Jack Kimball

Colombians caught in war long for reprieve

By Jack Kimball
PARAMILLO NATIONAL PARK, Colombia (Reuters) – In the remote mountains of north Colombia, an indigenous woman stands on a bank of the Rio Verde river at sunset watching neighbors scrub clothes while pigs sleep nearby…

Is Colombia’s Santos already running for re-election?

By Jack Kimball
BOGOTA  (Reuters) – With one hand on the wheel of a 1940s jeep, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos edges through the crowd in a coffee-farming town, handing out subsidies and promises of a brighter future…

Cubans honor Catholic patron ahead of papal visit 

By Jack Kimball
HAVANA (Reuters) – White-robed priests burned incense as they marched slowly through Havana’s narrow streets, giving Catholic faithful a rare glimpse of Cuba’s patron saint outside her remote eastern home…

Cuba’s cigars: a black market tale of survival

By Jack Kimball
HAVANA (Reuters) – Packing long cigars into a white box picturing Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, a Cuban man delicately places a thin wax-paper stamp of quality inside…

Colombia’s oil frontiers, the wild west of exploration

By Jack Kimball
BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s emergence from 50 years of guerrilla warfare has led to record high oil output that requires more investment in once off-limit areas to secure long-term production growth, experts said…

Colombia revamps war plan against guerrillas

By Jack Kimball and Luis Jaime Acosta
BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia is redesigning its fight against Marxist guerrillas, making the destruction of key rebel military and financial units as much of a goal as killing their leaders, sources familiar with the plan say…

Venezuela electoral body probes both sides, baseball cap

By Jack Kimball
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s election commission is investigating both sides in this year’s bitterly contested presidential race over alleged campaign irregularities, a mere two months before voters head to the polls in the South American OPEC nation…

Land restitution law undermines rebels – Colombia’s Santos

By Jack Kimball
BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Friday defended his signature law that returns land seized by illegal armed groups to peasants after leftist rebels assailed the measure at the start of peace talks…

Colombian rebels increase attacks as Santos visits south

By Jack Kimball
BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombian helicopter gunships strafed suspected rebel hideouts and police disarmed explosives as President Juan Manuel Santos headed to the nation’s volatile south on Wednesday amid growing criticism that security has deteriorated…