telling Chavez that his services would no longer be needed, Colombia President Alvaro Uribe was firm but polite. He thanked Chavez for his "help" in seeking a swap between 500 FARC guerrillas in jail in Colombia and some 45 "high value" hostages being held by the same terrorists who've been at war with Colombia since 1964. But as a mediator, Chavez proved he could keep neither...

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...

In a new show of force against yet another pro-democratic government, US Democrat leaders snubbed Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. Initially the Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, still gushing from her meeting with terrorist leader and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, had refused to meet with Uribe—at all. An aide to Pelosi is quoted as having said: “She has third parties who have encouraged her not to take the meeting. We’ve never seen anything like it. It’s not like we’re talking about some family from San Francisco who stopped by her office unannounced. This is the president of a country!”...

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,...

BOGOTA (Reuters) - More than a dozen Colombian politicians agreed in 2001 to cooperate with right-wing paramilitary criminals, says a document revealed on Friday, fueling the country's worst political scandal in years. Three members President Alvaro Uribe's congressional coalition have been sent to prison for their links with the drug-running militias, and more lawmakers were under investigation before paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso turned the document over as part of his court case. Signed by militia bosses including Mancuso, who this week admitted he ordered massacres and 336 assassinations in the name of fighting left-wing rebels, the document also carries the...

President Hugo Chávez asked Tuesday his Colombian counterpart Álvaro Uribe to clarify if his government is concerned about recent purchase of weapons by Venezuela, as stated by US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. During his presentation at the meeting of Defense Ministers of the Americas held currently in Nicaragua, the US senior official argued that neighboring nations were concerned about recent procurement by Venezuela of arms and the possibility of such weapons ending in the hands of leftwing rebels. President Chávez rebutted these remarks and labeled Rumsfeld as a "war dog." "The only neighboring country of ours having guerrillas is...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Note: Since this is a "portal" site, to specifically locate the original article in Spanish select "Judicial" from the menu bar at left, then scroll down to the article entitled "Las Farc ofrecen defender a Venezuela en caso de invasión estadounidense" and then click "Ver mas" just below the article title and to the right ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Colombia's FARC offers to defend Venezuela in case of a U.S. attack (Translation) The active armed group made its offer to Venezuela to fight against the United States if it eventually invades the nation. In a document of greetings released by the FARC1 to...

Colombians granted their Right-wing president a second four years in office yesterday, backing his assaults on the booming drugs trade. Alvaro Uribe, Washington's staunchest ally in Latin America, changed the constitution last year to allow himself to seek re-election and becomes the first Colombian president to win a second term for more than a century. His victory, with 62 per cent of the vote, halts a trend in the continent that has seen Left-wing leaders elected in Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile and Uruguay. The Oxford-educated president campaigned on his uncompromising security policy, under which murder rates have fallen by a...

BOGOTA: Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, an ally of US President George W.Bush, has won a second term, thwarting the plan of populist left-wing Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez to spread revolution throughout Latin America. The 53-year-old lawyer, trained in the US and Britain, secured just over 62per cent of the vote and a lead of 40 points over his closest rival, left-wing senator Carlos Gaviria. Mr Uribe must now fullfil a pledge to wrest control of Colombia from drug traffickers and leftist guerillas, while dispelling concerns he may abuse his powerful mandate. The victory marked the first re-election by a Colombian...