Suspected Colombian paramilitary leader Magaly Moreno captured in Venezuela

A woman described by Venezuelan authorities as an important leader of a Colombian paramilitary group has been captured, the justice minister said today.

Interpol had called for the arrest of Magaly Janeth Moreno Vega, who was wanted by Colombian officials on homicide charges, said Venezuelan Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami. He referred to the 39-year-old suspect as a paramilitary chief for the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC.

Authorities said she was captured Thursday in Maracaibo, Venezuela. El Aissami said Moreno, nicknamed "The Pearl," deals with "extremely important information" for the paramilitary group.

El Aissami, who spoke on state television, accused Colombian President Alvaro Uribe of "institutional and moral decay" for his government's ties to paramilitary groups that "attack our people and threaten peace and order." 

Moreno previously worked as an investigator for Colombian prosecutors and was detained with her boss several years ago on accusations of aiding militias, according to news reports. Moreno was convicted on conspiracy charges tied to various crimes after she acknowledged working for paramilitary boss Jorge Ivan Laverde, who has said he participated in the killings of more than 2,000 people, the Associated Press reported.

Officials have said Moreno fled when prison officials granted her a temporary parole.

-- Efrain Hernandez Jr.

Latin America Digest: Today's one-line news briefs

Salvador, Brazil — Brazil’s President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday joined visiting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in calling on Israel to stop building new settlements in areas claimed by Palestinians.

Bogota, Colombia — Six people, including two children, were killed when suspected Colombian FARC guerrillas stopped and set fire to a bus traveling in the south of the country, a state governor said.

Guatemala City — Guatemalan officials announced the resumption of international adoptions after a nearly two-year suspension prompted by the discovery that some babies were being sold.

Tegucigalpa, Honduras — A Honduran television station that backs deposed President Manuel Zelaya accused the de facto government of interfering with its broadcast signal, replacing news programs with cowboy movies.

Mexico City — Rising oil prices and increased exports are slowly dragging Mexico’s economy out of a severe recession, but the nation’s financial system still faces fundamental challenges, national leaders and experts said.

-- Times wire reports

Father uses symbolic crucifixion to call attention to Colombian hostages

Global Post reports on Gustavo Moncayo, a 57-year-old high school teacher in Colombia who last week picked up an eight-foot bamboo cross and set off on a five-day, 70-mile march from an army base to Bogota.

Moncayo is trying to raises awareness of the plight of his son, Army Corp. Pablo Emilio Moncayo, who was taken prisoner by rebels during a 1997 firefight. The younger Moncayo is one of 23 soldiers and police officers still being held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the nation’s largest rebel group.

Read John Otis' story here, and watch the video, also by Global Post, below.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Press body: 'scandalous impunity' in killings of Colombian journalists

The Knight Center Blog for Journalism in the Americas reports that the Inter American Press Assn. (IAPA) has described as "scandalous" the lack of justice for 16 slain Colombian journalists.

The investigations into their deaths have either been suspended, filed away or discontinued by resolution.

"According to an investigation by the IAPA’s rapid response unit, the 16 cases have similar characteristics: all were crimes committed between 1993 and 2009, and all were handled by local and regional prosecutors instead of the human rights division of the attorney general's office.

"In a statement, the president of the IAPA, Enrique Santos, said 'the scandalous impunity in these criminal cases is a factor that fuels violence against journalists.' He called for greater efforts to achieve justice and to 'stop weakening press freedom.' "

Read the full post on the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas blog here, and more about the dangers for journalists across Latin America here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City.

Sneak preview of Shakira's new video

Colombian pop star Shakira is expected to debut her latest music video on MTV tonight, and sneak previews are, of course, already circulating on YouTube.

"She Wolf" is the first single from the album of the same name, due for release later this year. Previews of the video show the singer hanging from the bars of a golden cage.

She told Rolling Stone magazine: “I am in a cage, but I am showing the desperation of being in it. I got a little carried away, hanging upside down.”

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Fonseca makes his rounds in the U.S.

  Colombian singer-songwriter Juan Fernando Fonseca already gets the crowds in his native country out of their seats and dancing with his Latin pop songs that blend vallenato and cumbia styles. Now he’s hoping to bring the Fonseca Phenomenon to the States.  He sold-out nine of the 12 dates for his U.S. tour, which wrapped Friday. 

Earlier this week, the 30-year-old singer-songwriter, known by his surname Fonseca, performed seven songs, including "Te Mando Flores," "Gratitud" and "Arroyito," in front of roughly 200 people at the Grammy Museum in downtown L.A., where he took the honor of being the first Latin artist to perform at the venue.

Read more about Fonseca over at our Pop & Hiss blog.

--Yvonne Villarreal

Photo: Fonseca. Credit: Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times

Colombian street artist caught on tape

You may remember Colombian street artist Bastardilla from here on La Plaza a few months back. 

Now you can see more of the mystery girl, who prefers to remain anonymous and allow her art to speak for itself, in this video from Nadja Drost on GlobalPost.

The artist, whose name is Spanish for "italics," is determined to remain known only by her pseudonym. Fame, apparently, doesn't interest her.

But if she carries on creating such amazing work, she might not be able to stay in the shadows for much longer.

Click here for more street-art video.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Hostages' stories fill bookshelves in Colombia

Hostage stories are hot property these days.

Bookstores in Colombia are full of gripping tales by former hostages detailing how they survived forced marches, military bombing runs, jungle-borne parasites and the abuse of sadistic guards, writes Juan Forero for the Washington Post in Bogota.

A few of the authors, explains Forero, have gone deeper, explaining their frailties under harrowing conditions or "recounting the inevitable human drama that unfolded in the jungle, from rivalries in makeshift prisons to the romances that blossomed between some hostages."

And Colombians are awaiting the release of a book by former hostage Ingrid Betancourt, the French-Colombian former presidential candidate who was liberated last year after being held for more than six years by the Colombian rebel force FARC.

The books have generated a swirl of controversy in a country where people tend to be wary of airing intimacies in public. Some critics have strongly rebuked the trend.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Image: In "Out of Captivity," three Americans describe their experiences as hostages of FARC. The book was launched in New York late last month but is selling well in Bogota. Credit: HarperCollins

Shakira: Every little thing she does is magic

Writer Amy Turner of The Times (of London)  profiles Colombian popstar Shakira in this article, pondering the star's combination of sexuality and philanthropy:

Shakira, she of the bum-gyrating, belly-wriggling Latin pop songs Hips Don’t Lie and Underneath Your Clothes, is being kissed by nuns. Around her swarm photographers, reporters, fans and minders, as you'd expect of a 40m-album-selling artist; "Shaki, Shaki, over here," they shout. She poses for pictures, patient as the sisters, smiling serenely. She has just stepped offstage, but she's not wearing her usual low-slung hipsters or bikini top, and she hasn't been gyrating tonight. She's all in black -- a sleek, smart shift dress -- and her trademark tousled curls are soberly straight.

Last year, we covered the launch of one of Shakira's latest philanthropic ventures ALAS (Wings) here in Mexico City -- see the video below and click here for more details.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Book review: 'The Accountant's Story,' a tale about narco baron Pablo Escobar, by his brother

If you speak a little Spanish and recently have spent a bit of time anywhere near the border, you've probably heard a narcocorrido, a ballad sung to danceable norteño-style music with lyrics that romanticize the drug trade, writes Tim Rutten in the Los Angeles Times book section.

Rutten writes that "The Accountant's Story: Inside the Violent World of the Medellín Cartel" is the literary equivalent of a narcocorrido -- "without the redeeming virtue of a catchy, polka-inflected beat."

The book's cover bears two additional subtitles: one informing us that this is "the true story of Pablo Escobar"; the other that the author, Roberto Escobar, is his brother.

But the reviewer is unimpressed with Escobar's account of his brother's cocaine empire which, according to Forbes magazine, accounted for 80% of the world's cocaine traffic:

This oddly flat and, frankly, repellent book is certainly not confessional and is, in fact, less a memoir than it is an apologia for the brother Roberto quite obviously admires still. Pablo's drift into criminality is, in his brother's mind, at least, the inevitable consequence of growing up poor and ambitious in a violent, underdeveloped society. The fact that hundreds of thousands of other young men growing up in similar circumstances didn't elect to better themselves by profiteering on misery and death is airily passed over; Pablo, after all, was 'a born leader.

Read the full review here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photo: A visitor tours a Colombian ranch once owned by Pablo Escobar. Credit: Luis Benavides / Associated Press