Free Republic

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Brazilian police arrested a Colombian man Wednesday accused of being an unofficial ambassador for Colombia's largest rebel group. The arrest of Francisco Antonio Cadena Collazzos came at the request of the Colombian government so he can be extradited to Colombia, officials said. A police statement said that Cadenas is accused in Colombia of homicide for terrorist purposes and links to the leftist rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Cadena has long acted as the FARC's spokesman to Brazil, and had been arrested once before in Sept. 2000 after his visa had expired and...

Eight men and women, including two employees of Chicago's scandal-plagued city water department, were arrested Wednesday as federal investigators rolled up what they described as one branch of a Colombian drug-trafficking operation. The water department itself, already awash in charges of bribery and other political corruption, was not charged with being part of the heroin distribution ring. But investigators did find that department workers "were engaging in this kind of conduct during weekdays, during workdays, when they should not have been," U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said at a news conference. Federal officials said the ongoing investigation got under way...

BOGOTA (AP) - Rival fans clashed at a domestic soccer match in the Colombian capital late Wednesday, killing one person and wounding 23. Edison Andres Garzon died of injuries sustained during the riots that erupted after America de Cali defeated Santa Fe 5-2 in a Colombian first division game, firefighters said. Garzon, 20, was struck in the head and his body thrown over a balcony in Bogota's El Campin stadium, Garzon's cousin, Andrea Hernandez, told local radio. Most of the wounded were treated on the spot. The violence started when up to 100 Santa Fe fans angry over the referee's...

MIAMI -- Federal prosecutors are tying a Saudi prince with diplomatic immunity to a 2-ton Colombian cocaine smuggling run from Venezuela to Paris on his personal aircraft and $10 million in artwork seized by drug agents pursuing the prince's ex-girlfriend. In opening statements Tuesday, the defense responded that the government's case is built on the word of an enormously successful Colombian drug dealer who "duped" everyone by laundering drug money from behind bars while cooperating with federal agents. Doris Mangeri Salazar, the ex-girlfriend and a Coral Gables real estate agent, and Ivan Lopez Vanegas, who was extradited from Colombia, are...

Leftist “militants” ushered in the new year in Colombia in true form: Members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) murdered 17 peasants, including 6 women and 4 children, who were gathered to celebrate New Year’s Eve. When I say “true form,” I mean FARC was practicing the art that the extreme left has mastered, perhaps invented: terrorism. On this New Year’s Eve, the FARC was proving it believes the “end justifies the means,” as it is the grotesque, disfigured child of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and, yes, even Hitler -- remember, he was a National Socialist (Nazi). FARC is...

Dear FR list members: Here is a link to today's article, which starts from the recent news that the Colombian mafia has infiltrated the Balkans to mention several telling examples of how the globalizing mafia cooperates with terrorists, weapons dealers, etc, in the Balkans and beyond- and the powerlessness of even the all-powerful US to stop it. The article begins thus: "...As if organized crime wasn’t already pervasive enough in the Balkans, we now have the news that Colombian drug lords have established a beachhead in the region for their exports to Eastern European mafias. Channel News Asia today quoted...

Rumsfeld to resume US air missions in Colombian drug trade crackdown By Andrew Gumbel 20 August 2003 The United States is resuming drug-interception flights over Colombia after a two-year hiatus, possibly signalling a desire by the Bush administration to become more heavily involved in the Colombian government's military crackdown on drug dealers and left-wing guerrilla rebels. The resumption of the flights, jointly operated by the US and Colombia and known by their military codename Airbridge Denial, was announced by Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, who was in Bogota on a trip widely seen as an indication of greater US...

<p>BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Leftist rebels said for the first time Saturday they are holding three Americans hostage, claiming to have shot down their plane over southern Colombia. The guerrillas on Saturday demanded the Colombian military halt operations in their area in return for the Americans' safety.</p>