Tuesday, March 10, 2026

Latest News

Beatriz González: The Artist of Colombia’s Political Memory (1932-2026)

By Richard Emblin -

Beatriz González, one of Latin America’s most influential contemporary artists, whose boldly colored, deliberately unrefined paintings and installations confronted Colombia’s long history of political violence, public mourning and social inequality – while also reshaping the country’s most important public art collection – died on Jan. 9, 2026, at her home in Bogotá. She was 93. […]

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Right-wing candidate De la Espriella leads Colombia presidential race, shows latest poll

By Richard Emblin -

Far-right independent candidate Abelardo De la Espriella, widely known by the nickname “El Tigre” (The Tiger), has taken the lead in Colombia’s presidential race five months ahead of the election, according to a new poll by AtlasIntel published by Semana magazine. The survey places De la Espriella, founder of the pro-democracy movement Defensores de la […]

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Democracy Deferred: Did Washington Abandon María Corina Machado?

By Richard Emblin -

The extraction of Nicolás Maduro on Saturday was meant to signal the end of an era. Instead, it has exposed an uncomfortable truth that may loom over Washington weeks and months after the “shock-and-awe” attacks in central Caracas have waned from headlines: was Venezuela’s democratic opposition sidelined at the very moment it appeared closest to […]

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Trump: U.S. partnership to make Venezuelans “rich, independent and safe”

By Richard Emblin -

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the United States would “run” Venezuela until a “safe, proper and judicious transition” of power is completed, following a U.S. military operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Speaking at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago residence in […]

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Trump praises “brilliant” military operation against Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro

By Richard Emblin -

U.S. President Donald Trump has hailed as “brilliant” the U.S. military operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, as explosions were reported in Caracas early Saturday. Governments across the Americas and Europe are reacting to the arrest of the Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. In a brief telephone interview with […]

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Stain on Hay: Should María Corina Machado Refuse the Literary Festival?

By Richard Emblin -

For a literary festival, silence can be more revealing than speech. The decision by three writers to withdraw from the 2026 Hay Festival in Cartagena over the presence of María Corina Machado, this year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the most prominent figure in Venezuela’s democratic opposition, has exposed a paradox at the heart of […]

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Hard-Left Candidate Iván Cepeda Leads Poll for Colombia’s 2026 Election

By Richard Emblin -

Senator Iván Cepeda of the ruling Historic Pact coalition has emerged as the early front-runner in Colombia’s 2026 presidential race, according to a nationwide Invamer poll released Sunday by Caracol TV and Blu Radio. The survey – the first major measurement since the lifting of Colombia’s recent polling restrictions – places the left-wing candidate at […]

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Lines on Stone: The Millennial Rock Art of the La Lindosa Range

By Richard Emblin -

At the eastern fringes of the Andes, where the Orinoco River Basin unfurls in an ondulating canvas of green, punctuated by majestic rivers and sandstone mesas, lies one of the world’s most astonishing open-air galleries of human existence. The Serranía de La Lindosa, in the department of Guaviare, is a monumental tableau carved by nature […]

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María Corina Machado Issues Post-Maduro “Freedom Manifesto”

By Richard Emblin -

As the USS Gerald R. Ford navigates uncomfortably close to the Venezuelan coastline and some 15,000 U.S. Marines remain stationed across Caribbean waters, Venezuela’s political crisis has entered a volatile new phase. In Caracas, Nicolás Maduro is publicly calling for peace and dialogue — even quoting John Lennon’s “Imagine” and delivering rally slogans in English […]

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USS Gerald Ford Enters the Caribbean: What Next for Venezuela?

By Richard Emblin -

The arrival of the USS Gerald Ford in Caribbean waters has raised the stakes in the tense relationship between the United States and Venezuela. The aircraft carrier – the most advanced and powerful in the U.S. Navy – traveled for more than two weeks from the Mediterranean to take up position near South America, joining […]

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A Landscape of Loss: Forty Years After Armero

By Richard Emblin -

Forty years after the catastrophe that erased Armero from the map, the landscape where the town once stood has taken on the quiet, uncanny stillness of an eroded manuscript. Vegetation has woven itself into the skeletal remains of walls and foundations, reclaiming what the earth so violently seized on the night of November 13, 1985. […]

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Colombia Marks 40 Years Since Palace of Justice Siege by M-19

By Richard Emblin -

Forty years after one of the darkest chapters in Colombia’s modern history, the country is commemorating the 1985 Palace of Justice siege amid fierce controversy over President Gustavo Petro’s attempts to reinterpret and elevate the legacy of the M-19 — the guerrilla to which he once belonged and which unleashed one of the bloodiest attacks […]

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EU Leaders Ditch Santa Marta Summit With U.S. Sanctions on Petro

By Richard Emblin -

The upcoming EU-CELAC summit in Santa Marta, billed as Colombia’s most ambitious diplomatic event in over a decade, is now being reshaped by a cascade of cancellations from European leaders following U.S. sanctions against President Gustavo Petro. What was expected to unite more than 60 heads of state from Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean […]

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City of Whispering Walls: Inside Bogotá’s Most Haunted Homes

By Richard Emblin -

In Bogotá, the past is never fully at rest. It lingers in courtyards and stairwells, in shuttered colonial mansions and dimly lit gardens, whispering through cracked adobe walls. Nowhere is this spectral presence more palpable than in the city’s oldest quarters, where the cobblestones have absorbed centuries of triumphs, tragedies, and the uncanny footprints of […]

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Colombia Court Overturns Uribe Conviction, Declares Ex-President Innocent

By Richard Emblin -

Colombia’s Superior Tribunal of Bogotá has overturned the conviction of former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez, declaring him innocent of bribery and witness tampering in one of the country’s most divisive political trials in decades. The ruling by the tribunal’s Criminal Chamber revoked an earlier judgment by Bogotá’s 44th Circuit Court, which in August sentenced Uribe […]

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Colombian Politicians React to Trump’s Tariff Threat and Aid Suspension

By Richard Emblin -

U.S President Donald Trump triggered a political firestorm in Colombia after announcing on his social media platform – Truth Social – the immediate suspension of all financial aid and imposition of punitive tariffs on Colombian exports. The decision came after he branded President Gustavo Petro an “illegal drug leader.” Trump’s extraordinary statements mark one of […]

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