
The Central Bank of Colombia Friday surprisingly decided to lower the interest rate by 25 basis points to 7.50 percent to support the recovery of the economy and to push inflation towards the target set for the coming semester.

Colombia's FARC rebels have expelled five commanders for refusing to demobilize and join a peace process with the government aimed at ending more than five decades of war, guerrilla leadership said. The five commanders, all from units in the country's southeast jungle, include one former participant in four-year-long peace talks in Cuba.

The government of President Nicolas Maduro government closed the border with Brazil for 72 hours for the same reason it had taken the same measure with Colombia: money smuggling, Brazilian local authorities and residents of southern Venezuela who routinely cross to Brazil where they can make transactions in bolivars confirmed.

The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) Monday officially awarded the 2016 South American Cup title to the Brazilian team Chapecoense, who lost most of their players and staff as their airplane crashed in Colombia last week on its way to playing the final's first leg in Medellín against the local squad of Atlético Nacional, who was awarded the Conmebol's Fair Play Centennial prize.

A Bolivian-registered airplane carrying the football players of Brazilian team Chapecoense crashed in a mountainous area as it approached Medellin's Jose Maria Cordova international airport around Monday midnight, local time. The team was due to play the first leg of the South American Cup (the second most important club continental competition) final against Libertadores Cup holders Atlético Nacional on Wednesday. Five survivors out of 81 people on board have been reported.

Colombia's government and FARC guerrillas will sign a new peace accord on Thursday, after a previous agreement to end their half-century-old war was defeated in a referendum, both parties said. The new, revised accord will be submitted to Congress for approval, rather than put to another referendum, they added.

The President of Colombia made the announcement Monday following an urgent trip to the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland, US, on his doctors' advice last week due to disturbing test results that would indicate a relapse of his prostate cancer which was removed surgically in 2011.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has travelled to the United States for medical exams after follow-up tests for a 2012 case of prostate cancer came back abnormal, he said. Santos, this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner for his efforts to reach a peace deal with Marxist rebels, announced the trip in a brief statement as he left a clinic in Bogota where he has undergone regular check-ups since having surgery to remove a small prostate tumor four years ago.

Colombia's government and its largest rebel group announced a new, modified peace accord Saturday, after voters rejected an earlier deal in a referendum. The government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) - a Marxist guerrilla group - said in a joint statement they had incorporated proposals from various groups in the new deal.

A majority of South American presidents would prefer to see former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the White House, while a few believe whoever wins will make not much of a difference for the continent. Nevertheless be it Hillary or Trump there is mostly respect for US institutions.