International
Four dead, hundreds hurt as stands collapse in Colombia bullring
AFP
A toddler was among four people killed when the grandstand at a bullring in Colombia collapsed, injuring hundreds of others, officials said Monday.
One person died at the scene and three died in hospital, according to Juan Carlos Tamayo, the mayor of El Espinal, the central city where the collapse happened on Sunday.
The fatalities included a toddler of 14 months, Tamayo said.
Martha Palacios, health secretary in the department of Tolima, said 322 people were treated at various hospitals, of whom four were in intensive care.
People were taking part in a so-called “corraleja” — where members of the public face off with small bulls — when a three-story section of wooden stands holding spectators collapsed.
Attendees were hurled from their seats into the arena, where at least one bull was running around, according to drone images.
The event, on a holiday weekend, was part of celebrations for the festival of San Pedro, the most popular in the region.
“Our bullring is made up of 44 stands of which eight fell, each with 100 people,” said Tamayo.
– ‘Very difficult’ –
“I saw people amid the rubble, others trying to get out, very difficult,” Samuel Galindo, a neighbor who recorded the tragedy with a drone, told the AFP.
President Ivan Duque said on Twitter he would order an investigation, and expressed his solidarity with the victims and their next of kin.
The governor of Tolima department, Jose Ricardo Orozco, said the regional government would move to ban the corralejas, saying they were dangerous and promoted animal abuse.
On Saturday, several people were injured in at the corralejas in El Espinal, a city of some 78,000 people about 150 kilometers (93 miles) from the capital Bogota.
Another person died earlier this month after being gored by a bull during a corraleja in the town of Repelon.
President-Elect Gustavo Petro, who will take office on August 7, joined Orozco in calling for the amateur bullfights to be banned.
When he served as mayor of Bogota, leftist Petro put a stop to bullfights in the city’s signature bullring, La Santamaria.
“I ask the mayors not to authorize any more events with the death of people or animals,” he said on Twitter Sunday, wishing the injured a speedy recovery.
While animal abuse is a crime in Colombia, bullfights and cock fights are protected as a cultural inheritance.
International
Trump says Venezuela is ‘feeling the heat’ amid U.S. anti-drug operations in the Caribbean
President Donald Trump said he believes Venezuela is “feeling the heat” as his administration intensifies its military campaign against alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean — operations that have resulted in the destruction of at least two boats over the past week.
While Trump has stated that the missions aim to curb the flow of narcotics into the United States, analysts and several lawmakers argue that the operations have a broader political goal: to increase pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to step down.
“The Trump administration is likely trying to force Maduro to voluntarily relinquish power through a combination of diplomatic moves and now military action — or the threat of it,” said Brandon Buck, a foreign policy analyst at the Cato Institute, in an email to Fox News Digital. “Whether that amounts to ‘regime change’ or something else is largely a matter of semantics.”
The Trump administration has repeatedly stated that it does not recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state, describing him instead as the leader of a drug cartel. In August, Washington raised its bounty for information leading to Maduro’s capture to $50 million, calling him “one of the world’s most notorious drug traffickers.”
So far, U.S. officials have remained tight-lipped when questioned about potential plans targeting Maduro. On Wednesday, Trump declined to say whether the CIA had the authority to “eliminate” the Venezuelan leader.
International
U.S.-Colombia Tensions Escalate as Trump Ends Subsidies, Criticizes Petro
U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday accused his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, of tolerating drug production and announced that the United States will end “large-scale payments and subsidies” to the South American nation.
The relationship between the two historically allied countries has reached a low point with the arrival of Trump in office and Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president in history, assuming power.
“As of today, these payments, or any other form of payment or subsidies, will no longer be made,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that Petro is “strongly encouraging mass drug production.”
In response, Petro took to X (formerly Twitter), claiming that the U.S. president is “misled” by his advisors. He added, “I recommend Trump carefully read about Colombia and distinguish where the drug traffickers are and where the Democrats are.”
Last month, Washington revoked Colombia’s status as a key ally in the fight against narcotrafficking, a certification that had previously enabled the country to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid.
International
María Corina Machado: “Venezuela is closer than ever to regaining freedom”
Venezuelan opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado declared on Friday that Venezuela is facing “the most decisive moment in its contemporary history” and that the country is “closer than ever to regaining freedom and democracy.”
Her remarks were delivered via video message during the 81st General Assembly of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), held in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
Machado emphasized that the situation in Venezuela remains “extremely serious” due to censorship and repression imposed by Nicolás Maduro’s regime, particularly in a global context where “society is built on information.”
She warned that authoritarian governments manipulate public opinion through “psychological warfare” and disinformation, while shutting down media outlets and persecuting journalists.
“The only way to topple these regimes is through the constant, relentless, and unrestricted preaching of the truth. It is absolutely true that the truth will set us free,” she stated.
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