Colombia and Venezuela have re-established diplomatic relations with leaders from both countries agreeing to do more to ease each other’s worries.
The Colombian government, through prickly relations with its predecessor Alvaro Uribe, has been accusing Venezuela of harboring dangerous guerrillas in its territory.
Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez has accused Colombia of planning an invasion and – Uribe in particular – of trying to stir up a war in his last days of office.
The new Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, sworn in Saturday, was previously Uribe’s defense minister.
Former Geneva UN representative suffers heart attack after taking office
Angelino Garzon
Hours after being sworn in, Vice President Angelino Garzon suffered a heart attack.
Doctors say Garzon, 63, will return to work in a month, after undergoing a four-hour emergency heart bypass this week.
Garzon who worked as the Colombian representative before the UN in Geneva, left Switzerland at the beginning of 2010 to join the presidential campaign.
Under Colombian law, there is no mechanism to replace a vice president in the case of temporary absence. In case of permanent vacancy the Constitution only provides for a stand-in.
Additional details: Colombia Reports in English and SurTitulares in Spanish
Columbia’s President Alvaro Uribe interrupted a televised news conference Sunday 13 June to take a phone call from his top general announcing that the military had just rescued two of the country’s top police officers who had been held by Farc guerillas for 12 years. The two, Luis Mendieta and Col. Enrique Murillo, were taken by the military in the jungle in the eastern province of of Guaviare, where combat broke out with Farc. Mendieto, the highest-ranking official held by Farc, turned 53 this week.
The governor of Caqueta province in southern Colombia was killed Tuesday by rebels who kidnapped him Monday at his home, in what the BBC calls the highest-profile kidnapping since 2002. President Alvaro Uribe ascribes the murder to Farc rebels, saying they apparently slit Luis Francisco Cuellar’s throat to keep him from making noise as they fled security forces. The governor had been kidnapped several times.
Links to other sites: BBC, Miami Herald
