International
Venezuela, Colombia restore diplomatic ties after three-year break
AFP
Venezuela and Colombia restored full diplomatic relations Sunday after a three-year break, as a new leftist government in Bogota takes shape.
A new Colombian ambassador, Armando Benedetti, arrived in Caracas and said on Twitter: “Relations with Venezuela should never have been severed. We are brothers and an imaginary line cannot separate us.”
He was welcomed by deputy foreign minister Rander Pena Ramirez, who tweeted that “our historical ties summon us to work together for the happiness of our peoples.”
Colombia’s new leftist president, Gustavo Petro, and Venezuela’s socialist president Nicolas Maduro announced on August 11 that they planned to restore diplomatic relations that were severed in 2019.
That rupture was the culmination of years of tension between leftist Venezuela and Colombia under successive conservative presidents, starting with Alvaro Uribe.
Embassies and consulates in both countries were closed, and flights between the neighbors grounded.
Even the 2,000-kilometer (1,200-mile) land border between the two countries was closed between 2019 and October 2021, when it was opened to pedestrians only.
Petro is Colombia’s first leftist president.
The last president in Colombia, Ivan Duque, did not recognize Maduro as president — but rather opposition leader Juan Guaido.
Colombia was one of around 60 countries to do so, having rejected Venezuela’s 2018 presidential election, which was boycotted by the opposition.
In addition to exchanging ambassadors, the normalization process will include the full reopening of the border, which has remained largely closed to vehicles.
The porous frontier has been the scene of clashes between armed groups.
Caracas and Bogota have also announced intentions to restore military relations.
Benedetti said more than eight million Colombians make a living from trade with Venezuela, which is why one of the objectives is to re-establish trade relations between the two countries.
A similar expectation exists on the Venezuelan side, where industrialists want to normalize the trade that reached $7.2 billion in 2008 but collapsed with the border closure.
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