Having passed a devastating peak in mid-August, the coronavirus appears to have leveled out in Colombia, infecting approximately 7.000 people a day and killing 175, according to the Health Ministry. The pandemic’s appears to remain stable after leaving a confirmed 25,000 people dead and the government has all but reopened the country’s economy. The statistics […]
Colombia’s defense minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo defied all logic on Thursday, claiming he complied with a Supreme Court order to ask forgiveness for police brutality before it was issued. In one of his most absurd statements to date, Trujillo said that he complied with Tuesday’s court order on September 11 already. In compliance with the […]
The government of Colombia’s President Ivan Duque plunged into a crisis on Thursday after the defense minister refused to comply with a Supreme Court order to curb police brutality. “The rule of law is at stake,” said opposition representative Katherine Miranda (Green Alliance) after calling on Congress to remove Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo “right […]
Colombia’s Supreme Court condemned the government of far-right President Ivan Duque on Tuesday for violently repressing peaceful anti-government protests. In a historic ruling, the top court gave controversial Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo 48 hours to apologize for illegal attempts to violently quell peaceful protests in November. The ruling came a day after the resumption […]
Police cracked down on protests against war and police brutality in Colombia’s capital Bogota after a day of peaceful marches throughout the country. Tens of thousands of people took part in the protests that were organized by student organizations, labor unions and indigenous organizations in all of the country’s capital cities. In Bogota, where mostly […]
Colombia’s El Dorado airport in Bogota resumed limited operations on Monday with flight to, among others, the United States. Bogota’s airport is one of four airports that will be handling international flights following strict biosafety measures to prevent outbreaks of the coronavirus that forced President Ivan Duque to suspend all international travel in March. The […]
Top United Nations officials expressed their “deep concern” over Colombia’s “climate of insecurity and violence” in a conversation with President Ivan Duque on Thursday. In a virtual meeting with Duque and his post-conflict coordinator Emilio Archila, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo stressed “the insecurity affecting the lives of too many […]
The social leaders who organized Colombia’s biggest antigovernment protests in more than four decades in November are calling for renewed protests for Monday. The national protests come little more than a week after Duque’s defense minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo authorized the use of terrorism in an attempt to quell spontaneous protests against police brutality in […]
Colombia’s prosecution arrested four alleged vandals on terrorism charges and raided the home of at least one opposition activist days before a national strike. The announced arrests and raids seem similar to illegal operations carried out before anti-government protests in November in an apparent attempt to intimidate government critics and opponents. According to Prosecutor Francisco […]
Paramilitary groups continued to pose by far the biggest threat to Colombia’s community leaders and human rights defenders last year, according to a newly released report. In its annual report, human rights organization Somos Defensores registered a significant drop in assassinations of social leaders from 155 in 2018 to 124 last year, but a similar […]