A magnitude 7.4 earthquake tore through western Colombia on Monday morning, partially collapsing the passenger terminal at Matecaña International Airport in Pereira, injuring residents across at least five cities, and triggering a USGS Orange Alert — the service’s second-highest warning level, signaling that significant casualties and widespread damage are likely. The quake struck at 7:34 a.m. local time on August 10, 2026, with its epicenter 5 km (3.1 miles) east of San José del Palmar in Chocó Department, approximately 280 kilometers (174 miles) west of the capital, Bogotá — and its shaking reached an estimated 34 million people.

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Source: https://www.techtimes.com/articles/323741/20260810/colombia-m74-earthquake-collapses-pereira-airport-terminal-usgs-issues-orange-alert.htm

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With almost all the ballots counted, Abelardo de la Espriella held 49.66% of the vote versus left-wing Senator Ivan Cepeda’s 48.70%.

The 47-year-old’s slender win triggered demonstrations, but will ease ties with Washington and extend a regional right-wing wave centered on “iron fist” security policies.

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Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/colombia-presidential-vote-trump-candidate-wins-sparking-protests/?fbclid=IwY2xjawSr1DBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe9_AC3CgFpbF5-ig1ONU3duCnU1QXpUQ3aej9Ox6uPyLbet0RcwevmcZiwCQ_aem_yZhlZyrpgZnrqslQnZhADg

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Trump blasted Petro in a Truth Social post.

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Source: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/10/19/trump-calls-petro-illegal-drug-dealer-ends-all-payments-subsidies-to-colombia/

The post Trump Calls Petro ‘Illegal Drug Dealer,’ Ends All Payments, Subsidies to Colombia first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

In a press release, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt explained that based on the agreement, “fully drafted IEEPA tariffs and sanctions” would be “held in reserve” and not signed unless the Colombia government failed to honor the agreement.

Leavitt added that “visa sanctions” issued by the State Department would remain in place “until the first planeload of Colombian deportees is successfully returned.” Leavitt also noted that “today’s events make clear to the world that America is respected again.” The press release comes after Colombian President Gustavo Petro backed down on refusing to accept two deportation flights from the U.S. and said he would “send his presidential plane to personally pick up the deported migrants.”

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Source: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/01/26/colombia-agrees-trump-terms-taking-back-illegal-migrants-us-pauses-sanctions-tariffs/

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The government of Colombia launched the deep-water expedition of the San José shipwreck, which is rumored to contain cargo worth billions of dollars, last week.

The galleon sank in 1708 en route to Cartagena, Colombia, after it was ambushed by an English squadron.

Historians believe that roughly 600 people on the ship died, with very few survivors.

The shipwreck is believed to contain 11 million gold and silver coins, along with emeralds and other valuable cargo.

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Source: https://nypost.com/2024/05/27/world-news/expedition-begins-on-holy-grail-shipwreck-full-of-gold-emeralds/

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There were no immediate reports of major damage from the quake, which Colombia’s national geological service reported as a magnitude 6.1.

“It was strong, and lasted a long time, said Adrian Alarcon, 43, who works near the capital’s busy Park 93 district.

“It makes me feel fragile,” he added. “Life changes in a second. You can’t do anything, just run for your life.”

Tragedy struck in the southeast of the capital, where one woman fell to her death out of a window during the quake, Mayor Claudia Lopez said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

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Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/magnitude-59-quake-shakes-colombian-capital-prompting-evacuations-2023-08-17/

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The post Magnitude 6.3 quake shakes Colombian capital, one dead first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Seventeen days after a small aircraft crashed in the Colombian Amazon rainforest, the country is holding its breath over confusing reports that four children have survived the ordeal.

The siblings – 13-year-old Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy, nine-year-old Soleiny Jacobombaire Mucutuy, four-year-old Tien Noriel Ronoque Mucutuy and 11-month-old Cristin Neriman Ranoque Mucutuy – were travelling in a Cessna 206 plane when it crashed on 1 May near the Guaviare province.

Their mother Magdalena Mucutuy, the plane’s pilot, and another passenger died in the accident but the minors were nowhere to be found, the Colombian Air Force said in a statement.

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Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/colombia-amazon-plane-crash-children-rescue-b2341650.html

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Demonstrators take part in a protest against the tax reform of President Ivan Duque’s government in Bogota, Colombia April 28, 2021. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez

Demonstrators take part in a protest against the tax reform of President Ivan Duque’s government in Bogota, Colombia April 28, 2021. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez

Demonstrators hold banners reading “No to the tax reform” as they take part in a protest against the tax reform of President Ivan Duque’s government in Bogota, Colombia April 28, 2021. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez

A woman performs an aerial dance during a protest against the tax reform of President Ivan Duque’s government in Bogota, Colombia April 28, 2021. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez

Thousands of protesters answered calls from Colombia’s biggest unions to fill streets across the country to demonstrate on Wednesday against a controversial government tax reform.

Unions insisted the strike would go ahead despite a court order to postpone the protests on concerns about a third coronavirus peak that is stretching the health system to breaking point. The Andean country has reported more than 2.8 million coronavirus cases, of which 106,482 are active. More than 72,000 people have died.

The proposed tax reform was originally meant to raise about $6 billion, equivalent to 2% of gross domestic product (GDP).

However, earlier on Wednesday finance official Juan Alberto Londono said the government could lower the targeted sum to between 18 trillion and 20 trillion pesos ($4.8 billion to $5.4 billion) as it looks to build consensus among lawmakers.

The government is proposing a suite of new or expanded taxes on individuals and businesses, as well as reducing or eliminating many tax exemptions, including on product sales.

“This protest is legitimate as it represents a national rejection of the economic and social policies of this government,” said Francisco Maltes, president of the Central Union of Workers (CUT).

He said on Facebook the reform would “plunder the pockets of (ordinary) Colombians, while not touching even a hair of the super-rich.”

The reform is crucial for Colombia to keep its investment-grade debt rating, according to the government.

The city of Cali put in place a 1 pm curfew and deployed the army after several buses were burned.

Security forces “will act where incidents of vandalism or violence happen,” said Defense Minister Diego Molano.

Wednesday’s protests are the most recent in a series of marches that began near the end of 2019 against the social and economic policies of President Ivan Duque, who leaves office next year.

Strike leaders will meet on Wednesday afternoon to take a decision about another protest planned for Saturday, Maltes said.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/thousands-colombians-march-protest-government-tax-proposals-2021-04-28/?rpc=401&

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Thousands of civilians have been displaced by combat with fighters that the government of President Nicolas Maduro calls “terrorists.”

General Vladimir Padrino said a temporary unit called an Integrated Operational Defense Zone, or ZODI, would operate in several municipalities of Apure state, where the clashes have taken place.

“We are not going to allow any type of force, be it conventional, irregular, criminal, drug trafficker, etcetera, to come to Venezuelan territory to commit crimes,” Padrino said in a televised statement.

Venezuela’s military maintains a standing ZODI unit for each of its 23 states and the capital, Caracas.

Padrino said eight soldiers had been killed in the fighting, while 34 soldiers had been wounded, nine members of the armed groups had been killed and 33 people were being prosecuted by the military justice system.

Colombia’s Foreign Ministry on Monday urged respect for the rights of the civilian population living in Apure and the neighboring Colombian state of Arauca.

“Armed conflict in the border area of Arauca and Apure is seriously affecting the lives of the civilian population and has forced families to abandon their homes and belongings,” the ministry tweeted.

Opposition critics say the fighters include dissident FARC guerrillas who reject a 2016 peace deal with the Colombian government.

Colombian Defense Minister Diego Molano told newspaper El Tiempo over the weekend that Maduro’s government had become entangled in fights between different groups of the former FARC guerrillas and was in drug trafficking cahoots with some.

Meetings had been held between the Venezuelan armed forces and dissident allies to coordinate an offensive against other ex-FARC members, he said.

“The objective of the operations there is not the protection of the border, it’s the protection of the drug trafficking business,” Molano told the newspaper.

Venezuela denies any links to Colombian guerrillas or drug trafficking groups.

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SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela (Reuters) – Yaidis Colmenares’ tired and gaunt face leaves little need for explanation as to why the desperate Venezuelan mother of three is fleeing her native country for Colombia.

The 37-year-old weighs 19 kilos (42 pounds) less than she did 10 years ago, she says. She could barely afford to buy food with the money she earned selling candy on the metro in Caracas, amid a strict coronavirus quarantine.

Last week, she walked and hitchhiked 800 kilometers (500 miles) to Venezuela’s western border city of San Cristobal in the hope of reaching neighboring Colombia with her 13-year-old son, her eight-year-old daughter, and her one-year-old baby strapped to her chest.

“Look how malnourished I am,” said Colmenares as she walked with a group of 15 people through a park near a major avenue to avoid roadblocks set up by police and the National Guard to enforce a nationwide quarantine.

“Now everything is in dollars. We have to run or we’ll die,” she said, referring to the increasing dollarization of basic goods in Venezuela that makes them inaccessible to the vast majority of the population, who get paid in local currency.

Venezuelans face an increasingly dysfunctional economy in which fuel shortages make basic transportation impossible and basic goods and services are so expensive that most cannot afford them. Simple chores such as house cleaning and washing clothes have become a constant struggle due to the lack of electricity and running water.

The renewed emigration threatens to swell the ranks of the Venezuelan diaspora throughout South America, a refugee crisis of proportions never witnessed in the region.

The United Nations estimates that some 5 million Venezuelans left the country between 2015 and 2019, mostly for other parts of South America, to escape a hyperinflationary economic collapse under President Nicolas Maduro.

This year, at least 100,000 Venezuelans returned to their country as the pandemic shuttered businesses and left those working as informal street vendors unable to make a living.

Those who returned say they were stigmatized by the government for fueling the disease and ended up in a hand-to-mouth existence that was marred by blackouts, crime, and chronic fuel shortages.

Human Rights Watch in a report this week said returned migrants have faced abusive treatment from Venezuelan authorities, including being held in overcrowded quarantine centers with limited access to food and water.

WALKING THROUGH ROADBLOCKS

Colombia’s migration agency this week said Venezuelan migrants started trickling back in via informal crossing points around a month ago. Colombia’s borders officially remain closed until at least Nov. 1.

Director-General Juan Espinosa of the agency said last week the number of Venezuelans seeking refuge in neighboring Colombia could reach around 2 million within three to five months once the border reopens, up from 1.73 million at the end of July.

Some San Cristobal residents try to support the new wave of migrants by offering advice on the shortest routes or helping them avoid roadblocks and checkpoints set up by the police and the National Guard.

When 30 migrants on their way to the Colombian border were stopped by troops on Oct. 12, a group of neighbors arrived and sang the national anthem as they waved a Venezuelan flag. The troops eventually allowed them through.

“Look at all these Venezuelans who are emigrating because of you, Maduro, don’t try to cover up what’s happening,” shouted Ambar Orellana, 27, walking through San Cristobal with her husband and two children in hopes of reaching Peru.

Orellana said bus drivers carrying migrants had to pay off troops to get through roadblocks and that those on foot were charged $20 each.

Venezuela’s information ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the new wave of migration or the accusations of public officials seeking bribes from migrants.

Juana Contreras, a homemaker in her 60s who lives on the road that leads to the border, said she began in recent weeks cooking arepas – traditional Venezuelan corn pancakes – as well as soup with vegetables to give to migrants.

“They leave because they cannot afford to eat or feed their family,” said Contreras. “It is satisfying to do this because we don’t know if we will suddenly have to do the same. It would be very hard at my age.”

(Reporting by Anggy Polanco, additional reporting by Oliver Griffin in Bogota, writing by Brian Ellsworth and Vivian Sequera; editing by Diane Craft)

Source: https://wkzo.com/2020/10/15/despite-covid-19-new-wave-of-venezuelan-migrants-heads-to-colombia/

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