Latest News

Colombia, Ecuador locked in trade dispute as pipeline tariff jumps 900%

By The City Paper Staff - January 27, 2026

Ecuador has sharply increased tariffs on Colombian crude oil transported through its pipeline system, deepening a trade and energy dispute between the two Andean neighbours that has already disrupted electricity exports and bilateral commerce. Ecuador said on Tuesday it had raised the tariff paid by Colombia for each barrel of oil transported through the state-owned […]

Colombia, Ecuador in trade and energy spat after Noboa announces 30% “security” tariff

By The City Paper Staff - January 22, 2026

Colombia and Ecuador have started exchanging trade retaliations after Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa announced a 30% “security” tariff on imports from Colombia, escalating tensions between Andean neighbours over border security cooperation. Noboa said the measure would take effect on Feb. 1 and would remain in place until Colombia shows “real commitment” to jointly tackle drug […]

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

By The City Paper Staff - January 5, 2026

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 […]

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

By Richard Emblin - January 3, 2026

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 […]

Colombia’s Petro Calls Chile’s President-Elect José Kast a “Nazi”

By The City Paper Staff - December 15, 2025

Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, triggered yet another diplomatic rupture in South America on Sunday after denouncing Chile’s president-elect, José Antonio Kast, as a “Nazi,” rejecting the legitimacy of Chile’s democratic choice and sharply diverging from the cautious language typically observed between regional leaders. Petro’s remarks came within hours of Kast’s decisive victory in Chile’s presidential […]

Colombia’s FM Snubs Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize After Daring Escape

By The City Paper Staff - December 11, 2025

Colombia’s Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio declared Thursday that the Government of President Gustavo Petro is “not in agreement” with the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado – a position that signals how Colombia remains a close ideological ally of one of the hemisphere’s most authoritarian states. In remarks that were […]

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

By The City Paper Staff - December 9, 2025

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, […]

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

By Richard Emblin - December 1, 2025

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 […]

María Corina Machado Issues Post-Maduro “Freedom Manifesto”

By Richard Emblin - November 19, 2025

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 […]

Colombia Confirms 15 Minors Killed in Army Bombings Against FARC Dissidents

By The City Paper Staff - November 18, 2025

The Colombian government of President Gustavo Petro has acknowledged that at least 15 minors recruited by illegal armed groups were killed in four military operations carried out between August and November, after a report by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine revealed a higher number of child casualties than initially disclosed by the Defence Ministry. […]

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

By Richard Emblin - November 13, 2025

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 […]

Palace of Justice: Forty Years, Four Peace Processes, and No Peace

By Luis Guillermo Plata - November 9, 2025

I remember perfectly the morning of November 6, 1985. I was 18 years old, a high school conscript serving in the Presidential Guard Battalion. Chaos reigned. Commanders shouted orders as we deployed in trucks and on foot – not only toward Plaza de Bolívar, but to different corners of Bogotá. No one knew where the […]

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

By Richard Emblin - November 6, 2025

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 […]

US Hits Seventh Narco-Boat Off Colombia, Blurring Lines Between Ally and Adversary

By The City Paper Staff - November 5, 2025

The United States carried out its seventh missile strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in the Eastern Pacific near Colombia on Tuesday, the latest in a rapidly expanding maritime campaign that has killed at least 67 people and is drawing Colombia into the same operational battlefield long reserved for President Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuela. In a […]

Did Venezuela’s ex-spymaster Hugo Carvajal Spark OFAC Sanctions Against Petro?

By The City Paper Staff - October 27, 2025

The U.S. Treasury’s unprecedented decision to sanction Colombian President Gustavo Petro and his inner circle has sparked speculation that recent testimony by Venezuela’s former spy chief, Hugo “El Pollo” Carvajal, may have cemented the move. Carvajal, once a powerful general in Hugo Chávez’s intelligence services, pleaded guilty in June 2025 to drug trafficking and narco-terrorism […]

U.S. Senate Warns of Hezbollah Expansion in Colombia and Venezuela

By The City Paper Staff - October 23, 2025

Hezbollah’s growing foothold in Latin America has found its epicenter in Venezuela and along the porous 2,000-km long Colombia-Venezuela border, where U.S. lawmakers and former counterterrorism officials warn the militant group has built financial and logistical networks with the support of the Maduro regime and illegal armed groups. “Venezuela is a willing safe haven for […]