Ecuadorean army commander General Ernesto Gonzalez denounces the recruitment of Ecuadorean minors into the ranks of Colombia's FARC guerrilla group, reports Caracol. Gonzalez said there have been several complaints of Ecuadorean children being taken across the border to join the rebel army. Four children, aged from 14 to 17, are reported missing from a border town and may have been on the Colombian side during a recent raid on a FARC camp close to the border. Earlier this week, there was...

A Colombian guerrilla accused of kidnapping a former governor in 2001 has been arrested in the city of Cucuta and transferred to Bogota, a high-level police commander said. Erika Natalia Campiño, a member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was behind the kidnapping of Alan Jara, who served as governor of the east-central province of Meta, Gen. Francisco Patiño said. Jara was kidnapped in Colombia’s Eastern Plains region on July 15, 2001. The...

Colombia's Foreign Ministry says it will continue efforts to have Israeli mercenary Yair Klein extradited to Colombia. Klein has been convicted in Colombia for training paramilitaries and drug gangs, including Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in April blocked the extradition of the Israeli, who is finishing a three-year sentence in a Russian jail this week. Klein's lawyer announced Monday that his client will be deported to Israel, where he does not...

Colombia's largest rebel group the FARC tried to poison former President Alvaro Uribe on several occasions, the country's defense minister said Tuesday. According to Minister Rodrigo Rivera, emails found on the computers of "Mono Jojoy," a FARC leader who was killed by armed forces last month, show that the guerrilla group had successfully infiltrated Uribe's security network. "I can confirm that one of the ways the FARC were looking to make an attempt against the life of...

Top FARC commander "Mono Jojoy" was killed by Colombian state forces. President Juan Manuel Santos confirmed the death of the rebel leader from New York City, where he is attending the U.N. General Assembly. The head of the FARC's Eastern Bloc and member of its Secretariat was killed in a massive air strike in a region called La Macarena in the central Colombian Meta department, 200 miles south of Bogota. Some 20 other guerrillas were killed and five members of the security forces...

Peru should amend recently adopted presidential decrees that regulate the prosecution and trials of military and police personnel accused of committing human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said today. President Alan García issued the four decrees on September 1, 2010. The decrees adopt new rules of procedure for investigations by civilian criminal courts of human rights abuses committed by military and police personnel, modify the military justice system, and regulate the use of...

The BBC reported over the weekend on a new think tank report showing that Colombia's new criminal groups (Bacrim, to use the Colombian government's favorite new acronym) have surpassed the FARC as the largest and most dangerous groups in the country. Indepaz estimates there are about 13,000 members of the various Bacrim groups including the Aguilas Negras and Rastrojos. The story isn't quite as clear once you read the interview with Colombia's director of the anti-narcotics police. General...

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Wednesday met with Brazilian presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff, who promises to combat guerrillas and drug trafficking on the shared border if elected in October. According to the presidential front-runner, she and Santos "share the idea that border security is crucial. The participation of Brazil in this area must increase," to avoid Colombian organized crime spreading to the neighboring country, she told reporters. Rousseff said...

Former Rear Admiral Carlos Molina Tamayo, who used to be a National Security Adviser during Hugo Chávez's administration, witnessed some of the first attempts of the Venezuelan government to illegally supply weapons to members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), according to an interview published on Monday by The New Herald. Molina, in exile in Europe after taking part in the failed coup d'état in 2002, said that retired Navy Captain Ramón...

Colombian vice-president elect Angelino Garzón said in an interview with an Ecuadorian radio station that he "highly" appreciated the call made by Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez to the Colombian guerrillas to "reconsider" their armed strategy. "I highly value the recent statements made by President Hugo Chávez when he told the Colombian guerrilla that they have no reason to exist," Garzón told Radio Quito. He recalled that Cuban...