Bogotá
Gilberto Rodriquez Orejuela—once responsible for 80 percent of the world’s cocaine supply—walked out of a Colombian prison last week after a judge released him for good behavior. Rodriquez Orejuela had served just seven years of a 15-year sentence for running the infamous Cali cartel with his brother, Miguel. President Alvaro Uribe thwarted Miguel’s release by getting him sentenced to four more years for bribing a judge, but he couldn’t come up with any new charges to keep Gilberto behind bars. Uribe angrily vowed to champion stiffer sentencing laws to “free our country once and for all from this nightmare of having criminals lord it over a state of law.”
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Maha Kumbh Mela: world's largest religious festival gets under way in IndiaIn The Spotlight Politics of Hindu nationalism has cast a shadow over event touted as biggest ever gathering of humanity
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North Carolina Supreme Court risks undermining its legitimacyUnder the radar A contentious legal battle over whether to seat one of its own members threatens not only the future of the court's ideological balance, but its role in the public sphere
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Crossword: January 14, 2025The Week's daily crossword
