Colombia Guerrillas

Colombia's constitutional court dealt a death blow Friday to President Alvaro Uribe's hopes of running for a third term, ruling that a referendum proposed by his supporters to open the way for another candidacy would be illegal. The highly anticipated ruling comes before a presidential election scheduled for May 30, opening the way to an exciting, compressed campaign with no clear front-runner. Candidates include former Medellin Mayor Sergio Fajardo, former Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, Sen. Gustavo Petro and previous presidential candidate Noemi Sanin.

Colombia's constitutional court dealt a death blow Friday to President Alvaro Uribe's hopes of running for a third term, ruling that a referendum proposed by his supporters to open the way for another candidacy would be illegal. The highly anticipated ruling comes before a presidential election scheduled for May 30, opening the way to an exciting, compressed campaign with no clear front-runner. Candidates include former Medellin Mayor Sergio Fajardo, former Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, Sen. Gustavo Petro and previous presidential candidate Noemi Sanin.

Rebels freed two high-profile kidnap victims, including 5-year-old Luisa Fernanda Cano, whose plight had become a cause celebre in Colombia. Police and family members said the girl had been held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in a rural area of Antioquia since April 19. The other freed kidnap victim was Guillermo Valencia Cossio, a regional lawmaker and brother of Fabio Valencia Cossio, chief government envoy in peace talks with the FARC.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia freed former Meta state Gov. Alan Jara after holding him for more than seven years, making him the fifth captive the guerrillas have released this week. A Red Cross team flew by helicopter into the southern jungles to pick him up and take him to the town of Villavicencio, where his weeping wife and son hugged him as he stepped onto the tarmac. The FARC freed three police officers and a soldier Sunday, and the hand-over of a provincial lawmaker, Sigifredo Lopez, is planned for later this week.

A science writer from Texas who was freed unharmed by suspected Marxist guerrillas after 11 months in captivity said Wednesday that he walked for three days through the Colombian mountains before reaching his home. Thomas Hargrove, 51, looked haggard but otherwise fit in a brief appearance on television from his home in Cali. The Vietnam veteran was taken hostage by armed men in military garb, apparently members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, on Sept.

The government and the country's largest guerrilla group signed an agreement Saturday to swap prisoners in the first exchange of its kind in nearly 40 years of combat. While the long-expected accord was hailed as the first major advance in nearly two years of talks, the frequent delays and tortured negotiations that preceded it signaled the difficult path ahead to reach a lasting peace.

Marxist guerrillas ambushed and killed 13 Colombian police officers in the worst single attack on the force since last November. Police sources said rebels used automatic weapons and explosives to ambush a truck carrying 14 police officers as it drove along a mountain road 40 miles south of the capital, Bogota. The guerrillas escaped.

In a bloody final assault, Colombian troops and police officers Thursday overpowered a guerrilla commando group holed up in the national Palace of Justice, ending a siege that lasted 27 hours and left at least 89 people dead. The president of the Supreme Court, seven other high court magistrates and an undetermined number of civilians who had been held hostage by the guerrillas were among those killed, military authorities said.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia freed former Meta state Gov. Alan Jara after holding him for more than seven years, making him the fifth captive the guerrillas have released this week. A Red Cross team flew by helicopter into the southern jungles to pick him up and take him to the town of Villavicencio, where his weeping wife and son hugged him as he stepped onto the tarmac. The FARC freed three police officers and a soldier Sunday, and the hand-over of a provincial lawmaker, Sigifredo Lopez, is planned for later this week.

Leftist rebels killed at least 16 people in northern Colombia in one of the country's most violent regions. RCN radio reported police as saying the victims, including at least two children, were killed in two separate attacks. It was not immediately clear why they were targeted. The massacres took place near Turbo, a fishing town on the Caribbean coast.

Leftist rebels from Colombia's largest guerrilla army prepared Sunday to evacuate a demilitarized zone created for peace talks, bringing this nation a step closer to a full-scale war. The rebels announced that they would leave the zone as planned before a 9:30 p.m. deadline today. More than 5,000 Colombian troops had surrounded the Switzerland-size zone to seize control of the region, which the government ceded to the guerrillas three years ago to jump-start the peace process.

The government and the country's largest guerrilla group signed an agreement Saturday to swap prisoners in the first exchange of its kind in nearly 40 years of combat. While the long-expected accord was hailed as the first major advance in nearly two years of talks, the frequent delays and tortured negotiations that preceded it signaled the difficult path ahead to reach a lasting peace.

From this island of bars and brothels gripped by dark green jungle, you can see the nightmare rising in Colombia. Here, in a remote corner of the rain forest, the army has broken up what was once a cocaine paradise. There were no cops, no military, no government. The drug labs ran day and night. Coke was currency, with a gram buying a cold beer flown in from faraway Bogota. It was a world where everything was controlled by one organization--the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Rebels freed two high-profile kidnap victims, including 5-year-old Luisa Fernanda Cano, whose plight had become a cause celebre in Colombia. Police and family members said the girl had been held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in a rural area of Antioquia since April 19. The other freed kidnap victim was Guillermo Valencia Cossio, a regional lawmaker and brother of Fabio Valencia Cossio, chief government envoy in peace talks with the FARC.

The military said its troops had ambushed a rebel convoy and killed at least 50 guerrillas, including two involved in the slaying of Americans. The army said it ambushed two trucks carrying leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrillas after they attacked a police station in Casanare state. Reporters were shown 24 bodies.

To the strains of the national anthem, the Colombian government and the oldest guerrilla movement in the Americas formally opened peace talks here Thursday aimed at ending a civil war waged for the last half a century. Despite the pageantry, there was disappointment from both sides that the guerrillas' legendary leader, Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda, did not show up.

Leftist rebels killed at least 16 people in northern Colombia in one of the country's most violent regions. RCN radio reported police as saying the victims, including at least two children, were killed in two separate attacks. It was not immediately clear why they were targeted. The massacres took place near Turbo, a fishing town on the Caribbean coast.

A science writer from Texas who was freed unharmed by suspected Marxist guerrillas after 11 months in captivity said Wednesday that he walked for three days through the Colombian mountains before reaching his home. Thomas Hargrove, 51, looked haggard but otherwise fit in a brief appearance on television from his home in Cali. The Vietnam veteran was taken hostage by armed men in military garb, apparently members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, on Sept.