Colombia,
Venezuela seek normalization
of bilateral relations
Colombian
President Alvaro Uribe will meet
with his Venezuelan counterpart,
Hugo Chavez, on Feb. 15 to seek
a solution to a diplomatic
dispute between the two
countries and realize the
normalization of bilateral
relations.
According to a statement from
the Colombian presidential
palaceon Wednesday, Uribe
postponed his visit to Venezuela
due to ear infection when he
hosted a conference on Feb. 3 on
international aid for
demobilizing right-wing
paramilitaries in the port of
Cartagena and was hospitalized
overnight in the city's Naval
Hospital.
Uribe had planned to meet with
Chavez in Caracas on Feb. 3. His
trip to Venezuela is aimed at
ending a month-old diplomatic
spat triggered last December by
the disputed capture of
Colombian rebel leader Rodrigo
Granda on Venezuelan soil.
Colombian rebel leader appears
before US tribunal
A top leader of the rebel
Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC) appeared
Wednesday before the US Federal
Court of Washington, which
investigates him for crimes such
as drug-trafficking, kidnapping
and terrorism.
According to local media,
Ricardo Palmera, alias Simon
Trinidad, will appear in another
court session in March and the
trial against him will start in
six months.
The prosecutor of the case asked
Judge Thomas Hogan to give more
time prior to the trial, because
more evidence has to be
gathered.
Palmera is implicated in the
kidnapping of three US citizens,
all contractors of the US State
Department, who are part of the
group of hostages kept by the
FARC and subject to a
humanitarian exchange with the
Colombian government of
President Alvaro Uribe.
The 17,000-strong FARC has been
fighting the government for four
decades and is controlling 40
percent of Colombia's rural
areas.
The rebel group finances itself
with drug-trafficking and
kidnapping activities.
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Chile to protest against EU
trade restrictions before WTO
A delegation of the Chilean
Foreign Ministry will travel to
Geneva on Thursday to protest
before the World Trade
Organization (WTO) against the
restrictions imposed by the
European Union (EU) on salmon.
The mission will be headed by
Ricardo Lagos Jr., chief for
multilateral economic affairs of
the Foreign Ministry, and
Roberto Paiva, director for WTO
affairs.
The two officials will hold
consultations with the WTO on
the EU restrictions affecting
Chile's salmon exports to the
European bloc, the daily La
Tercera reported Wednesday.
The European Commission, the
executive organ of the EU,
decided last Friday to impose
the safeguards based on the top
import quotas and minimum
commercialization prices against
Norway, Chile and the Faroe
Islands.
The government of Chile decided
on Monday to resort to the WTO
to force the EU to refrain from
trade restrictions, which
Santiago considers as
unjustifiable.
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