(Latin Pulse: July 29, 2008) A forty-year Colombian guerilla movement that may have taken its biggest blow yet, a daring rescue executed to perfection in broad daylight in the heart of the jungle. Was it timed for maximum political gain for both Colombia and the U.S.? Or is it just an incredible coincidence? En Español La guerrilla Colombiana en sus cuarenta años, ha quizás sufrido recientemente su más duro contra golpe. Un audaz rescate ejecutado a la perfección en plena luz del día en el corazón de la selva. Ha sucedido en un momento que favorece políticamente a Colombia asi como a los EEUU, ¿Fue planeado adrede o simplemente pura coincidencia? GUESTS: Adam Isacson, Director of Programs, Center for International Policy Adam has worked on Latin American Security Issues, particularly U.S. policy toward Central America and Colombia, since 1995 at the Center for International Policy. He has been to Colombia more than twenty-five times, including thirteen of the country's thirty-two departments. Mr. Isacson holds an MA in International Relations from Yale University. He worked previously for the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress in San Jose, Costa Rica. Marc Chernick, Research Professor, Georgetown University Marc teaches in the Department of Government and the Center for Latin American Studies. He previously taught and served as Acting Director of the Latin American Studies program at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and earlier as the Assistant Director of the Institute of Latin American and Iberian Studies at Columbia University. He also worked for several years as a professor at the University of Los Andes and the National University of Colombia, both in Bogotá, and was a Visiting Professor/ Researcher at FLACSO-Ecuador in Quito and the Institute of Peruvian Studies in Lima. He has been a consultant to the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program, the U.S. Department of State and the government of Switzerland on projects to promote peace and conflict resolution in Colombia, and has been an advisor to USAID on issues of democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Colombia, Bolivia, Mexico, El Salvador, and Peru and on related issues in Zambia and Nigeria. Currently he is working with a team of international scholars on a cross-regional research project on insurgent groups and paths to settlement of internal armed conflicts sponsored by the Norwegian Government and the Social Science Research Council contributing research on the FARC guerrillas of Colombia and the Shining Path of Peru. He has written widely on drug trafficking, political violence, and negotiated settlement to internal armed conflicts and has recently completed a book on peace negotiations and the armed conflict in Colombia (2005), and is the editor and co-author of another study for the United Nations Development Program on Conflict Prevention and Early Warning in Latin America, focusing on the case of Colombia (2005). John Lindsay-Poland, TFLAC Co-Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation John is the co-director of the FOR Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean, a position in which he has served since 1989. Previously he served with Peace Brigades International as a peace team member in Guatemala and El Salvador, US staff, and co-founder of PBI's Colombia Project. He is editor of FOR's Puerto Rico/Colombia Update; founded the FOR's Colombia Peace Presence team; and is author of numerous articles on U.S. militarism in Latin America, as well as books, including: "Emperors in the Jungle: The Hidden History of the U.S. in Panama" (Duke University Press, 2003) and "Inside Panama" (with Tom Barry, 1995, Interhemispheric Resource Center). Fernando Paz, Writer Fernando nació en Colombia, y reside en los Estados Unidos de América. Miembro de la Asociación Colombiana de Escritores, ACE. Desde los primeros años de su juventud, empezó a escribir poesía y componer música. Su pasión por la escritura y su creatividad, aliada a sus intensos estudios y talleres en literatura, lo condujeron a escribir cuentos cortos, luego sus dos novelas, Adiós Mamá Felisa y Los Gorriones Del Trombonero. Los primeros ejemplares de su segunda novela, Los Gorriones del Trombonero, lo involucraron en problemas narco-políticos en su país, Colombia, y terminó como prisionero político de un grupo rebelde colombiano en las selvas del Amazonas. Tras escapar de sus captores, se refugió en USA. Como resultado de sus experiencias, escribió Porque Lloran Los Tucanes.