Risking Death to Report the Truth

Alma Guillermoprieto was one of only two journalists to investigate rumours of the notorious massacre in El Mozote, El Salvador in December 1981. Because the slaughter of 1,000 unarmed civilians was perpetrated by the U.S.-backed Salvadorian Army, the Ronald Reagan administration attempted to discredit her work.

Land Reform, a Top Priority of New Colombian Government

Although many believe it's a mission impossible, the Colombian government of Juan Manuel Santos is prepared to use all necessary resources to return their land to some four million peasants displaced by the war, and guarantee intensive use of the country's arable land, as part of an ambitious agricultural policy.

COLOMBIA: Devastating Blow for FARC Rebels

The death of guerrilla commander Luis Suárez, aka Jorge Briceño or "Mono Jojoy", is a "devastating blow" for Colombia's FARC insurgents, military affairs analyst Ariel Ávila told IPS.

COLOMBIA: US Military Aid Contingent on Reversal of Rights Record

As a new administration takes over in Bogotá, some groups are hoping for change in the human rights record of Colombia - and that the U.S. will use its clout in the country to ensure that change occurs.

COLOMBIA: The Violent “Agrarian Counter-Reform” Conspiracy

An unknown number of agribusiness owners and public employees at all levels, as well as far-right paramilitaries, have a common link with rural people who have been forced off their farms or killed in Colombia: the land stolen from the latter group in the armed conflict.

Ruling Against US Access to Bases Helps Ease Colombia’s Isolation

When the Colombian government announced in November that it had reached a deal to give the U.S. armed forces access to seven military bases, the news provoked surprise and protests, like when an unfair clause is discovered in a contract that was blindly signed.

COLOMBIA-VENEZUELA: Sea Breeze Helps Restore Relations

"The Santa Marta breeze cools off any conflict, it calms tempers. The city is the ideal place for the Santos-Chávez summit," Colombian journalist Ernesto McCausland wrote on his Twitter blog ahead of Tuesday's meeting, which indeed patched up relations between Venezuela and Colombia.

COLOMBIA: Santos Inherits Country of Economic Contrasts

During the eight years that Álvaro Uribe governed Colombia, annual economic growth averaged 4.3 percent. Nevertheless, President Juan Manuel Santos, who was sworn in on Saturday, has taken over a country with the highest unemployment rate in Latin America.

COLOMBIA: Dismal Human Rights Record Has Not Dented Uribe’s Popularity

Colombian President Álvaro Uribe ends his second consecutive term Saturday with 75 percent approval ratings and strong international support reflected by his designation this week as vice chair of a United Nations-appointed international panel to investigate Israel's attack on a flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza in May.

RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: A Cemetery Full of Questions

The most determined attempt by the far-right paramilitaries to establish a presence in this town in central Colombia ended in failure.

COLOMBIA-VENEZUELA: Bolivar’s Heirs Clash on Bicentennial

The latest political and diplomatic conflict between Colombia and Venezuela has coincided with celebrations of the bicentennial of the two countries' independence, won by their common liberator Simón Bolívar, whose ideals of integration continue to be undermined.

COLOMBIA: Report Suggests “Correlation” between U.S. Aid and Army Killings

"There are alarming links between increased reports of extrajudicial executions of civilians by the Colombian army and units that receive U.S. military financing," John Lindsay-Poland, lead author of a two-year study on the question, told IPS.

COLOMBIA-VENEZUELA: Severed Ties, Fresh Ground for New Problems

The break in diplomatic relations between neighbours Colombia and Venezuela, ordered Thursday by the latter's President Hugo Chávez, bodes an escalation of tensions -- the outcome of which largely will be decided by Colombia's president-elect Juan Manuel Santos.

VENEZUELA-COLOMBIA: President Uribe Secures Legacy of Dispute for Successor

When out-going Colombian President Álvaro Uribe charged Thursday that leftist guerrilla commanders from his country are in hiding in neighbouring Venezuela, he went a long way towards ensuring that his successor, Juan Manuel Santos, will inherit a volatile diplomatic dispute.

COLOMBIA: ‘Let’s Talk About the Disappeared’

Every day, Luz Marina Hache sees her disappeared husband, Eduardo Lorne, in their 25-year-old son. He sleeps the same way, is equally studious, and like his father, he is infuriated by injustice. He has the same beautiful face that she remembers.

COLOMBIA: Paramilitaries Don’t Want to Take the Blame Alone

The so-called para-politics, para-institutions and para-economy in Colombia "have their place in the dock" among the accused, said eight former leaders of ultra-right armed paramilitary groups, now demobilised and charged with crimes against humanity in the nation's decades-long civil war.

COLOMBIA: Palm Planters and Displaced People Wait for New Government

Twenty-three African palm plantation owners, who invested 34 million dollars in Colombia up to 2003 and have spent another 15 million dollars on a palm oil refinery, are soon to be sentenced by a court.

COLOMBIA: Spying Knows No Borders

Venezuela's Minister of Interior and Justice, Tarek El Aissami, presented a report Oct. 29, 2009, to his country's National Assembly. That report is believed to have resulted, two days later, in the murder of two people on a farm in neighbouring Colombia, near the capital.

ECUADOR-COLOMBIA: Quito Presses Bogota on Alleged Spying

The government of Ecuador has issued its third request in eight months to Colombia for complete and detailed information on alleged telephone espionage committed against Ecuador's President Rafael Correa.

RIGHTS: Inter-American Court Finds Colombia Guilty in Senator’s Murder

Time does not heal everything. Finding the Colombian state guilty in the murder of Patriotic Union (UP) Senator Manuel Cepeda, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights considered the 16 years of impunity enjoyed by the masterminds behind the killing an aggravating factor.

COLOMBIA: Drug Trade’s Hold on Football Persists

Football, the most popular sport in Colombia, has been subject to heavy pressures from drug trafficking since the mid-1970s. A new study shows that the illicit trade continues to tarnish the upper echelons of this sport.