Category Archives: Colombia

Colombia risks return to violent past, says architect of landmark peace deal

Posted on by

Exclusive: The bloody foundering of President Gustavo Petro’s ‘Total Peace’ strategy is a ‘national failure’, says Juan Manuel Santos, who ended war with Farc guerrillas in 2016

Colombia risks sliding back into its violent past as armed groups exploit the stumbling peace strategy of President Gustavo Petro, the architect of its landmark 2016 peace deal has told the Guardian.

In a rare interview, former president Juan Manuel Santos warned that gains from the peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) are quickly being undone as armed factions exploit negotiation efforts to recruit new combatants and seize control of new land.

Continue reading...

Colombian city faces worst violence in decades as armed groups wreak havoc

Posted on by

Cúcuta imposes curfew as National Liberation Army (ELN) clashes with army in province bordering Venezuela

Residents of a violence-torn province in northern Colombia are bracing for further bloodshed as a conflict between rival armed groups spread to a regional capital in scenes residents said they had not witnessed since the cartel unrest of the 1990s.

The mayor of Cúcuta imposed a 48-hour curfew on the population of 1 million inhabitants in the hope of regaining control of the city after combatants of Colombia’s largest armed group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), attacked police stations with assault rifles and grenades and destroyed toll booths with car bombs.

Continue reading...

Trump’s disdain for South American allies is China’s gain

Posted on by

The US is targeting its own allies and its withdrawal from the region has left a power vacuum for China to fill in

While Donald Trump and his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, were engaged in a very public row over the deportation of migrants last month, China’s ambassador to Bogotá was enthusiastically tweeting that diplomatic relations between China and Colombia had reached their “best moment”.

After Petro refused to receive a plane from the US carrying handcuffed deported Colombians, Trump retaliated by doubling tariffs and revoking visas for Colombian government officials.

Continue reading...

Trump’s US aid freeze will drive migration from Latin America, experts warn

Posted on by

Abrupt decision to pause all foreign aid could exacerbate violence in region already struggling with organized crime

The Trump administration’s abrupt decision to immediately pause all US foreign aid programmes could exacerbate violence in Latin America, driving more migration from a region already struggling with the rise of organised crime, experts have warned.

The world’s largest aid provider by far, the US disbursed $1.5bn (£1.2bn) to South American countries in the 2023 financial year, funding a broad range of projects, including humanitarian, military, environmental and economic aid.

Continue reading...

Rebels passed through Venezuela en route to Colombia before deadly attack, report reveals

Posted on by

Leaked report raises likelihood that Venezuelan government green-lit attack that killed more than 80

Tensions are growing between Bogotá and Caracas after it emerged that rebels responsible for one of Colombia’s worst episodes of violence in recent years travelled through Venezuelan territory before launching the bloody wave of attacks.

At least 80 combatants armed with assault rifles and explosives passed through the Venezuelan border states of Táchira and Zulia before attacking a rival armed group and its suspected civilian supporters, according to a leaked military intelligence report.

Continue reading...

Colombia scrambles to cope as refugees flee deadly battles between rebel groups

Posted on by

Officials describe ‘tsunami of people’ in city of Cúcuta escaping one of worst outbreaks of violence in recent years

Authorities in the Colombian border city of Cúcuta are scrambling to cope with an influx of internal refugees, as thousands of civilians flee an outbreak of fighting between rival rebel factions.

Buses, trailers and dump trucks packed with disoriented mothers and children have been streaming into the border city since Friday when the bloody conflict began engulfing north-eastern Colombia.

Continue reading...

Colombian tree frog found by Sheffield florist highlights invasive species threat

Posted on by

Scientists say frog’s journey shows difficulty of spotting insects or fungi spread by global plant trade

A tiny tree frog hitchhiking in a bunch of roses to Sheffield from Colombia has inspired a study into invasive species reaching the UK’s shores.

Dr Silviu Petrovan, a researcher in the University of Cambridge’s zoology department and a senior author of a paper published today in the journal BioScience, had his interest piqued when he was asked to identify a live frog found in roses in a florist’s shop in Sheffield.

Continue reading...

Latin America’s rise in tuberculosis linked to imprisonment rates

Posted on by

Study warns region’s exponential rise in incarceration is fuelling the disease, with cases increasing by 19% between 2015 and 2022

High incarceration rates in Latin America – the region with the world’s fastest-growing prison population – are exacerbating tuberculosis in a region that is bucking the global trend for falling incidents of the disease, experts have warned.

A study published in The Lancet Public Health journal has estimated that, contrary to previous assumptions, HIV/Aids is not the primary risk factor for tuberculosis in the region – as it remains in Africa, for example – but rather imprisonments.

Continue reading...

Ex-drug lord Fabio Ochoa walks free in Colombia after 20 years in US prisons

Posted on by

Victims of Medellín cartel demand justice as some express dismay former mob boss faces no charges in Colombia

The return of the former drug trafficker Fabio Ochoa to Colombia following his deportation from the United States has reopened old wounds among victims of the Medellín cartel, with some expressing dismay at the Colombian authorities’ decision to let Ochoa walk free.

Some of the cartel victims said they were hoping the former drug lord will at least cooperate with ongoing efforts by human rights groups to investigate one of the most violent periods of Colombia’s history and demanded that Colombian prosecutors also take Ochoa in for questioning.

Continue reading...

Colombia-led operation seizes world record 225 tonnes of cocaine, and uncovers new Australia trafficking route

Posted on by

Operation Orion, a cooperative operation between 62 countries, finds some of the record haul on a new drug route being used by a ‘narco submarine’

Colombian authorities working with dozens of other countries have seized 225 tonnes of cocaine in the space of six weeks, a global record for any single anti-narcotics operation, finding some of that haul on a “narco submarine” travelling on a new drug trafficking route to Australia.

In the six-week Operation Orion, law enforcement agencies and other organisations from 62 countries halted six semi-submersible vessels stuffed with cocaine and confiscated 1,400 tonnes of drugs in total, including more than 1,000 tonnes of marijuana.

Continue reading...

Colombia outlaws child marriage after 17-year campaign

Posted on by

Country closes 137-year legal loophole, becoming one of 12 in Latin America and the Caribbean to entirely ban marriage for minors

Colombian lawmakers have approved a bill to eradicate child marriage in the South American country after 17 years of campaigning by advocacy groups and eight failed attempts to push legislation through the house and senate.

After five hours of heated, drawn-out debate on Wednesday evening, lawmakers approved the proposed legislation, dubbed They are Girls, Not Wives, which prohibits the marriage of anyone under the age of 18.

Continue reading...

Meat, oil and pesticide industry lobbyists turned out in record numbers at Cop16

Posted on by

Questions raised over influence after 1,261 business and industry delegates registered for biodiversity summit in Colombia

Record numbers of business representatives and lobbyists had access to the UN’s latest biodiversity talks, analysis shows.

In total 1,261 business and industry delegates registered for Cop16 in Cali, Colombia, which ended in disarray and without significant progress on a number of key issues including nature funding, monitoring biodiversity loss and work on reducing environmentally harmful business subsidies.

Continue reading...

Severe drought puts nearly half a million children at risk in Amazon – report

Posted on by

Warming climate has caused rivers used for transport to dry up, leaving children with little food, water or school access, says Unicef

Two years of severe drought in the Amazon rainforest have left nearly half a million children facing shortages of water and food or limited access to school, according to a UN report.

Scant rainfall and extreme heat driven by the climate crisis have caused rivers in what is usually the wettest region on Earth to retreat so much that they can no longer be traversed by boats, cutting off communities.

Continue reading...

Fungi could be given same status as flora and fauna under conservation plan

Posted on by

Exclusive: proposal to Cop16 could see ‘funga’ get global legal consideration distinct from flora and fauna

A new era of mycelial conservation could begin this month when the UK and Chile propose that fungi should be placed alongside animals and plants as a separate realm for environmental protection.

Mushrooms, mould, mildew, yeast and lichen would all receive elevated status under the plan, which will be submitted to the UN convention on biological diversity (CBD) during the Cop16 meeting in Cali, Colombia, which opens on 21 October.

Continue reading...

Lula and Petro have the chance of a lifetime to save the Amazon. Can they unite idealism and realpolitik to pull it off?

Posted on by

The South American leaders are in the spotlight as they prepare to host this week’s Cop16 biodiversity summit, November’s G20 meeting and next year’s Cop30 climate summit

The rainforest nations of Brazil and Colombia have the best opportunity in a generation to drag the Amazon back from the abyss as they host three of the world’s most important environmental negotiations in the space of little more than a year.

In the process, their leaders – pacesetting Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, and the more cautious and contradictory Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – will offer up overlapping visions for the future of the Amazon, and the world’s path to net zero.

Continue reading...

Over 40kg of cocaine found in banana deliveries to French supermarkets

Posted on by

Police seek to identify intended recipient after drugs found under pallets at four Grand Frais stores

Dozens of kilograms of cocaine have been found in banana deliveries to four of a French supermarket chain’s stores, with police unsure who the intended recipient was.

Staff at Grand Frais branches in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France were astonished to find between 40kg (88lb) and 50kg of drugs hidden under pallets of bananas and were anxious to reassure customers that the cocaine had not come into contact with the fruit.

Continue reading...

Almost 200 people killed last year trying to defend the environment, report finds

Posted on by

Latin America was the most deadly region in which to defend ecosystems from mining and deforestation, with Indigenous people among half the dead

At least 196 people were killed last year for defending the environment, with more than a third of killings taking place in Colombia, new figures show.

From campaigners who spoke out against mining projects to Indigenous communities targeted by organised crime groups, an environmental defender was killed every other day in 2023, according to a new report by the NGO Global Witness.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow the biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on X for all the latest news and features.

Continue reading...

Prince Harry hits out at spread of disinformation via AI and social media

Posted on by

Duke speaks at summit on digital responsibility while on visit with Duchess of Sussex to Colombia

The Duke of Sussex has hit out at online disinformation during a four-day visit to Colombia, warning: “What happens online within a matter of minutes transfers to the streets.”

Speaking in Bogotá at a summit on digital responsibility, Harry said of the spread of false information via artificial intelligence and social media: “People are acting on information that isn’t true.”

Continue reading...

Colombian congress debates banning souvenirs of drug lord Pablo Escobar

Posted on by

Vendors selling to tourists criticize proposal, but those wanting to shed the country’s mafia boss image praise it

Souvenirs depicting the late Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar could be banned in Colombia if legislators approve a bill introduced this week in the nation’s congress. The proposal is criticized by vendors who sell his merchandise to tourists from around the world, but backed by those who believe the country should shed its image of mafia bosses.

The bill proposes fines of up to $170 for vendors who sell merchandise that depicts Escobar and other convicted criminals, and would also enable police to fine those who wear T-shirts, hats and other garments that “exalt” the infamous drug lord.

Continue reading...

Venezuala: Blinken congratulates González on winning election as more countries come out against Maduro

Posted on by

US secretary of state also voices concern for opposition candidate’s safety while Venezualan government accuses Washington of leading ‘coup attempt’

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has congratulated Edmundo González “for receiving the most votes” in Venezuela’s election, as more countries came out to recognise the opposition candidate as the winner of Sunday’s disputed poll.

Blinken spoke with González and opposition leader María Corina Machado in a phone call on Friday and voiced concern for both of them, the state department said. On Thursday, Blinken recognised González as the winner of last Sunday’s vote, citing “overwhelming evidence”.

Continue reading...