Worldcrunch
SPOTLIGHT: BREXIT WINS, CAMERON’S BAD BET No one ever forced David Cameron to call the referendum to decide whether the UK should stay in the European Union or not. But the British Prime Minister’s calculation was clear: Popular sentiment against the EU (particularly among his fellow Conservative Party members) was strong enough to make a […]
Under the watchful eye of the Indian government, yoga master Sri Sri Ravi Shankar wants to resolve the world’s conflicts through a breathing technique. At a gathering last month, he attracted 3.5 million followers in New Delhi.
MEXICO CITY — Will the mask come off? A Mexican judge has ruled that sedition and terrorism charges have expired against 13 rebels of the Zapatista Liberation Army (EZLN), including those filed against the group’s masked enigmatic former leader, Subcomandante Marcos, La Jornada and other media reported. The EZLN rose in revolt in 1994 to […]
Plan Colombia was never the aid program touted by leaders in Washington and Bogota. But it proved to be excellent business for arms dealers and other shady characters.
No doubt the rebels cherish their history of armed struggle against the Colombian state, but if they’re serious about entering politics, an image makeover is very much in order.
Long after the days of Pablo Escobar and cocaine cartels, Colombia has regained the crown as world’s No. 1 producer of coca. It gives further urgency that FARC-government peace talks succeed.
If and when Colombia’s FARC guerrillas stop fighting and peace comes to Colombia, the socio-economic benefits will be multiple and unstoppable. There is only one choice.
El Tiempo, Sept. 24, 2015 Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and rebel leader Timoleón Jiménez of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) agreed Wednesday on a “deadline for peace,” promising to end the country’s half-century-long civil war within six months, Colombia’s daily El Tiempo reports. The two men sealed the deal with a historic […]
The unlikely tale of how a young Colombian’s communist convictions led him to leave his family in Spain to fight with Ukraine’s Putin-backed separatist rebels.
-Editorial- BOGOTÁ — Colombia’s more than half-century old civil war has been, if nothing else, an environmental calamity. Besides causing tens of thousands of deaths and forcing millions from their homes, the protracted fighting between state forces, left-wing guerrilla forces and right-wing gangs has led to massive amounts of crude oil being poured into the country’s rivers, streams and wetlands. Data released by the oil industry suggests that over the past 30 years, some 4 million barrels of crude have been dumped in Colombia. That’s 10 times the amount the infamous Exxon Valdez tanker released off the coast of Alaska […]
GREXIT AVERTED, TSIPRAS IN TROUBLE AT HOME After a 15-hour negotiation that represented the longest European summit meeting in history, Greece and its EU partners finally reached a unanimous agreement to avoid a “Grexit” and keep the euro in Greece. European Council President Donald Tusk announced the success of the marathon negotiations this morning in […]
El Tiempo, April 16, 2015 “Airstrikes resume after FARC massacre,” the front-page headline of Bogota-based daily El Tiempo reads Thursday, alongside a picture of Colombian soldiers retrieving the bodies of their comrades who died in an ambush by the rebels late Tuesday in western Colombia’s La Esperanza. At least 10 soldiers were killed in the […]
Demonizing the rich, a pastime of Colombia’s political Left, doesn’t help social progress. Yes, the rich must pay a high share of taxes, but capital and opportunity cross borders like never before.
The Castro regime’s about-face to restore ties with the U.S. signals the communist economic system’s shameful failure. But politics is another matter.
Despite FARC declaring a ceasefire, peace won’t come to Colombia until warring parties in decades of civil war admit to all the people they’ve kidnapped, tortured and killed.
The decision by the United States and Cuba to restore diplomatic ties looks like good news for now: for Cuban families, for regional democracy and for peace in war-torn Colombia.
The kidnapping of a Colombian general is the clearest sign that FARC guerrillas may have entered in peace talks, but have yet to give up their war mentality and false populist ideology.
Carmen Tulia Ortega recently came face-to-face with a former paramilitary chief responsible for some of the deaths of her loved ones. No, she did not forgive him.
BOGOTA — Maria Carolina Rodríguez, who describes herself as an “upper-middle class mother from Bogotá,” was kidnapped by the communist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2001. Her captivity allowed her a rare glimpse at how one group of female guerrillas were treated by their male comrades. Rodríguez kept notes during her captivity, which […]
As Colombia prepares to elect a president, voters must choose between a candidate willing to make painful concessions with FARC guerrillas and a hawk keen on the status quo.
Just before last week’s death of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, El Espectador spoke with arguably the only other Latin American author in his league, 2010 Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa.
A former soldier accuses the Colombian Army and aides to former President Álvaro Uribe of ordering the killings of innocent civilians amid a “dirty war” against FARC rebels.
-OpEd- I too can play the game of “I won’t think about that, so it can’t exist,” like a character tells himself in Delirium, the novel by Colombian writer Laura Restrepo. Indeed, such mental games are a national character trait. The country’s principal cinema chain Cine Colombia refused last December to show a short trailer […]
YOTOCO — “The first thing we did was to look for land, thinking not so much about crop productivity as security…” Efraín Sierra, one of countless farmers forced off his land by Colombia’s long-running civil war, recalls having had to move in the past from the district of Buga when paramilitaries moved in nearby in […]
The Colombian city hosts the most citizens displaced from rural areas by the country’s ongoing civil conflict. A special program allows these domestic refugees to farm in the city.
What does Mandela’s example mean for Colombia as it seeks to end decades of bloody conflict with leftist guerrillas?
One full year has past since peace talks opened between the Colombian government and the rebel forces after decades of war. But behind the slow pace, there are real reasons for hope.
Thursday, November 20, 2014 IRAN NUCLEAR TALKS STALL As talks on Iran’s nuclear program continue in Vienna ahead of a Nov. 24 deadline to reach an agreement, Iran’s nuclear chief told reporters that his delegation saw “no more room for further negotiations” on the design of its controversial Arak nuclear reactor, AFP reports. This reactor, […]
Exclusive: Rebels and drug traffickers teamed up to take out Colombia’s former president. Two undercover agents gained key information, before being discovered and killed by FARC.
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford lets loose again, so does Silvio Berlusconi. There’s also a controversy over FARC rebels on a yacht, up-close memories of Pope John Paul II and more of the week’s news, collected in quotes. (cover photo: Danielle Scott)
BOGOTA — The LGBTI community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual/Transgender and Intersexual) in Colombia has suffered disappearances, forced migrations, mutilations, humiliation and abuse. The phrase “damaged bodies, silent crimes’ has come to be used by this community to describe their suffering often made even worse by the civil war that has torn Colombia apart over the […]
A father and son take shelter from the rain. Suddenly, a 76-year old man arrives, wedging himself in between the two of them. After a throwaway remark about the downpour, a question alters the course of the conversation. “During the war, you weren’t in Fonfría by any chance?” the man asks the father, referring to […]
With talks on in Havana to end the decades-old civil war in Colombia, a push is on to force negotiators to meet face-to-face with victims of the violence.
BOGOTA – Negotiators for rebel group FARC — engaged now in historic peace talks with the Colombian government — received an interesting visit in Havana last month. During a pause in negotiations with Bogota officials in the Cuban capital, FARC loyalists met with a group of former members of the IRA. Indeed, the veterans of […]
President Santos’ decision to try to negotiate an end to a decades-long civil war is the only path for a nation that has suffered too much already.
EL TIEMPO, EL UNIVERSAL, UNIVISION, EL COMBIANO, EL TIEMPO (Colombia), XINHUA (China) Worldcrunch BOGOTA – As peace talks continue in Cuba between FARC rebels and the Colombian government, and even though the rebels agreed to release three hostages, the past few days in Colombia have been anything but peaceful. This week a FARC bomb killed […]
EL ESPECTADOR, EL MUNDO, EL TIEMPO (Colombia) Worldcrunch BOGOTA- Colombia’s FARC rebels have announced the end of a two-month unilateral ceasefire after the Colombian government refused to join the truce. Photo: FARC flag via Wikipedia The FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, declared the ceasefire when peace talks with the government began on Nov. […]
EL UNIVERSAL, EL TIEMPO, EL COLOMBIANO (Colombia), EUROPA PRESS (Spain) Worldcrunch RICAURTE– In the deadliest exchange since peace talks began in October, the Colombian army reports that it has killed 20 FARC rebels, including Guillermo Pequeño, leader of the mobile unit of the group, Colombian daily El Universal was reporting Monday. Commander of the Colombian […]
BOGOTA – Last month marked the third time in a half-century of armed conflict that the FARC rebels and Colombian government started a bona fide peace process. Colombia faces more than one threat to public safety, but the fight against the FARC insurgence is the most burdensome for the military budget, which surpassed 3.7% of […]
Tanja Nijmeijer joined the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) when she was barely out of her teens. Now, at 34, the Dutch woman is negotiating for the Marxist rebels in the peace talks with the Colombian government that began this week in Oslo. With her long, dark-blonde hair, brown doe-eyes and engaging smile, Nijmeijer […]