International
10 dead in recent Colombia rebels clash: rights group
January 12 | By AFP |
At least 10 people are believed to have died in recent fighting between armed rebel groups in Colombia near the Venezuelan border, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.
“The information we have received reports at least 10 deaths in the department of Arauca as a result of clashes between the ELN (National Liberation Army) and the dissidents of FARC,” the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, wrote Juan Pappier, a researcher with the international rights group, on Twitter.
The office of the ombudsman in Colombia, without specifying the number of fatalities, reported “the discovery of several bodies of men killed in fighting” that took place Monday and Tuesday in the small town of Puerto Rondo, in northeastern Colombia.
Neither the government nor military authorities have reacted to the announcements.
ELN fighters in the region are engaged in bloody conflict with FARC dissidents, with both groups having rejected a historic 2016 peace agreement with the government as well as a recent truce announced by the government of new President Gustavo Petro.
Petro, the country’s first leftist leader, had declared on New Year’s Eve that a temporary truce had been reached with the country’s five largest armed groups, including the ELN, from January 1 to June 30.
But the ELN a few days later said it had not agreed to any such measure, forcing the government to walk back its major declaration, a reversal that dampened hopes for an end to decades of violence that has continued despite the 2016 peace agreement with the FARC.
Insurgents and drug traffickers battle over remote areas of the South American country as they seek to expand their territory and control over the cocaine trade.
In January 2022 ELN and other rebels engaged in fierce fighting in Arauca, leaving 50 people dead.
Peace talks between the ELN and the government will resume later this month in Mexico City.
International
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe on Monday requested that the Supreme Court restore his freedom while he appeals the historic 12-year house arrest sentence he received for bribery and procedural fraud.
Uribe, the most prominent figure of Colombia’s right wing, was convicted last week by a lower court for attempting to bribe paramilitary members into denying his ties to the violent anti-guerrilla squads.
Since Friday, the 73-year-old has been under house arrest at his residence in Rionegro, about 30 km from Medellín. The judge justified the measure by citing a risk of flight.
However, Uribe’s defense team rejected that argument and formally petitioned the court to immediately lift the detention order, claiming it lacks legal basis.
Uribe, a dominant force in Colombian politics for decades, is now the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted and placed under arrest, found guilty of witness tampering and obstruction of justice to prevent links to paramilitary groups.
He has repeatedly denounced the trial as politically motivated, blaming pressure from the leftist government currently in power.
His political party, Centro Democrático, has called for nationwide protests on August 7 in support of Uribe, who remains popular for his hardline stance against guerrilla groups.
Uribe has until August 13 to submit his written appeal. The case will then move to the Bogotá High Court, which has until October 16 to uphold, overturn, or dismiss the sentence. If the deadline passes without a decision, the case will be archived.
International
U.S. Embassy staff restricted as gunfire erupts near compound in Port-au-Prince
The poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean is currently engulfed in a deep political crisis and a wave of violence driven by armed groups — a situation that an international security mission led by Kenya is attempting to stabilize.
Due to the worsening security conditions, the U.S. government has suspended all official movements of embassy personnel outside the compound in Port-au-Prince, the U.S. State Department announced Monday in a security alert posted on social media platform X.
“There are intense gunfights in the Tabarre neighborhood, near the U.S. Embassy,” the alert reads, urging the public to avoid the area.
Tabarre is a municipality located near Port-au-Prince International Airport, northeast of the Haitian capital.
According to a July report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 3,141 people were killed in Haitibetween January 1 and June 30 of this year.
International
Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
The Israeli military announced on Sunday that 136 boxes of food aid were airdropped into Gaza by the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Germany, and Belgium.
“In recent hours, six countries conducted air drops of 136 aid packages containing food for residents in the southern and northern Gaza Strip,” read the statement, which added that the operation was coordinated by COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Israeli military emphasized that they will “continue working to improve the humanitarian response alongside the international community” and reiterated their stance to “refute false allegations of deliberate famine in Gaza.”
The announcement comes as UN agencies warn Gaza faces an imminent risk of famine. More than one in three residents go days without eating, and other nutrition indicators have dropped to their worst levels since the conflict began.
The agencies also noted the difficulty of “collecting reliable data in current conditions, as Gaza’s health systems —already devastated by nearly three years of conflict— are collapsing.”
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry reported on Sunday that hospitals in the enclave recorded six deaths from hunger and malnutrition on Saturday, all of them adults.
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
U.S. Embassy staff restricted as gunfire erupts near compound in Port-au-Prince
Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
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Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction