Grey-faced officer pleaded his innocence after anti-corruption police allegedly caught him in the act of extorting businessman

A Colombian police officer has been admitted to hospital after swallowing a wad of banknotes he extorted from a businessman.

The officer had demanded payments in return for not arresting his victim on trumped-up charges – but did not know that the businessman had already reported the shakedown to Colombia’s anti-kidnapping and extortion unit.

The four Indigenous children were the only survivors of a plane crash that killed their mother

A few tantalising clues kept the rescuers going. The remains of fruit with bitemarks made by small human teeth, a pair of scissors and nappies in the rainforest mud. All offered hope that four children, who had miraculously survived a plane crash that killed their mother, the pilot and the only other adult on board, also survived the dangers of the Amazon.

The oldest was only 13 when the plane went down on 1 May in southern Colombia. The youngest would mark his first birthday lost under the dense green canopy of trees and vegetation, alive with jaguars, poisonous snakes and other threats.

Inquiry reveals phone calls of Gustavo Petro’s aide’s nanny were intercepted in ‘grotesque’ abuse of power

Two of Gustavo Petro’s closest political allies have resigned as the Colombian president’s office was embroiled in a bizarre scandal involving a nanny, illegal wiretaps and a missing briefcase full of cash.

Petro’s closest adviser, Laura Sarabia, and his key political power broker, Armando Benedetti, stepped down on Friday after an investigation by the general attorney into allegations made by Marelbys Meza, the nanny to Sarabia’s son.

Salvatore Mancuso testified to peace tribunal that rightwing AUC worked hand in glove with business, military and political elite

A notorious former commander of Colombia’s largest paramilitary group has revealed new details of how rightwing death squads worked side by side with the country’s business, military and political elite to sow terror in the countryside and wipe out leftwing insurgencies.

Salvatore Mancuso told Colombia’s peace tribunal this week that state institutions were not only complicit in the expansion of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) but actively coordinated with them, giving orders to wipe out anyone suspected of aligning with communist rebels.