Little-known militia groups have surfaced to declare their willingness to strike peace deals – and reap ceasefire rewards
The announcement came in a grainy video from the dense jungles of northern Colombia.
A dozen masked men with camouflage uniforms and automatic weapons stand in a cluster, a roaring stream washing over their black combat boots.
Continue reading...President Gustavo Petro’s proposed legislation could raise $11.5bn a year with measures including wealth tax and levy on oil exports
Colombia’s new leftist government has proposed an ambitious plan to tax the rich in an effort to combat poverty in one of the most unequal countries in the Americas.
If implemented, the Piketty-esque legislation proposed by President Gustavo Petro could raise more than $11.5bn annually to fund anti-poverty efforts, free public university and other social welfare programs.
Continue reading...Government pledges ‘judicial and political steps’ to enable talks to resume with nation’s last guerrillas broken off three years ago
Colombia’s new government and members of the nation’s last guerrilla group have taken steps towards restarting peace talks that were suspended three years ago in Cuba.
Newly elected President Gustavo Petro, a former member of the M-19 guerrilla group, has promised to establish “total peace” in Colombia and sent a high-level delegation to Cuba this week to meet with National Liberation Army (ELN) representatives there.
Continue reading...Feared Gulf Clan has unleashed terror campaign since arrest of leader in May but keen to talk to leftist president Gustavo Petro
One of Colombia’s most feared armed groups has announced a “unilateral” ceasefire in the hopes of entering peace talks with the government of Colombia’s new leftist leader, Gustavo Petro.
The Gulf Clan, a notorious drug-trafficking militia, has unleashed a campaign of terror following the May extradition to the US of its leader – Dairo Antonio Úsuga, or “Otoniel”, assassinating dozens of police and holding large swaths of the country hostage.
Continue reading...At his swearing in Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla, says the country is getting a ‘second chance’ to tackle violence and poverty
Colombia’s first leftist president has been sworn into office, promising to fight inequality and bring peace to a country long haunted by bloody feuds between the government, drug traffickers and rebel groups.
Gustavo Petro, a former member of Colombia’s M-19 guerrilla group, won the presidential election in June by beating conservative parties that offered moderate changes to the market-friendly economy, but failed to connect with voters frustrated by rising poverty and violence against human rights leaders and environmental groups in rural areas.
Continue reading...When Francia Márquez became the South American country’s VP elect, she chose the unknown Esteban Sinisterra Paz to create her outfits
Esteban Sinisterra Paz, a 23-year-old fashion designer from Colombia’s conflict-ridden and impoverished Pacific region, had not long started his career when he received a call from a history-making client.
Francia Márquez – the renowned environmental activist and Colombia’s first black female vice-president-elect – was on the line, and she wanted two outfits made.
Continue reading...Birdwatcher ‘overcome with emotion’ on spotting the Santa Marta sabrewing, only third time it has been documented
A rare hummingbird has been rediscovered by a birdwatcher in Colombia after going missing for more than a decade.
The Santa Marta sabrewing, a large hummingbird only found in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains, was last seen in 2010 and scientists feared the species might be extinct as the tropical forests it inhabited have largely been cleared for agriculture.
Continue reading...Truth commission’s report, touted as a chance to heal after half a century of bloodshed, called for a ‘substantial change in drug policy’
The punitive, prohibitionist war on drugs helped prolong Colombia’s disastrous civil war, the country’s truth commission has found, in a landmark report published on Tuesday as part of an effort to heal the raw wounds left by conflict.
The report, titled “There is a future if there is truth” was the first instalment of a study put together by the commission that was formed as part of a historic 2016 peace deal with the leftist rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).
Continue reading...Prisons agency boss says fire broke out after inmates lit mattresses during protest at jail in Tuluá
Fifty-one inmates have died during a riot in a prison in the Colombian city of Tuluá in one of the worst recent incidents of its kind in the country.
The director of the national prisons agency said a fire had started during a protest by prisoners overnight.
Continue reading...Chaos overtakes city of Espinal after wood and bamboo stands collapse during cultural festival
At least four people were killed and hundreds injured in Colombia on Sunday after spectator stands at a bullfight collapsed, authorities said.
The bull reportedly escaped from the plaza hosting the spectacle and was causing panic in the streets of Espinal, Tolima, a city of nearly 60,000 people about 145km (90 miles) south-west of Bogotá, the capital.
Continue reading...Sophia Smith scored twice in the second half and the US women’s national team beat Colombia 3-0 on Saturday night to extend their home unbeaten streak to 68 games, but many of the players had a seismic legal ruling on their minds.
Smith scored her first in the 54th minute off a pass from Rose Lavelle when Colombian goalkeeper Catalina Perez came out of her goal. She added her second in the 60th minute. Smith, who plays for the Portland Thorns in the National Women’s Soccer League, has six international goals.
Continue reading...Despite the election euphoria, Petro has a thin mandate and is viewed with suspicion by many
He spent 12 years of his youth in the ranks of an urban guerrilla group, taking the alias of a revolutionary general from Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. Later, he would serve as a progressive mayor of Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, and as a senator. He ran for president unsuccessfully twice, unable to overcome the conservative wall erected nearly two centuries ago around the Colombian presidency.
But on Sunday, Gustavo Petro, 62, was finally able to topple that wall and was elected president, making history as the first leftwing head of state of the South American country.
Continue reading...Former fighter in the M-19 militia beat populist business tycoon and fellow political outsider Rodolfo Hernández in runoff on Sunday
Colombia has elected a former guerrilla fighter Gustavo Petro as president, making him the South American country’s first leftist head of state.
Petro beat Rodolfo Hernández, a gaff-prone former mayor of Bucaramanga and business mogul, with 50.47% of the vote in a runoff election on Sunday and will take office in July amid a host of challenges, not least of which is the deepening discontent over inequality and rising costs of living. Hernández had 47.27%, with almost all ballots counted, according to results released by election authorities.
Continue reading...The election is being contested by mayor of Bogotá Gustavo Petro and populist business tycoon Rodolfo Hernández
Voters head to the polls in Colombia on Sunday in a historic presidential election that could see the left win for the first time in the conservative South American country.
Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla and mayor of Bogotá, will face off against Rodolfo Hernández, a populist business tycoon and the former mayor of the city of Bucaramanga, in a contest where both candidates have cast themselves as political outsiders.
Continue reading...Gang members given 23-year terms for shooting dead Paraguayan anti-corruption prosecutor Marcelo Pecci
Four people who confessed to taking part in the murder of a Paraguayan prosecutor who was on his honeymoon have each been sentenced to 23 years in jail.
Marcelo Pecci, 45, known for fighting organised crime, was shot dead on the Colombian island of Barú near the Caribbean city of Cartagena on 10 May.
Continue reading...TikTok using, elite-bashing, Hitler-praising candidate revels in his unruly behavior yet is now tied with his leftist opponent
When John Claro, an opposition councillor in the Colombian city of Bucaramanga, had a disagreement with the local mayor over a colleague’s misconduct, he was left with a red face and a ringing in his ear.
In a video of the incident, the mayor can be seen quickly losing his temper, rising to his feet and unleashing a stream of profanities. Then, he steps forward, and slaps Claro hard in the face.
Continue reading...Rodríguez Orejuela, 83, was a rival of Pablo Escobar and controlled 80% of the global cocaine market
Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, an elderly leader of the Cali cartel – and bitter rival of Pablo Escobar – has died in a US prison, his lawyer said on Wednesday.
Sometimes known by his alias ‘The Chessplayer,’ Rodríguez Orejuela, 83, helped lead the Cali cartel, which once controlled 80% of the global cocaine market, according to a report from the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
Continue reading...Rivals Gustavo Petro will face Rodolfo Hernández on 19 June amid growing discontent over inequality and inflation
Colombia’s election will go to a runoff between two opposing anti-establishment candidates on 19 June after voters on Sunday were unable to pick a president outright.
Gustavo Petro, a leftist former guerrilla and onetime mayor of Bogotá, won the largest share of the vote, with 40%, but fell short of the 50% required to win outright and prevent a second round. Petro’s rival in the runoff will be Rodolfo Hernández, a business magnate and social media firebrand, who is viewed as a conservative, populist outsider.
Continue reading...Presidential frontrunner is former leftist guerrilla Gustavo Petro in country ruled for decades by the right
Colombians head to the polls today in a presidential election that may give the conservative South American country its first ever leftwing leader and first black vice-president.
Frontrunner Gustavo Petro, a former M-19 guerrilla fighter and senator, faces several rivals, but his main challenger is Federico Gutiérrez, the former mayor of Medellín – Colombia’s second city – who leads a rightwing coalition with close ties to the incumbent government of President Iván Duque.
Continue reading...Region has two-thirds of world’s most dangerous cities, with Bogotá, Rio, Mexico City and San Salvador also named in study
When police found the body of Marcela Graciano, a 31-year-old Colombian DJ, last Thursday, the brutality of the crime shocked even them. Her body, found in a house in a suburb of Medellín – Colombia’s second city – revealed signs of torture and her hands had been tied behind her back.
“The body was in an advanced state of decomposition,” the local police chief, Col Rolfy Mauricio Jiménez, said. The Valle de Aburrá municipality has had 11 murders this year, authorities said.
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