Fernando Vergara / AP file

Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos is shown in a file photo from 2013. On Tuesday, Santos said a criminal group was plotting to kill journalists.

BOGOTA - Colombia's government warned on Tuesday of a plot by a criminal group to kill several high-profile journalists just weeks after the attempted assassination of an investigative reporter boosted concerns over threats to a free press in the violence-plagued Andean nation.

President Juan Manuel Santos also announced that 90 journalists are being given protection by the government. He urged Attorney General Eduardo Montealegre to investigate attacks against journalists.

"In this government, we're totally committed to get to the very bottom of the problems that undermine this fundamental right to be well-informed that all Colombians have," Santos said at an event to promote media rights.

Journalists and investigators have long been the target of attacks and threats in Colombia, allegedly carried out by corrupt politicians, drug lords, Marxist rebels and right-wing paramilitary leaders to silence coverage that may damage their interests.

A hit man has entered the Colombian capital to kill columnist Leon Valencia, analyst Ariel Avila and reporter Gonzalo Guillen, according to Andres Villamizar, head of a government-run agency to protect high-profile targets.

"We won't allow these plans to be carried out," Villamizar said early on Tuesday on his Twitter account, pledging to step up security.

Before entering politics, Santos served as an editor at the country's top newspaper, El Tiempo, once owned by his family. He said he will strive to protect freedom of expression "because that's where I was born, it's at the heart of who I am."

Spotlight on dangers
Even though a U.S.-backed military offensive has improved security in Colombia over the last decade, the new threats throw a spotlight once again on the dangers for reporters covering corruption and criminal gangs in Colombia. This comes as the government seeks a peace accord with the biggest rebel group, the FARC.

The threat likely stems from an investigation into links between paramilitary groups and politicians during last year's municipal elections, Valencia, a former Marxist rebel and columnist for the respected Semana magazine, told Reuters.

The hit man was probably hired by a criminal group with links to politicians, Valencia said.

"No doubt we're afraid because the people involved are very powerful and have no limits," Valencia said. "We will continue investigating, nothing will stop us."

Paramilitary groups continue to operate across Colombia even after former President Alvaro Uribe negotiated their demobilization in 2008 and many handed in their weapons in exchange for light jail sentences. Thousands have morphed into new drug-funded crime gangs and continue to kill and make threats if their operations are at risk.

It was not immediately clear why Guillen would be targeted alongside Valencia and Avila.

Criminal groups
Colombia has been rattled by a five-decade war involving various insurgent groups - including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and paramilitary forces - that has killed more than 100,000 people and forced millions to flee their homes.

The new generation of criminal gangs is now fighting with the FARC and paramilitary groups for control of drug-smuggling routes and illegal activities, while journalists, union workers and residents are often caught in the middle.

The latest threat comes on the heels of an assassination attempt two weeks ago on Ricardo Calderon, an investigative journalist who narrowly survived an ambush that riddled his car with bullets as he returned to Bogota after reporting on irregularities in a military prison for Semana magazine.

Last week, eight journalists were given 24 hours to leave the city of Valledupar, in Cesar province, as they reported on government attempts to return stolen land to war victims. Leaflets from a little-known group, the Anti-land Restitution Army, declared the reporters collaborators and hence targets for death.

All the reporters and analysts threatened have worked on some of the most damning stories, including corruption in northern La Guajira province, the government's intelligence agency wire tapping opponents, and right-wing paramilitary involvement in the nation's Congress.

(Additional reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta and Eduardo Garcia in Bogota; Editing by Vicki Allen and Will Dunham) 

Prince Victor / EPA

The body of Helmin Wiels is covered by a sheet on a beach in Curacao on Sunday.

A political leader on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao was shot dead as he drank beer on a beach Sunday, authorities said.

Helmin Wiels, whose Pueblo Soberano party campaigns for independence from the Netherlands, was killed by gunmen who sped off in a car, according to multiple witnesses.

The 54-year-old died instantly, according to the Curacao Chronicle, which posted a picture of his body on the beach surrounded by drinks.

A motive for the killing remains unclear, but the Curacao government said Wiels had been threatened in the past and was under security protection, according to the Dutch Volkskrant newspaper.

Wiels, who had sent his bodyguard home, was enjoying a beer on the island’s Marie Pampoen beach, near the capital, Willemstad, when two gunmen approached him and fired five shots, according to a BBC report.

Michael Kooren / EPA, file

Politician Helmin Wiels, who was shot dead on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao on Sunday.

"This act was horrendous, terrible, and we are in shock,” said Curacao’s Prime Minister Daniel Hodge, according to the BBC. "We are not accustomed to these things on the island.”

The government of Curacao -- which has a population of about 150,000 and lies just to the north of Venezuela -- said the Netherlands had offered to help with the investigation into the killing.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the apparent assassination was a "cowardly deed."

"Curacao has lost a driven politician who fought for his ideals and loved his country," Rutte said, according to the BBC.

This story was originally published on Mon May 6, 2013 7:28 AM EDT

AP

Ramon Gustavo Castillo Gaete, 36, is the alleged leader of a 12-member sect that is accused of burning a baby alive.

SANTIAGO, Chile -- Chilean police on Thursday arrested four people accused of burning a baby alive in a ritual because the leader of the sect believed that the end of the world was near and that the child was the Antichrist.

The 3-day-old baby was taken to a hill in the town of Colliguay near the Chilean port of Valparaiso on Nov. 21 and was thrown into a bonfire. The baby's mother, 25-year-old Natalia Guerra, had allegedly approved the sacrifice and was among those arrested.

"The baby was naked. They strapped tape around her mouth to keep her from screaming. Then they placed her on a board. After calling on the spirits they threw her on the bonfire alive," said Miguel Ampuero, of the Police investigative Unit, Chile's equivalent of the FBI.

AP

Investigators search for evidence in a house that was used to perform rites by a sect in Colliguay, Chile.

Authorities said the 12-member sect was formed in 2005 and was led by Ramon Gustavo Castillo Gaete, 36, who remains at large.

"Everyone in this sect was a professional," Ampuero said. "We have someone who was a veterinarian and who worked as a flight attendant, we have a filmmaker, a draftsman. Everyone has a university degree. "

Police said Castillo Gaete, the ringleader, was last seen traveling to Peru to buy ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic brew plant that he used to control the members of the rite.

The Associated Press

Enrique Castro-Mendivil / Reuters

Nicolas Maduro gestures after a meeting with presidents of the Unasur regional group at the government palace in Lima, Peru, on Friday. He is due to be sworn in as Venezuela's president later.

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Nicolas Maduro will be sworn in as Venezuela's president on Friday at a ceremony attended by several Latin American leaders, after a decision to widen an electronic audit of the vote took some of the heat out of a dispute over his election.

Maduro, a former bus driver-turned-foreign minister who became the late Hugo Chavez's chosen successor, narrowly beat opposition challenger Henrique Capriles in Sunday's vote.

He accused Capriles of triggering post-election violence that killed eight people, though the opposition says Maduro allies staged some incidents to distract from the vote dispute.

Slideshow: Hugo Chavez through the years

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The life of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez from his rise as a lieutenant colonel after his failed coup attempt in 1992.

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"We have stopped a coup in its first stage. They are beaten, but they are coming back with a new attack," Maduro said on Thursday before flying to Peru for a last-minute meeting of South American leaders to discuss the situation.

While he was in Lima, Venezuela's electoral authority said it would widen to 100 percent an audit of electronic votes from a previous audit that reviewed 54 percent.

"We do this in order to preserve a climate of harmony ... and isolate violent sectors that are seeking to injure democracy," Tibisay Lucena, president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), said in a televised speech to the nation.

Maduro, 50, received a show of support at the late-night meeting of a group of South American nations called Unasur, which welcomed the CNE's move, congratulated him on his victory and called on both sides to reject violence.

Capriles, who insists the opposition's figures show he won, said he accepted the CNE's decision although it fell short of the manual recount he had wanted. He said he was sure the truth would come out.

The date for the start of the wider audit is to be announced by next week.

Heads of state who will join Maduro's swearing-in include Brazil's Dilma Rousseff and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, along with leaders of Chavez-era allies such as Bolivia, Uruguay and Nicaragua.

Russia and China, both partners in major oil projects in Venezuela's vast Orinoco belt region, sent delegations headed by senior officials.

The inauguration ceremony is due to be held at the National Assembly and will be followed by a military parade. Jets making practice runs have often soared over the capital this week.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez said on Twitter that on Saturday morning she planned to visit the military museum in Caracas where her friend Chavez is buried.

"I want to be there a bit more alone, without so many people, without so much noise," she said. "To Caracas, without Hugo. It's going to be difficult and strange at the same time. His funerals were so impressive it was like I was in a daze."

The unrest in Venezuela, just weeks after Chavez's death from cancer, has exposed the deep polarization of a country split down the middle between pro- and anti-government factions.

Maduro's administration accuses "fascist" Capriles supporters of going on the rampage, shooting people, attacking offices belonging to the ruling Socialist Party, and setting fire to government-run clinics staffed by Cuban doctors.

Capriles, who has repeatedly called on his supporters to behave peacefully, has said the government was to blame for any violence because of its refusal to hold a recount.

"We have identified where the problems are. With this, we're where we want to be," he said of the vote audit. He also demanded the government stop "persecuting" his supporters, and said there was no evidence of attacks on the state-run clinic, known as CDIs.

"I asked for reports from all the country's municipalities about incidents at CDIs," he said on Twitter. "None were affected. Only sick minds would do something like this!"

Slideshow: Hugo Chavez: 1954 - 2013

Francisco Gomez / Spanish Royal / EPA

Supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez mourn his death and gather for his funeral.

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Related: 

• Coup claim as 7 die in Venezuela election protests
• Venezuela divided: Recount sought after razor-thin victory of Chavez successor
• Full Venezuela coverage from NBC News

Christian Veron / Reuters

Supporters of opposition leader Henrique Capriles face off against riot police as they demonstrate for a recount of the votes in Sunday's election, in Caracas, Venezuela, on April 15, 2013.

Leo Ramirez / AFP - Getty Images

Riot police with tear gas face off against opposition supporters in Caracas on April 15, 2013. Venezuela's acting president, Nicolas Maduro, was proclaimed the winner of the country's election on Monday, triggering protests as the opposition demanded a recount.

Both sides in Venezuela's political standoff will hold rival demonstrations on Tuesday after authorities rejected opposition demands for a presidential election recount and protesters clashed with police in Caracas.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles says his team's figures show he won the election on Sunday and he wants a full audit of official results that narrowly gave victory to ruling party candidate Nicolas Maduro, the country's acting president.

The National Electoral Council has refused to hold a recount of the votes, and police fired tear gas and rubber bullets on Monday to disperse opposition supporters who protested in a wealthy district of Caracas. Read the full story.

Related:

Major challenges face Venezuela's next leader - whoever he is

'I am the son of Chavez': Former bus driver rides high in Venezuela election

Slideshow: Venezuela mourns Hugo Chavez

Luis Acosta / AFP - Getty Images

Venezuela's acting president and presidential candidate Nicolas Maduro gestures during his closing campaign rally in Caracas on April 11, 2013 ahead of Sunday's presidential election.

Raul Arboleda / AFP - Getty Images

Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles attends a campaign rally in Barquisimeto, Lara state, on April 11, 2013.

The late Hugo Chavez's self-declared socialist revolution will be put to the test at a presidential election on Sunday that pits his chosen successor against a younger rival promising change in the nation he polarized.

Most opinion polls give his protege, acting President Nicolas Maduro, a strong lead over opposition challenger Henrique Capriles thanks to Chavez's endorsement and the surge of grief and sympathy over his death from cancer last month.

Ramon Espinosa / AP

Supporters hold a toddler wearing a Maduro-style mustache at the closing campaign rally for Nicolas Maduro in Caracas on April 11, 2013.

Raul Arboleda / AFP - Getty Images

Supporters of Henrique Capriles attend his closing rally in Barquisimeto on April 11, 2013.

Tomas Bravo / Reuters

Nicolas Maduro, left, watches former Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona kick a ball during Maduro's closing rally on April 11, 2013.

The candidates closed out official campaigning on Thursday with dueling rallies, both drawing hundreds of thousands of boisterous supporters. Taking a page out of Chavez's playbook, a fiery Maduro marched through the streets of the capital draped in a Venezuelan flag and called on voters to follow "commander Chavez as the spiritual guide of the fatherland."

"I am the son of Chavez," the burly 50-year-old former bus driver shouted to supporters in downtown Caracas. "I am ready to be your president."

Capriles, an energetic 40-year-old state governor, wrapped up his campaign in the nearby city of Barquisimeto. "Those who govern today have never done anything for your security. Sunday we're going to choose between life and death," he roared to the crowd. "If you want a future, you have to vote for change, for a different government." Read the full story.

Related:

Maduro sworn in as Venezuela's acting president

Slideshow: Venezuela mourns Hugo Chavez

Leo Ramirez / AFP - Getty Images

Capriles pours water on his head during his final rally on April 11, 2013.

Enric Marti / AP

A soldier looks through binoculars at people gathered along Bolivar Avenue for the closing campaign rally for ruling party presidential candidate Nicolas Maduro in Caracas on April 11, 2013.

Civil Police via AFP / Getty Images

Mugshots released by Brazil's Civil Police showing Jonathan Froudakis de Souza, 20, left, and Wallace Aparecido Silva, 22, who allegedly raped an American tourist in a minibus in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday.

An American woman was gang raped and beaten aboard a public transport van while her French boyfriend was shackled, hit with a crowbar and forced to watch the attacks after the pair boarded the vehicle in Rio de Janeiro's showcase Copacabana beach neighborhood, police said.

A third man, aged 21, was arrested for the attacks, which took place over six hours starting shortly after midnight on Saturday, police said in a Tuesday statement. Two men aged 20 and 22 had already been taken into custody for the attacks, police said, and a young Brazilian woman has come forward to say that she, too, was raped by the same men in the van on March 23.

"The victims described everything in great detail, mostly the sexual violence," police officer Rodrigo Brant told the Globo TV network. "Just how they described the facts was shocking — the violence and brutality. It surprised even us, who work in security and are used to hearing such things. Their report shocked us."

The incidents raise new questions about security in Rio, which has cracked down on once-endemic drug violence in preparation for hosting next year's football World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympic games. The city will also be playing host to World Youth Day, a Roman Catholic pilgrimage that will be attended by Pope Francis and is expected to draw some 2 million people in late July.

Officials from the local Olympic and World Cup organizing committees didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

The attack also drew comparisons with the fatal December beating and gang rape of a young woman on a New Delhi bus. Six men beset a 23-year-old university student and male friend after they boarded a private bus, touching off a wave of protests across India demanding stronger protection for women. Officials there say tourism has dropped in the country following the attacks.

In the Brazil case, a police statement said the suspects forced other passengers to get out of the van and then raped the female tourist inside the vehicle, which was one of a fleet of vans that serve bus routes and seat about a dozen people.

Such van services are often linked to organized crime in Rio, particularly the militias largely composed of former police and firemen that control large swaths of the city's slums and run clandestine services such as transportation and sell cooking fuel and illegal cable TV hookups. In general, tourists avoid the vans and opt for regular buses or taxis.

Sexual assaults on tourists are not common in Rio, with muggings and petty crime reported more frequently.

During the assault, the two foreigners were driven to the poor neighborhood of Sao Goncalo, where the two suspects were apprehended, a police statement said.

Reports said the two foreigners had been studying Portuguese in Rio for about a month and both left Brazil following the attack.

The police statement said that one victim's cellphone was found in the suspects' possession. The suspects had also used a debit card belonging to one of the victims at two gas stations, it said.

The Globo television network broadcast surveillance camera images of two men filling up the white van and showed police images of a crowbar the suspects used to beat and intimidate the victims. The victims positively identified the two suspects.

In an interview with Globo television, commanding officer Alexandre Braga, who heads the Rio police unit specializing in crimes against tourists, said the suspects had gone on a sex crime spree.

"The characteristics of both crimes, both the Brazilian case and the one with the foreigners, lead us to believe that they [the suspects] wanted to have a 'party of evil,' in quotes," Braga said. "The principal motive appears to have been the satisfaction of their lust."

He added that the robbery and other crimes appear to have been "secondary."

Multiple calls to police seeking further details on Tuesday were not immediately returned.

In Brazil, more than 5,300 cases of sexual assault were reported between January and June 2012, according to the country's Health Ministry.

Related:

Female tourists shun India after gang-rape, murder

Six arrested in India for gang-rape of Swiss tourist

This story was originally published on Mon Apr 1, 2013 5:26 PM EDT

Lauro Alves / Agencia RBS via AFP - Getty Images

An aerial view of the Taim Ecological Station on fire, in Rio Grande do Sul state, southern Brazil, on March 27, 2013.

A wildfire that started on Tuesday has consumed around 1,400 acres of a protected ecological station in southern Brazil. The fire at the Taim Ecological Station is at risk of spreading further, Agence France-Presse reports, since there is limited access to water. 

Lauro Alves / Agencia RBS via AFP - Getty Images

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez died of a massive heart attack and inaudibly mouthed his desire to live, the head of Venezuela's presidential guard said late Wednesday.

"He couldn't speak but he said it with his lips ... 'I don't want to die. Please don't let me die,' because he loved his country, he sacrificed himself for his country," Gen. Jose Ornella told The Associated Press.

The general said he spent the last two years with Chavez, including his final moments, as Venezuela's president of 14 years battled an unspecified cancer in the pelvic region.

Ornella spoke to the AP outside the military academy where Chavez's body lay in state. He said Chavez's cancer was very advanced when death came but gave no details.

Ornella did not respond when asked if the cancer had spread to Chavez's lungs.

Slideshow: Hugo Chavez: 1954 - 2013

Ricardo Mazalan / AP

Supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez across the Americas mourn his death.

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The government announced on the eve of Chavez's death that he had suffered a severe new respiratory infection. It was the second such infection reported by officials after Chavez underwent his fourth cancer surgery in Cuba on Dec. 11.

Venezuelan authorities have not said what kind of cancer Chavez had or specified exactly where tumors were removed.

During the first lung infection, near the end of December, doctors implanted a tracheal tube to ease Chavez's breathing, but breathing insufficiency persisted and worsened, the government said.

'He suffered a lot'
Ornella said that Chavez had "the best" doctors from all over the world but that they never discussed the president's condition in front of him.

The general said he didn't know precisely what kind of cancer afflicted Chavez, but added: "He suffered a lot."

He said that Chavez knew when he spoke to Venezuelans on Dec. 8, three days before his final surgery in Cuba, that "there was very little hope he would make it out of that operation."

It was Chavez's fourth cancer surgery and previous interventions had been followed by chemotherapy and radiation.

Ornella echoed the concern of Vice President Nicolas Maduro that some sort of foul play was involved in Chavez's cancer.

Venezuelan government via EPA, file

The last pictures of Hugo Chavez made publicly available were taken on Feb. 14.

"I think it will be 50 years before they declassify a document (that) I think (will show) the hand of the enemy is involved," he said.

The general didn't identify who he was talking about, but Maduro suggested possible U.S. involvement on Tuesday. The U.S. State Department called the allegation absurd.

Maduro, Chavez's self-anointed successor, said Chavez died Tuesday afternoon in a Caracas military hospital.

The government said Chavez, 58, had been there since returning from Cuba on Feb. 18.

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Full coverage of Hugo Chavez's death from NBC News