COLOMBIA: New President-Elect, Same Old Story

Former Colombian Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos was elected president with the votes of just 30 percent of all voters on the electoral rolls, while turnout stood at a mere 45 percent in this country caught up in a civil war since 1964.

COLOMBIA: Future Holds More of the Same

Few doubt that former defence minister Juan Manuel Santos will be the next president of Colombia, and that he will continue the policies of President Álvaro Uribe. Santos, as Uribe's heir, will basically be more of the same.

RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Uribe Lashes Out at Sentence for Senior Officer

Surrounded by a protective phalanx of stern generals and police chiefs, Colombian President Álvaro Uribe assailed a court ruling that sentenced a senior army officer for human rights crimes committed nearly 25 years ago.

Like Colombia, Iconic City Remains a Place of Promise and Peril

The homes of the barrio of Comuna 13, tightly packed improvised brick and concrete structures that take on a semi- rural nature the closer one gets to the murky swift-moving Río Cauca, blanket the hills of the western edge of this city of 2.5 million.

Amid Elections, Armed Groups Hold Colombian Town under the Gun

Rolling through this mountainous region of central Colombia, the brown waters of the Río Cauca wind through mist-shrouded hills before joining up with the larger Río Magdalena and emptying out into the Caribbean Sea.

COLOMBIA: Presidential Results Due in June

Opinion polls on Sunday's presidential elections in Colombia turned out to be correct in predicting a June runoff. But they pointed to a much smaller gap between the two leading candidates.

COLOMBIA: Army Killings Rear Head in Presidential Campaign

Colombian presidential candidate Antanas Mockus said he "shares the horror" over the so-called "false positives" -- young civilians killed by the army and passed off as guerrilla casualties in the military's counterinsurgency campaign.

COLOMBIA: Initiative for Water as a Human Right Sinking in Congress

Colombian civil society organisations gathered more than two million signatures to ask Congress to hold a referendum on a constitutional amendment that would make access to water a fundamental human right. But Congress gutted the draft referendum bill this week by eliminating the clause on water as a human right.

COLOMBIA: “Death Threats Have Become Routine,” Says Jesuit Priest

The death threats against Catholic priest Javier Giraldo painted on walls in the Colombian capital may have come from far-right paramilitaries, the military, drug trafficking gangs or groups with interests in African oil palm plantations.

COLOMBIA: After Forced Displacement by Conflict, Relocation by Landslide

More than 380 families -- some 2,000 people -- in this vast working-class district on the fringes of the Colombian capital that is home to hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the armed conflict are to be relocated after landslides caused by leaking water pipes.

Women Punished Twice Over in Colombia’s Prisons

"Loss of freedom should not mean loss of fundamental rights," Diana Sánchez, a lawyer with the Political Prisoners Solidarity Committee (CSPP), told IPS. "But in Colombia prisoners are punished twice over: with a prison sentence, and with restrictions on their other rights."

A ‘Green’ President for Colombia?

Colombian presidential candidate Antanas Mockus of the Green Party has been gaining as many as 10,000 new fans a day on Facebook. From just 200 friends at the start, he now has more than 450,000.

Q&A: Death Threats for Supreme Court Justices in Colombia

The Supreme Court's opposition to the far-right paramilitary groups' growing control over Colombian society from within the state itself has put it in "real and imminent danger," in the words of former foreign minister Augusto Ramírez Ocampo.

COLOMBIA: Indigenous Justice Put to the Test

Feliciano Valencia, who holds the rank of minister for the Nasa indigenous people in the southwestern Colombian province of Cauca, was arrested Saturday but released on bail.

COLOMBIA: “Body Count” Scandal Haunts Uribe’s Candidate

The front-runner in the polls for Colombia's presidential elections, Juan Manuel Santos, has come under fire from his rivals for his role in the scandal over young civilians killed by the army and passed off as guerrilla casualties, which broke out while he was defence minister.

VENEZUELA-COLOMBIA: Sparks Fly Over Arrests

The arrest of eight Colombians in Venezuela, allegedly for espionage, further heightened the political and diplomatic tensions that have existed between the governments of the two neighbouring countries over the past year.

COLOMBIA: FARC Calls for Prisoner Swap After Releasing Moncayo

Hopes that a humanitarian prisoner-for-hostage swap may be negotiated in Colombia before August added to the emotion over the release of Sergeant Pablo Emilio Moncayo by the FARC guerrillas Tuesday and his reunion with his family after more than 12 years in captivity in the jungle.

POLITICS-COLOMBIA: Not Enough Just to Be a Woman

Noemí Sanín, the presidential candidate of Colombia's Conservative Party, who is running second in the polls, has a few advantages over her main rival, the right-wing Juan Manuel Santos, such as extensive experience in foreign relations and in running programmes for poor families and children.

COLOMBIA: Rebels Release Wounded Soldier

After Colombia’s FARC rebels released 23-year-old soldier Josué Daniel Calvo, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said he is not opposed to a humanitarian swap of imprisoned insurgents for hostages, as long as the guerrillas do not return to the fighting.

COLOMBIA: Vote-Buying and Front Men

During Sunday's legislative elections in Colombia - in which rightwing President Álvaro Uribe's allies were the big winners - polling stations in one-third of the country's municipalities were at risk of violence, corruption or fraud, according to the ombudsman's office and election observers, who reported vote-buying and pressure on voters.

RIGHTS-MEXICO: Reporters, Activists Demand State Protection

Journalists and human rights activists in Mexico are frantically seeking a mechanism to protect them from attacks related to their work, but the state has been slow to respond. The Colombian model might provide a solution.