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She was the presidential candidate of the Green Oxygen Party - a group that she had created after leaving the Liberal Party in 1998

San Vicente de Caguan was also one of the most dangerous areas in Colombia, as it was considered one of the strongholds of the guerrillas protected, forming part of the demilitarized zone of the army.

political kidnapping for extortion that are used purely as a means of financing at this stage of the life of the guerrillas

In this context, the FARC has adopted strategies to strengthen its presence at the local level that play upon the weak mechanisms of accountability that exist in local and regional government. For example, by kidnapping or threatening municipal authorities, the group has sought to establish "armed oversight" over the use of municipal funds

Based on this information, the insurgents have targeted corrupt politicians in their kidnapping and extortion campaigns, though they often utilize public funds to finance their own activities. L

Jorge Briceno, chief of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was convicted of co-masterminding the kidnapping and killing of three US activists in 1999, a Colombian court said Tuesday.

The FARC, with about 17,000 fighters, is the largest armed rebel groups in Colombia and controls nearly 40 percent of the territory.

two scientists

(FARC), a violent insurgency group known for ransoming abductees, has claimed responsibility.

prepare a biological survey of a potential national park.

During the 1980s, the FARCcollected most of its revenues through kidnappingand extortion.

The FARCattempted to extract taxes from the new landlords using techniques it had successfully used with the existing landed elite: threatening retribution if those elites refused to pay, or kidnappingfor ransom

such as kidnapping civilians for ransom-to finance their war.

IV. Mexico's Drug War Mexico continued its war on drug trafficking that Mexican President Felipe Calderón launched against drug cartels in 2006.

President Calderón announced that his administration would reform civilian law enforcement and the courts, and that "the Mexican army would continue to lead the fight until local and state police forces are free of corruption."20

These are but a handful of die murders reported in Mexico's drug wars. The level of violence attributable to die war on drugs and die organized criminal activity that precipitated it cannot, however, be measured simply by counting corpses. Kidnappings, carjackings, extortion, and other forms of crime and aggression infect the quality of daily life.

The government has no legitimate monopoly of force and is extremely weak; it does not and cannot effectively protect its citizens. Most crimes never come to trial, judges receive death threats, and the army itself is accused of human rights violations. Since 1985 there have been 25,000 violent deaths per year, a total of 300,000 murders over the past decade and a half, 18% of which are attributable to the political violence. Homicide is the leading cause of death for men between the ages of 18 and 45, and the second leading cause for women. From 2000 through 2002, more than 5,000 people died in 900 massacres and another 3,500 a year were kidnapped for ransom. Trade unionists, teachers, human rights workers, politicians, church people, journalists, and peasant and indigenous leaders are threatened, and assassinations and disappearances are daily occurrences.

The root cause has to do with impunity, because for many years, these police was used to control the population, mainly, and not to prosecute criminals. Therefore, in order for them to be the blind instruments of power, they were given autonomy. They were given impunity.

The judicial police, though, are not only rogues acting on their own. The force is also frequently used by politicians from the ruling party to intimidate opponents

In June, when drug baron Hector Palma crash landed in a Lear jet, the government had to use the army to capture him. Judicial police in the drug lord's pay had whisked him away to a safe house belonging to the regional judicial police commander. Experts here estimate that Palma, who often traveled wearing a judicial police uniform, and other drug kingpins, have been paying judicial police and other authorities as much as $200 million a month for protection.

At the time of writing of this review of Matthew Evangelista's clearly written book on the wars between Russia and Chechnya, there are reports of several people being killed in an explosion on a commuter train in south Russia, close to Chechnya.

The Russian authorities immediately blamed "Chechen terrorists.