Venezuelan National Guard troops in Maracaibo Sept. 4 captured fugitive former Colombian senator, César department governor and national agriculture minister Alvaro Araujo Noguera [2], 75. Araujo Noguera, who had been wanted for a year and a half, is expected to be extradited shortly. He is accused of collaborating with paramilitary warlord "Jorge 40 [3]" in the kidnapping of a rival, businessman Víctor Ochoa Daza. The scandal has embroiled Araujo Noguera's family and prompted his daughter María Consuelo Araujo to step down as foreign minister. His son, ex-senator Alvaro Araujo Castro, was imprisoned last year on charges related to the case. (AP [4]; El Tiempo [5], Bogotá; El Espectador [6], Bogotá, Sept. 5)
See our last post on Colombia and the paramilitaries [7].
