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Al Jazeera •

Colombian court ruling sentences 12 ex-military officers

A special Colombian court sentenced 12 former military officers to between five and eight years of reparation work for their involvement in 135 “false positive” deaths – killing civilians and then falsely reporting them as rebel fighters – between the years 2002 and 2005.Thursday’s landmark ruling is the first time the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), Colombia’s transitional justice body, issued individual sentences against government security forces for crimes committed in the decades-long...
The Straits Times •

Small businesses struggle as China’s Temu spurs more Latin Americans to shop online

Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inboxThe total value of e-commerce sales in Latin America amounted to $815 billion in 2024.BOGOTA, Colombia – Since formally launching in Colombia in May 2024, Chinese e-commerce platform Temu has taken the country by storm, usurping Amazon to become the second-most popular shopping site after Argentine giant Mercado Libre. But the Chinese firm’s success does not lie just in outcompeting rival e-commerce sites.

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Latin Times •

Alvaro Uribe Becomes First Former Colombian President To Be Criminally Convicted

Álvaro Uribe, Colombian president between 2002 and 2010, was found guilty of bribing witnesses and abuse of process by a Bogotá court on Monday, making him the country's first former president to be criminally convicted.Judge Sandra Heredia Aranda said it was "proven" that Uribe and his legal team tried to flip witnesses who were due to testify to his involvement with right-wing paramilitary organizations in a separate criminal investigation that ended in 2018.The case has polarized Colombia, wh...
Al Jazeera •

‘Never touched a gun’: Colombia fighters step up child soldier recruitment

As Colombia’s conflicts continue to escalate, criminal organisations increasingly rely on underage soldiers to bolster their ranks.The last time Marta saw her 14-year-old son was three months ago – he was wearing rebel army fatigues and holding a rifle as he marched down the street with the other child soldiers.She ran to the commanding officer and begged him to release her boy, who had been abducted nine months earlier in the middle of the night from their home in eastern Colombia at age 13. Th...
Latin Times •

From Mexico To Colombia: How U.S.-Made Guns Are Fueling Crime Across Latin America

The June 7 assassination attempt on Colombian Senator and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay sent shockwaves through the South American country. Soon after, disturbing details began to emerge, from the age of the teenage shooter to alleged prior requests to bolster the politician's protection unit.Another detail was one that didn't come as a surprise for many Latin American observers: the gun that left Uribe fighting for his life was purchased legally in the United States.The pistol, a 9mm...
Miami Herald •

Fears of violence revived after Colombian senator shot in head at campaign rally

Miguel Uribe Turbay, a Colombian senator and presidential hopeful, is in critical condition after being shot in the head at a campaign event in Bogotá on Saturday.

Analysts describe the attack as the latest sign of Colombia’s deteriorating security situation and deepening political polarization, warning of a return to the dark era of political violence in the 1980s and 90s.

Uribe, the grandson of President Julio Cesar Turbay, spent his life fighting against political violence after his mother,...
NPR •

Colombian Presidential hopeful shot at Bogotá rally

BOGOTA, Colombia —Colombian senator and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay, 39, was shot in the head at a Bogotá campaign event Saturday, in an attack that sent shockwaves through the country. The politician's condition remains unclear after being shot by a 15-year-old sicario, or paid hitman, while delivering a speech to a small group of supporters in a park in the west of the capital. Videos posted on social media show the politician bleeding beside a car before being rushed to a nea...
Al Jazeera •

Colombia rejects Guatemalan court’s arrest warrants for top officials

Colombia says that the action by Guatemalan Prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche is part of a politically motivated campaign.Bogota, Colombia – Colombian President Gustavo Petro has criticised a Guatemalan court order for the arrests of two senior Colombian officials, accusing the prosecutor’s office of being corrupt.Guatemalan Public Prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche on Monday accused Colombian Attorney General Luz Adriana Camargo and former Colombian Defence Minister Ivan Velasquez of corruption, influen...
Miami Herald •

Colombia joins China’s Belt and Road Initiative amid tensions with Trump

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has formalized his country’s entry into China’s Belt and Road Initiative, or New Silk Road, a sprawling geoeconomic development project that already includes over 140 countries.

The two nations signed a memorandum of understanding Wednesday “welcoming China’s initiative to promote the Silk Road Economic Belt” and pledging greater cooperation in a range of areas including infrastructure and trade.

The move by Colombia, traditionally one of Washington’s stronges...
Miami Herald •

Wave of police killings in Colombia copies drug lord Pablo Escobar’s terror tactics

Nineteen police officers and 12 soldiers have been killed by armed groups in Colombia since April 15, in what President Gustavo Petro has called a “plan pistola” – a tactic popularized by notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar that seeks to terrorize law enforcement.

According to police, armed groups are putting cash bounties on officers’ heads, a strategy Escobar used in the 1990s during peak cartel violence. Security experts say the killings are a backlash by groups like the Gaitanist Army of Colo...
Latin Times •

Trump's Tren de Aragua Crackdown Takes a Leaf Out Of South America's Political Playbook

During President Donald Trump's first 100 days in office, Venezuelan-born gang Tren de Aragua went from being a group relatively unknown outside Latin America to a household name in the United States.Since declaring it a terrorist organization in February, the Trump administration has used the wartime Alien Enemies Act to deport hundreds of migrants to El Salvador accusing them of being Tren de Aragua members.The deportations, described by Human Rights Watch as "enforced disappearances", have se...
Latin Times •

U.S. Aid Cuts Impact Landmine Programs In Colombia, Posing 'Imminent Risk' To Civilians

As much as 50% of humanitarian demining projects have been suspended in Colombia due to the Trump administration's funding freeze in January, NGO and government officials said.For decades, armed groups involved in Colombia's conflict have used landmines to strengthen their control of rural areas. While the 2016 peace deal between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) achieved a dramatic drop in mine deployment, the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) has see...
NPR •

The 'world's coolest dictator' heads to the White House

MEXICO CITY — Nayib Bukele, El Salvador's president and self-styled "world's coolest dictator," is due to visit President Trump at the White House on Monday. He's the first Latin American leader to get an official invite to the Oval Office since Trump took office. Bukele is one of Trump's most crucial regional allies and no one has embraced his anti-immigration policies as enthusiastically. With Bukele's support, over the past few weeks the Trump administration has deported and imprisoned hund...
Reuters •

USAID suspension shutters Colombia programs, endangering FARC peace deal

Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers.

Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Reu...
Latin America Reports •

A gang truce in Colombia’s poorest city drastically cut homicide rates, but can it hold? - Latin America Reports

Quibdó, Colombia – A truce signed between three gangs in December reduced homicide rates in Quibdó, the capital of Colombia’s impoverished Chocó region, by 56%, said authorities. 


Government officials, NGOs, the Catholic Church, and community leaders negotiated the ceasefire between local gangs Los RPS, Los Mexicanos, and Locos Yam, which was recently extended until the end of March.


But with the deal due to expire soon and the government appointing a new delegation, insiders worry that th...
Latin America Reports •

Tibú, a town at the center of Colombia’s worst humanitarian crisis in a decade - Latin America Reports

Tibú, Colombia – On January 16, violence erupted in Colombia’s northeastern Catatumbo region after a fragile truce between rival armed groups collapsed.


The National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Frente 33, a dissident group of the now-demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), are engaged in open combat in the region. 


The government is negotiating a peace settlement with the Frente 33, but ended talks with the ELN, blaming it for starting the conflict in January. The guer...
Latin Times •

Allies to Adversaries? How The U.S.-Colombia Relations Could Devolve Under Trump and Petro

Colombia made global headlines on Sunday following a dispute between its president, Gustavo Petro, and his American counterpart Donald Trump.The spat saw the White House announce sweeping sanctions and threaten 50% tariffs after Bogotá rejected two U.S. deportation flights carrying its citizens. And while Petro ultimately folded under the pressure, analysts worry that the high-profile dispute may foreshadow turbulent relations between two ideological foes with a similar populist penchant.Althoug...

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