#paramilitary-activism

#paramilitary-activism

The so-called troika of tyranny in Latin America, the dictatorships of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, was always a misleading oversimplification. Despite sharing some common elements due to their authoritarian resilience, 21st-century dictatorships were never a homogeneous bloc.

Official data reveals a significant discrepancy: while intelligence reports identified 58,270 gang members and collaborators at large, authorities have arrested 91,628 people, meaning over 33,000 were not previously listed as gang members.

Cepeda emphasizes that he is not competing against other candidates like Abelardo de La Espriella or Paloma Valencia, but rather against former president Alvaro Uribe Velez.

Financial strangulation, as he put it, is the latest weapon in the government's escalating effort to clear the way for expanded mining and oil development in one of the world's most biodiverse countries. Months earlier, officials had temporarily frozen the accounts of several of Ecuador's most prominent environmental defenders, including Tapia, citing investigations into unjust private enrichment and financing terrorism.

The Colombian leader said on Tuesday that an attack which had left 27 charred bodies did not appear to have been carried out by Colombia's own forces or any illegal armed groups which he said do not have armed planes. The explanation isn't credible, he said, later adding that an unexploded bomb dropped from an aircraft was found 100 meters from the home of an impoverished peasant family.

The 1980s bring revolutionary wars, CIA-backed conflict and the violent birth of a new democratic era. Episode 2: Wars begins with Nicaragua's Sandinista revolution, which promised egalitarian transformation through literacy crusades. But civil war erupted as United States President Ronald Reagan's administration covertly backed the Contra rebels, plunging the nation into turmoil and suffering. Panama transitioned from Omar Torrijos's diplomatic triumphs over the Panama Canal to Manuel Noriega's sinister collaboration with both the CIA and drug cartels.

Gustavo Petro's rise to power once again sparked hopes that the elusive goal of peace with the ELN, pursued by nearly every Colombian government this century, was finally attainable. The leftist president even signed an unprecedented six-month ceasefire with guerrilla commander Antonio Garcia in mid-2023, the first milestone in the now-weary policy of total peace.

At the Simon Bolivar International Bridge, which spans the Tachira River separating Colombia and Venezuela near the border city of Cucuta, vehicle and foot traffic flowed normally on Monday despite an increased military presence, which included three parked Colombian M1117 armoured security vehicles. But with United States President Donald Trump threatening more attacks if newly sworn-in interim leader Delcy Rodriguez does not behave, an uneasy calm has settled over the border region, and Colombia is preparing for the worst.

The two groups have been fighting for control of the Guaviare region of the Amazon, a region strategic for cocaine production and trafficking. At least 27 members of a leftist rebel group have been killed in clashes in central Colombia with a rival faction, according to military authorities, at a time of heightened tension in the region under the pall of United States military action in Venezuela and threats against Colombia.

Colombia's government has announced it will resume peace talks with the powerful Gulf Clan, also known as the Gaitanist Self-Defence Forces (ECG), after the criminal group expressed concern about a recent deal with the United States. Tuesday's announcement addresses a temporary suspension the Gulf Clan announced earlier this month, in the wake of a meeting between Colombian President Gustavo Petro and his US counterpart, Donald Trump.

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of cities across Colombia to decry Donald Trump's threats to expand his military campaign in South America into their territory, after last weekend's deadly attack on Venezuela. In Cucuta, a city on Colombia's eastern border with Venezuela, several hundred demonstrators marched towards its 19th century cathedral waving the country's yellow, blue and red flag and shouting: Fuera los yanquis! (Out with the Yanks!)