Sunday, February 8, 2026

Latest News

Colombia in a Breath: Wind Instruments That Tell the Story of a Nation

By Richard Emblin -

Musical instruments are far more than tools for producing sound: they embody the cultural identity of a territory, carrying spiritual meanings, collective memory, and the deep-rooted expressions that shape a community’s history. Colombia en un Aliento 2026 (Colombia in a Breath 2026) invites audiences on a sonic journey through the country’s wind instruments, encouraging reflection […]

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Bogotá’s No Car and Motorcycle Day Returns on 5 February

By Richard Emblin -

On Thursday 5 February, Bogotá will once again ask its citizens to imagine the city differently. For 16 hours, from 5.00 a.m to 9.00 p.m., private cars and motorcycles will largely disappear from the streets as Colombia’s capital marks the 28th edition of its Día Sin Carro y Sin Moto. The annual pause, approved by […]

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Bogotá declares Metro Line 2 tender void after no bids received

By The City Paper Staff -

The Bogotá mayoralty has declared the tender process for the construction of the capital’s second metro line void after no bids were submitted by the deadline, Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán said on Tuesday, highlighting ongoing challenges facing Colombia’s most ambitious infrastructure project. Galán said none of the prequalified consortia presented final offers before the cutoff […]

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Trump floats U.S. military action against Colombia after Maduro capture

By The City Paper Staff -

U.S. President Donald Trump escalated rhetoric toward Colombia on Sunday, suggesting that a U.S. military operation against the country — which he said could be dubbed “Operation Colombia” — was a possibility following Washington’s capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump described Colombian President Gustavo Petro as “a […]

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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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Bogotá Switches On a Season of Lights, Art, and Night Cycling

By The City Paper Staff -

Every December, Bogotá transforms. Streets glow with constellations of LED lights, plazas turn into theatrical stages, and entire neighborhoods feel suspended somewhere between festive nostalgia and big-city spectacle. But this year’s celebration, dubbed Navidad es Cultura, is bigger, brighter, and more imaginative than ever before. Running from December 5 to 23, it invites locals and […]

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Colombia records 40,663 murders under Petro, surpassing Santos and Duque

By The City Paper Staff -

Colombia has recorded 40,663 homicides during the first three years of President Gustavo Petro’s government, surpassing the totals reported under the administrations of Iván Duque and Juan Manuel Santos, according to a report published Tuesday by the Centro de Paz y Seguridad of Universidad Externado. The report documents killings between August 2022 and August 2025, […]

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Álvaro Clavijo Wins 2025 Best Restaurant in Latin America with El Chato

By The City Paper Staff -

Before he became Latin America’s most celebrated chef, Álvaro Clavijo spent years doing what few aspiring cooks romantically imagine: scrubbing plates in the basements of Parisian kitchens. He had left Bogotá after a brief, unsatisfying year studying architecture at Los Andes University. In Paris he dabbled in photography, learned impeccable French, and quickly discovered that […]

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Bogotá’s Teatro Mayor Presents 2026 Season, Germany Guest Nation

By The City Paper Staff -

The Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo has unveiled its 2026 programme, outlining 116 productions and 178 performances across opera, dance, theatre, music, circus and family shows. The announcement reinforces the theatre’s role as one of Bogotá’s leading cultural institutions, bringing national and international artists to audiences across the capital. A highlight of the year […]

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China’s Ruifeng Lin Wins Bogotá’s First International Violin Competition

By The City Paper Staff -

Bogotá brought its inaugural International Violin Competition to a rousing close on Saturday night, capping a week of performances that reshaped the city’s classical music landscape and signaled the arrival of a new cultural tradition. The grand finale, held at the Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo, unfolded as both a celebration of virtuosity and […]

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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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Bogotá Opens First International Violin Competition With Latin American Celebration

By The City Paper Staff -

Bogotá is preparing for a milestone in its cultural calendar as it inaugurates the first edition of the Bogotá International Violin Competition on October 30, an ambitious event that aims to position the Colombian capital on the global map of classical music. Organized by the Mayor’s Office through the Secretariat of Culture, Recreation and Sport, […]

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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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U.S. Treasury Puts Colombia’s Petro and Close Circle on ‘Clinton List’

By The City Paper Staff -

The U.S. Government moved aggressively against Colombian President Gustavo Petro and his inner circle on Friday, imposing sanctions that target his financial and political support network as relations between Washington and Bogotá struck a new low. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), also known as the Clinton List, designated Petro, First Lady […]

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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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Bogotá: “Criminal structures” behind Congress of the Peoples protest

By The City Paper Staff -

A wave of coordinated protests and building occupations by the social movement known as the “Congress of the Peoples” has raised alarms in Bogotá this week, after Interior Minister Armando Benedetti claimed that “criminal structures” are behind the unrest, pointing to alleged infiltration by armed groups, most notably the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla. The […]

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