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☆ Colombia attorney general stands by claim that ELN rebels plan to kill him
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Francisco Barbosa, Colombian Attorney General speaks during an interview with Reuters in Bogota, Colombia March 24, 2023. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsBOGOTA, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Colombia's attorney general on Wednesday defended the credibility of intelligence reports that ELN rebels were plotting to kill him and two other people despite denials by the ELN and military. Two weeks ago, Attorney General Francisco Barbosa reported that the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group planned to assassinate him using a sniper. The ELN has denied it planned the attacks, while Colombia's government has said it had no received no such reports. For two years, intelligence sources have known about the ELN's plan to carry out an attack in Bogota, the attorney general's statement said.

Persons: Francisco Barbosa, Luisa Gonzalez, General Francisco Barbosa, Maria Fernanda Cabal, Eduardo Zapateiro, ELN, Barbosa, Ivan Velasquez, Antonio Garcia, Luis Jaime Acosta, Oliver Griffin, Cynthia Osterman Organizations: Colombian, Reuters, REUTERS, Rights, Wednesday, National Liberation Army, Democratic Center, Defense, Twitter, Thomson Locations: Bogota, Colombia, Rights BOGOTA, Colombia's

☆ Top FARC dissident leader Ivan Marquez dead - sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Luis Jaime Acosta | Thomson Reuters | Luis Jaime Has Worked At Reuters For More Than Years. While He Chiefly Covers Colombia'S Armed Conflict | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BOGOTA, July 6 (Reuters) - Ivan Marquez, the well-known leader of a faction of former FARC rebels who returned to arms after a peace deal with Colombia's government, has died in Venezuela, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. The attack against Marquez, whose real name was Luciano Marín Arango, may have been led by Ivan Mordisco, leader of a rival FARC dissident group, according to security sources. Colombia's Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez told journalists there was still no official information on Marquez's death. Marquez later emerged as the leader of the so-called Segunda Marquetalia, a group of former FARC who took up arms anew. Petro reopened diplomatic and trade relations with Venezuela and Venezuela is a guarantor at Colombia's peace talks with the National Liberation Army rebels.

Persons: Ivan Marquez, Marquez, Luciano Marín Arango, Ivan Mordisco, Ivan Velasquez, Gustavo Petro, Miguel Botache Santillana, Gentil Duarte, Seuxis Hernandez, Hernan Dario Velasquez, Jesus Santrich, El Paisa, Nicolas Maduro, Petro, Luis Jaime Acosta, Vivian Sequera, Oliver Griffin, Julia Symmes Cobb, Michael Perry Organizations: Reuters, Revolutionary Armed Forces, Segunda, Colombia's, Venezuela's Ministry, Information, National Liberation Army, Thomson Locations: BOGOTA, Venezuela, Colombia, Caracas, Venezuela's, United States, Colombian

☆ Top FARC dissident leader Ivan Marquez dead, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Luis Jaime Acosta | Thomson Reuters | Luis Jaime Has Worked At Reuters For More Than Years. While He Chiefly Covers Colombia'S Armed Conflict | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The attack against Marquez, whose real name was Luciano Marín Arango, may have been led by Ivan Mordisco, leader of a rival FARC dissident group, according to security sources. Colombia's Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez told journalists there was still no official information on Marquez's death. Marquez later emerged as the leader of the so-called Segunda Marquetalia, a group of former FARC who took up arms anew. Marquez died in Venezuela the two people familiar with the matter told Reuters, which also included an intelligence source. Petro reopened diplomatic and trade relations with Venezuela and Venezuela is a guarantor at Colombia's peace talks with the National Liberation Army rebels.

☆ Analysis: Emergence of Guatemalan anti-graft champion shakes up election
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Sofia Menchu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/5] Presidential candidate for the Semilla party Bernardo Arevalo holds a rally at the Parque Central a day after the first round of Guatemala's presidential election, in Guatemala City, Guatemala June 26, 2023. Underlining voter frustration with the status-quo, nearly a quarter of ballots counted were either spoiled or left blank. Arevalo, who has called corruption a "cancer eating away" at Guatemala, will face former first lady Sandra Torres in the run-off. Torres, running in her third presidential contest, won 15.8% of the first-round vote to Arevalo's 11.8%. Aldana later sought asylum in the U.S., while current President Alejandro Giammattei himself became embroiled in corruption allegations, which he denies.

Persons: Bernardo Arevalo, Juan Jose Arevalo, Arevalo, Thelma Aldana, Otto Perez, Semilla, Bernardo, Nicol Estrada, Carlos Pineda, Will Freeman, Hugo Novales, Sandra Torres, Torres, Freeman, Semilla's, Aldana, Alejandro Giammattei, Juan Jose, Giammattei, Ivan Velasquez, Julia Esquivel, Jimmy Morales, Sofia Menchu, Dave Graham, Stephen Eisenhammer, Rosalba O'Brien, Leslie Adler Organizations: Parque, REUTERS, GUATEMALA CITY, Council, Foreign Relations, of, Guatemala's, U.S, Twitter, Thomson Locations: Parque Central, Guatemala City, Guatemala, Josue, GUATEMALA, Arevalo, U.S, Guatemalan

CNN —Eating cassava flour helped save the lives of four children found alive in the Amazon jungle more than a month after their plane crashed, according to a Colombian military special forces official. The children ate “three kilograms (six pounds) of farina,” a coarse cassava flour commonly used by indigenous tribes in the Amazon region, said spokesperson Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez Suárez. The children’s mother Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia was killed in the plane crash on May 1, leaving them alone and stranded in the Amazon jungle. The children’s disappearance sparked a massive military-led search operation that saw more than one hundred Colombian special forces troops and over 70 indigenous scouts combing the deep forest. They told officials that they had found a dog – a Belgian Shepherd search dog named Wilson that belonged to special forces.

Persons: farina, Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez, ” Suárez, “, ”, Ranoque, Cristin Ranoque, What’s, Ivan Velasquez, Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia, Hernando Murcia Morales, Herman Mendoza Hernández, Belgian Shepherd, Wilson, Suárez, Gustavo Petro, ” Petro Organizations: CNN, Colombian Air Force, Colombian Defense, Colombian Locations: Colombian, Bogota, Belgian, Colombia

☆ Child plane crash survivors in "acceptable" state of health
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BOGOTA, June 10 (Reuters) - Four Indigenous children who were missing for more than five weeks in Colombia's southern jungle, after surviving a plane crash which killed their mother, are in an "acceptable" state of health, the government said on Saturday. "In general the boy and the girls are in an acceptable state. The youngest of the children turned one while in the jungle, while her brother had his fifth birthday, he said. Clues as to the siblings' whereabouts have been reported for weeks as the search, dubbed Operation Hope, continued. Three adults, including the pilot and the children's mother, died in the crash and their bodies were found inside the plane.

Persons: Gustavo Petro, Petro, Ivan Velasquez, Fidencio Valencia, Velasquez, General Carlos Rincon, Hope, Wilson, gaunt, Manuel Ranoque, San Jose del Guaviare, Carolina Pulice, Luis Jaime Acosta, Nelson Bocanegra, Oliver Griffin, Jamie Freed, Andrea Ricci Organizations: Twitter, Cessna, Thomson Locations: BOGOTA, Caqueta province, Bogota, Araracuara, Caqueta, San Jose, Guaviare

CNN —Four young children have been found alive after more than a month wandering the Amazon where they survived like “children of the jungle,” according to Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro. Petro said the children were all together when they were found, adding they had demonstrated an example of “total survival that will be remembered in history.”“They are children of the jungle and now they are children of Colombia,” he added. The children, who appear gaunt in the photos, are being evaluated by doctors and will be taken to the town of San Jose del Guaviare. When we found the children we felt joy, we don’t know what to do, but we are grateful to God,” he said. During a press conference Friday evening, Petro said he hoped to speak with the children on Saturday.

Persons: Gustavo Petro, “, ” Petro, Petro, ”, María Fátima Valencia, “ I’m, gaunt, San Jose del Guaviare, Ivan Velasquez, Jacobombaire, Tien Ranoque Mucutuy, Cristin Ranoque, Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia, Hernando Murcia Morales, Herman Mendoza Hernández, they’d, Fidencio Valencia, Narcizo Mucutuy, Villavicencio, Lucho Acosta Organizations: CNN, Twitter, Colombian, Colombian Defense Ministry Locations: Colombia, Villavicencio, San Jose, Bogota, Colombian, ”

☆ Colombia cocaine seizures break record in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BOGOTA, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Colombia seized more cocaine in 2022 than any other year on record, the South American country's defense ministry reported Saturday. Security forces seized 671 tonnes of the drug last year, surpassing the 2021 total by about 1.7 tonnes. The data showed that Narino, Bolivar and Valle del Cauca provinces were the site of the most seizures last year. The guerilla group National Liberation Army, dissidents from the FARC rebel group and criminal gangs made up of former right-wing paramilitaries have all been implicated in drug trafficking. Cocaine seizures were 505 tonnes in 2020 and 428 tonnes in 2019.

☆ Guatemala summons ambassador in Colombia for consultations in defense minister tussle
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

GUATEMALA CITY, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Guatemala summoned its ambassador in Colombia for consultations, Guatemala's foreign ministry said on Tuesday, a day after Colombia did the same in regard to a conflict over Colombia's defense minister. Guatemala on Monday accused Colombian Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez, who led a United Nations anti-corruption unit in the Central American country, of committing illegal acts. Colombian President Gustavo Petro came out to defend the minister, saying he would not accept any "order for the arrest" of Velasquez. Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei told Spanish news agency EFE on Tuesday that Velasquez was not facing "criminal prosecution." Arrest warrants were issued for several others as part of the investigation, including former Guatemalan Attorney General Thelma Aldana.

☆ Colombia's plan to replace fighter planes hits a snag
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BOGOTA, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Initial negotiations between Colombia, France's Dassault Aviation (AM.PA) and Sweden's Saab AB (SAABb.ST) to replace part of the South American country's aging air force fleet have collapsed, the defense minister said on Monday. Colombia, which uses about 20 Israeli-made Kfir aircraft purchased three decades ago, has said replacing the planes is a priority so it can continue to defend its territory, fight organized crime and conduct aerial surveillance. There will be continued efforts this year to see if a purchase is possible, Velasquez said. There have been efforts by various Colombian administrations to replace the Kfir planes for at least 12 years, though the change has been stymied by financial limitations. (This story has been refiled to say Swedish instead of Swiss in reference to Saab in paragraph 3)Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta in Caracas Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb Editing by Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Guatemala court sentences ex-President Perez, ex-VP in graft case
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Sofia Menchu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/5] Former Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina leaves the courtroom after being found guilty of a corruption case during his administration, at the judicial building, in Guatemala City, Guatemala December 7, 2022. Perez, who was president of Guatemala from 2012 to 2015, has spent the last seven years in prison awaiting a verdict in the case. Baldetti was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison in 2018 in a separate fraud case. Perez was ordered to pay 8.7 million quetzales ($1.10 million) while Baldetti was fined 8.4 million quetzales ($1.06 million) on Wednesday. The case, known as "La Linea," was originally investigated under the now-defunct International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), backed by the United Nations.

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