Colombia’s new government is refraining from criticizing or condemning Nicaragua’s under Daniel Ortega for “strategic reasons,” Colombian Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva said Tuesday. After the election this summer of Gustavo Petros, the first president in the country’s history who belongs to the left, Colombia abstained on August 12 from a meeting of the Organization of […]
Tag: Colombia
Venezuela and Colombia restore diplomatic relations after three years
Venezuela and Colombia officially restored their diplomatic relations, which were severed more than three years ago, with the arrival in Caracas yesterday of the Colombian ambassador appointed by the new president, Gustavo Petros. “Relations with Venezuela should never have been severed, we are brothers and not an imaginary line can separate us,” the ambassador, Armando […]
Colombia: Two journalists killed by unknown assailants on highway
Two journalists were shot and killed by unidentified men on a motorbike who attacked them while returning from a religious festival. Leiner Montero, 37, the director of an online radio station, and Delia Contreras, 39, the director of the Sol Digital news website, were killed near the community of Fundacion, in the province of Magdalena. […]
Colombia: Drug traffickers handed over to authorities will not be extradited to other countries, president vows
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro proposed Wednesday that drug traffickers handed over to the country’s justice system should not be extradited to the United States and should be given “legal privileges.” “Drug traffickers who negotiate with the Colombian state (…) will not be extradited,” Petro said during a press conference. Instead, “drug traffickers who do not […]
Colombia: Police kill three youths and expose them as ‘drug dealers’
Ten police officers have been arrested in Colombia and a police colonel is wanted for the murder of three young men who were identified as drug traffickers, official sources said today. The eleven police officers are accused of killing three young men aged 18, 22 and 26 on July 25, in a city in the […]
Colombia: Government seeks to resume peace talks with ELN
The Colombian government is seeking to resume dialogue with the rebel group the National Liberation Army (ELN) with the help of Cuba, Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva said Thursday in Havana. “We aspire to resume dialogue with the ELN in this peaceful country to take the path proposed” by President Gustavo Petro towards “complete peace” in […]
Venezuela and Colombia resume diplomatic relations after a 3-year break
Venezuela and Colombia announced Thursday that they will exchange ambassadors, more than three years after they severed diplomatic ties after new Colombian President Gustavo Petros took office. In Caracas, President Nicolas Maduro said former foreign minister Felix Placencia has already requested accreditation from the Colombian government and “will be in Bogotá soon.” “I have decided, […]
Colombia: US willing to have ‘open and honest discussion’ on drug war
The US is willing to have an “open and honest discussion” about the so-called war on drugs with Colombia’s new president, Gustavo Petros, who stressed in his inauguration speech that his goal is to end, members of the American delegation in Bogota said yesterday Monday. “I think what the president (Petro) wants is to secure […]
Colombia’s new president wants ‘war on drugs’ to end
The new president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, called yesterday Sunday, in his speech after his inauguration, to end the so-called “war on drugs”, judging that it has failed, and to be replaced by a “policy of prevention of consumption” in developed countries . “It is time for a new international pact that accepts that the […]
Colombia: Most Powerful FARC Rebel Group Proposes Ceasefire
The most powerful group of defectors from the former rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has proposed to Colombia’s president-elect, Gustavo Petros, that a ceasefire be declared in order to find a “political solution” to the conflict through negotiations. Her letter, dated July 31, was published yesterday by several media outlets, along with […]