Colombians

President Obama sought to calm a diplomatic furor, disputing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's assertion that Mexico has begun to look like Colombia at the height of its struggle against a drug-financed insurgency. Obama's comments, in an interview published Thursday by the Los Angeles-based Spanish-language newspaper La Opinion, followed an outcry that began in Mexico after Clinton told a foreign policy group Wednesday that Mexico "is looking more and more like Colombia looked 20 years ago, where the narco-traffickers controlled certain parts of the country.

As you're cruising into the second or third hour of a typical Very Be Careful show — tequila scorching your tongue, perspiration drenching your torso, accordions and cowbells rattling your ear drums — it may not occur to you that you're actually listening to some pretty savvy and skilled musicians. This isn't something that band founders Arturo Guzman, a bassist, and Ricardo, his vocalist-accordionist brother, necessarily want to publicize. Such awareness might compromise the Eastside quintet's image as an easygoing, good-times bar band, dispensers of irrepressible dance grooves for midnight mobs of well-lubricated party animals.

Tensions are bubbling once more along the rugged 1,200-mile border between Venezuela and Colombia. Using videos and photos, Colombian diplomats accused Venezuela of tolerating the presence of 1,500 leftist rebel fighters and several top leaders in its territory. They made the charges in a presentation Thursday before the Organization of American States. They requested an international body to monitor the border and verify the presence of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia , or FARC.

Almost every entrée and side order at El Bolivar in Chatsworth comes with a humble arepa , one of those innocuous little South American white corncakes. They're smaller than the palm of a child's hand. But take a bite, quickly: They're an utterly extraordinary nibble, a meltingly tender fluff of cornmeal and cheese, barely held together by the thinnest skein of crispy outsides. They're like the softest, tenderest, velvetiest grits you've ever had, only even softer than that. Marisol Lara and her mother, Myriam Lara, own El Bolivar and cook Colombian food, mostly according to family recipes passed down through Myriam.

A top Colombian drug lord whom the United States has long considered one of the most dangerous smugglers pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday to trafficking tons of heroin and cocaine into the U.S. Francisco Gonzalez-Uribe had been awaiting trial in New York on charges of running a criminal enterprise dating back at least to 2007 that was accused of shipping loads of drugs to New York and other U.S. cities. Federal prosecutors are likely to seek a sentence of life in prison with no parole.

Juan Manuel Santos, a former defense minister and scion of a publishing family, swept to victory Sunday in Colombia's presidential election with a pledge to continue his predecessor's get-tough policies against crime and insurgency. Santos, 58, easily bested his challenger, former Bogota Mayor Antanas Mockus. With 99% of votes counted, Santos had garnered 69% of the votes in the runoff election to his challenger's 27%. He will be inaugurated on Aug. 7. Santos, who also outpolled Mockus in last month's first-round election, had been heavily favored to win after he had gained the backing of several major political factions, including third-place finisher German Vargas Lleras.

Colombian soldiers have freed three members of the nation's security forces from rebel captivity, President Alvaro Uribe announced Sunday. Police Brig. Gen. Luis Herlindo Mendieta, the highest-ranking officer held by rebels, and Col. Enrique Murillo were freed in a military operation in Guaviare state, in the country's southeast, Uribe said at a community meeting in Choco state in the northwest. Details of the operation were not immediately available. Later Sunday, the Defense Ministry said a third hostage, army Sgt. Arbey Delgado, had also been rescued and that troops were hoping to rescue a fourth hostage, army Col. William Donato, who was thought to be in the area.

Yonnhy Perez is a world boxing champion, but there are no plans for HBO's "24/7" film crew to follow him. The wads of cash and lavish luxury cars that fellow unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. are inconceivable. That's boxing's other world. When Perez, 31, trains in the U.S., he lives in the den of his trainer's parents' home in Santa Fe Springs. He doesn't own a car. He will make $50,000 for his first International Boxing Federation bantamweight title defense Saturday against unbeaten prospect Abner Mares at Staples Center, and he will send most of the money home to his native Colombia so his wife, two young boys, parents, grandmother and his original boxing trainer can divvy it up. Perez's co-promoter, Gary Shaw, recently accompanied the boxer home to Colombia, where Perez provided a tour of his home.

The surprise of the Colombian presidential campaign has been the surge of Bogota's former mayor, Antanas Mockus, from nowhere to the top of voter preference polls in advance of first-round voting on May 30. After twice running unsuccessfully, the cerebral Green Party candidate owes his lead to an alliance with another popular ex-mayor, Medellin's Sergio Fajardo, as his vice presidential running mate; the support of young voters; and his use of...

Leftist Colombian rebels Sunday released the first of two military hostages they have promised to free, with the liberation of the other -- one of this nation's longest-held hostages -- expected Tuesday. Members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, released Josue Daniel Calvo, 23, to a team that included representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, a Brazilian helicopter crew and leftist Sen. Piedad Cordoba, a key intermediary in other FARC hostage releases over the last two years.