International
Two journalists shot and killed in Colombia: police
AFP
Assailants on a motorcycle shot and killed two journalists Sunday in Colombia as they returned from covering a carnival, police said.
Both worked for a news website called Sol Digital based in the northern town of Fundacion on the Caribbean coast, and they were identified as Leiner Montero Ortega, 37, and Dilia Contreras Cantillo, 39, said Andres Serna, police chief in the department of Magdalena.
The reporters were driving back to Fundacion from the town of Santa Rosa de Lima, where they had covered a street festival, when the attackers shot them, Serna said.
He said another person was wounded, but did not specify if this was a journalist too.
Police said they think the shooting stemmed from some kind of argument or altercation at the carnival.
But the Free Press Foundation urged police “to take into account Leiner and Dilia’s work as journalists” as they investigate the crime.
The foundation said that last year 768 journalists in Colombia suffered some kind of violence, including killings.
Serna convened an emergency meeting of police officials in Fundacion, which the government says is among the worst in Colombia in terms of violence, poverty, black market economic activity and weak government institutions.
Since a peace accord with leftist FARC rebels was signed in 2016, 10 reporters in Colombia have been killed.
That makes this country Latin America’s third most dangerous for journalists, after Venezuela and Mexico, according to Reporters without Borders.
“We condemn the killing of journalists,” said Juan Pappier, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Colombian Senate speaker Roy Barreras called the shooting an attack on “democracy’s life” and called for police to resolve the case.
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.
Trump says Venezuela is ‘feeling the heat’ amid U.S. anti-drug operations in the Caribbean
U.S.-Colombia Tensions Escalate as Trump Ends Subsidies, Criticizes Petro
María Corina Machado: “Venezuela is closer than ever to regaining freedom”
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