Latest news with #NationalLiberationArmy
Yahoo
3 days 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.
Hamilton Spectator
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Hamilton Spectator
Colombia's president suggests Vatican could host new peace talks with rebel group
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia's President Gustavo Petro said on Monday that he is contemplating a new round of peace talks with the nation's largest remaining rebel group, and suggested that the talks could take place in the Vatican. Petro's statement came after he attended an audience with Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican, which has not commented on the suggestion that it could host peace talks between Colombia's government and the National Liberation Army, or ELN, a group with around 5,000 fighters that was founded in the late 1960s. 'I spoke with the Pope about what can be done for the Vatican to hold the new peace talks,' Petro said in a video posted on X. He added that the ELN wants to keep talks in Cuba and Venezuela, but suggested that the Vatican could be a more suitable venue for negotiations. 'I think this is the place, where we can recall the theory of effective love,' Petro said, referring to one of the founding principles of the rebel group. The ELN has not commented on Petro's proposal. Colombia's government suspended peace talks with the ELN in January after the group staged a series of deadly attacks on villages in the northeast Catatumbo region, that forced more than 50,000 people to flee their homes. Petro, who was a member of another rebel group during his youth, has accused the ELN's leadership of becoming 'greedy' criminals and of betraying their revolutionary ideals. 'They have replaced the banners of change and transformation, for the banners of Mexican drug cartels,' Petro said on Monday. The ELN was founded by activists and union leaders inspired by the Cuban revolution and by a Catholic movement known as liberation theology , that calls on the faithful to dismantle social and economic structures that cause inequality and poverty. The group has also had members of the clergy among its ranks, including Camilo Torres , a prominent priest who joined the ELN shortly after it was founded and was killed in a battle with the Colombian army. During his presidential campaign, Petro promised to make peace with the ELN 'within three months' of taking office. Three years on, his government is struggling to pacify rural areas, where the ELN and several other groups are fighting over territory that was abandoned by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia , the large guerrilla group that made peace with the government in 2016. Colombia's Catholic Bishops Conference has called on the government and the ELN to resume negotiations so that violence can decrease in rural areas, where crimes like the forced recruitment of children, and the murders of human rights leaders are on the rise.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Colombia's president suggests Vatican could host new peace talks with rebel group
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia's President Gustavo Petro said on Monday that he is contemplating a new round of peace talks with the nation's largest remaining rebel group, and suggested that the talks could take place in the Vatican. Petro's statement came after he attended an audience with Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican, which has not commented on the suggestion that it could host peace talks between Colombia's government and the National Liberation Army, or ELN, a group with around 5,000 fighters that was founded in the late 1960s. 'I spoke with the Pope about what can be done for the Vatican to hold the new peace talks,' Petro said in a video posted on X. He added that the ELN wants to keep talks in Cuba and Venezuela, but suggested that the Vatican could be a more suitable venue for negotiations. 'I think this is the place, where we can recall the theory of effective love,' Petro said, referring to one of the founding principles of the rebel group. The ELN has not commented on Petro's proposal. Colombia's government suspended peace talks with the ELN in January after the group staged a series of deadly attacks on villages in the northeast Catatumbo region, that forced more than 50,000 people to flee their homes. Petro, who was a member of another rebel group during his youth, has accused the ELN's leadership of becoming 'greedy' criminals and of betraying their revolutionary ideals. 'They have replaced the banners of change and transformation, for the banners of Mexican drug cartels,' Petro said on Monday. The ELN was founded by activists and union leaders inspired by the Cuban revolution and by a Catholic movement known as liberation theology, that calls on the faithful to dismantle social and economic structures that cause inequality and poverty. The group has also had members of the clergy among its ranks, including Camilo Torres, a prominent priest who joined the ELN shortly after it was founded and was killed in a battle with the Colombian army. During his presidential campaign, Petro promised to make peace with the ELN 'within three months' of taking office. Three years on, his government is struggling to pacify rural areas, where the ELN and several other groups are fighting over territory that was abandoned by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the large guerrilla group that made peace with the government in 2016. Colombia's Catholic Bishops Conference has called on the government and the ELN to resume negotiations so that violence can decrease in rural areas, where crimes like the forced recruitment of children, and the murders of human rights leaders are on the rise.
Miami Herald
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Rubio says Cuba failed to cooperate with U.S. on counter-terrorism efforts last year
Secretary of State Marco Rubio blacklisted Cuba on Tuesday as a country that did not fully cooperate with U.S. counterterrorism efforts in 2024 and blasted the government in Havana for its refusal to discuss the return of people residing on the island who are charged in the U.S. for various crimes. The State Department said in a statement there are 11 wanted fugitives harbored in Cuba, some facing terrorism-related charges, and the Cuban government 'made clear' it was not willing to discuss their return to face justice in the United States. Among those are William Morales, a bomb maker for a militant Puerto Rican group that bombed a New York tavern in 1975, killing four, and Joanne Chesimard, known in Cuba as Assata Shakur, convicted for killing a New Jersey state trooper in 1973. They both escaped from prison in the U.S., eventually fleeing to Cuba, where Fidel Castro gave them refuge. The State Department said that Cuba's refusal to engage on the issue and unspecified 'other recent circumstances' indicating non-cooperation on law enforcement matters related to terrorism made efforts to cooperate with Cuba on counterterrorism issues 'futile' in 2024. 'As Secretary Rubio stated, the regime in Cuba is an enemy of humanity,' a senior State Department official said. 'Today's certification that Cuba is not fully cooperating with U.S. counterterrorism efforts is further proof that the Trump Administration will not turn a blind eye on countries that provide safe haven to U.S. fugitives of law.' The secretary of state's annual certification to Congress of a list of 'not fully cooperating countries' on counterterrorism efforts prohibits the sale or license to export defense articles and services to such nations. Even if they are two separate designations, the certification of Cuba as 'not fully cooperating' signals the country is also likely to remain designated as a state sponsoring terrorism in the foreseeable future. On his first day in office, President Donald Trump rescinded his predecessor's last-minute decision to remove Cuba from the State Department's list of states that sponsor terrorism. President Joe Biden delisted Cuba as part of a deal brokered by the Vatican in exchange for Havana freeing dozens of political prisoners. That deal has since falled apart after Trump took office and Cuba stopped releasing political prisoners. Cuba also recently sent back to prison two prominent dissidents. Cuba's brief removal from the list of state sponsors of terrorism was preceded by a May decision last year to no longer blacklist Cuba as 'not cooperating fully' with anti-terrorist efforts. In taking such a step, Biden administration officials said Cuba's 'refusal to engage' with Colombia on extradition requests for National Liberation Army, or ELN, guerrilla members who were in Havana for peace talks had 'supported' Cuba's certification in 2022. But in August 2022, Colombian President Gustavo Petro ordered his country's attorney general to suspend the arrest warrants against 17 ELN commanders, including those in Cuba. 'Moreover, the United States and Cuba resumed law enforcement cooperation in 2023, including on counterterrorism,' a State Department spokesperson said at the time. Rubio, then a U.S. senator, criticized the administration, declaring at the time, 'President Biden is making it abundantly clear he wants to remove the Cuban dictatorship from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.' As secretary of state he has vowed to implement 'a tough Cuba policy.' In addition to Cuba, Rubio has also determined that North Korea, Iran, Syria, and Venezuela do not fully cooperate with the United States on counterterrorism measures.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Wave of police killings in Colombia copies drug lord Pablo Escobar's terror tactics
Nineteen police officers and 12 soldiers have been killed by armed groups in Colombia since April 15, in what President Gustavo Petro has called a 'plan pistola' – a tactic popularized by notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar that seeks to terrorize law enforcement. According to police, armed groups are putting cash bounties on officers' heads, a strategy Escobar used in the 1990s during peak cartel violence. Security experts say the killings are a backlash by groups like the Gaitanist Army of Colombia and the National Liberation Army, which have suffered losses in recent government offensives. In the face of the threats, the National Police reaffirmed its commitment to security, with its director, General Carlos Fernando Triana Beltrán, telling the Miami Herald that 'this institution is compelled by the memory of our murdered comrades to continue confronting any expression of crime.' In total, at least 21 police officers were murdered in Colombia in the first four months of the year, four times the number killed in the same period last year, according to Colombian media. 'Organized crime has dusted off an old, perverse and desperate practice of the sort Pablo Escobar used to try to prevent the fall of his cocaine empire: putting a price on the lives of the country's police officers,' Triana wrote in a newspaper column on Sunday. Bullet hole in government office in Quibdó, Colombia. Credit: Alfie Pannell The assassinations are the latest escalation in what many analysts describe as a deteriorating security situation in Colombia, which has seen intensified conflict in several regions this year. In February, Petro appointed Pedro Sánchez as defense minister – the first military official to hold the role in over three decades – signaling a shift away from the president's 'total peace' plan that sought to negotiate a settlement with Colombia's armed groups. 'Since the appointment of the new Defense Minister, there has been a very notable and clear increase in offensive operations against… [armed] groups,' said Elizabeth Dickinson, senior Colombia analyst at the Brussels-based Crisis Group. The current plan pistola is seen as a backlash against this security campaign, which has killed multiple leaders of armed groups. General Carlos Fernando Triana Beltrán, Director of Colombian National Police. Credit: Colombian National Police Authorities allege the Gaitanist Army launched the plan after security forces killed one of its top commanders, José Miguel Demoya Hernández, alias Chirimoya, on April 5. 'What we are seeing is the government is gaining ground and these organizations feel threatened,' said Sergio Guzmán, director of Colombia Risk Analysis, a security consultancy. In an X post on Tuesday, Petro specifically blamed the Gaitanist Army, which has its roots in the demobilized paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, active in the 1990s and 2000s. 'In response to the downfall of several of its leaders, [the group] has decided to kill the children of the people,' the president wrote. Sánchez, the defense minister, said the killings were carried out by sicarios, or paid hitmen, with police reporting that the Gaitanist Army, Colombia's largest criminal organization, is offering up to $3 million Colombian pesos — about $700 — per officer killed. A lawyer for the group declined to comment. The Gaitanist Army's reported bounties mimic Escobar's strategy in the 1990s, when he offered rewards for killing police officers as part of a terror campaign against the government. From 1990-93, at least 153 police officers were killed in the drug lord's home city of Medellín, according to Colombia's National Center for Historical Memory. It remains unclear which group initiated the plan pistola, with no organization publicly claiming credit for the killings. While both police and soldiers have been targeted, the police are a 'softer target', Dickinson said. They tend to be less heavily armed or protected, and usually operate in civilian spaces. 'This has been sort of the easy target for armed groups to send a message to the government without the same risks that they face if they were to try the same thing against soldiers,' the analyst said. Five of the 15 officers murdered during the two weeks in April were off duty, Petro said. Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Triana, the national police director, was defiant in the face of the attacks, telling the Herald that police have arrested 217 Gaitanist Army members since the plan pistola began. 'We continue to strengthen the operational security of our police force, adjusting routines, duties, and casework, especially in high complexity zones,' Triana said. The police have also begun taking exceptional measures, allowing officers to take their service weapons home and, in some rural regions, confining them to their stations. Soldiers are on maximum alert in several departments, where the army ordered them to remain in their barracks. Meanwhile, Petro maintained that the state will not back down from its offensive against armed groups. Said the president on X: 'We will not retreat.'
