Tag: Colombia

Colombians vote in high stakes presidential runoff

by Hector Velasco Agence France-Presse BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) — Colombians vote Sunday in a presidential runoff that features promises of radical change in a country saddled with widespread poverty, violence and other woes. After a tense campaign marked by claims of death threats against several candidates, opinion polls have leftist Gustavo Petro and businessman Rodolfo Hernandez neck-and-neck. Should he win, former guerrilla Petro would become Colombia’s first left-wing president. If not, the independent Hernandez, a […]

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Left hopes for historic win in Colombia’s ‘change election’

by Mariëtte Le Roux and Lina Vanegas © Agence France-Presse Bogota, COLOMBIA (AFP) — Colombians go to the polls Sunday in a deeply polarized election that could see a leftist — and ex-guerrilla — become president for the first time in the history of the violence- and inequality-plagued country. A year after a brutal security crackdown on street protests fueled by deepening socio-economic woes, many voters are pinning their hopes on former Bogota mayor Gustavo […]

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At least six children killed in Colombia school bus accident

BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) – Six children died and over a dozen were injured on Tuesday after their school bus rolled down a cliff in northeastern Colombia, a regional official said. “Unfortunately I have to confirm (the) school bus accident on the Laguna de Ortices-San Andres road, where 6 minors died and there are more than 15 injured,” tweeted Mauricio Aguilar, governor of the mountainous Santander department, where the tragedy occurred. The students had left a […]

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Refugee camp in Bogota park evokes pain of conflict

by Hervé BAR, with Diego LEGRAND Agence France-Presse BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) – Far from their ancestral homes, more than 1,000 indigenous people displaced by conflict have been squatting in squalor since September in one of the Colombian capital’s most emblematic parks. “We want rights and dignified conditions… food and security,” said Luz Mary Queragama, one of the group’s representatives. There are around 550 children among about 1,300 people camping in the National Park that sits […]

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At least 11 dead in Colombia mudslide

DOSQUEBRAAS, Colombia (AFP) — At least 11 people died and 35 were injured in a mudslide triggered by heavy rains in Colombia on Tuesday, the national disaster agency said. The early morning rains touched off a landslide on a mountain in central-western Risaralda province, burying several homes in the impoverished municipality of Dosquebradas. “There are 35 people injured receiving hospital attention and 11 dead,” the state National Unit for Management of Risks and Disasters said […]

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End of the road in Colombia for Escobar’s ‘cocaine’ hippos?

by Juan Sebastian SERRANO Agence France-Presse BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) – More than 100 African hippos descended from fewer than a handful imported as exotic pets by drug lord Pablo Escobar, face an uncertain future in Colombia. After the government added Escobar’s so-called “cocaine” hippos Friday to a list of “introduced, invasive species,” experts say killing them may be the only viable option. From the few individuals once housed at Escobar’s Hacienda Napoles estate, the hippos’ […]

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Record heat, forest fires in Colombia’s Amazon in January

January of this year was the hottest month in the Colombian Amazon in a decade, leading to an increase in forest fires in the southeastern region and very likely impacting air quality in the capital Bogota, according to an Environment Ministry report seen by AFP Friday. It said the month of January recorded the “highest hot spot values in the last 10 years” in the Colombian Amazon. The phenomenon occurs, the ministry said, when the […]

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Warring guerrillas bring misery to Colombian region

by Hervé BAR Agence France-Presse SARAVENA, Colombia (AFP) – Fear reigns in northeastern Colombia on the border with Venezuela where the local population has been caught in the crossfire of rival warring groups of left-wing guerrillas. Since the start of the year, the National Liberation Army (EL), Colombia’s last recognized guerrilla group, and dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels that laid down arms and signed a 2016 peace deal with the […]

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Environmental activist, 14, shot dead in Colombia

BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) – A 14-year-old environmental activist has been shot dead in Colombia, indigenous groups and officials said, in the latest such attack in the world’s deadliest country for environmentalists. Breiner David Cucuname was one of two people killed while taking part in a rural security patrol Friday by an indigenous guard in the southwestern Cauca department plagued by violence between illicit armed groups. The group of the Nasa indigenous community, armed only with […]

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23 dead in clashes between Colombian rebels

BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) — At least 23 people — four of them Venezuelans — were killed in fighting between rival rebel groups in Colombia’s border region with Venezuela, top Colombian officials said on Monday. Civilians were “likely” among the casualties from clashes between members of Colombia’s last recognized guerrilla group, the ELN, and dissidents of the FARC rebel movement, President Ivan Duque said. “We have found 23 dead” in a rural area of the northeastern […]

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Colombian Amazon: casualty of peace

by David SALAZAR Agence France-Presse San José del Guaviare, Colombia (AFP) – In just a few minutes, an enormous century-year-old tree is felled by an electric saw in the middle of a protected national park. The giant collapses, sending a shockwave through the Colombian Amazon. Its executioner is a 40-year-old man with a scarf bound around his face. The purpose of the crime: to plant coca, used to make cocaine — the only means of […]

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Bird watching for peace in Colombia

by Hervé BAR Agence France-Presse PLANADAS, Colombia (AFP) – As a bird perches on a telegraph pole, two young girls are deep in consultation — is it “Tiranus melancholicus,” or perhaps “Pyrocephalus rubinus?” The answer is “rubinus,” a sparrow with a bright red breast. In the center of Colombia, among the leafy mountains of Planadas, this ornithological debate by indigenous children might seem surprising. With their eyes scanning the mountain, around 30 people, adults and […]

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