The Americas Post - A demonstrator's poster shows how many years each hostage has been held by FARC guerrillas. Photo Credit: AFP

FARC guerrillas on Wednesday postponed releasing six Colombian soldiers held for over a decade, claiming that the area where the prisoners were to be freed has been occupied by government troops.

“The area we had chosen for the release of prisoners of war captured in battle has been unfairly militarized by the Government of Colombia, which forces us to defer the operation,” the rebel group said in a statement released on the internet.

The FARC, weakened by a military offensive supported by the U.S. but still able to execute high-impact attacks, announced in December the release of six of the 11 Armed Forces personnel held for more ten years, but the delivery has not yet been finalized.  Late last year other hostages were killed by rebels during combat with the Army,  which had discovered FARC encampments in the jungle.

President Juan Manuel Santos questioned the position of the FARC, considered by U.S. and European Union as a terrorist organization and said the government did not know the hostages were in that area.

“By God, no more tricks and deceit.  We do not even know where the hostage are. They have not given coordinates. Release them now,” Santos said through his Twitter account.

However, the Armed Forces admitted operating throughout the country in fulfilling the mission of pursuing the illegal armed groups.

Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón, accused the rebel group of playing with the hostages and their families as part of a strategy to gain political prominence nationally and internationally and clean up its criminal image.

“These people once again demonstrates the lies they tell and how deeply and permanently they play with the Colombian people,” said the official.

The guerrilla organization have held up to 60 hostages at times, including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans, who they sought to exchange for imprisoned guerrillas.

But many were rescued by the Armed Forces and others escaped or died in the jungle. Some have been released by the FARC in phases during recent years.

“As soon as the insanity that has gripped Nariño Palace (the Presidency) abates, we will make a new attempt for you to receive those who will be released,” added the FARC.

The Americas Post - Yes, U.S. Marine Generals carry their own rifles. Photo Credit: USMC

President Barack Obama has chosen a Marine to run U.S. military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean out of the Southern Command in Miami.

The new Southcom leader is Marine Corps Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly, who enlisted in 1970 and was followed by both sons to the Corps as well.  The youngest, 1st Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, was killed on patrol in Afghanistan in 2010.

The Pentagon announced Kelly’s promotion in a brief statement Friday afternoon.  Pending the required Senate confirmation, there was no immediate word on when he would succeed Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, the current commander.

Over six feet tall and in his 60s, Kelly is currently senior military advisor to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, served multiple deployments in Iraq and worked as a Defense Department representative on Capitol Hill.   He commanded troops in Fallujah, Iraq, and at one time  had tens of thousands of Americans and Iraqi soldiers under his command.  A 1976 graduate of the University of Massachusetts, he joined the Marines before going to the university, served for two years as an enlisted infantryman out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., and left as a sergeant.

Sources were unable to confirm whether Kelly previously served in the Caribbean and Latin America.  More than 1,000 Defense and other government employees work out of Southcom headquarters in Doral, which he has been chosen to run, on a range of Defense projects from humanitarian relief operations to the detention center at Guantánamo.  Southcom also runs regional training exercises that team up U.S. forces with foreign armies and navies, which senior Pentagon officials have pointed to as the future of a  downsized U.S. military force across the globe.

Luis Alberto Cabrera Sarabia, alias “The Architect,” was killed Friday during an air and ground operation in Canatlan, Durango state. The action began with a firefight at a ranch, army spokesman general Ricardo Trevilla announced at a news conference.

According to Trevilla, he was “one of the main lieutenants of Joaquin Guzman Loera alias ‘El Chapo.’”

Another gunman died in the raid and 11 others were arrested, Trevilla said. Three soldiers were also wounded.

The army said Luis Alberto Cabrera Sarabia took over as assistant to the fugitive head of the Sinaloa drug cartel after his brother, Felipe Carbrera Sarabia or “The Engineer,” was detained in December.

The northern states of Durango, Sinaloa and Chihuahua are known as the “Golden Triangle,” a key area of production of Mexican opium and marijuana.

The CIA Director visited La Macarena in the state of Meta, center of Colombia. He met with the Defense Minister and Military Commanders of the Colombian Armed Forces.

Colombia’s government today praised U.S. support for strengthening systems of technical (Sigint) and human intelligence (Humint)  in the fight against illegal organizations like FARC operating in this South American country.

“With the support of the U.S. government we are strengthening our systems of technical and human intelligence,” said Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón, through a statement.

He added that “there must be no place in Colombia where terrorists and criminals can hide undetected.”

Minister  Pinzon and Director of the Central Investigation Agency (CIA) United States, Gral. David Petraeus, visited La Macarena last Friday in the southern province of Meta, one of the areas where the illegal groups and drug traffickers operate.

With these meetings Colombia “will continue to strengthen cooperation ties between the two countries and strengthen the commitment to continue fighting terrorism, drug trafficking and transnational crime,” said the Defense Ministry statement.

The Americas Post - FARC may be weakened but they can still mess up your travel plans

Air operations in a wide region of southwestern Colombia were delayed on Saturday following an attack by FARC guerrillas against a radar antenna system key to commercial aviation, said that nation’s Civil Aviation authority.

One policeman was killed in the attack by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) launched on Friday night above Santa Ana, in the department of Cauca.  He had been guarding aviation facilities, officials said.

“Aeronautical communications in the southwest of the country have been disrupted temporarily by a terrorist attack against civilian facilities”, said a statement from Civil Aeronautics.

Although the FARC have been weakened by a military offensive bringing death to several commanders and the desertion of thousands of its fighters, the attack proved that the rebel group still has the capacity to carry high-impact operations.  The guerrillas fired homemade missiles, gas cylinders filled with explosives, and attacked troops stationed in the area with bursts of rifle and machine gun fire.

The radar damaged by the attack covers 300 kilometers and not only controls commercial flights,  but also supports the armed forces against drug trafficking in the southwest airspace.

“Repairing the radar will take several months.  We do not know whether to reduce the number of flights, but there will be delays, “said the director of Civil Aeronautics, Santiago Castro.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has demanded that the FARC release all hostages, suspend hostilities and lay down their weapons for negotiations, conditions that the guerrillas have rejected as a surrender.  He called the attack on the radar installation affecting thousands of travelers “the ultimate demonstration of weakness and despair” by the guerrillas.

The Americas Post Security News. U.S. Armed Forces, including this fighter, shift operations to the cloud. Photo Credit iStockPhoto

To defend the U.S. military’s information assets, Pentagon leaders say defense computers must be tied to the cloud — meaning an online environment that can be centrally locked down. Yet it’s difficult to police parts of that environment manufactured or even housed in countries that stand accused of cyberespionage, experts say.

The shift of military operations to the cloud  will require protecting electronics manufactured in Asia from supply chain tampering, say some private security auditors. But that won’t necessarily mean inspecting every network component made in China

“Our clouds are running off of hardware that’s built in China,” said…READ MORE HERE

The Americas Post - Border Patrol Chief Michael Fisher speaks to congress. Photo Credit: CBP

The U.S. Border Patrol is preparing to implement tougher punishments on undocumented immigrants entering the United States from Mexico, to change the revolving door policy that has been in place for years.

Instead of simply being sent back across the border to try again, immigrants captured on the U.S. side will now face harsher consequences for illegal entry.  These range from inconveniences like being bused hundreds of miles away to distant border crossings, to aggressive prosecution for criminal offenses in the United States or by Mexican authorities upon their return.

Young, first-time illegal aliens may be allowed a “voluntary return” option without facing criminal consequences.   Repeat offenders and smugglers, however, will be singled out for felony prosecution in the United States.

The U.S. Border Patrol is more able to develop such individualized sanctions now that the number of illegal entries has fallen sharply,  from 1.6 million in 2000 to only 327,577 last year.  At the same time, the Border Patrol has grown to 21,000 agents with 652 miles of pedestrian fencing and vehicle barriers in place at busy crossing points.

The new approach will “break the smuggling cycle and deter a subject from attempting further illegal entries or participating in a smuggling enterprise” by imposing “ideal consequences to impede and deter further illegal activity,” according to U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael Fisher.

A test program in the Tucson sector has already dramatically lowered the number of illegal immigrants released to Mexico without administrative or criminal penalties, says Border Patrol Tucson sector chief Rick Barlow.   Approximately 85 percent of illegal immigrants arrested on the U.S. side of the border were returned to Mexico without any penalty three years ago.  That figure has now been reduced to around just 10 percent of detainees.

The customized consequences are more expensive, the Border Patrol’s chief has admitted in testimony before Congress.   Lawmakers on Capitol Hill, however, have promised their budgetary support to meet the additional costs.

The Americas Post - Now Big Brother can see right through your clothes. Photo Credit: NYPD

It’s not just in the airport anymore.  The New York City Police Department (NYPD) is working in collaboration with the United States Department of Defense to control illegal firearms by deploying technology to detect concealed weapons carried by people walking down the street.

Using infrared rays, the system scans a “form of radiation emitted from the body” on a person carrying a gun on the city’s streets, New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced Tuesday at a State of the NYPD event.

Known as terahertz imaging detection, the technology functions on the basis that the rays cannot pass through metal, thereby creating a digital outline of any metal weapon gun people may be hiding.   It is reported to be capable of measuring energy radiating off a body from up to 16 feet away.

Kelly told attendees that the scanner would be used only when reasonable suspicious circumstances called for it and could decrease the frequency of stop-and-search incidents on the street.  The news, however, has raised concerns about privacy.

“It’s worrisome. It implicates privacy, the right to walk down the street without being subjected to a virtual pat-down by the Police Department when you’re doing nothing wrong,” the New York Civil Liberties Union’s Donna Lieberman told CBS New York.

According to NY Post reports, the scanners would be mounted on NYPD vans, with the rays aiming at people on the street.

The Americas Post - Honduran criminals won't have Peace Corps volunteers to prey on anymore

Worsening drug and organized-crime violence in Central America has forced the Peace Corps to pull out of Honduras and halt the flow of new volunteers to Guatemala and El Salvador, that organization has announced.

Last month Peace Corps officials reviewed worsening conditions and decided to withdraw all 158 volunteers from Honduras in January and suspend training for 29 recruits.  That evacuation has now been carried out.