A Paramilitary Boss' Testimony Underscores Militias' Grip on Political and Business Life in the Nation.

SINCELEJO, COLOMBIA -- This is the chronicle of a death foretold.

Mayor Eudaldo "Tito" Diaz knew he was a marked man. He had resisted right-wing paramilitary fighters in El Roble, a town in the northern state of Sucre, and the assassins had him in their sights. In a town hall meeting, he confronted Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, grabbing the microphone and warning that he was going to be killed.

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A Politician Says That If the U.S. Doesn't Pass a Free-Trade Agreement, His Country Could Be Forced to Withdraw.

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- A prominent politician closely allied with President Alvaro Uribe said his nation should pull out of a U.S.-financed effort to fight drug trafficking and terrorism if the American Congress does not pass a free-trade agreement with his country.

Sen. Carlos Garcia, a presidential aspirant and leader of the largest bloc in Colombia's Congress, said Monday in an interview that the failure to pass the trade accord could force the government to withdraw from Plan Colombia, which has cost the United States about $5 billion over seven years.

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Commanders Cite State Complicity In Violent Movement

MEDELLIN, Colombia -- Top paramilitary commanders have in recent days confirmed what human rights groups and others have long alleged: Some of Colombia's most influential political, military and business figures helped build a powerful anti-guerrilla movement that operated with impunity, killed civilians and shipped cocaine to U.S. cities.

The commanders have named army generals, entrepreneurs, foreign companies and politicians who not only bankrolled paramilitary operations but also worked hand in hand with fighters to carry them out. In accounts that are at odds with those of the government, the commanders have said their organization, rather than simply sprouting up to fill a void in lawless regions of the country, had been systematically built with the help of bigger forces.

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BUENAVENTURA, Colombia -- Visitors to this city can be forgiven for thinking no place is safe here. Gunfire often echoes through the slums surrounding its port, the country's most important on the Pacific coast. As larger cities have calmed, Buenaventura has emerged as the deadliest urban center in Colombia's long internal war.

Soldiers search almost every car at checkpoints on the winding road from Cali. Guerrillas recently fired mortar shells at the police headquarters. The stately Hotel Estacion, a neo-Classical gem built in 1928, where executives come to hammer out deals to import cars or export coffee, is guarded by dozens of soldiers in combat fatigues.

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The Current And Former Officials Are Suspected Of Signing A 'Devil's Pact' With Paramilitaries

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- The Colombian government ordered the arrest of 19 current and former officials Monday who are accused of signing a 2001 "devil's pact" with outlawed paramilitary groups in which they promised to work together to "re-found Colombia."

The orders represent the government's biggest move yet to bring to justice politicians it alleges were complicit with the right-wing militias in Colombia's decades-long civil war. Farmers and businessmen formed the militias for self-defense against leftist guerrillas in the 1980s, but many of the groups evolved into mafias engaged in killings, drug trafficking, extortion, land grabs and election fraud.

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Defense Minister Says Neither He Nor The President Knew The National Police Were Listening In On Public Figures, Including Officials

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- President Alvaro Uribe faced a new scandal Tuesday over alleged wiretapping of political opponents and journalists, one day after he ordered the arrest of 19 present and former Colombian officials accused of signing a "devil's pact" with right-wing paramilitaries.

In a news conference Tuesday, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos disclosed that the administration had uncovered a broad and systematic practice by the national police of wiretapping prominent public figures, including members of Uribe's government.

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A NEW hummingbird species discovered in a cloud forest in Colombia already needs protection from humans, according to the experts who found the bird.

Called the gorgeted puffleg, the new species, with a blue and green throat, measures between 90 and 100 millimetres.

The male was an iridescent green and electric blue patch on its throat - -- the gorge -- and from tufts of white feathers at the top of the legs.

Ornithologists Alexander CortDes-Diago and Luis Alfonso Ortega first saw the bird in 2005 during surveys of mountain cloud forest in the Serrania del Pinche, in south-west Colombia.

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Colombia has made its largest ever drugs seizure, with almost 25 metric tons of cocaine, valued at UKP250 million, found ready for export in a hide on the Pacific coast.

"This is the largest seizure in Colombian history," said Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos of the shipment found near the town of Pizarro in the Pacific province of Choco.

The discovery was the result of eight months of undercover work by Colombia's secret intelligence service, the DAS, which received a tip off that the huge drug consignment had been put together in the estuary of Pizarro. The drugs, in almost 1000 waterproof, vacuum-packed bricks, were about to be loaded onto 'go fast' launches to make the trip along the Pacific coast up towards Mexico. The high speed motor boasts were to either rendezvous with larger ships or transfer the drugs onto other launches which would take them to Central America or Mexico where Mexican cartels would smuggle the cocaine across the border in to the US. advertisement

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BOGOTA, Colombia -- The street price of cocaine fell in the United States last year as purity rose, the White House drug czar said in a private letter to a senator, indicating increasing supply and seemingly contradicting U.S. claims that $4 billion in aid to Colombia is stemming the flow.

The drug czar, John Walters, wrote that retail cocaine prices fell by 11 percent from February 2005 to October 2006, to about $135 per gram of pure cocaine -- hovering near the same levels since the early 1990s. In 1981, when the U.S. government began collecting data, a gram of pure cocaine fetched $600.

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Colombia's navy made the largest drug seizure in the nation's history when it uncovered more than 24 tons of cocaine buried along the Pacific coast, the defense minister said.

The cocaine, with a wholesale value of more than $500 million, was found Sunday near Pizarro, 250 miles west of Bogota. No arrests had been made.

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BOGOTA, Colombia -- An investigation that has already bared ties between government officials and paramilitary death squads in six of Colombia's coastal states has now widened to the home state of President Alvaro Uribe, focusing on his administration's politically powerful allies, judicial officials say.

The development could further complicate Colombia's efforts to secure a free-trade pact with the United States, where some Democrats on Capitol Hill are increasingly concerned about the growing scandal.

Colombia's Supreme Court, which is responsible for investigating malfeasance in Congress, has received detailed evidence that has spurred an investigation concerning three lawmakers from Antioquia state, one of them Sen. Ruben Dario Quintero, Uribe's private secretary when he was governor there from 1995 to 1997.

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Colombia Is Making A Significant Shift In Priorities In Its War Against Drugs And Guerrillas, But Critics Wonder If It Will Be Implemented

BOGOTA -- With all the hoopla surrounding President Bush's recent visit to Colombia, few seemed to notice the arrival the next day of German President Horst Kohler, on the first visit since 1971 by a German head of state.

But Kohler's visit symbolized a tenuous but nevertheless significant European nod of approval for a shift in Colombia's anti-drug policy, criticized here and abroad over the years as being too much military stick and not enough economic carrots.

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The Allegations Come As Congress Reviews Aid To The U.S. Ally. The CIA Says The Intelligence Hasn't Been Fully Vetted

WASHINGTON -- The CIA has obtained new intelligence alleging that the head of Colombia's U.S.-backed army collaborated extensively with right-wing militias that Washington considers terrorist organizations, including a militia headed by one of the country's leading drug traffickers.

Disclosure of the allegation about army chief Gen. Mario Montoya comes as the high level of U.S. support for Colombia's government is under scrutiny by Democrats in Congress. The disclosure could heighten pressure to reduce or redirect that aid because Montoya has been a favorite of the Pentagon and an important partner in the U.S.-funded counterinsurgency strategy called Plan Colombia. The $700 million a year Colombia receives makes it the third-largest beneficiary of U.S. foreign assistance.

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A task force plays a role in the confiscation of 20 tons of the drug from a ship off Panama

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- Twenty tons of cocaine seized off the Pacific coast of Panama over the weekend were believed headed to a Mexican port for delivery to the notorious Sinaloa cartel, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

The seizure Sunday of drugs valued at more than $275 million wholesale was described by the officials as the largest recorded maritime cocaine bust.

The drugs were believed to have been purchased by Ismael Zambada, a suspected leader of Mexico's so-called Sinaloa cartel, officials said. The cache was seized aboard a 300-foot Panamanian-flagged freighter destined for an unspecified port in Mexico.

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CARACAS, Venezuela -- Colombian officials said over the weekend that they would consider seeking the extradition of senior executives of Chiquita Brands International after the company pleaded guilty in United States federal court to making payments to paramilitary death squads.

Chiquita, one of the world's largest banana producers, agreed to pay a fine of $25 million last week to the United States Justice Department to settle the case. Chiquita told the Justice Department that from 1997 to 2004, a subsidiary in Colombia had paid $1.7 million to right-wing paramilitary groups, which are classified by the United States government as terrorist organizations.

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BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- Saying he's proud to call Colombia's scandal-weakened leader his friend, President Bush pledged Sunday to press for more aid to help the him fight drug traffickers and guerrillas and secure a trade accord for the South American nation.

But even though Bush received a warm welcome from President Alvaro Uribe, the Bush administration's closest ally in Latin America, he stayed in Bogota just seven hours because of security concerns.

On the streets of the capital, anti-Bush protesters clashed with riot police, looted banks and set fires, but they were kept well away from the presidential palace where the leaders conferred.

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Amid Tight Security, He And Colombian Leader Vow To Fight Traffickers

BOGOTA, Colombia - Amid tight security, the presidents of the United States and Colombia vowed an ongoing alliance to fight the drug trade and the rebel groups that feed off it.

"This country has come through some very difficult times," President Bush said at the side of President Alvaro Uribe, a close ally whose country receives more U.S. aid than any outside the Middle East. "I'm looking forward very much to ... continuing to work with you to defeat the drug lords and narco-traffickers - the narco-terrorists." Mr. Bush has proposed about $700 million in direct annual aid on top of the $4 billion Colombia has received since Mr. Uribe took office in 2002. The Colombian leader prodded Mr. Bush for even more, saying U.S. support has helped curb crime, corruption and the drug trade and weakened left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries.

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Colombia was the third country on the president's five-nation tour of Latin America.

President Bush pledged continued support Sunday to this strong but drug and violence-plagued U.S. ally, on a visit marked by both warm official welcomes and rioting protesters.

"Your country has come through very difficult times and now there's a brighter day ahead," Bush said to President Alvaro Uribe after their meetings and lunch at the presidential palace. "We have been friends and we will remain friends."

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America's 6-Year, $6B Effort To Eradicate Drug In Colombia Has Mixed Results

Soacha, Colombia - Maria Ayara lives with her children and other relatives near Bogota. She had lived and grown coffee in the countryside with her husband until coca-growing militia usurped their land. The men came in the night, men from the militias that prowl Colombia's lawless coca-growing regions. They were there to grab control of the coca zone. They took away her husband, and a hundred others. Some were butchered. Hers disappeared. She fled with their four children and the clothes on her back. Now she makes $6 a week, working every day at a small store in a slum near Bogota.

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Only three days have passed since airplanes dumped chemicals near this isolated village to destroy coca plants, the raw ingredient in cocaine that winds up on American streets.

But Jorlin Giovanny, one of some 300 peasants who live here, is already rescuing the seeds from dead crops to plant a new batch.

"What else are we going to do?" asked Giovanny, while he replanted tidy rows in his backyard. "There's no other option."

Aerial spraying is part of the U.S. government's seven-year, $4.7 billion anti-drug effort that ran its course last year. As President Bush visits Colombia today, his administration has long praised the plan for slashing cocaine production and reducing violence in the nation, which is the world's largest exporter of the drug.

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