Caracas deports Colombia 'rebels'

Colombia spurns US extradition for reputed narco
Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos gestures during a Press Conference marking his first 100 days in office at the presidential palace in Bogota, Colombia, Tuesday Nov. 16, 2010. Bogota, Colombia -- Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos spurned a U.S. request to extradite an alleged Cocaine kingpin from Venezuela, saying Tuesday that the suspect will be sent back to face charges in his home country. Walid Makled, 41, has claimed close ties with Venezuela's Socialist Government and the U.S...

Colombia spurns US extradition for reputed narco
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos spurned a U.S. request to extradite an alleged Cocaine kingpin from Venezuela, saying Tuesday that the suspect will be sent back to face charges in his home country. Walid Makled, 41, has claimed close ties with Venezuela’s Socialist Government and the U.S. State Department last year called him that country’s “largest drug trafficker.” The announcement drew fierce criticism from U.S. Rep. Connie Mack. Th...

Colombia spurns US extradition for reputed narco
Bogota, Colombia - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos spurned a U.S. request to extradite an alleged Cocaine kingpin from Venezuela, saying Tuesday that the suspect will be sent back to face charges in his home country. Walid Makled, 41, has claimed close ties with Venezuela's Socialist Government and the U.S. State Department last year called him that country's "largest drug trafficker." The announcement drew fierce criticism from U.S. Rep. Connie Mack. The Florida Republican accuse...

Colombia's Santos: Not the Friend the United States Thought
Colombia's recently elected President, Juan Manuel Santos, has yet again proven that he puts regional political pressure above his commitment to Colombia's most important ally – the United States. This morning, in delivering the report for his first 100 days in office, Santos announced that he would seek Extradition for Walid Makled, Venezuela's most significant Drug kingpin, captured on August 18th in Colombia and wanted by the United States for Drug trafficking, back to Venezuela. In his spee...

Colombia spurns US request to extradite reputed Venezuelan cocaine kingpin, will send him home
Bogota, Colombia — Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos spurned a U.S. request to extradite an alleged Cocaine kingpin from Venezuela, saying Tuesday that the suspect will be sent back to face charges in his home country. Walid Makled, 41, has claimed close ties with Venezuela's Socialist Government and the U.S. State Department last year called him that country's "largest drug trafficker." The announcement drew fierce criticism from U.S. Rep. Connie Mack. The Florida Republican accus...

Venezuela sets up 'CNN rival'
In a popular shopping area of Caracas, with street musicians playing a bolero in the background, Jorge Botero is filming a promo for Latin America's most ambitious new satellite channel. A young journalism Student walks into shot and says: "The news on Telesur, the true face of Latin America." Telesur is a new pan-Latin American TV channel based in Venezuela. It aims to rival CNN and the other Spanish-language news channels coming out of Miami and Atlanta. Some have already dubbed it Al-Boliv...

Colombia to extradite accused Venezuelan drug lord
By Luis Jaime Acosta Bogota | Tue Nov 16, 2010 10:03pm EST Bogota (Reuters) - Colombia will extradite a businessman accused of being a Drug kingpin back to his native Venezuela, President Juan Manuel Santos said on Tuesday, in a move bound to warm already improving ties between the neighbors. Walid Makled, known as "The Turk," was captured in August in Colombia in a joint operation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and was also wanted for Extradition to the United States on Charge...

Colombia Should Ditch U.S. Special Relationship: El Espectador, Colombia
Under its new president, Juan Manuel Santos, Colombian policymakers are preparing for a change in relations with the United States, which, according to columnist Alvaro Forero Tascon of Colombia’s Semana, has been based on Colombian weakness and the-now-diminishing American influence. For Semana, Alvaro Forero Tascon writes in part: What President Santos calls “speaking in equal terms” with the United States is not overconfidence on his part, but his reading that there has been a chan...

Illegal mining in South America: Ungreen gold
THE wealth of its gold mines is one reason why Peru’s economy is set to grow by close to 9% this year. But the soaring price of gold, of which Peru is the world’s sixth-biggest producer, has also brought a less welcome consequence: wildcat miners are tearing Down the country’s Rainforest and polluting rivers with tonnes of toxic mercury, which they use to separate gold from ore. Lone prospectors have given way to industrial-scale, but equally illegal, operators, using bulldoze...

Illegal mining in South America: Ungreen gold
THE wealth of its gold mines is one reason why Peru’s economy is set to grow by close to 9% this year. But the soaring price of gold, of which Peru is the world’s sixth-biggest producer, has also brought a less welcome consequence: wildcat miners are tearing Down the country’s Rainforest and polluting rivers with tonnes of toxic mercury, which they use to separate gold from ore. Lone prospectors have given way to industrial-scale, but equally illegal, operators, using bulldoze...

Ros-Lehtinen criticizes democratic "decline" in Venezuela and allies - Daily News - EL UNIVERSAL
The United States must cooperate with its partners in the region to fight "the decline of democratic freedoms and Human Rights," led by the governments of Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador, said on Wednesday Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. "The United States should work closely with our partners responsible for fighting this scourge," said Ros-Lehtinen in a statement. The Republican Representative is expected to lead the influential US House Foreign Affa...

Spanish pop star Alejandro Sanz back in Venezuela after canceled concerts in spat with gov't
Caracas, Venezuela — Spanish pop star Alejandro Sanz is in Venezuela to perform for the first time in years after Concerts in 2007 and 2008 were canceled amid friction between the entertainer and President Hugo Chavez's government. Sanz was in the western city of Maracaibo on Tuesday to sing in the first of three Concerts in Venezuela. The pop star canceled a Caracas concert in 2007 after a government official said Sanz wouldn't be allowed to use a state-controlled stadium due to his cr...

Spanish pop star Alejandro Sanz back in Venezuela
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Spanish pop star Alejandro Sanz is in Venezuela to perform for the first time in years after Concerts in 2007 and 2008 were canceled amid friction between the entertainer and President Hugo Chavez’s government. Sanz was in the western city of Maracaibo on Tuesday to sing in the first of three Concerts in Venezuela. The pop star canceled a Caracas concert in 2007 after a government official said Sanz wouldn’t be allowed to use a state-controlled stadium...

Colombia to extradite accused Venezuelan drug lord
By Luis Jaime Acosta Bogota | Tue Nov 16, 2010 2:00pm EST Bogota (Reuters) - Colombia will extradite a businessman accused of being a Drug kingpin back to his native Venezuela, President Juan Manuel Santos said on Tuesday, in a move bound to warm already improving ties between the neighbors. Walid Makled, known as "The Turk," was captured in August in Colombia in a joint operation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and was also wanted for Extradition to the United States on Charges...

Colombian military hits rebel camp, kills 14 - Yahoo! News UK
Colombian Air and ground Forces attacked a guerrilla encampment near the border with Ecuador, killing 14 rebels in the latest of a series of punishing Military operations, Military officials said. Skip related content Colombian Air Forces first bombed the camp, then followed with an assault by elite Helicopter-borne infantry, the officials said. General Jairo Antonio Herazo, head of the Pacific Joint Command, told a news Conference Monday that ground Troops recovered the bodies of 14 guerrillas ...

Victor Bout pleads not guilty
AFP Russia's so-called "Merchant of Death" accused of running a global arms empire, pleaded Not Guilty to Terrorism charges on Wednesday, after he was extradited by Thailand against Moscow's wishes. "He will plead not Guilty," a lawyer for Viktor Bout, 43, told a New York Federal Court. Judge Shira Scheindlin ordered Bout detained until a hearing on January 10. Advertisement: Story continues below He faces a maximum penalty of life in Prison and minimum of 25 years if found Guilty. Bout is ...

Venezuela's economy fails to emerge from recession, shrinks 0.4 percent more in 3rd quarter
Caracas, Venezuela — Venezuela's economy shrank 0.4 percent during the Third Quarter from a year earlier, the Central Bank said Tuesday in a report that revealed the South American nation's struggle to emerge from Recession. The latest dip in gross domestic product in the July-September period was largely caused by a 4.4 percent drop in commerce from the same period of 2009, the report said. Economic performance was an improvement from the 4.6 percent contraction in the Third Quarter of...

Ortegas Land Grab
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. With the world distracted by currency fights, European Debt problems, and other economic challenges, Nicaragua has quietly invaded and occupied the sovereign territory of Costa Rica. It is an act of naked aggression that deserves to be condemned and resisted by governments everywhere, yet most Americans have probably read little or nothing about it. Here’s a brief synopsis of what happened. At the direction of their government...

MYRICK: Hezbollah car bombs on our border
An indictment was handed down Aug. 30 by the Southern District Court of New York that shows a connection between Hezbollah - the proxy army of Iran and a designated Terrorist Organization - and the Drug Cartels that violently plague the U.S.-Mexico Border. In short, a well-known international arms dealer was trying to orchestrate an arms-for-drugs deal in which Cocaine from FARC - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which works with Mexican Drug Cartels to take Cocaine into America - wo...

Drug traffickers swap sea for sky - Crime - NZ Herald News
Seized Cocaine is torched in Panama City. South American Drug Smugglers are sending Drugs to Europe via Africa. Photo / AP Seized Cocaine is torched in Panama City. South American Drug Smugglers are sending Drugs to Europe via Africa. Photo / AP NEW YORK - United States prosecutors in a series of Court Cases say they are beginning to unravel the latest development in Drug Smuggling: South American gangs that are buying old planes, filling them with Cocaine and flying them more than 5000km across...

Stakelbeck on Terror Show Exclusive: The Iran/Venezuela Axis
The latest episode of the Stakelbeck on Terror show is a special 30-minute expose of the growing Iran/Venezuela axis in our hemisphere. Watch as former high-ranking State Department official Roger Noriega and leading Iran expert Ilan Berman provide exclusive evidence that Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez is providing heavy assistance to Iran on virtually every level: militarily, economically and in the Nuclear realm. We reveal how Iran is mining for Uranium in Venezuela. We also feature never-be...

From the Latin American Department of Newspeak Floods the Zone
Washington, DC - An event this Wednesday on Capitol Hill entitled “Danger in the Andes: Threats to Democracy, Human Rights, and Inter-American Security” has raised the ire of leftist governments and Activists in Latin America. Several news stories from the state-controlled media in Venezuela and Bolivia have included scurrilous attacks, evidently designed to demonize their critics. El Cambio, the state-run newspaper of Bolivia, whose Orwellian masthead reads “The truth wi...

Army troops kill 14 rebels in latest anti-FARC offensive
Colombian Troops attacked a FARC camp near the Ecuadorean border on Monday, killing 14 rebels in the latest in a series of offensives against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia since President Juan Manuel Santos took office in August. AFP - Colombian Air and ground Forces attacked a guerrilla encampment near the border with Ecuador, killing 14 rebels in the latest of a series of punishing Military operations, Military officials said. Colombian Air Forces first bombed the camp, then foll...

Speaking out for Ricardo Palmerass freedom and against FBI repression at Utah student event
Orem, UT - Tom Burke from the National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera spoke to Students at Utah Valley University, Oct. 27. The event, sponsored by the Revolutionary Students Union, brought in many Students wanting to know more about the U.S.-held Colombian Political Prisoner, Ricardo Palmera and the situation in Colombia. Burke’s presentation dealt extensively with the U.S.-funded war against trade unionists and farmers that is being conducted in Colombia. He detailed atrocities such t...

Florida Rep. Mack says Obama must get tough with Venezuela's Chavez - Politics AP - MiamiHerald.com
Florida Rep. Connie Mack asked the U.S. State Department last Friday to come out swinging in the fight to extradite a Venezuelan Drug Lord who has threatened to expose high-level government Corruption in his homeland. Walid Makled-Garcia, who has been in a Colombian jail since August, says he paid Venezuelan officials millions of dollars for access to airports he used to ship Cocaine to Central America on its way to the United States. Makled-Garcia, who was indicted in New York Federal Court l...