Colombia’s defense minister steps down

Author: 
AP
Publication Date: 
Wed, 2011-08-31 21:26

Rodrigo Rivera is to be replaced by Juan Carlos Pinzon, a top aide to President Juan Manuel Santos.
Pinzon was a deputy defense minister under Santos in the previous administration.
River told reporters on Wednesday that kidnapping and murder were down on his watch. But he acknowledged that massacres were up 4 percent and acts of terrorism up 3 percent.
Colombia has Latin America’s longest-running civil conflict. Leftist rebel groups have been active since the 1960s and far-right criminal bands abound. Drug trafficking fuels the conflict.

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