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COLOMBIA
Of Blackmail and Fake Guerrillas
By Constanza Vieira
BOGOTA - After Colombia's attorney general announced that she was bringing charges against a former government peace commissioner for his role in a staged surrender of a fake guerrilla unit, he called for an investigation of her husband – which she promptly ordered.
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Q&A
"Opposition to Restitution of Land Not Surprising"
Constanza Vieira interviews ANDERS KOMPASS, former director of the UNHCHR office in Colombia
BOGOTA - "I find it extremely painful to see that there are people in Colombia trying once again to deceive" people displaced from their land, just when "they have hope of being recognised and compensated," said Swedish diplomat Anders Kompass on a visit to this country to support rural victims of the civil war.
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RIGHTS-COLOMBIA
Int'l Mission Says Dire Situation Getting Worse
By Helda Martínez
BOGOTA - The human rights situation in Colombia is extremely serious, and getting worse, reported an International Verification Mission made up of 40 delegates from 15 countries who visited the country this week.
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COLOMBIA
Worse than Fiction
By Constanza Vieira
BOGOTA - A teenage love story is the fictional plot device in a new Colombian film, Silence in Paradise, about the all-too-real phenomenon of the "false positives" – the euphemism used to describe army killings of young civilians passed off as guerrilla casualties.
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COLOMBIA
Perils and Lessons of U.S. Aid
By Elizabeth Whitman
NEW YORK - A new report has highlighted a connection - and not always a positive one - between U.S. foreign aid to Colombia and Mexico and violence and crime rates in those countries, pointing out that U.S. policy toward Mexico deserves careful application of lessons learned from the aid the U.S. has supplied Colombia since 2000.
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COLOMBIA
Student Protesters Demand Quality - and Equality
By Helda Martínez
BOGOTÁ - The "occupation" of Bogotá by students, backed by parents and professors as well as social and cultural sectors, is continuing even after the Colombian government offered to withdraw its controversial bill to reform education if the protests were called off.
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COLOMBIA
Election Campaign Marred by Violence
By Helda Martínez
BOGOTÁ - "Political power will be fought for metre by metre in the Oct. 30 local and regional elections in Colombia, because this is a country imbued with violence, with different armies disputing different parts of the territory," said Alejandra Barrios, director of the election observation mission (MOE).
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COLOMBIA
When Humanitarian Law Is Just Rhetoric
By Constanza Vieira
EL CREDO, Colombia - The constant violations of international humanitarian law in Colombia claimed the life of an 11-year-old indigenous girl a month ago in the mountains of the southwest province of Cauca.
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COLOMBIA
"I Was Ready for Anything – Except for Mourning a Daughter"
By Constanza Vieira
EL CREDO, Colombia - In the wooden, sheet-metal roofed house, the exact spot where Vanesa Coicué, an 11-year-old Nasa Indian girl, fell is marked by white and yellow chrysanthemums in a plastic soda bottle, along with a lit candle and an orange tree seedling.
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COLOMBIA
Nasa Indians: "The Armed Groups Won't Let Us Live in Peace"
By Constanza Vieira
TORIBÍO, Colombia - Indigenous children in the southwestern Colombian province of Cauca do not know what peace is. For the government forces and the leftwing guerrillas, the territory of the Nasa people is a strategic battleground.
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U.S.
Long-Stalled Trade Accords Move Forward
By Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON - In a major victory for U.S.-based multinational corporations, President Barack Obama has submitted controversial and long- pending "free-trade" agreements (FTAs) between the U.S. and South Korea, Colombia, and Panama for rapid approval by Congress.
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COLOMBIA
Victims of Sexual Violence Under Threat and on Their Own
By Constanza Vieira
BOGOTÁ - "Another one? Another rape?" was the response Mari got at the Attorney General's Office in Colombia when she went to report what she had been through. "When they said that, I froze and got up and said 'Thank you, I’ll come back another day'," she told human rights defenders later.
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COLOMBIA
Uribe's Former Intelligence Chief Sent to Prison
By Constanza Vieira
BOGOTA - Jorge Noguera, a regional manager of former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe's (2002-2010) election campaign in 2002 and head of the secret police during the Uribe administration, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison. "I trusted him; if he committed a crime it pains me, and I apologise to the people," Uribe said Wednesday.
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COLOMBIA
Women Make an Oasis in Violence-Wracked Neighbourhood
By Helda Martínez
BOGOTA - In one of the poorest neighbourhoods in the Colombian capital, 26-year-old Sandra Sánchez has created an oasis that offers meals, recreational opportunities, company and much more to hundreds of children and elderly people, in an example of solidarity and leadership that has transcended borders.
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Q&A
"Civilians Should Not Suffer the Effects of the Armed Conflict" in Colombia
Constanza Vieira interviews ROMARIC FERRARO of Red Cross Colombia
BOGOTA - Indigenous people in the province of Cauca in southwest Colombia want their territory to be free of war, and are organising a protest march to demand that the police and military close down their bases and the guerrillas abandon their camps in the native reservations in the north of this mountainous province.
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Colombia - A Nation Torn in RSS As Colombia's nearly five-decade civil war simmers on, the country remains the world's third-largest recipient of U.S. military aid, and has the second-largest displaced population in the world. The cocaine trade continues to fuel the armed conflict; there are abundant reports indicating that the supposedly demobilised paramilitaries, blamed for the lion's share of the atrocities committed in the civil war and led by drug lords, have regrouped; and nearly half of the population lives in poverty. The scandal over ties with paramilitary groups dogs the Álvaro Uribe government. Small farmers and indigenous and black communities are often caught in the crossfire between the guerrillas, the paramilitaries and the security forces. The conflict's victims are the civilian population, human rights and truth.

Heavy Metal Colombia - El Blog de  Constanza Vieira
Special Report from Colombia - The Unusual Wealth of the Chocó
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UNICEF Funding Falls Short Leaving Millions of Children at Risk
Photos of Armed Children Ignite Scandal in Venezuela
Latin America Takes a New Look at Neglected Diseases
Lawmakers, "Experts" Spin Tales of Iranian Terror in Latin America
Social Media Saved Africa's Oldest Community Station
Finnish Contest No More Between Right and Left
INDIA-PAKISTAN: Food Heals Historic Hostility
Malawi's Consumers Have a Right to Fuel and Forex Black Market
More >>

  UNDP Colombia
  UN Refugee Agency - Colombia
  Consultancy on Human Rights and Displacement
  Colombian Commission of Jurists
  Millennium Campaign - MDGs and Colombia
  Amnesty International - Colombia
  Human Rights Watch - Colombia
  Acción Andina
  World Rainforest Movement

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