The Venezuelan military thwarted an attempted naval invasion by heavily-armed mercenaries coming from Colombia in speed boats on Sunday morning, neutralizing eight fighters and capturing two people Caracas says are US nationals. Venezuelan television has broadcast footage of the confession of Silvercorp USA mercenary Luke Alexander Denman, one of the …
Read More »Hunger protests in Colombia as millions denied access to food
Hunger protests are increasing across Colombia as millions of people find themselves unable to obtain food due to the anti-coronavirus lockdown. In the capital, Bogota, scores of people demonstrated outside the office of Mayor Claudia Lopez on Wednesday, demanding that the authorities urgently deliver aid that has been promised to …
Read More »Bogota’s poor, homeless get some help amid quarantine hardship
The Colombian government has begun providing some of the poorest residents of the capital Bogota with food donations as the city of seven million people goes through more than a month of lockdown to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a government order, dozens of the homeless are also given …
Read More »Colombian coal mine blast results in multiple fatalities
Eleven people were killed and four injured in an accidental explosion at a Colombian coal mine in Cucunuba, near Bogota, on Saturday, according to the local fire department. The victims were miners who were working despite the health emergency caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Most Colombians are quarantined by government …
Read More »Prison riots sparked by coronavirus fears leave 25 dead
Coordinated riots across Colombia’s prison system over the weekend left 23 inmates dead at one Bogota jail and two in a maximum security facility 100 miles northeast of the capital. Inmates started fires and protested violently against overcrowded and unsanitary conditions that leave them vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic. No …
Read More »Clashes in Colombia amid nationwide strike, protests.
Clashes erupted between Colombian police and protesters, who took to the streets of the capital, Bogota, against the US-backed government of President Ivan Duque, in what became one of the biggest rallies in recent years. Hundreds of thousands of people rallied in the streets of Bogota on Thursday to protest …
Read More »Guatemala admits it is a cocaine-producing nation, not just transit point.
Guatemala must now consider itself a cocaine-producing nation and not just a transit country for the powerful narcotic after authorities discovered new coca processing laboratories, the interior minister said. Last year, Guatemala discovered plantations growing coca, along with a laboratory to process the leaf into cocaine. Until recently, the crop …
Read More »Colombian cops find 300kg of cannabis INSIDE coffins.
Not even the dead can keep the suspicions of Colombian police at bay, as one drug smuggler found to his cost. Authorities discovered 300kg of marijuana worth millions hidden inside two coffins. The unusual discovery was made at a police checkpoint in North Santander on Tuesday, according to El Tiempo. …
Read More »Venezuela reopens borders with Brazil and Aruba, officials.
Venezuela is reopening its borders with Brazil and the Caribbean island of Aruba, Venezuela’s Economy Vice President Tareck El Aissami said on Friday, though Aruba’s government said it did not consider a re-opening “opportune.” The government of President Nicolas Maduro shut those borders in February amid an opposition campaign to …
Read More »Deforestation: Tropical tree losses persist at high levels.
Around 12 million hectares of forest in the world’s tropical regions were lost in 2018, equivalent to 30 football fields per minute. While this represents a decline in 2016 and 2017, it is still the fourth highest rate of loss since records began in 2001. Of particular concern is the …
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