Mike Ceaser is a freelance journalist now based in Bogota, Colombia, who has previously lived in and reported from Venezuela, Paraguay, Bolivia and the United States. He has contributed to publications including The San Francisco Chronicle, The Christian Science Monitor, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The BBC Online, The Boston Globe, Newsday, and others.
BOGOTÁ, Colombia -- Email messages linking the Colombian Marxist guerilla insurgency to politicians, union activists and
left-wing parties overseas have revealed a network of supporters
spanning several continents, and have kept tensions high between
Colombia and some of its neighbors. While some Colombia observers note that despite being on the defensive at home, the rebels are advancing on the "international front," others point to the highly political nature of the leaks.
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BOGOTÁ, Colombia -- The stunning rescue by Colombian soldiers of
15 hostages that had been held by a left-wing guerilla group, including three American contractors and a
one-time presidential candidate, brings the government closer to
victory in its long civil war. This latest success could also pave the
way for an unprecedented third term for President Álvaro Uribe, a
prospect that worries some analysts. The hostages were freed without firing a shot in a meticulously planned deception operation.
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MANTA, Ecuador -- A decade ago, this was just another obscure,
humid, Pacific coast fishing town, with a third-rate airport and a
problem with narcotrafficking. Today, the
city is a regular stop for cruise ships, boasts a first-rate airport
and is a key outpost in the United States' war on drugs. But the
eight-year-old U.S. anti-drug presence here has both put Manta on the
map and made the city a center of controversy. The 10-year U.S. lease on the facility may not be renewed in 2009.
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BOGOTÁ, Colombia -- Kidnapped when she was just 15, Natalia Rodrigues was held captive in guerrilla camps in the jungles of Colombia for three years. The guerrillas required their hostages to write
letters, which they used to obtain ransom payments. Today, Rodrigues says she might
someday apply for graduate school in the United States. But because of
a rule that many human rights advocates call a case of antiterrorism
legislation gone overboard, the letters she wrote could be used to bar her from U.S. entry.
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BOGOTÁ, Colombia -- Cuba has a
long tradition of sending doctors to treat the poor
overseas, and currently has
about 30,000 doctors and nurses working outside the country, according
to the Cuban government, most of them stationed in Venezuela. However,
it appears an increasing number of Cuban doctors and nurses stationed
overseas are attempting to defect. They are motivated by economic and political freedom and have been helped by a new U.S. visa policy aimed specifically at the Cuban medics.
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BOGOTÁ, Colombia -- For years, paramilitary death squads and guerrillas waged a campaign of terror and violence against the indigenous Kankuamo people in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains of northeastern Colombia. Many of those and other paramilitary leaders now are in jail as part of a demobilization process that has seen more than 30,000 members of the death squads lay down their arms since 2003. But a wider scandal implicating ruling-party politicians in the activities of the death squads threatens to overshadow the successes of the demobilization. more
Will Alvaro Uribe seek a constitutional amendment to allow him to stay in office for a third term?
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PUERTO ASIS, Colombia -- About a year ago, Carolina saw the fumigation planes flying low over her family's farm near the Ecuadorian border here. They were trailed by clouds of herbicide, which killed the family's crops of coffee, yucca, peanuts and bananas. At the behest of U.S. leaders in Washington, Colombia's conservative President Alvaro Uribe has pursued such coca fumigation with greater fervor than any other South American leader. The collateral damage caused by it has antagonized many Colombians as well as neighboring governments, embittering them against both Uribe and the Bush administration. more