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Who Gets to Tell Colombia’s Story? National Museum on Frontline Over Historical Memory

By Richard Emblin - October 19, 2026

At least 30 National Riot Police officers stood outside Colombia’s National Museum on Monday as academics, artists and historians gathered to debate a question that reaches far beyond the objects recently removed from display: who gets to decide how the country remembers its past? The museum was closed, as it is every Monday. But the […]

From Cemetery Duty to a U.S. Indictment: Timochenko’s Name Resurfaces in Maduro Case

By Richard Emblin - October 9, 2026

The image is striking. With machete in hand, Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri, better known by his wartime alias Timochenko, is clearing vegetation and debris among the graves at the San Antonio de Padua cemetery in Pitalito, Huila. The former top commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is there not as a guerrilla leader, […]

Drone attacks hit police in Cauca and Chocó as Colombia’s displacement crisis deepens

By Richard Emblin - September 29, 2026

At least 10 police officers were wounded Tuesday in a series of attacks involving drones and explosives in two regions of Colombia, as armed groups continue to employ unmanned aircraft against security forces and the country records a growing number of mass displacement events. The first attack occurred at the former Tunía toll station in […]

Colombia’s Unfinished Business of Peace: De La Espriella and JEP

By Richard Emblin - September 28, 2026

Ten years after Colombia first signed its historic peace agreement with the FARC, the country’s experiment with transitional justice has reached a critical moment. The anniversary arrives not as a celebration of an uncontested peace, but amid a confrontation over the future of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, or JEP, the tribunal established to investigate […]

‘Timochenko’ Urges De la Espriella to Uphold 2016 Peace Agreement

By The City Paper Staff - July 14, 2026

Former FARC commander Rodrigo Londoño, known by his alias “Timochenko,” returned to Colombia over the weekend and appeared Tuesday before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), ending days of speculation that he might remain in Spain following threats by President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella to seek his imprisonment for life over crimes committed during Colombia’s […]

Explosive Drone Deactivated Near Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport

By The City Paper Staff - May 8, 2026

Colombian authorities have seized and safely deactivated a commercial drone carrying improvised explosive materials just 5.4 kilometers from Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport and the nearby Military Air Transport Command (CATAM), raising fresh security concerns in the capital three weeks before the country’s May 31 presidential election. The discovery marks a significant escalation from recent […]

Carnage along the Pan-American highway after FARC dissidents detonated a bomb killing at least 20 civilians on Saturday. Photo: X

Colombia reels from worst terrorist attack in decades as Petro celebrates birthday

By The City Paper Staff - April 27, 2026

Colombians are expressing outrage and grief after a bombing attributed to dissident factions of the former FARC killed 20 people and left injured 46, marking the country’s deadliest attack in over a decade. The blast on Saturday afternoon tore through a stretch of the Pan-American Highway near Cajibío, in the southwestern department of Cauca, leaving […]

FARC dissident ‘Iván Mordisco’ alive but wounded after major military bombardment

By The City Paper Staff - March 30, 2026

Colombia’s security forces believe FARC dissident leader Iván Mordisco is alive but seriously wounded following a major aerial bombardment in the remote department of Vaupés, dealing a significant blow to one of the country’s most powerful armed groups. Uncertainty over the fate of Mordisco — whose real name is Néstor Gregorio Vera Fernández — mounted […]

Colombia – Ecuador rift widens over cross-border bombings

By The City Paper Staff - March 17, 2026

President Gustavo Petro accused Ecuador on Monday of carrying out bombing raids inside Colombian territory, sharply escalating a diplomatic and trade dispute that has been simmering since January. Petro said “27 charred bodies” have been found near the border and suggested the attacks could not have been carried out by illegal armed groups, though he […]

Indigenous communities caught in armed clashes in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada

By Richard Emblin - March 11, 2026

Colombia’s high-altitude Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta has become the latest flashpoint in the country’s worsening rural security crisis, after armed clashes between illegal groups left Indigenous communities trapped in the crossfire and triggered a humanitarian evacuation mission. Authorities confirmed that at least nine wounded civilians, including two minors, were evacuated following heavy fighting between […]

FARC will release all minors under 15 as part of the peace process with the Colombian government.

Ex-FARC admit to recruiting 18,677 children during Colombia conflict

By Richard Emblin - March 4, 2026

Colombia’s transitional justice system has reached a morally charged milestone. The seven former commanders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) guerrilla have formally accepted responsibility for the recruitment of 18,677 minors during the country’s decades-long internal conflict, acknowledging not only the scale of the practice but also the sexual and reproductive abuses that […]

Medellín Mayor Federico Gutiérrez and Antioquia Governor Andrés Julian Rendón at the Hidroituango power plant. Photo: Gobernación/X

Suspected drone attack disrupts high-level visit to Colombia’s Hidroituango

By The City Paper Staff - March 2, 2026

Colombia’s security forces alerted late Sunday Medellín Mayor Federico Gutiérrez and Antioquia Governor Andrés Julián Rendón to cancel a planned visit to the Hidroituango hydroelectric complex for Monday, March 2, after intelligence warnings of a possible drone attack and credible terrorist threat. The visit, which included a press conference expected to draw around 100 journalists, […]

As Fighting Engulfs Briceño, Colombia, Schools Forced to Close

By The City Paper Staff - January 26, 2026

The school year had barely begun when gunfire forced children in rural northern Colombia to cower under their desks in fear and silence. On the same day students were returning to classrooms after the Christmas and New Year holidays, fighting between illegal armed groups erupted near Briceño, in the northeast of Antioquia. By nightfall, schools […]

Federal Jury Awards Drummond $256 Million in Colombia Defamation Case

By The City Paper Staff - January 19, 2026

A federal jury in the United States has awarded coal producer Drummond Company Inc. $256 million after finding that a prominent human-rights attorney and his associates orchestrated a campaign of false accusations linking the company to paramilitary violence in Colombia. The verdict, delivered on January 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District […]

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, […]

Child Recruitment in Colombia Surges 300 Percent Warns UNICEF

By The City Paper Staff - November 21, 2025

Every 20 hours, somewhere in Colombia, a child vanishes into the ranks of an illegal armed group. That is the grim calculation released this week by UNICEF and the United Nations, which warn that the forced recruitment of minors has surged to levels not seen in decades, undermining Colombia’s efforts to contain its internal conflict. […]