Monthly Archives: August 2012

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Peace talks in Colombia – Nine reasons to be optimistic

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Monday confirmed preliminary talks are underway with the FARC to secure peace in Colombia. Official negotiations are scheduled for October. Details are yet to be…

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Dare we dream of peace in Colombia?

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos confirmed Monday evening that his government has entered into exploratory talks with the FARC to negotiate an end to 50 years of conflict. Earlier in…

M-19 guerrillas take the Palacio de Justicia

Colombia’s supreme court threatens free speech

Colombians worry their free speech is under threat following the move by the Supreme Court to charge journalist Cecilia Orozco Tascón with slander. Although no charges have been raised against Duzán,…

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Colombia’s Santos sacks cabinet to save his government

Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos demanded the mass resignation of his cabinet Wednesday in an attempt to re-launch his flailing government, and kick-start the 2014 re-election campaign. After a catastrophic few months for…

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Introduction to Colombian politics

When I first came to Colombia Alvaro Uribe was president, and Juan Manuel Santos was his right-hand man and Defence Minister. By the summer of 2010 Santos had been elected…

General Santoyo and the evil of Pablo Escobar

When General Mauricio Santoyo stood up in a Virginia court room to plead guilty to charges of working with Colombia’s narco-terrorist paramilitaries on Monday, he showed the world that Pablo…

Colombia Politics digest – top stories

This website is dedicated to providing its readers with analysis and commentary on Colombia’s politics. The sheer volume of political stories made public on a daily basis means that, starting…

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Colombia’s ex-president Andrés Pastrana to stand for election in 2014?

Colombia awoke to the news this morning that Conservative ex-President Pastrana was to run for election in 2014. According to the radio station, La W, the ex-president had decided, over…