International
Colombia, ELN guerrillas to start new peace talks Monday in Caracas
| By AFP |
Colombia’s government and the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group will resume peace talks on Monday after a nearly four-year hiatus, the parties announced.
The resumption of negotiations “will be next Monday, November 21, in the afternoon in the city of Caracas,” read a statement posted to Twitter Friday and signed by the Colombian High Commissioner for Peace, Danilo Rueda, and ELN peace delegation member Pablo Beltran.
Colombia has suffered more than half a century of armed conflict between the state and various groups of left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers.
The ELN is the last recognized rebel group operating in Colombia, although FARC dissidents who refused to sign the 2016 peace deal remain active.
Negotiations with ELN, started in 2016, were interrupted three years later by conservative president Ivan Duque following a car bomb attack on a police academy in Bogota that left 22 people dead.
President Gustavo Petro, who in August became Colombia’s first leftist leader, has vowed to take a less bellicose approach than his predecessors to seeking an end to the violence.
“We are aware of the deep desire of the Colombian people… to move forward through a peace process and democracy building,” the joint statement read.
As a good-will gesture, the guerrillas on Wednesday released two soldiers who had been captured near Venezuela earlier this month.
While the two sides have not declared a ceasefire, they agreed in October to resume talks. The new round has Venezuela, Cuba and Norway acting as guarantors.
The initial, 2016 dialogue with the ELN kicked off under ex-president Juan Manuel Santos, who signed a peace treaty with the larger Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group, which subsequently laid down weapons and created a political party.
The ELN’s peace delegation spent four years based in Cuba, as they had been barred from returning to Colombia.
They left Cuba for Venezuela in October to begin the new talks promised by Petro, himself a former urban guerrilla.
The government and ELN have not yet released full lists of negotiators for the talks beginning Monday.
Colombia and Venezuela recently resumed relations after a 2019 rupture caused by Duque’s refusal to recognize President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection the year before in a vote widely condemned as a sham by the international community.
Duque had accused Venezuela’s socialist leader of harboring rebels across the border.
But since Petro came to power, he has reestablished diplomatic ties with Caracas, allowing the Maduro government to help facilitate peace talks with the ELN.
Founded in 1964, the ELN counts around 2,500 members, about 700 more than it did when negotiations were broken off.
It is mostly active in the Pacific region and along the 2,200-kilometer (1,367-mile) border with Venezuela.
International
Bolsonaro diagnosed with skin cancer amid coup conviction
Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has been diagnosed with skin cancer while serving a historic sentence for attempting a coup d’état. His medical team confirmed that the lesions have been removed and that, for now, he does not require further procedures, though he will need regular monitoring.
On Wednesday, September 17, Bolsonaro’s doctors confirmed the diagnosis. The announcement comes shortly after the former leader was convicted of orchestrating an attempted coup.
According to his physician, Claudio Birolini, Bolsonaro has “squamous cell carcinoma, which is neither the most benign nor the most aggressive form — it is intermediate.” Birolini warned, however, that this type of skin cancer “can carry more serious consequences.”
International
Milei praises Paraguay’s growth, calls Argentina’s last 20 years a ‘decline’
Argentine President Javier Milei praised Paraguay’s economic growth over the past two decades during a speech before the Paraguayan Congress on Wednesday (Sept. 17, 2025), crediting it to incentives that favored capitalism. At the same time, he contrasted that progress with what he described as Argentina’s deepening “decline” during the same period.
“If we compare the last 20 years of Paraguay with those of the Argentine Republic, we will find almost diametrically opposite results,” Milei told lawmakers during a special session of Parliament on the second and final day of his official visit to Asunción.
“While you have not stopped growing, we have deepened our decline. If we understand incentives as the engine of capitalism, Paraguay focused on preserving and strengthening them, while Argentina dedicated itself to chaining, directing, and suffocating them,” the right-wing leader stated.
International
Trump administration launches large-scale immigration operation in Chicago
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump intensified a large-scale immigration operation in the Chicago area with the arrival of additional Border Patrol agents on Tuesday and the presence of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem during a raid.
Noem posted a video on her X account showing the immigration operation, in which DHS reportedly removed “violent criminals” from the streets. The footage shows Noem observing the arrest of a man taken into custody at his home early Tuesday morning at an undisclosed location.
“I was in Chicago today to make it clear that we will not back down,” the secretary wrote. “Our work is just beginning,” she added.
The warning from Noem was echoed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Chief Gregory Bovino, who posted a video on X Tuesday showing multiple Border Patrol vehicles arriving in the city with the caption: “Chicago, we are here!”
Bovino, who led the immigration crackdown in Los Angeles implemented since last June, said the team will remain in Chicago to continue the mission they started in California.
Operation “Midway Blitz” is currently focused on the Chicago metropolitan area and its suburbs. Activists and residents have reported sightings of masked agents and unmarked vehicles in predominantly Latino neighborhoods.
Bolsonaro diagnosed with skin cancer amid coup conviction
Milei praises Paraguay’s growth, calls Argentina’s last 20 years a ‘decline’
Trump administration launches large-scale immigration operation in Chicago
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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Extension of the state of emergency approved in southern Chile
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