Colombian journalist Jorge Enrique Botero denies being a mouthpiece for Colombia's largest guerrilla group the FARC after releasing material of his stay in a guerrilla camp. This is false, but irrelevant. With this statement, Botero is making the same mistake that corporate news journalists from organizations like El Tiempo, RCN and Caracol make when they say that they practice objective journalism. All of these journalists are constantly being used to promote the interests of governments,...

Now that Colombia’s crackdown on the FARC has significantly weakened the group, there are signs that it is setting up in neighboring Venezuela and preparing for a rebirth of sorts, Samuel Logan writes for ISN Security Watch. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) made an unusual appeal on 23 August to UNASUR, South America's multilateral security forum, to explain its political and strategic goals in Colombia. Within 24 hours, Colombian Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera, part...

After 40 years of fighting to keep its revolutionary war alive in the jungles of Colombia, the world's oldest armed rebel group could finally be brought down by its increasing dependence on technology. In an unprecedented computer-assisted analysis of FARC data from more than 50 guerrilla computers and electronic equipment seized by Colombian soldiers and police, Semana magazine gave a rare inside look at Colombia's largest and oldest rebel group that, in "their own words,"...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called on 35,000 armed militias on Tuesday to defend his socialist revolution with their lives if necessary as he faces a test of its popularity in elections in September. Young militias raised assault rifles and clenched fists in the air when Chavez entered the parade area in Caracas in an open military jeep for a rally marking the anniversary of an abortive coup that ousted him briefly in 2002. "You should be ready to take up arms at any moment and...

The Miami Herald few months ago reported that the Colombian FARC has likely already fulfilled its long-time goal of purchasing surface to air missiles to be used against U.S.-supplied helicopters in Colombia. The FARC has long placed a very high strategic priority on acquiring SAMs, going back to at least 2003. The commanders officially requested money from Libya and Nicaragua at that time to purchase the weapons because the insurgency was being so badly hurt by helicopters acquired by the...

The decision on whether to change the constitution to enable President Álvaro Uribe to seek a third consecutive term in 2010 will have important consequences for Colombia’s efforts to resolve its armed conflict and tensions with its neighbours. ,* the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines the process of enabling a third presidential term and why the decision on this fundamental issue needs to be accompanied by a recognition that pressing questions of...

The possibility of an imperialist war in the Americas came a step closer on October 30, when Colombia and the United States finalised a 10-year accord. The agreement allows the US to hugely expand its military presence in the Latin American nation. It comes as the US seeks to regain its dominance over Latin America, which has declined over the past decade in the context of a continent-wide rebellion against neoliberalism - spearheaded by the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela. To regain...

Whether it's called an "arms race" or a "coincidental modernization" of existing stocks, a wave of weapons purchases by Latin American nations is causing neighbors to watch each other with growing mistrust and fear. Brazil says it must protect its newfound oil and gas riches. Venezuela says the U.S. military might attack it. Colombia is worried by Venezuela, Ecuador is watching Colombia, and Paraguay is keeping an eye on Bolivia. There's no question that weapons sales...

In mid-September, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton critiqued Venezuela’s leader Hugo Chavez for his ongoing purchases of mostly Russian military equipment, arguing that this could trigger an arms race in South America. The statement has added fuel to the ongoing discussions about what form South America’s rearmament is taking and what this could come to mean for the security of the region. Observers fear an inter-state war could break out due to geopolitical tensions. Ongoing...

President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderón are in Guadalajara, Mexico, today for the North American Leaders' Summit. They will discuss, among other topics, what to do about the explosion in drug-trafficking violence on the continent. But they are also expected to address the political situation in Honduras. Honduras's Partido de Unificación Democrática (UD) is on the list. The party has only a small representation...