Latest news with #FARC
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Colombian town turns main street into giant slide to boost image
STORY: :: Bucarasica, Colombia :: This Colombian town transforms a main street into a giant water slide to improve its image and attract visitors :: June 1, 2025 :: The annual event offers a fresh start to the town, which has a history of violent conflict and illicit activity :: Oscar Perez, Mayor, Bucarasica 'This idea was hatched during a political campaign with the community. The community had this idea to attract people because, as you see, our town is small and people don't have much to do. This slide has impacted tourism, and we've become viral.' Bucarasica, a town with some 6,000 residents located in the Norte de Santander region, has created a space in the annual calendar for June 1, when residents get together to set up a giant slide to attract visitors and send the world a more positive image of the region. Norte de Santander previously made headlines due to the violent conflict affecting the Catatumbo region between ELN (National Liberation Army) guerrillas and dissident factions of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). The area, rich in natural resources and bordering Venezuela, is strategically significant for both illegal drug trafficking and illicit mining. The event, which featured a motorcade, started last year as a campaign promise from Mayor Oscar Perez to amuse residents. Eventually, with the support of social media influencers who came to visit the attraction, it became popular beyond their regional borders.
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Arrests of Colombian ex-soldiers expose links to Mexican cartels
Ten Colombian former soldiers were among the suspects arrested after an improvised landmine killed six Mexican troops in a drug cartel heartland this week, authorities said Friday. Their capture shone a spotlight on the growing involvement of foreign ex-military personnel with Mexican drug traffickers. More than 40 explosive devices were seized along with other weapons in the western state of Michoacan, according to statements from the national and local governments. In total, 17 suspected members of a criminal group, including a dozen Colombians, were detained in the municipality of Los Reyes, authorities said. The blast late Tuesday destroyed the armored vehicle in which the Mexican troops were traveling, according to an internal military report seen by AFP. Military planes and helicopters were deployed to help the casualties, it said. The area is home to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of the country's most powerful drug trafficking groups. The disarmament of the FARC guerrilla group in 2017 and cuts to Colombia's military budget are part of the reason for the presence of foreign former soldiers in Mexico, independent security expert David Saucedo said. Some come directly from Colombia, "and others were mercenaries in Ukraine," he told AFP. For years, Colombian mercenaries, mostly retired military personnel, have fought in conflicts including in Afghanistan, Yemen and Iraq. In 2023, Colombian gunmen killed Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, while in 2021, Colombian hitmen assassinated Haitian president Jovenel Moise. Cartels are targeting former Colombian military personnel and guerrillas for their knowledge of explosives, Saucedo said. In October 2023, Michoacan security officials reported a "Colombian cell" dedicated to manufacturing explosives had been dismantled. The involvement of former Mexican and foreign military personnel with cartels is not new. Former members of an elite Mexican army unit founded the bloodthirsty Zetas cartel in the late 1990s and recruited deserters from the Guatemalan special forces. The recruitment of Colombians "is a reaction to the militarization process" that Mexico has been experiencing since the government launched a war on cartels in 2006, Saucedo said. Criminal groups in Michoacan have a history of planting improvised landmines and attacking security forces with explosive-laden drones. Several soldiers have been killed in similar explosions in the past. Criminal violence, most of it linked to drug trafficking, has claimed around 480,000 lives in Mexico since 2006 and left more than 120,000 people missing. US President Donald Trump has designated six Mexican drug trafficking groups as terrorist organizations, fueling speculation that he might order military strikes against them. str-ai/dr/aha
United News of India
17-05-2025
- Politics
- United News of India
66,000 Colombians forced out of homes this year due to fighting between rebel groups
Bogota, May 17 (UNI) Fighting between rebel groups in Colombia has forced more than 66,000 people from their homes in the first five months of this year, UN humanitarians said on Friday. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the new displacements represent a 28% increase over the total number of people rendered homeless by the continuing violence in all of 2024. "By the end of last year, more than 7.3 million people were internally displaced by violence and conflict, the third largest number in the world, behind Sudan and Syria," OCHA said. OCHA said the United Nations and its partners deliver aid through a $3.8 million allocation from the UN Central Emergency Fund released in February. The aim is to help more than 56,000 affected people in Catatumbo, where fighting has been fierce in 2025. According to local media, more than 80 people were killed and 20 injured in a weekend of attacks by National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas and clashes with dissidents of the disbanded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the northeast Catatumbo region. In late March, the Colombian military reported a soldier was killed in an explosive attack by the FARC dissidents in the southwestern department of Cauca. The Ministry of Defense said an escalation of violence in March left more than 80 people injured in the department. The clashes between the ELN and FARC are seen as turf battles over control of territory. OCHA said that despite the sharp rise in humanitarian needs, the aid community's ability to respond is severely curtailed by funding shortfalls. Humanitarian partners have been able to respond to just 25% of identified needs, leaving tens of thousands without aid. A $342-million Colombia Humanitarian Appeal is only 14% funded. UNI/XINHUA ANV
Time of India
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
When guerrilla groups lay down arms
Representative Image (AI) PARIS: The Kurdistan Workers' Party ( PKK ), which on Monday announced its dissolution and the end of its insurgency against Turkey, is not the first group to end a decades-long armed campaign. Here are some other key cases: ETA The Basque separatist group ETA, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Basque Homeland and Liberty), waged a four-decade campaign of bombings and shootings for an independent Basque country in southwest France and northeast Spain. It declared and end to its armed operations in October 2011 and announced its dissolution in May 2018. FARC On November 24, 2016 former Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos signed a historic peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's biggest rebel group, in a bid to end a leftist insurgency that had lasted more than 50 years. S antos was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. Some groups across the country rejected the demobilisation process and regrouped in two structures: Segunda Marquetalia and Estado Mayor Central (EMC), FARC's main dissident group. Violence involving another powerful leftist group, the ELN, as well as rightwing paramilitaries and drug cartels has also continued. Moro Islamic Liberation Front A 2014 peace deal between the Philippines government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) ended a decades-long armed campaign for a separate state, and later for Muslim self-rule in the majority-Catholic Asian nation. The deal ended a deadly armed rebellion which broke out in the 1970s in the southern Philippines. But small groups of Islamist fighters opposed to the peace deal continued to operate on the island of Mindanao. Communist rebels also continue to fight in the region. Tamil Tigers The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist group based in Sri Lanka and known as the Tamil Tigers, were crushed in May 2009 in a huge military assault, ending a 37-year civil war. According to rights groups, up to 40,000 civilians were killed in the last weeks of the war, during the army assault that eventually crushed the Tamil Tigers' command. IRA After 35 years of efforts to find peace, the breakthrough Good Friday Agreement of April 10, 1998 ended a sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland known as the "Troubles". In 2005, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) officially gave up its armed campaign. In practice it had laid down its arms in 1997 to take part in the peace talks. It had ordered its members to use peaceful methods to achieve their goal of reunifying the island and ending British sovereignty over Northern Ireland. Its weapons were decommissioned in September 2005. Some paramilitary groups nevertheless remained active, including the New IRA. Unita Angolan forces killed Jonas Savimbi, leader of Unita (the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) in February 2002, ending a 27-year civil war. A ceasefire was signed on April 4, 2002 in Luanda. UNITA then became the main opposition party.
Korea Herald
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Ecuador declares national mourning for 11 troops killed by guerrillas
QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) -- Ecuador's president declared three days of national mourning starting Saturday over the deaths of 11 soldiers who the army said were killed by dissident FARC guerrillas in an ambush near the Colombian border. The attack on Friday comes amid a spike in violence in both nations linked to the trafficking of cocaine produced in Colombia and exported through Ecuadoran ports to the United States and Europe. Around 80 soldiers were carrying out an operation to combat illegal mining in the Ecuadoran Amazon when they were attacked by the guerrillas, leaving 11 soldiers and a militant dead, and one soldier wounded, Ecuadoran officials said. The military said in a statement Friday that the "ambush" had been carried out with explosives, grenades and firearms. "We will find those responsible and we will finish them off," Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa said on social media platform X. The national mourning period in honor of the slain soldiers will run through Monday, according to the presidency. German Fernando, whose family member died in the attack, told Agence France-Presse he was "hurt" but "proud" that his relative's death was in service to Ecuador. "We ask that the investigations be completed and that the whereabouts of the criminals be found," Fernando said. The office of the prosecutor said on X the bodies will be sent to Quito, where a memorial and wake will be held for the victims at a military school in the capital. The prosecutor's office said earlier a criminal offshoot of FARC called the Comandos de la Frontera, or Border Commandos, was responsible for the attack in the eastern province of Orellana. Some armed factions within FARC, once the largest guerrilla group in Latin America, have rejected its historic peace agreement made with the Colombian government in 2016, instead opting to pursue criminal activities like illegal mining and drug trafficking. Comandos de la Frontera is involved in drug trafficking in the border region of Colombia and Ecuador. After the demobilization of FARC in 2017, the Comandos de la Frontera were able to rearm in about a year and a half and their expansion has accelerated, Laura Bonilla, a researcher at the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation, told AFP. "Neither the Colombian nor the Ecuadoran state has been able to guarantee a state presence that provides security, justice or protects the territory from the presence of armed groups," she added. Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez said the deadly attack on Friday demonstrated the threat posed by organized armed groups. "Their criminal violence is unacceptable and must be confronted with the full force of the state," he wrote on X. The Ecuadoran military said it would "not rest until those responsible are judged before the law and are held accountable." Once-peaceful Ecuador averaged a killing every hour at the start of the year, as cartels battled for control over cocaine routes that pass through the nation's ports. Despite President Noboa's tough-on-crime policies, the country has the highest murder rate in Latin America. There are 40,000 gang members in Ecuador, the president has said -- almost double the 22,000 narco traffickers and rebels in Colombia, according to official figures. In Colombia, the Comandos de la Frontera are engaged in peace negotiations with authorities, with a further round of talks set for later this month. The United States is seeking the extradition of the group's detained leader on drug trafficking charges, Colombian officials have said.
