The head of Colombia's FARC marked the 50th anniversary of the guerrilla group's founding Tuesday, expressing hope for an "effective peace" while denouncing the government of President Juan Manuel Santos. In a 30-minute video posted on the Internet, Timoleon Jimenez, alias "Timochenko," warned that the FARC "will do what's necessary if the oligarchy persists in blocking peace." The video celebrating the Marxist rebels' 50 years comes amid intensifying debate in...

(Bogotá) - Paramilitary successor groups have abducted and disappeared scores, and possibly hundreds, of residents of the largely Afro-Colombian port of Buenaventura, Human Rights Watch said in a report and released today. Thousands of residents have been fleeing their homes in the city each year, making Buenaventura the municipality with the highest level of ongoing forced displacement in today. The 30-page report, “,” documents how many of the city’s neighborhoods...

Information published by ABC regarding negotiations between Nicolás Maduro's staff-when he was foreign minister-in an FMLN drug trafficking operation in El Salvador, has corroborated suspicions that existed in Venezuelan political and diplomatic circles. "This news confirms what many already knew about the significant and growing presence of drug trafficking in Venezuela and its important relations with the top echelon in the government and the Armed Forces," former...

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro congratulated his Colombian counterpart, Juan Manuel Santos, and Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) for the agreements reached in the peace talks taking place in Havana, Cuba. During a public event the Venezuelan president said he had talked to Santos to congratulate him for the progress made so far, and stressed that Venezuela fully supports Colombia's peace process, AVN reported.

Salvadoran police say they have found a cache of more than 200 anti-tank grenades hidden in a rural carpenter's workshop, the BBC reported. Authorities believe the weapons may be connected with the Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas, which has been working to expand operations to El Salvador and other Central American countries. Police reportedly become suspicious in early August after residents of El Congo, a village 30 miles north of San Salvador, reported seeing a group of heavily armed men...

Colombian authorities blamed the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) for an attack with explosives on Wednesday against a Colombia-Venezuela gas pipeline, official sources reported. The attack took place near the Maicao municipality, in La Guajira department (northeast Colombia), a few kilometers away from the Venezuelan border, hitting a gas pipeline transporting gas from that area to Zulia state, west Venezuela, DPA reported. Cira Ortiz, leader of a Wayúu indigenous...

Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN) said late on Feb. 12 it released five employees of a Canadian mining company kidnapped last month. The ELN said in a prepared statement it freed five Geo Explorer employees - three Colombians and two Peruvians - kidnapped Jan. 18. But the terrorist group made no mention of a Canadian citizen whom the Colombian army said earlier this month was among those seized by “bandits” from the ELN in the country’s northern region. So...

The top commander of the largest guerrilla army in Colombia on Monday dismissed government criticisms about the rebels' recent spree of kidnappings and said that "there is no crisis" regarding the ongoing peace talks. The commander who goes by the alias of "Timochenko " said that negotiations between the FARC and the government continued "in normal mode." According to the rebel leader, "nobody has walked out or formally threatened to withdraw."...

HAVANA, -- Representatives of the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group Friday renewed the peace talks in Havana, aimed at ending five decades of fighting in that country. The peace talks had a recess on Thursday, after three days of continuous work at closed doors at the Palace of Conventions in Havana. According to the schedule, the two sides are expected to continue discussions Friday on the integral agricultural development, the...

HAVANA (AP) - Colombia's main rebel group is appealing to U.S. President Barack Obama to free a guerrilla leader serving a long prison term in the United States. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia says Simon Trinidad's presence at the current peace talks with the Colombia government in the Cuban capital of Havana would be an "immense" help to negotiations. The FARC rebels named Trinidad to their negotiating team in September, even though he is serving a 60-year prison term....