SAN JOSÉ DEL GUAVIARE, Colombia -- At a military base in this eastern town on the edge of the jungle, Juan Manual Santos, Colombia's defense minister, recently delivered a triumphant appraisal of the country's fight against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
Just a few years ago, it would have it would have been hard to imagine staging such an event here, for fear of a guerrilla ambush. "We have chosen San José del Guaviare because it symbolized the old Colombia, a country ridden with narcotraffickers, paramilitaries and guerrillas," said Santos as he addressed the country's generals and elite troops under a hot sun earlier this month. ...