Colombia’s foreign minister on Wednesday tried to convince the Organization of American States (OAS) of a conspiracy theory that ties Venezuela’s government, ELN guerrillas and FARC dissidents together. This new theory followed the recent call to rearm by the FARC’s former peace negotiator, “Ivan Marquez,” who announced he abandoned the peace deal last month citing […]
Colombia and 11 other members of the Organization of American States voted to urgently hold a meeting of a regional defense pact after Venezuela began military exercises at the border. The meeting of the so-called Inter-American Reciprocal Assistance Treaty, also known as “The Rio Pact,” is a 1947 pact in which OAS members vowed to […]
A mayor candidate whose company allegedly financed death squads accused a journalist of being a FARC guerrilla after again being exposed by a demobilized paramilitary leader. Demobilized paramilitary commander Jorge Ivan Laverde testified in 2010 already that the family business of far-right Cucuta mayoral candidate Ivan Gelvez sponsored his Catatumbo Bloc, the paramilitary group that […]
The witness who reportedly confirmed receiving bribes from the fixer of Colombia’s former President Alvaro Uribe has been moved to another prison amid security concerns, local media reported Monday. “Victor” was called to testify by Uribe’s defense to claim the controversial leader of the far-right Democratic Center party was the victim of a conspiracy, but […]
Independent news media are playing a key role in Colombia’s peace process, contrary to most the country’s traditional media that have a lot to lose. To understand the value of the websites that are making a difference, it is important to understand the history of news media in Colombia, which is incomparable to the history […]
Some 700 civilians and state officials who claim to have taken part in war crimes have requested to submit to Colombia’s war crimes tribunal. Four years ago, the prosecution had 39,400 criminal investigations. Prosecutor General Eduardo Montealegre said in 2015 that he had identified 22,130 non-combatant state officials who allegedly sponsored the AUC or indirectly […]
Colombia’s war crimes tribunal will return to Medellin in October to learn why the city’s energy company EPM flooded an area where prosecutors were looking for hundreds of missing persons. The session will be the second in the city where Mayor Federico Gutierrez was reprimanded by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) for trying to […]
One of Colombia’s top mafia lawyers, Diego Cadena, is set to defend former President Alvaro Uribe before the Supreme Court on Friday while his own liberty is at risk. Cadena couldn’t possibly be under more pressure; the Prosecutor General’s Office is already investigating Uribe’s fixer over his alleged witness tampering practices and three other criminal […]
Election observers on Tuesday warned that stigmatization is fueling deadly violence in Colombia after a mayoral candidate died in a savage massacre. The murder of Liberal Party mayoral candidate Karina Garcia from the southwestern Cauca province brutally reminded Colombia of the extreme violence that has marred the country’s politics for decades. Days before her death, […]
A Bogota court ordered disciplinary measures against Colombia’s National Army chief after finding him in contempt for failing to release public information about contracts with private oil and mining firms. The ruling is the latest headache of controversial National Army chief Nicasio Martinez whose nine months in office have been marred by an almost endless […]