Cartagena’s city center is a vibrant and colorful area full of international visitors. However, the outskirts paint a different story. Here, the invasiones, the shanty towns that surround the main city, are ridden with poverty. The effects of inequality stem beyond economic concerns as...
Americans are still anxiously waiting to find out who will be the 46th president of the United States. But while the results of the 2020 race may still be murky, what this election has made clear is that whoever succeeds President Donald Trump — whether in 2021 or 2025 — will face an uphill...
On Tuesday, August 4, via a short and unassuming tweet, the former president of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe Velez, informed the world that he was placed under house arrest. The news sent shockwaves throughout South America’s political circles and sparked protests across Colombia. Uribe’s house...
According to a recent poll conducted by Invamer, Colombia’s president Ivan Duque is facing a historically low popularity after little over a year in office. The announcement followed months of continued struggles for Alvaro Uribe’s protégé, which include (but are not limited to) his...
Over the last several weeks, Colombia has been making international headlines as social protest engulfed the country. On November 25 — the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women — hundreds of Colombian women went out into the streets to claim their rights and shine a...
Early in the morning on August 28, the former head negotiator for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC), Iván Márquez, announced via a YouTube video the official rearmament of a faction of FARC in what appears to be the eastern plains on the Colombian border with Venezuela and...
A warning to Colombia is that peace, even after 20 years, is not guaranteed. Colombians are just beginning to recover after a car bomb, planted by the country’s last remaining guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), detonated in the capital city of Bogotá on January 17. The...
Thus far, FARC politicians in congress are keeping up their end of the Havana accords and actively participating in Colombia’s democratic process. During the months of August through October of last year, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas transformed into a...
If the exodus continues, the staggering amount of Venezuelan refugees spread throughout the Western Hemisphere could eclipse the total of 6 million that have fled from war in Syria. Numerous countries and regions across the globe are experiencing the consequences of mass migration waves due to...
The new president must choose between respecting the independence of Colombia's judiciary and standing by the innocence of his political mentor. The inauguration of Ivan Duque as Colombia’s new president took place on August 7, on what was an extremely windy afternoon in the capital city of...
Juan Manuel Santos leaves office as one of the most unpopular presidents in Colombia’s modern history. On August 7, the presidency of Juan Manuel Santos — Colombia’s peacemaker — comes to an end after two terms in office. Santos, who turns 67 on August 10, has stated in numerous...
Given that all three centrist candidates failed to secure a place in the second round of Colombia's presidential election, right-wing Ivan Duque is best positioned to form a broad coalition. Back in January, I wrote an article for Fair Observer in the run up to the presidential in election in...
What does Latin America’s bumper election year hold in store for the continent? A spate of elections will make 2018 decisive for Latin America. As the world marches toward a more conservative and even authoritarian future, this year's presidential elections — in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia,...
Polls suggest that the FARC party will receive less than 1% of the popular vote in Colombia's upcoming elections. After finally seeing the end of the longest internal armed conflict in the Western hemisphere, Colombia is set to elect a new congress on March 11 and a new president on May 27. The...
Whoever becomes Colombia’s next president will face significant challenges, including the monumental job of guiding a divided population into a new era of peace. Colombia’s presidential elections, set to take place in the summer of 2018, the country's first since the signing of the 2016...
