International

The Government of Colombia has received new information about a possible attack against Petro

The Minister of the Interior of Colombia, Armando Benedetti, warned on Monday that the Government has received “quite serious intelligence information” about a possible attack against President Gustavo Petro.

“Rately serious intelligence information has arrived, especially the last week (…) of an attack (…) The information that has arrived is quite serious (…) This time things were quite reliable to believe and fear that something may be in progress,” Benedetti said in an interview with Caracol Radio.

The minister highlighted that “there are some people who have been meeting who would like to hit the president.”

Last week, Petro accused US Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, a member of the House of Representatives for the Republican Party, of leading meetings with those seeking to remove him from office.

Petro also accused former Chancellor Álvaro Leyva of contacting the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Venezuela, where the Government and that guerrillas were negotiating peace, to see how to get him out of office.

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He also said that Leyva, the first foreign minister of his government between August 2022 and February 2024, is part of the “plot” that “is not of Colombians, even if there are Colombians,” and “therefore it is very dangerous because it is an attack on the national sovereignty of Colombia, democracy and the freedom of Colombians.”

On March 10, President Petro said that drug traffickers who seek to control coca crops in the southwest of the country want to assassinate him and that “there are already four attempts.”

“There is a coordination of the South American mafia based in Dubai and the Police still do not investigate, through intelligence, that they even want to kill the president,” Petro said in a televised council of ministers.

Likewise, the president denounced a month earlier that drug traffickers bought two missiles to attack his plane because of the work his government is doing against “the great mafias” of the country.

That was not the first time that Petro denounced this type of action, because last September he assured that the United States drug agency (DEA), through the ambassador of that country in Bogotá, alerted him to an alleged plan to kill him before the end of 2024 in an attack with a truck loaded with dynamite.

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Also in 2022, when he was a presidential candidate, the current president denounced that the criminal gang ‘La Cordillera’ intended to commit an attack to kill him.

Petro has fed during his mandate the idea of a coup d’état against him and a plan to assassinate him, without pointing to anyone in particular, through messages published on his social networks and in public interventions.

International

Hiroshima survivor who embraced Obama dies at 88

The emotional embrace between Barack Obama and Hiroshima survivor Mori—who was eight years old when the United States dropped the atomic bomb in 1945—resonated around the world.

According to Asahi Shimbun and other local media, Mori died on Saturday at a hospital in Hiroshima.

Mori, known for his research on the fate of American prisoners of war in Hiroshima, was thrown into a river by the force of the explosion on August 6, 1945, during the atomic bombing of the city.

In a past interview with AFP, ahead of his meeting with Obama at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in 2016, Mori recalled the chaos and desperation that followed the blast.

He described how, after emerging from the water, he encountered injured civilians seeking help amid the devastation, an experience that stayed with him throughout his life.

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In 2016, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, where he paid tribute to the victims of the first atomic bomb used in warfare. During the visit, Mori was visibly moved as he met the president, sharing a brief but powerful moment that symbolized remembrance and reconciliation.

The bombing of Hiroshima resulted in the deaths of approximately 140,000 people, including those who succumbed to radiation exposure in the aftermath.

Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 74,000 people and contributing to the end of World War II.

International

Colombia seeks ‘total suffocation’ of armed groups with regional support

Colombia is advancing a strategy aimed at the “total suffocation” of illegal armed groups, seeking to corner them in border regions with the support of Ecuador and Venezuela, Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez said in an interview with AFP.

According to the minister, coordinated pressure from neighboring countries—backed by United States—aims to dismantle criminal networks that use cross-border routes to traffic Colombian cocaine toward North America and Europe.

For decades, armed groups involved in Colombia’s internal conflict have relied on border territories as strategic rear bases to evade military operations and maintain logistical support.

However, Sánchez said that dynamic is beginning to change.

“We expect a total suffocation between both nations so they have no spaces where they can live or feel safe […] to close off any room they might have,” he stated during the interview in Bogotá, less than five months before the end of President Gustavo Petro’s term.

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Regional developments have reinforced this strategy. Following the capture of Nicolás Maduro in a U.S. military operation, Washington has increased its influence in Caracas, where interim leader Delcy Rodríguez has implemented a renewed anti-narcotics policy.

Meanwhile, in Ecuador, President Daniel Noboa—a key U.S. ally in the region—has launched a two-week security plan under strict curfews to combat criminal gangs, with U.S. support.

Sánchez argued that these combined efforts leave illegal organizations with fewer escape routes and operational spaces, effectively placing them in a “dead end.”

International

Two killed in shooting at restaurant near Frankfurt Airport

Two people were shot dead early Tuesday at a restaurant in Raunheim, near Frankfurt Airport, according to local police.

Preliminary findings indicate that an armed individual entered the establishment at around 03:45 local time (02:45 GMT) and opened fire on the victims, who died at the scene from their injuries.

The suspect fled and remains at large, while the motive behind the shooting is still unclear, German media reported. Authorities have launched a large-scale search operation.