International
Colombian Truth Commission hands over grim final report on civil conflict
AFP
Colombia’s Truth Commission, established to probe atrocities committed during the country’s near six-decade civil conflict, presented its final, 896-page report on Tuesday.
The document is the product of years of work that included hearing testimony from more than 14,000 victims of the fighting between leftist guerillas, far-right paramilitary groups and state agents.
Authorities say the conflict resulted in some nine million people either killed, disappeared or displaced.
Also included in the report are the accounts of former fighters who gave up arms or are prisoners today, as well as soldiers and former presidents.
Priest Francisco de Roux, who headed the commission, handed the monster report to President-Elect Gustavo Petro during a ceremony at a theater in Bogota.
It makes for grim reading — packed with accounts of forced disappearances, rape, massacres and torture, and concludes that Colombians suffer from “collective traumas” passed down “from one generation to another.”
The Truth Commission, an extrajudicial body, is one of the entities set up as a form of victim reparation that came out of the 2016 peace pact that disarmed the FARC guerrilla group.
There is also a court to investigate and punish the worst crimes, and a special unit to find missing victims.
The report entitled “There is no future if there is no truth,” will be published in chapters over the next two months, when the commission will officially cease to exist.
The priest handed the report to Petro with 19 recommendations to give full effect to the peace pact, including seeking peace with the ELN, the last guerrilla group operating in the country.
Outgoing President Ivan Duque, who was critical of the 2016 peace deal and of negotiating with guerrillas, did not attend Tuesday’s ceremony.
Petro has said he would resume talks with the ELN, which were suspended under his predecessor.
Violence has flared up again in Colombia despite the peace accord.
Areas abandoned by the now-defunct FARC guerrilla group have become battle grounds for control of drug and illegal mining resources between armed groups — including FARC dissidents — holding many rural communities in a state of siege.
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.
International
Millions to join “No Kings” march in U.S. amid Trump’s growing authoritarian backlash
Millions of Americans are set to take to the streets this Saturday in more than 2,500 cities across the United States for the second edition of the “No Kings” march, a massive protest organized by progressive groups and activists against what they describe as the authoritarian direction of President Donald Trump’s second administration.
The demonstration, expected to be the largest since Trump’s return to power, comes amid a federal government shutdown, further heightening political tensions in Washington.
From the White House, press secretary Abigail Jackson dismissed the event with a brief “Who cares?”, while senior Republican leaders labeled the march as an act of “hate against America.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson accused Democrats of blocking negotiations to reopen the government and claimed they were “unable to stand up to their raging base.” He also linked the protests to “supporters of Hamas and the Antifa terrorist group.”
President Donald Trump, in an interview with Fox News, blamed Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer for the legislative deadlock.
“He’s got nothing else left to do. Everyone’s hitting him hard,” Trump said.
The organizers — a coalition of Democratic leaders and more than 200 civil society and labor groups — argue that the Republican refusal to reopen the government is a clear symptom of the authoritarianism they seek to denounce.
The main rally will take place in Washington, D.C., which has been under heightened National Guard surveillance for weeks, officially to control rising crime. However, organizers contend the deployment is aimed at intimidating and silencing dissent.
Protesters have been urged to wear yellow, a reference to the 2019 pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.
“With this color, we align ourselves with a historical context and remind the world that power must come from the people, not from crowns,” organizers stated on their website.
In addition to the capital, large marches are scheduled in New York, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Kansas City, and Honolulu, as well as abroad in London, Paris, Frankfurt, and several Spanish cities — Madrid (Puerta del Sol), Barcelona (Plaça Sant Jaume), Seville (Plaza Nueva), and Málaga (Plaza de la Marina).
During the first edition, held in June, the movement gathered around five million people, a figure organizers expect to surpass this weekend.
International
Petro expresses concern over fatal shooting during mass protests in Lima
Colombian President Gustavo Petro voiced his “concern” on Thursday over recent events in Peru, following the death of a protester reportedly shot during a massive demonstration in Lima against the government and Congress.
“I must express my concern over the events in Peru. A young artist has been killed in citizens’ protests,” Petro wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
The Colombian leader also noted that in Peru, “a popularly elected president remains imprisoned without conviction,” referring to Pedro Castillo, who led the country from July 2021 to December 2022 until he was removed by Congress following a failed attempted coup.
“This is a blatant violation of the American Convention on Human Rights,” Petro stated, adding, “I hope Peru seeks social and political dialogue to legitimize its public institutions.”
On Wednesday, Peru experienced widespread protests in several cities, with the largest demonstration in Lima in recent years, driven by citizens’ concerns over corruption and public insecurity.
During the capital’s mobilization, the Ombudsman’s Office confirmed the death of Eduardo Ruiz, 32, and reported clashes that left over 100 injured, including 78 police officers and 24 protesters, as well as ten arrests.
The Attorney General’s Office, investigating Ruiz’s death “in the context of serious human rights violations,” confirmed that the protester was shot.
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