Word: parte
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...what's known as the North Country, but in many ways, it's one big small town. With a population of just over 650,000 - most of whom are white and working- or middle-class - the key issues in the rural district that sprawls across the northeast part of the state are typically things like the future of the local Army base, falling milk prices and whether anyone can ever lure enough jobs back to the area to replace those that were lost when the region's manufacturing sector dried up in the 1980s...
...anything but typical - or local. For starters, there are three unorthodox candidates: a pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, pro-union Republican; a registered independent running on the Democratic ticket; and a Conservative Party candidate who doesn't live in the district and may well win - or play the part of GOP spoiler and help elect a Democrat to a seat that has been occupied by Republicans since the 1800s - despite skipping most chances to appear publicly with his opponents. But even these three personalities aren't what make the campaign to replace former Republican Representative John McHugh - tapped...
...message-laden music is part of an army propaganda blitz that includes radio spots, billboards and leaflets dropped by helicopter. Guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - the nation's largest rebel group, known as the FARC - are told that by turning themselves in, their sins will be forgiven and they can start anew. The campaign is one of the pillars of a broader U.S.-backed military offensive that has driven the FARC out of the most important areas of Colombia and cut the size of the rebel army in half. Since President Alvaro Uribe was first elected...
That hasn't always been the case on the other side. Since 2003, about 30,000 right-wing paramilitary fighters who battled the FARC have disarmed. But the bulk of the paramilitaries were ordered by their commanders to lay down their weapons en masse as part of a peace process with the Bogotá government. Some did so only grudgingly and have since formed new militias that are dedicated to drug-trafficking. "If they haven't changed or don't want to change, it's much easier for these fighters to fall back into their former lifestyle," says Mariana...
Like Visages, most FARC deserters are impoverished young men and women with long rap sheets and few marketable skills. Once transferred to Bogotá and other big cities, they temporarily settle in government-run halfway houses where they can earn high school degrees and take part in job-training programs. But given the FARC's nasty reputation for kidnapping and murder, few Colombians are willing to hire demobilized guerrillas. And there's always the danger that revenge-seeking rebels will track down the fugitives. But now that he has extracted himself from the war, Visages claims it's all good...