FRANK BAJAK

Associated Press Writer
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Fighting the odds to keep Indian tongues alive

In his first year at San Marcos University, Hermenegildo Espejo barely spoke, and certainly not in class.

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Indian political awakening stirs Latin America

In Ecuador, the Shuar are blocking highways to defend their hunting grounds. In Chile, the Mapuche are occupying ranches to pressure for land, schools and clinics. In Bolivia, a new constitution gives the country's 36 indigenous peoples the right to self-rule.

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Felon involved in clandestine videos in Ecuador

A man who made clandestine video recordings used to discredit Ecuador in a $27 billion oil contamination lawsuit is a convicted felon with a history of legal troubles, The Associated Press has learned.

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Guard killed in jailbreak by Colombia rebel leader

Machine gun-firing rebels on motorbikes attacked a prison Wednesday, springing a guerrilla commander charged with kidnapping two journalists on assignment for the Los Angeles Times.

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Rocket launchers sold to Venezuela went to FARC

Swedish-made anti-tank rocket launchers sold to Venezuela years ago were obtained by Colombia's main rebel group, and Sweden said Monday it was demanding an explanation.

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AP Newsbreak: Rebel video hounds Ecuador's Correa

An hour-long video police found in a computer of an alleged rebel appears to confirm that Colombia's largest rebel army gave money to the 2006 election campaign of President Rafael Correa of Ecuador.

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Washington, Colombia near deal on base access

The United States and Colombia are nearing agreement on expanding the U.S. military's presence in this conflict-torn nation, likely basing several hundred Americans in a central valley in support of Air Force drug interdiction missions.

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Colombia leader gives $1M to victims of conflict

President Alvaro Uribe delivered reparations totaling nearly $1 million on Sunday to 279 victims of Colombia's long-running conflict.

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Bolivia leader says Obama 'lied' about cooperation

President Evo Morales on Wednesday accused Barack Obama of lying by pledging to change America's historically heavy-handed relationship with Latin America and then halting $25 million in annual trade benefits for Bolivia.

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Deposed Honduran prez accused of drug ties

The regime that ousted Manuel Zelaya in Honduras claimed Tuesday that the deposed president allowed tons of cocaine to be flown into the Central American country on its way to the United States.

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UN: Colombia coca crop down; Peru and Bolivia up

Colombia's coca crop shrank by nearly a fifth last year while cultivation of the bush that is the basis of cocaine rose for a third straight year in Peru and Bolivia, the world's two other coca-producing nations, the United Nations said Friday.

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UN envoy: Colombia army kills many innocents

Hundreds of innocent civilians have been slain by soldiers and falsely identified as guerrillas killed in combat as part of a "more or less" systematic practice by significant elements of Colombia's military, a U.N. human rights investigator said Thursday.

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Colombia senate delays vote on Uribe re-election

Colombia's senate has delayed a vote on scheduling a referendum that could let President Alvaro Uribe seek a third term.

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Colombia expels Kosovo liberation leader

Colombia invited a leader of Kosovo's independence war for a conference on demobilizing guerrilla movements then expelled him based on an Interpol warrant issued at Serbia's request, the government said Thursday.

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Colombia expels Kosovo liberation leader

Colombia's DAS domestic security agency says it has expelled former Kosovo prime minister Agim Ceku based on an Interpol warrant for alleged war crimes.

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Clarification: Carter on South America story

In an April 28 story, The Associated Press reported that former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said he was exploring bringing together the presidents of five South American countries with U.S. representatives in a forum to discuss sensitive issues.

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Suit claims Dole bankrolled Colombia death squads

Dole Food Co. made regular payments for at least a decade in a banana-growing region to illegal far-right Colombian militias that killed thousands, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed Tuesday.

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Obama offers olive branch to Bolivia

Bolivia's leftist president was headed to the airport Sunday when Barack Obama gave him what he requested the day before: public repudiation of an alleged attempt on his life.

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Summit ends without second group photo

The parting group photo of the Fifth Summit of Americas never happened.

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A slum that nags site of Americas summit

A newly finished brick wall mostly obscures from the view of leaders arriving at the Summit of the Americas a slum that embodies their biggest challenges: drug-related violence and an economic crisis that threatens to erase gains against poverty.

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Daughter launches crusade to clear Fujimori

A day after a court imposed a 25-year sentence on former President Alberto Fujimori in death squad killings, his daughter predicted Wednesday that the ruling would backfire as she launched a "national crusade" to clear his name.

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US law fights submarine-like boats hauling cocaine

It's a game played out regularly on the high seas off Colombia's Pacific coast: A U.S. Navy helicopter spots a vessel the size of a humpback whale gliding just beneath the water's surface.

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Bill Clinton to LatAm bankers: engage the left

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton urged the people who run Latin America's biggest development bank on Saturday not to turn their backs on the leftists in the region who parlayed the poor's discontent into electoral victories.

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Verdict due for Peru's authoritarian antihero

The man who energetically led Peru back from the brink of economic collapse and crushed a fanatical Maoist insurgency during his 1990s presidency is now a much diminished figure. The once-leonine Alberto Fujimori shuffles wearily in and out of a courtroom, awaiting what most Peruvians believe will be his conviction on murder and kidnapping charges.

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FARC rebels in alleged Venezuela smuggling

The U.S. government says it will seek the extradition of two leftist rebel "cocaine brokers" arrested in Colombia on charges of conspiring to export a ton of the drug through Venezuela.

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