Colombia's lower house voted overwhelmingly May 23 to request President Alvaro Uribe "immediately remove for incompetence" Sergio Caramagna, head of the OAS peace mission in the country. Jose Castro Caycedo, the legislator who sponsored the resolution, told the Associated Press that paramilitaries made a mockery of the peace talks by "holding orgies on the negotiating table," excesses which he said Caramagna should have denounced.

Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe has ordered his military to intensify efforts to free hostages in the hands of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC)—asserting that they are being held in "concentration camp" conditions "more cruel" than those of the Nazis. Former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three US intelligence agents, and eight more hostages were reportedly being held in the same Amazon jungle camp from where National Police officer Jhon Frank Pinchao escaped April 28, after eight years in captivity. Frank said Betancourt is forced to sleep chained by her neck as punishment for having tried to escape five times.

Colombian National Police officer Jhon Frank Pinchao, held hostage by the FARC guerillas for nearly nine years, escaped his captors and spent 17 days lost in the jungle of Vaupes department before he was found by an army patrol on May 16. He said he was held in a camp with three US intelligence agents and Colombia's former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. Pinchao was one of about 60 hostages held by the FARC in demand of a prisoner exchange with the government.

Imprisoned Colombian paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso fingered the nation's vice president, defense minister and two of it's top conglomerates as collaborators in an explosive judicial hearing. He also said the paramilitaries, branded "foreign terrorist organizations" by Washington in 2001, were aided by top army brass in training and logistics. Mancuso said he would offer details later. In press interviews last week, he promised details of how multinational companies including all banana exporters helped bankroll the paramilitaries. President Alvaro Uribe said in a radio interview that he had "every confidence in the honesty and moral fiber" of Vice President Francisco Santos and Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos.

A new blue-and-green-throated hummingbird species, dubbed the gorgeted puffleg, has been discovered in a threatened cloud forest of southwest Colombia. The name comes from the iridescent emerald green and electric blue patch on the throat—or gorge—of the males, and from tufts of white feathers at the top of the legs, a characteristic of puffleg hummers. The new species is easily twice as big as the thumb-sized hummingbirds found in the eastern United States.

From the International Crisis Group, May 10:

Colombia’s New Armed Groups
The disbanding of the paramilitary United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) between 2003 and 2006 is seen by the administration of President Alvaro Uribe as a vital step toward peace. While taking some 32,000 AUC members out of the conflict has certainly altered the landscape of violence, there is growing evidence that new armed groups are emerging that are more than the simple “criminal gangs” that the government describes. Some of them are increasingly acting as the next generation of paramilitaries, and they require a more urgent and more comprehensive response from the government.

Colombian National Police chief Gen. Jorge Daniel Castro and his intelligence boss Gen. Guillermo Chaves were forced to retire May 14 following cliams that police illegally tapped calls of opposition political figures, journalists and members of the government. "The procedure is totally unacceptable, illegal and contrary to the policy of the government," President Alvaro Uribe‘s office said in a statement. The scandal broke over the weekend when newsweekly Semana reported the interception of phone conversations revealing that imprisoned paramilitary leaders continue to operate their networks from behind bars. The scandal is being dubbed the "Colombian Watergate." Castro's replacement was named as Oscar Naranjo, director of the police investigative agency DIJIN. Also May 14, the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of 20 politicians and business leaders, including four senators and one lower house representative, on criminal conspiracy charges for signing the 2001 "Rialto Pact" with paramilitary leaders. (El Espectador, Radio Caracol, AP, May 14)

On May 14 at 7 AM, Francisco Puerta, a leader of the Colombian "peace community" of San José de Apartadó, was assassinated by paramilitaries outside the bus terminal in the town of Apartadó, the municipal seat. Two para gunmen approached him in the store where he sitting and fired several times—then calmly walked away and escaped, despite the presence of numerous police in the vicinity.