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ICONONZO, COLOMBIA - A handful of former guerrilla fighters met Sunday at La Tienda (The Store), the only store and social area in the FARC reintegration zone near Icononzo, Tolima, to watch the election results. But the space that is normally full of laughter and banter was grim Sunday afternoon. Many wondered what will be …
Continue reading "FARC fears after rightwing Duque elected (New Internationalist)"
QUITO, ECUADOR — Every night since March 26, when three Ecuadoran journalists were kidnapped near their country’s border with Colombia, their colleagues have gathered to demand their rescue. “We’re missing three! We want them back alive!” they have shouted while protesting in front of the presidential palace in the capital, Quito. The kidnappings of Javier …
EL ESTRECHO, COLOMBIA - For more than 35 years, Blanca Ducuara Gomez lived in Colombia's mountains, patrolling the countryside as a member of the country's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). But today she lives in a FARC disarmament camp (also known as reintegration areas) in the southern state of Cauca, …
Continue reading "Why are former FARC rebels leaving reintegration camps? (Al Jazeera)"
QUITO, ECUADOR - The Colombian peace process was dealt another huge blow last week, after the launch of the long anticipated peace talks with the ELN guerrillas was cancelled Thursday. This move left many people feeling even more concerned about the future of the country and its prospects for peace. Last week, the Colombian government and …
Continue reading "Another Blow to Colombia’s Peace Process (The New Internationalist)"
EL DIAMANTE, COLOMBIA - On 2 October, Colombia has a chance to put an end to a 52-year conflict, as it will hold a referendum on its historic agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). FARC are the largest guerrilla movement involved in the Colombian conflict, having started as a Marxist-Leninist peasant force in …
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA - Ariz Carrillo spent two years and five months locked behind bars at one of Colombia's maximum security prisons, La Tramacua -- a place so renown for its human rights abuses that it has been dubbed "the Guantanamo of Colombia". "For no reason, only because I was a political prisoner. They tortured me …
Kimberley (Michelle) Brown 