Colombia

BOGOTA, Sept 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Colombian military is on alert in response to Venezuelan armed forces exercises along the two nations’ border that Colombia considers an open threat, a senior military commander said.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro ordered a series of military drills that began on Tuesday in response to what he called Colombia’s planned aggression against the OPEC nation.

“As for the exercises that the Venezuelan regime is carrying out … we are on a special alert,” General Luis Navarro told reporters. “We have been openly threatened.”

BOGOTA, Sept 7 (NNN-Prensa Latina) — Less than two months before regional elections in Colombia, the number of deaths due to political violence recorded in August increased by 29 percent compared to July.

The Conflict Analysis Resource Center reported that threats continue to be the predominant form of political violence in Colombia in 2019: 47 percent of incidents were threats (104 out of 222).

LETICIA, Colombia, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Leaders and representatives of Amazon countries signed a pact on Friday to protect the the world's largest tropical rainforest.

The "Leticia Amazon Pact" came as raging fires have burned thousands of hectares of the forest.

The presidents of Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, as well as Suriname's vice president and Guyana's natural resource minister attended the summit during which the pact was signed.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro participated by video link, while his foreign minister attended in person.

BOGOTA, Aug 30 (NNN-Xinhua) — The leftist political party created by the dismantled Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group on Thursday apologized for some of its rebel leaders’ decision to take up arms again against the state.

“We apologize to the country and the international community … They distanced themselves from the (peace) process,” said Rodrigo Londono, president of the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force, a party born of a peace deal signed between the government and the FARC rebels in 2016.

SANTANDER DE QUILICHAO, Colombia (Reuters) - Indigenous leader Edwin Mauricio Capaz pulls on a bulletproof vest every day before getting into the armored car he uses to travel around the restive part of ​​southwest Colombia he calls home.

Despite this protection, the 34-year-old worries he could soon join hundreds of human rights activists and community leaders assassinated since a 2016 peace deal, many of them for confronting drug trafficking or illegal mining.

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The U.S. has made secret contact with Venezuela’s socialist party boss as close allies of President Nicolás Maduro’s inner circle seek guarantees they won’t face prosecution for alleged abuses and crimes if they cede to growing demands to remove him, according to a senior Trump administration official.

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Venezuela’s government late Wednesday halted negotiations with the opposition in protest of the Trump administration’s freezing of its U.S. assets, thrusting into crisis the country’s best chance of peacefully resolving a political standoff that has kept the nation on the edge for more than six months.

The decision surprised representatives of opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who were already on the Caribbean island of Barbados awaiting what was to be the start Thursday of the sixth round of talks that began in May under the auspices of Norway.

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Wide-reaching U.S. sanctions aimed at toppling Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government could inflict further damage on an economy already reeling from six-digit by scaring off remaining investors. The new measures don’t include Venezuela’s private sector, but the mere prospect of being sanctioned by the U.S. by engaging in transactions that in any way involve the Maduro administration could serve as a powerful deterrent.

Here’s a look at the scope and potential impact of President Donald Trump’s executive order:

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BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — For weeks, representatives of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his would-be successor, opposition leader Juan Guaidó, have been shuttling back and forth to Barbados trying to agree on a common path out of the country’s prolonged political standoff.

The meetings have been slow-going and shrouded in mystery, with neither side disclosing details. But now Maduro’s supporters are accusing the U.S. of trying to blow up the fragile process.

27 July 2019; DW: Across Colombia, protesters carried photos of murdered activists and signs reading: "No more bloodshed." Over 400 people have been killed in an alarming wave of violence since the 2016 peace deal was signed.

Thousands of people took to the streets across Colombia on Friday night to urge for an end to the killings of hundreds of human rights activists and social leaders by armed groups in the wake of the country's 2016 peace deal.