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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, December 7th 2025 - 08:28 UTC

Tag: Colombia

  • Monday, August 25th 2025 - 10:03 UTC

    Key guerrilla leader gunned down by Colombian forces

    Dumar was considered one of Mordisco's most trusted allies

    A military operation in El Retorno, Colombia, on Sunday resulted in the death of Willinton Vanegas Leyva, also known by his alias “Dumar” or “Chito.” According to Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez Suárez, Dumar was a senior leader of the “Martín Villa faction,” a part of the FARC dissident group known as the Central General Staff (EMC), led by Iván Mordisco.

  • Tuesday, August 19th 2025 - 20:27 UTC

    US$600 million treasure discovered in Colombian farm

    Authorities suspect that the money could be linked to the late drug lord Pablo Escobar and his Medellín cartel

    A farmer in the Colombian region of Antioquía region of Colombia has unearthed an astonishing US$600 million in cash. The money was found buried in rusty metal drums while the rural worker, who remains anonymous for security reasons, was doing some digging to expand his crop area.

  • Saturday, August 16th 2025 - 10:06 UTC

    Belt and Road Initiative: Colombia and China sign key trade deal

    “We are creating the framework for a work plan that will allow us to combine our efforts,” Rusinque explained

    Colombia's Superintendency of Industry and Commerce (SIC) and China's State Administration for Market Regulation signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen trade cooperation and advance the South American country's participation in the “Belt and Road Initiative” (also known as the “Silk Road”).

  • Thursday, August 14th 2025 - 08:50 UTC

    Border incidents escalate diplomatic crisis between Colombia and Peru

    Daniel Quintero, former mayor of Medellín and ally of President Petro, released a video raising the Colombian flag in territory claimed by Peru

    Tensions between Colombia and Peru have risen following a series of incidents in the disputed area of Santa Rosa de Loreto, on the Amazon River. The latest occurred on Monday, when former Medellín mayor and presidential hopeful Daniel Quintero raised the Colombian flag on Chinería Island, territory under Peruvian control. “There is no way I will let Peru take the Amazon River from us… homeland or death,” he declared in a video posted on social media.

  • Monday, August 11th 2025 - 12:58 UTC

    Colombian Senator Uribe Turbay dies, aged 39

    Uribe Turbay belonged to a family with a long and tragic history in Colombian politics

    Colombian Senator and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay died early Monday as a result of the gunshots he received during a political rally on June 7, for which he had been hospitalized since.

  • Friday, August 8th 2025 - 10:15 UTC

    Petro escalates border dispute with Peru over Amazon island: “The treaty was violated”

    The dispute revives a long-standing territorial disagreement between the two countries, whose borders were formally established by treaties in 1922 and 1929

    Colombian President Gustavo Petro escalated a diplomatic conflict with Peru on Thursday by accusing Lima of violating border treaties over the disputed sovereignty of Santa Rosa Island, located in the Amazon River. “Colombia does not recognize Peru’s sovereignty over the so-called Santa Rosa Island and does not recognize the de facto authorities,” Petro declared from Leticia, a Colombian border city that, for the first time, hosted the country’s Independence Day celebrations.

  • Monday, August 4th 2025 - 10:21 UTC

    Ernesto Samper pays CFK a visit at Buenos Aires apartment

    Samper likened CFK's case to Lula's detention, which would have spared Brazil the Bolsonaro years

    Former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK) was visited at the apartment where she is under house arrest by former Colombian President Ernesto Samper and former Ecuadorean National Assembly Speaker Gabriela Rivadeneira.

  • Saturday, August 2nd 2025 - 07:16 UTC

    Uribe lashes out against court ruling: “They want to destroy a voice of democratic opposition”

    Uribe also defended his lawyer Diego Cadena, who was convicted of offering judicial benefits in exchange for favorable testimony

    Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez appealed on Friday the ruling that sentenced him to 12 years of house arrest for procedural fraud and witness tampering, delivering a fiery speech in which he described the decision as a “political move” aimed at silencing “democratic opposition.”

  • Tuesday, July 29th 2025 - 10:29 UTC

    World leaders express solidarity with Uribe

    Uribe's sentence is to be announced on Friday, Aug. 1

    Many rightwing leaders expressed their solidarity with former Colombian President Álvaro Urive (73) after he was convicted of bribery and procedural fraud by a Bogotá court earlier Monday.

  • Tuesday, July 29th 2025 - 01:25 UTC

    Bogotá court finds Uribe guilty of bribery

    The rightwing leader became the first former head of State ever to be convicted

    Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez was found guilty Monday of witness tampering and procedural fraud, making him the first former head of state in the country to be convicted of a crime. The 73-year-old right-wing politician, who served as president from 2002 to 2010, was accused of attempting to bribe and pressure imprisoned paramilitaries to retract or alter their testimonies linking him to illegal armed groups.