Germán Vargas Lleras’s statement claiming his party “Radical Change won’t become an obstacle for the approval” of the referendum seeking to allow another presidential re-election is still causing stir in the Colombian political world, specially because their support is unconditional. They will support changing the question (“had held” would become “had been elected”) which will open doors for President Uribe’s second re-election in 2010.

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“…hitting terrorists who attack systematically the people of a country, no matter they are not inside its territory, is an act of legitimate defence”
Juan Manuel Santos
Minister of Defence of Colombia

Juan Manuel Santos at the event Colombia: Hostage Rescue & What Lies Ahead, held 23 July 2008 in Washington (Photo: Center [...]

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US Secretary of Defence Robert M. Gates meets with Colombian Minister of Defence Juan Manuel Santos in the Pentagon on 11 March 2008 (Photo credit: Cherie A. Thurlby, United States Department of Defence, public domain)
After calling the “legitimate defence” to “hit terrorists” inside or outside Colombian territory theory on, Defence [...]

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Released Colombian army soldier William Giovanni Domínguez (L), police officer Wálter Lozano (R), and Senadora Piedad Córdoba arrive to the Vanguardia airport in Villavicencio on 1 February 2009 (Photo credit: Gabriel Aponte / © El Espectador).
Like it happened on the past hostage releases by FARC, in this week’s operations, when [...]

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Álvaro Uribe at the event Colombia & the United States at a Crossroads: A Conversation with President Alvaro Uribe, 2 May 2007 in Washington (Photo: Center for American Progress / Flickr, CC-BY-SA licence)
Muddy waters
The political year in Colombia has started quite wildly. With Senator Gina Parody’s resignation both to her [...]

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Photo: Bachmont / Flickr, CC-BY licence
We are living an extraordinary moment. An 11-month-old baby, Luis Santiago Lozano, is murdered in lurid circumstances, with his father’s complicity. Kidnapping, choking, and a futile reason, to avoid his current partner to find out the baby’s existence. Outrage grows everywhere and the sponsors of [...]

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Yolanda Pulecio, Colombian military chief general Fredy Padilla de León, Íngrid Betancourt and Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos, at Bogotá’s CATAM military airport, on 2 July 2008 afternoon (Photo credit: Juan Felipe Barriga / Secretaría de Prensa de la Presidencia de la República)
“Perfect”. The term Íngrid Betancourt used to refer [...]

Marulanda died and Colombia starts to get used to it. After the euphoria of the Uribista hawks who, headed by Interior Minister Holguín, came out to preach the enemy’s total extermination, everything will return to normal. The FARC are not over, and peace is not so close either.

This time was for real, and on a bed. In the past, the newspapers’ headlines held a wake for him 18 times, in step to military prayers, but he ran away every one of them. From Marquetalia to Venezuela, this man with sallow look, who Pastrana made Caguán’s Star, always mocked death.

Here it comes again. Venezuela-Colombia relationships enter a limbo which gets them closer to hell, this time because of the INTERPOL report claiming the absence of manipulation on the laptops seized at the camp where FARC’ second top chief aka Raúl Reyes was killed in March.