But Some Say His Priorities Are Misguided Bogota, Colombia --- His campaign song is a burst of Latin pop that would make heartthrob singer Ricky Martin envious. But Alvaro Uribe Velez, Colombia's leading presidential candidate, isn't the kind who likes to grin and swivel his hips. Proud of his roots as a rural landowner and expert horseman, Uribe is a serious, wiry man who is struggling with his tendency to be combative with the press. His family has suffered during Colombia's long war. When Uribe's father was killed by leftist rebels in a shootout in 1983, his brother was wounded and his sister nearly kidnapped. [continues 600 words]
Bogota, Colombia --- Less than 24 hours after a resounding victory, Colombian President-elect Alvaro Uribe said he has already contacted the United Nations about the possibility of internationally supervised talks to end the country's 38-year-old armed leftist insurgency. Negotiations can only take place if the rebels accept a cease-fire and halt all terrorism, Uribe told foreign journalists here on Monday. Uribe, an anti-rebel hard-liner who takes office Aug. 7, was elected Sunday by voters fed up with four decades of violent upheaval rooted in Colombia's economic inequalities and its illicit narcotics trade. [continues 612 words]
Uribe Leads As Voters Go To Polls Today Bogota, Colombia --- Weary of violence, Colombians vote today in a presidential election in which the front-runner is a tough-talking candidate vowing no appeasement for one of the world's oldest left-wing guerrilla movements. Alvaro Uribe Velez, the leading contender, is a 49-year-old former governor of Antioquia, a state with a long history of political violence and an equally bloody cocaine trade, which flourished in the 1980s. The most reliable pre-election opinion survey, published last Sunday by Colombia's El Tiempo newspaper, gave Uribe a commanding lead, with 49.3 percent of voters preferring him over seven other candidates. [continues 790 words]
Vote Reflects Anti-Rebel Feelings Bogota, Colombia --- Exhausted by 38 years of bloody war, voters in Colombia on Sunday decisively chose a new president, Alvaro Uribe, who promises to expand the country's army and police and seek more U.S. aid to defeat one of the world's oldest leftist insurgencies. With more than 96 percent of precincts counted, Uribe had won about 53 percent of the vote, with Liberal Party candidate Horacio Serpa --- considered more moderate --- a distant second with about 31 percent. [continues 344 words]
Bogota, Colombia Exhausted by 38 years of bloody war, voters in Colombia on Sunday decisively chose a new president, Alvaro Uribe Velez, who promises to expand the country's army and police and seek more U.S. aid to defeat one of the world's oldest leftist insurgencies. To avoid a run-off, Uribe needed 50 percent of the vote, plus one ballot. With more than 96 percent of precincts counted, Uribe had won about 53 percent of the vote, with Liberal Party candidate Horacio Serpaconsidered more moderate -- a distant second with about 31 percent. [continues 435 words]
Mexican Lawyer Has Survived 4 Plots To Kill Her Monterrey, Mexico --- She doesn't look like a likely target for assassination. Silvia Raquenel Villanueva wears polyester pantsuits and oversized, matronly glasses. Thick gold crucifixes dangle around her neck, and she presses religious pamphlets into visitors' hands like a mother worried about souls going astray. But Villanueva, whose body is scarred by bullets, knows what it's like to walk in the shadow of death. The criminal attorney has nearly been killed four times because, authorities believe, she has been involved in the prosecution of some of the biggest drug smugglers wanted in Mexico and the United States. [continues 760 words]
Bogota, Colombia - Averting a new cycle of fighting, Colombian guerrilla fighters and the country's president struck an eleventh-hour deal Monday to revive talks to end a 38-year-old war. Colombians had been bracing for the total collapse of shaky peace negotiations started by the guerrillas and President Andres Pastrana three years ago. The president had set a Monday night deadline for the guerrillas to agree on terms to talk again --- or vacate a large region in southern Colombia that Pastrana ceded to the rebels as a safe haven when talks were launched. [continues 662 words]
Restrictions On Legal Crossings To Hurt U.S. Business, They Say Matamoros, Mexico -- While the U.S. Congress works to limit the entry of foreigners to prevent more terrorist attacks, people along the 2,100-mile U.S.-Mexico border are telling a cautionary tale. Merchants in the region near the Gulf of Mexico, and along the entire border, are worried that the urgency to heighten security and restrict visas could end up costing U.S. businesses billions in lost earnings. [continues 938 words]
Prison's Director, 30 Officers Suspected Of Aiding 'el Chapo' MEXICO CITY -- One of the most significant drug kingpins jailed in Mexico escaped from a maximum-security prison in Jalisco state early yesterday morning, Mexican law enforcement authorities said. The escape of convicted cocaine trafficker Joaquin Guzman Loera, known as "El Chapo," is a blow to the new government of President Vicente Fox, who just one day earlier declared a new crusade against corruption and organized crime in Mexico. Mexico's Public Security Secretariat, or ministry, ordered the detention of the Jalisco prison's director, Leonardo Beltran, and 30 officers for possible involvement in the escape. [continues 440 words]
MEXICO CITY -- In contrast to the lukewarm reception he got in Washington last month, Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox was praised Friday as a "visionary" by a visiting U.S. congressional delegation. Led by Republican U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, a bipartisan group of seven lawmakers -- three senators and four House members -- met with Fox and outgoing President Ernesto Zedillo. Fox "reminded me of a Texas entrepreneur. He had that entrepreneurial spirit, the vision, the ideas and enthusiasm," Hutchison told U.S. reporters here. [continues 215 words]
MEXICO CITY -- U.S. drug policy czar Barry McCaffrey on Tuesday praised what he said appears to be an open transition of power here after 71 years of one-party rule. McCaffrey is in Mexico on a trip that will also take him to Colombia, which he said faces staggering challenges. President Clinton is to travel to Colombia later this month for a drug strategy session. "It's a pretty positive atmosphere," McCaffrey told U.S. correspondents in Mexico after meeting with Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, justice officials and members of Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox's transition team. [continues 404 words]
MEXICO CITY -- Mexican authorities on Wednesday found the battered bodies of three federal agents who were working with U.S. law enforcement agencies to investigate a powerful drug cartel along the U.S.-Mexico border. The agents were found dead in their van off a steep cliff along a remote highway between the Baja California cities of Tijuana and Mexicali. The deaths could be the latest in a long string of drug-related killings of police and others investigating drug smuggling along the border, particularly in Tijuana, which is near San Diego, Calif., and in Matamoros, near Brownsville. [continues 375 words]
Courts: An Extradition Request Is Blocked, But The Alleged "Speed" Kingpin Still Could Be Tried In Mexico On Other Charges. Mexico City-Attempts to try suspected kingpin of the world's largest methamphetamine ring were thrown into jeopardy this week when a Mexican judge blocked the suspect's extradition to the United States. Authorities believe methamphetamine, or "speed." is one of the fastest-growing drug problems in the United States. American anti-drug officials believe that Luis Amezcua leads a gang that has smuggled precursor chemicals into the United States, mixed them into speed in secret labs in California and distributed the drug throughout the United States, especially Texas and the Southeast. [continues 191 words]
