Colombia

Colombian prosecutors have reopened a probe into Vice President Francisco Santos over charges by a former paramilitary boss that he had sought to organize outlawed militias, an investigator said Oct. 19. The attorney general opened an initial investigation into Santos in 2007 after a former warlord Salvatore Mancuso testified Santos had proposed in the late 1990s creating a paramilitary group to tackle rebels fighting around Bogota. That probe was suspended for lack of evidence. But prosecutors reopened the investigation into Santos' suspected ties to militia bosses, extradited to the US on drug trafficking charges, to put to rest any lingering suspicions. (Reuters)