
On Sunday, Colombians will head to the polls to elect a new president. At play in this year’s election are a range of issues: Venezuelan migration, economic situation, rampant corruption, high levels of inequality, but above all is the country's historic peace accord that ended over half a century of armed conflict.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) announced on Friday that Colombia would be officially invited to join the group. The Paris-based economic organization was founded in 1961 and has traditionally included industrialized nations, though in recent years it has extended its membership to emerging economies.

A group of Colombian rebels active on the Ecuadorian border has sent a “proof of life” video of a kidnapped couple, the Ecuadorian government said, the second kidnapping by the group this month.

Ecuador on Friday confirmed the deaths of two journalists and their driver who had been kidnapped by renegade Colombian rebels -- and quickly launched a retaliatory military operation in the area where they were snatched.

One of the top leaders of Colombia's former rebel group, FARC, has been arrested in Bogota following a request from the United States. Jesus Santrich, a former peace negotiator, is accused of drug trafficking by a court in New York.

Colombia’s highest court has told the government it must take urgent action to protect its Amazon rainforest and stem rising deforestation, in what campaigners said was an historic moment that should help conserve forests and counter climate change.

After being the first continent in the world declared free of measles in 2016, nine countries in the region have registered cases last year. With almost 900 cases, Venezuela was the most affected. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warns that the countries of the region should intensify their efforts to immunize the population and stop the spread of the disease.

The Colombian Red Cross Society have been working for more than a year to support people arriving in Colombia and travelling through the country. Aid workers are warning of rising vulnerabilities among people crossing the Colombian-Venezuelan border and “are calling on the international community to increase support for humanitarian efforts”, said a statement published by International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) at Geneva.

Right-wing candidate Ivan Duque and leftist Gustavo Petro will lead their respective coalitions in Colombia’s May presidential election after winning primaries on Sunday. Duque, a protégé of former President Alvaro Uribe and the standard bearer for the Democratic Center party, beat fellow candidates Marta Lucia Ramirez and Alejandro Ordonez for his coalition’s nomination. He got more than 3.9 million votes and 96% of the votes counted.

Venezuela's president, Nicolas Maduro, announced that he will attend the Summit of the Americas “at all costs” to bring “the truth of the country” at a press conference at the presidential palace in Caracas despite the Peruvian government reported that his presence would not be welcome in the Andean country.