This week yet another issue has come up which threatens to unravel Columbia’s 2016 peace deal with FARC. One of FARC’s leaders who had helped to negotiate the peace treaty, Jesus Santrich, was arrested on a US warrant for smuggling massive amounts of cocaine into the US. The complications, however, are due to the current instability of the Columbian peace… Read more »
20 killed in attempted prison escape in Brazil’s Belem – Al Jazeera The state security service described the mass escape attempt as a military-style battle with inmates aided from outside. Several inmates and one guard have died in an attempted prison breakout in the northern city Brazilian city of Belem. The inmates were aided by an armed group on the… Read more »
Colombia targets Gulf Clan after deadly blast in Urabá – BBC Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has told the security forces to go after a criminal gang known as the Gulf Clan after the group was blamed for a bomb attack which killed eight police officers in north-western Colombia. The bomb went off on Wednesday as the officers were escorting… Read more »
Former Farc Leader Arrested In Colombia On U.S. Drug Warrant – NPR Colombian authorities have arrested a former peace negotiator for the rebel group FARC on a warrant seeking his extradition to the U.S. on cocaine smuggling charges. Seuxis Hernandez, also known by the alias Jesus Santrich, was taken into custody at his residence in the capital, Bogota, on an… Read more »
Rights groups decry murder of Maria Magdalena Cruz Rojas The Colombian social leader, known as an ‘untiring fighter’ for human rights, was killed last week at her home. Human rights groups have decried the killing of a Colombian farmer and social leader, who was reportedly murdered in front of her husband and son. Maria Magdalena Cruz Rojas was killed by… Read more »
Columbia has recently held elections for their congress members and also begun primaries for their upcoming presidential election. As was discussed in a previous post, this suite of elections is the first to include the political party FARC, which originated as a rebel group in the Columbian Civil War. Due to the FARC’s former role killing hundreds of thousands in… Read more »
Indigenous Yukpa face humanitarian crisis after fleeing Venezuela – Al Jazeera Cucuta, Colombia – A pink stroller is surrounded by rubbish where children covered in dirt linger around a makeshift camp under a bridge in Colombia’s Cucuta. The anesthetised gaze in the children’s eyes reflects their precarious health situation which worsens by the week. They are sheltering from the scorching… Read more »
A woman has been released from prison in El Salvador after serving 15 years of a 30-year sentence for committing an abortion, which she said was a miscarriage. Maira Veronica Figueroa Marroquin was sentenced in 2003 on aggravated murder charges but saw the rest of her sentence commuted by the Supreme Court on Tuesday. Marroquin maintained the death of her baby… Read more »
Colombia: Why did the FARC ‘fail’ its first electoral test? – Al Jazeera While millions went to the polls on Sunday to vote in Colombia’s congressional elections, it was the image of one individual in particular that captured local headlines. A formally-dressed man voting in a nearly empty public hall, Ivan Marquez would not have grabbed much attention were it not… Read more »
Colombia: FARC performs poorly in first electoral test – Al Jazeera Colombia’s conservative parties came out ahead in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, but failed to get a majority in a landmark vote that saw the participation of the former leftist group, now a political party, for the first time. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, right-wing parties received… Read more »