KATMANDU, Nepal — Despite high hopes for Nepal’s “historic” April 10 vote, the early campaign period has indicated that elections will not be free, will not be fair and certainly won’t be fast. Instead, expect ongoing violence between political parties, widespread voter intimidation and a result around, say, two months after election day. That’s not to say the months of planning and millions of dollars will be a complete waste, but the vote probably won’t herald the birth of a “New Nepal,” as so many have hoped for after 10 years of civil war and half a decade of dubious [...]
MIAMI — Cuban President Raúl Castro was conspicuously quiet during the recent tensions between Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador in the wake of Colombian troops’ crossing into Ecuador to kill a leftist rebel leader. Other than a phone call to Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, Castro made no attempt to sound off against Bogotá’s decision to violate Ecuador’s sovereignty. Havana’s silence was surprising to some, considering the communist island’s historical ties with Colombia’s leading rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. FARC leader Raúl Reyes was killed during the March 1 assault on his jungle camp in Ecuador, about [...]
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — The death of FARC commander Raúl Reyes is being seen here as a significant turning point in Colombia’s internal armed conflict with Latin America’s oldest insurgency, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. While the killing of Reyes on Ecuadorian soil has sparked a diplomatic crisis between Colombia and its neighbors, it is the impact of his death on the country’s conflict that will be noted in the annals of Colombian history. Colombian President Álvaro Uribe was elected to power with a mandate to crush the rebels. For the last six years, the government’s counterinsurgency campaign, bankrolled largely [...]
