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IRA members caught in Colombia

Three active IRA members with counterfeited passports were arrested in Bogota's international airport when they were preparing to leave Colombia after spending several weeks teaching explosive manipulation to the country's main guerrilla force, FARC. According to a press release from the Colombian Military Forces the men were identified as Martin John McCauley, William Monaghan and David Bracken, all of them belonging to the IRA "Explosives Department". Apparently military intelligence detected the presence of foreign terrorists in the so called "Distension Zone", an extensive area under guerrilla control, as early as June, but did not proceed until their collaboration activities were confirmed. The Colombian Army alleges the three were involved in teaching FARC guerrillas how to construct and conceal non conventional explosives for attacking civilians and military forces. IRA men were tracked and followed in at least a couple of towns, San Vicente del Caguán and La Macarena. Apparently, British and Irish sources confirmed the three men have spent time in jail for terrorist activities. Finally the release underlines the close links between different terrorist gangs and the international narcotics trade. American, Brazilian and Colombian intelligence have evidence that most guerrilla movements in Colombia receive strong financing from the drug trade.

Chile vulnerable to Argentina

Chile ranks 21st. among the top sixty countries to invest in the 2001/2005 period, according to "The Economist Intelligence Unit" (EIU). However in spite of being the best Latinamerican ranked country, Chile has dropped one step from the previous 1996/2000 period. "Chile was steadily growing a couple of years ago, supporting with not much effort foreign crisis such as Mexico, but now the country is vulnerable to the Argentine situation, and people know that", said Chilean analyst Fernando Garcés. But according to EIU Chile still ranks as the top Latinamerican country, followed by Mexico (31) and Argentina (33), and further back Brazil (37), Peru (40) and Colombia (43).The EIU report also indicates that between 1998 and 2000, annual direct investm