Blog post

September 13, 2005 [LINK]

Hijacked flight in Colombia

A turboprop airplane with 25 people aboard, including a member of Congress, was hijacked and forced to land at Bogota. After a few hours of negotiations, the hijackers surrendered, and no one was hurt. It turns out it had nothing to do with politics or the civil war, but was merely a young man and his father, who had been disabled by a policeman's bullet many years ago and was demanding compensation. They smuggled hand grenades aboard the aircraft, eluding detection because the man's wheel chair could not pass through the X-ray machine.

Former President Julio Cesar Turbay, who served from 1978 to 1982, died at the age of 89. Although he was a member of the Liberal Party, he endorsed the constitutional amendment that will -- pending a Supreme Court ruling -- allow the incumbent President Alvaro Uribe to run for reelection next year.

The Latin American main page now includes a list of the upcoming elections in Latin America.

Chile remembers 9/11

No, not the terrorist attack launched by Al Qaeda in 2001, but the violent military coup launched by General Augusto Pinochet in 1973. At least 100 demonstrators were arrested, and one was killed, during a march to protest the coup that took place 30 years ago. Pinochet is still a free man, but is frail and might yet be prosecuted for the heinous abuses that he oversaw as leftists were purged after he took over.