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A reader writes: I’m a Colombian living in the States who is an avid reader of your blog! Yesterday Colombia had a plebiscite regarding the peace agreement with the Marxist guerrillas and, incredibly, the No won… It’s is hard to explain all the reasons why this happened (even those who opposed the plebiscite “knew” it was going to be approved)… Political leaders in some areas did not push their constituents into voting (they didn’t have anything to lose). The Caribbean coast, for example, is known for its corruption and how local leaders literally buy votes. However this time, there was...

Colombian voters rejected a peace deal with FARC rebels Sunday, in a surprise outcome that risks prolonging a 52-year-old armed conflict and plunges the country’s future into uncertainty. By a razor-thin margin of 50.25 to 49.75 percent, Colombians voted against the peace accord, in a Brexit-style backlash that defied pollsters’ predictions and left supporters of the deal in tears. After nearly six years of negotiations, many handshakes and ceremonial signatures, a ­half-century war that has killed 220,000 and displaced 7 million Colombians from their homes is not over.

The European Union could remove Colombian guerilla movement FARC from its list of known terrorists, pending the signing of the peace agreement between the group and the country’s government. EurActiv Spain reports.Ahead of a formalization of the deal between FARC and the Colombian government, the EU indicated that it could soon remove the group from its terrorist blacklist. “FARC currently sits on the list of terrorist organizations in Colombia,” confirmed European Commission spokesperson Maja Kocijancic today (26 September), adding that the EU “has strongly supported the Colombia peace deal”. […] The European Court of Justice last week recommended that Hamas...

COLUMBIA, Pa. —A police incident is happening now in Columbia, Lancaster County. Police are looking for a shooter. ... Police on the scene confirm to News 8 an "active shooter" shot at police cars and people between 3:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. Since that time, police have not heard any shots. Police said the shooter was mobile, either on foot or in a vehicle.

Pregnant women, children and even elderly Venezuelans crossed into Colombia on Sunday after the border was temporarily reopened, allowing them to buy basic foods and toiletries -- rare commodities in their home country. Tearful Venezuelans had gone weeks without basic food items like milk, flour and toilet paper. It's a sad but common part of daily life today in crisis-ridden Venezuela, a country that has the world's largest proven reserves of oil. Colombian officials estimate that about 100,000 Venezuelans crossed the border. Venezuela is expected to dive deeper into the abyss this year, according to new projections published Wednesday by...

Almost 100,000 Venezuelans, some of whom drove through the night in caravans, crossed into Colombia over the weekend to hunt for food and medicine that are in short supply at home. It was the second weekend in a row that Venezuela’s socialist government opened the long-closed border with Colombia, and by 6 a.m. Sunday, a line of would-be shoppers snaked through the entire town of San Antonio del Tachira. Some had traveled in chartered buses from cities 10 hours away. Venezuela’s government closed all crossings a year ago to crack down on smuggling along the 1,378-mile (2,219 kilometer) border. It...

Colombia is the finest nation on Earth when it comes to eating fruit. The country boasts mountains, jungles, deserts, and coasts, providing an environment conducive to growing any fruit you can imagine and plenty more you can’t, from sweet to sour to savory, and everything in between. Adventurous travelers quickly find their diets full of diverse flavors and their stool full of fiber in this gastronomic and gastrointestinal paradise. Of course, the tropical standards like mango, papaya, banana, avocado, and pineapple are available in multitudes, for a fraction of the price that they cost imported. That alone would be enough...

Nicholas Maduro, the Venezuelan president declared a 60-day state of emergency on Friday due to what he called plots from within the OPEC country and the United States to topple his leftist government. Mr. Maduro did not provide details of the measure. A previous state of emergency, implemented in states near the Colombian border last year, suspended constitutional rights guarantees in those areas....... Earlier on Friday, U.S. intelligence officials told reporters they were increasingly worried about the potential for an economic and political meltdown in Venezuela and predicted Mr. Maduro was not likely to complete his term.....

A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.8 has struck just off the coast of northwest Ecuador, centered near Pedernales and Muisne, seismologists say. A tsunami alert has been issued for coastal areas of Ecuador and Colombia. LIVE UPDATES: Twitter, Facebook The earthquake, at 6:58 p.m. local time on Saturday, was centered just northwest of Pedernales, or 27 kilometers (17 miles) southeast of Muisne. It struck about 19 kilometers (12 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to seismologists. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) put the magnitude of Saturday's earthquake at 7.8, a significant increase from its...

Iranian Army Commander Maj. Gen. Ataollah Salehi on Saturday announced that Iran intends to deploy warships and destroyers in Latin America, in a sign of the attempts of the leading state sponsor of terror to expand its military cooperation with countries opposing the US. We intend to take a longer stride in marine voyages and even go towards friendly states in Latin America," Salehi told reporters at the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency. Speaking at a ceremony welcoming back the Iranian Navy's 38th fleet after 75 days of international deployment, he said...

The Colombian Air Force’s (Fuerza Aérea Colombiana – FAC) programme to integrate Israeli-made Spike air-to-surface missiles onto several of its Black Hawk helicopters is almost complete, according to industry sources. Several modified UH-60L Black Hawks are operated by the FAC, known locally as the ‘Arpia’, which have been adapted to an AH-60L gunship variant with the edition of weapon pylons and a Toplite II electro-optical sensor turret. Earlier versions (pictured above) of the AH-60L could only fire unguided 70mm rockets and machine guns. Now the AH-60Ls are in the process of being upgraded to the Mark IV standard, which sees...

Anyone trying to understand why Donald Trump always has thought New Hampshire would be friendlier to him than Iowa should put aside the polls for a moment and focus on what each state's Republican voters are putting on their Spotify playlists. According to data for the week ending Feb. 1, Iowa Republicans can't stop listening to "This Is Amazing Grace" by Christian rocker Phil Wickham, which opens with the verse: "Who breaks the power of sin and darkness/Whose love is mighty and so much stronger/The King of Glory, the King above all kings." Republicans in New Hampshire, meanwhile, prefer "Idle...

Peppa Pig puts kids off pork by Latin Correspondent | 28th January 2016 229 SOCIAL BUZZ A traditional Colombian lechona. Photo: Pinterest. A traditional Colombian lechona. Photo: Pinterest. Peppa Pig, a firm favorite among kids across the globe, is causing uproar in one Colombian department. Parents in the town of Ibagué, in the Tolima department, famed for its pork dishes and traditional gastronomy, are hitting back on social media over claims that Peppa is putting their kids off pork. One of the region’s typical dishes includes Lechona, a whole roast pig stuffed with chick peas, rice, onions and spices –...

Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA, has delayed the export of natural gas to Colombia because of climate factors, the Colombian Mines and Energy Ministry said on Friday. In a letter to the Colombian government on Wednesday, PDVSA said the exports would not begin because of "climate variability," the ministry said in a statement. The exports are part of a deal between the two countries, which includes provisions for the neighbors to supply their own markets if necessary before exporting. ... Colombian state oil company Ecopetrol has asked PDVSA to give a new date by which the exports could begin.

A common misconnection that exists today rests on the notion that there are no racial hierarchies in Latin American countries or within the Latino communities in the United States. (SNIP) The shooting of unarmed African-American teenager Trayvon Martin by a half-Peruvian and half-White man named George Zimmerman, the rise of so-called Hispanic conservatives like Ted Cruz, Al Cardenas and Marco Rubio, and the examples of racist comments by Latinos in the media like Rodner Figueroa, have made it impossible to have a conversation of Latinos and race. (SNIP) This Saturday, the Miss Puerto Rico winner for the Miss America pageant...

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- After a decade on the advance, the left in South America is in retreat. Just in the past month, voters in Argentina elected a conservative businessman president over the chosen successor of Cristina Fernandez and Brazil's congress launched an impeachment probe against President Dilma Rousseff, whose approval ratings have been languishing in single digits. In perhaps the biggest turnabout, voters in Venezuela, where the region's leftward shift began, handed the opposition a landslide victory in congressional elections - its first nationwide legislative win since the U.S.-bashing Hugo Chavez won the presidency in 1998. The backlash comes...

Miss Colombia will suffer psychological damage as a result of Steve Harvey's blunder ... so says the country's Counsul General to New York. Maria Isabel Nieto tells TMZ the snafu was extremely painful for Miss Colombia and will likely cause long-term issues. Nieto notes it was not only psychological torture to have the crown taken away but physically traumatizing to have it removed. The Counsul General thinks Donald Trump is right on the money ... Miss Philippines and Miss Colombia should share the crown. Failing that, Nieto thinks pageant officials should give Miss Colombia a more expanded role in the...

Spanish galleon San Jose sank more than 300 years ago in battle with British, while carrying vast cargo of gold and precious stones Colombia’s discovery of the 300-year-old, shipwrecked galleon San Jose, thought to be loaded with some $10 billion in gold and precious stones, could shed light on an important period in Spanish colonial history but also spawn legal battles over the valuable cargo. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said his country spent two years studying historical maps, meteorology and used the latest sea-searching technology to locate the Spanish vessel, which sank during a battle in 1708 in the...

Hillary Clinton is upping her anti-Wall Street rhetoric, amid reports that the Clinton Foundation is running a private-equity company down in Colombia.The same private-equity field dissed by 2008 Obama in hundreds of millions of dollars of negative ads against Mitt Romney b/c Romney earned his fortune w/ a PEF. The Bogota-based Fondo Acceso, started in 2010 by Bill Clinton, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and mining millionaire Frank Giustra....$20 million seed funding supposedly came from the Clinton Foundations Clinton-Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative and Carlos Slims the SLIM Foundation, the Washington Free Beacon reports. In an ominous sign, Fondo Acceso took down...

The United States spent a total of $5.9 billion to fund militaries around the world in 2014, according to the government’s 2015 Foreign Assistance report. Of that total, some 75%, or about $4.4 billion, was divided between Israel and Egypt. Clearly, the Middle East, at 64% of the pie, is the theme here, with Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon also found among the top 10 recipients. Closer to home, Colombia led the Americas with a relatively scant $29 million. Still, that’s enough to place it ninth overall on the list.