Turmoil in Colombia

[Hervé]

Venezuela tells military to prepare for potential war with Colombia

By Paul Antonopoulos
On Nov 30, 2019

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced that Colombia and the United States Southern Command were preparing provocative acts for an armed conflict at the borders between Venezuela and Colombia.

“I have information that the Colombian government with the Southern Command, were trying to divert Colombia’s attention from the popular revolt, and is thinking of provocative acts again on the Venezuelan border. All Bolivarian National Armed Forces must be put into action and on alert. I have first-rate information that a set of provocations is intended for armed conflict,” Maduro said.

Maduro issued the statements during an act with rail workers, from which he ordered the Armed Forces to prepare for defense.

On November 14, Maduro asked police authorities to be alert to the alleged sending of terrorist groups by the Colombian government to attack Venezuela.

On repeated occasions, the Venezuelan government has blamed Colombia for preparing an attack through false flag actions.

Meanwhile, Colombian President Iván Duque accused Maduro of protecting a “narco terrorist gang”.

On September 3, Maduro activated the orange alert on the Venezuelan border with Colombia.

Meanwhile, after seven days of protests, Colombia shows no sign of improvement and makes clear the failure of peace agreements between the government and social leaders.

The economic measures has made President Iván Duque disapproval reach 62% of the population, which is strengthening the Colombian leader’s resignation, mainly due to the scenario of violence and breach of peace agreements, as well as announcements and economic projects.

Colombian economist Manuel Martínez, a doctoral student in economics and a researcher at the Center for Economic Situation Studies (CECON) at the State University of Campinas, said that he believes this whole situation is linked to current internal and external problems.

“Colombia has been going through a very deep process of trade, economic and labor liberalization reforms since the 1990s and deepened in the 2000s,” he explained.

In Colombia, these liberal reforms deepened with the backing of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and later, that of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, said the expert.

“Today, Colombia is a country that, despite having relatively high growth relative to Latin America, its results are totally linked to the absorption of financial capital that maintains its profitability from fictitious capital,” he added.

In addition to these problems, the country still faces an unemployment rate of over 10% of the population. Already 44% of workers earn less than a minimum wage per month , according to Minister Alicia Arango.

[Bill Ryan]

More trouble in Colombia.

• https://bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-54078852

There's an embedded video on the BBC page, but here it is on YouTube. (It's not easy to watch. )

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=YNL2OTsF9SM

Colombia protests: Death of man tasered by police sparks deadly clashes

At least seven people have been killed in protests in Colombia as outrage spreads over the death of a man who was pinned to the ground and repeatedly tasered by police in Bogotá.

Video of the incident shows 46-year-old Javier Ordóñez begging the officers to stop and telling them "I am choking".

The officers were arresting him for allegedly breaking social distancing rules by drinking with friends.

He was taken to a police station and later moved to hospital, where he died.

What's the latest on the protests?

At least seven people have died in the protests in the capital, Bogotá, in in nearby Soacha.

Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo said five of those who died had been shot. He also offered a reward for information leading to the capture of "the perpetrators of the murders".

Bogotá Mayor Claudia López said 248 people had been injured, of which 58 had received gunshot wounds. Ms López added that more than 100 police officers had also been hurt.

She said that no one had ordered police to shoot at protesters, especially not in an indiscriminate way, but that there was evidence that that was what had happened in some areas.



The protests were centred on the neighbourhood of Engativá, where police arrested Mr Ordóñez.

Hundreds of protesters clashed with officers outside the police post where Mr Ordóñez was held. More than 40 such posts, small police stations dotted across the city which often consist of only one room, were attacked and 17 were burnt down.

There were also protests in Soacha, south of Bogotá, in Colombia's second biggest city, Medellín, and in the city of Pereira. More than 70 vehicles were damaged, among them nine public buses, which were set alight.

Defence Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo said 1,600 extra police would be deployed to Bogotá to tackle the protests.

What triggered the protests?

The protests broke out after video emerged of the arrest in the early hours of Wednesday of Javier Ordóñez in Engativá.



The video shows Mr Ordóñez pinned to the ground by two police officers in a residential street.

One of the officers repeatedly uses his taser on Mr Ordóñez, who can be heard saying "enough please, enough, no more, please" and "I'm choking".

The officers continue to kneel on Mr Ordóñez and continue to use the taser.

The person who is recording the incident on his phone, can also be heard pleading with the officers. "He's telling you 'please', we're recording you, don't continue... why do you continue harming him if he's said 'please'?," the man recording the video says.

The last thing the video shows is a third officer arriving.

Mr Ordóñez was taken to a local police post and was already unconscious by the time his friend arrived at the post to ask for him.

"When I arrived, my friend was practically dead, he was not moving. So I began to yell at police and told them, 'please help him, let's take him to the hospital'," Juan David Uribe told Reuters TV.

Mr Ordóñez was transferred to a local hospital where doctors declared him dead a short time later.

The cause of his death has not yet been made public, but Mr Ordóñez's sister-in-law said the family had been told that he had been tasered 12 times. "They told us that a person can endure more or less four," she added.

What lead to his arrest?

Mr Ordóñez, a father of two who was about to graduate as a lawyer, was socialising with friends in his flat on the night of the incident.



His friends say that when they ran out of alcohol, they went out to stock up. They say that on their return they were stopped by police who told them they would be fined for breaking social distancing rules and drinking in the street.

It is not clear how that situation ended in Mr Ordóñez being pinned to the ground and tasered.

The video shows a quiet street and only two other voices can be heard urging the police politely to stop.

What reaction has there been?

The two police officers have been suspended. Defence Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo said there would be an internal investigation into the incident. The case is also under investigation by the prosecutors' office.

President Iván Duque said there would a "rigorous investigation".

The mayor of Bogotá, Claudia López, condemned what she called "unacceptable police brutality" but she also urged protesters to refrain from vandalism and violence. "Destroying the city won't put an end to police abuses," the left-wing mayor said.

There has been outrage on social media, where the video of Mr Ordóñez being tasered is being widely shared and the hashtag #ColombiaLivesMatter is trending. Many are comparing what happened to Mr Ordóñez to the case of George Floyd, whose death in police custody in the US led to a wave of protests against police brutality.

What's the track record of the police?

According to Mayor López, there have been 137 complaints of police brutality in Bogotá this year. Ms López has urged the police to investigate all the complaints.

It is not the first time the capital has seen widespread protests against police brutality.

In November, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in memory of Dilan Cruz, a student who died after being hit by a projectile fired by riot police during an anti-government protest.

And in 2011, there was an outcry after a 16-year-old graffiti artist was shot dead by police after spray painting at a bridge. The police officer behind that shooting was sentenced to 37 years in prison in 2016.

[Valerie Villars]

You're right. That was not easy to watch. I do not now, and will never, understand that kind of a sadistic streak used against any living thing. It would be impossible to be "compliant" while being tased.

It would be like asking an electroshock victim to lie still.

Anger is a higher level emotion than hopelessness and I am glad there is anger. Mind you, I didn't say violence. I just said anger.

It's a wonder any of us are staying sane right now, with all of this turmoil. It's really a miracle.

[Bill Ryan]

Cancel Culture has reached Colombia now. (Maybe with some justification in this case?)

• https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990628000194

‘527 Years of Humiliation’: Indigenous Activists Topple Statue of ‘Genocidal’ 16-Century Conquistador in Colombia

18 Sept, 2020


Angry activists destroyed a statue of 16th-century Spanish conquistador Sebastian de Belalcazar in Colombia.

The incident follows a wave of similar attacks on historical monuments in the US.

Videos from the scene show activists pulling down the large equestrian statue on a hill near the Western town of Popayan, cheering after it falls from a high plinth. They stood on the sculpture as it was lying on the ground and hit it with rocks. Police officers in riot gear were present nearby but did not interfere.

According to reports, the activists were members of the Guambiano indigenous community, also known as Misak. Local community leader Martha Peralta said that Belalcazar was responsible for the “genocide” of the local population.

She added that the destruction of the statue was “an act of courage after the 527 [years] of humiliation”, likely referring to the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1493.

She wrote on social media that the action was a way of “reclaiming the memory of the ancestors killed and enslaved by the elites”.

The incident follows a wave of statue-toppling that started in the US and has continued throughout several major Western nations, along with protests for racial justice.

Black Lives Matter activists and their allies have been destroying and defacing statues of Confederate generals and other historical figures linked to slavery and colonialism. The movement became a topic of contentious debate in the US, receiving both praise and criticism for its messaging and methods.

Belalcazar led military expeditions into modern Colombia and Ecuador. He founded several cities, including Popayan, and played a major role in establishing Ecuador’s capital, Quito.

[Eva2]

Someone I know on FB posted this - A message from Colombia. I hope this is an ok place to post:

'The Snake that moves under time and space within Colombia, inside Brazil, inside Bolivia, below Chile, Mexico, Guatemala.... below Latin America and the world is a river of conscience that can no longer be stopped ..
Genocides continue, damage to Earth, water damage, mass and collective deception, ignorance, deep sleep and loyalty to the barbarism of millions still, massacres, oppression, murders, disappearances, rapes to human rights, the deceit of political systems, the slavery of economic and religious systems, the barbaricity that currently dye Colombia and the entire history of these countries and the world of blood, manipulation and destruction.
But the days of this genocidal paramilitary state in Colombia and this monster system in the world are numbered and its deployment of war and death will fall and the leaders and actors of this deep obecation, madness and darkness will fall.
The Rainbow Serpent has been moving for a while now, it came to stay thousands of years under these territories and completely transform the history of slavery of the Human Being.
The entire matrix of deceit is starting to destabilize and we will see it break more and more and break through the irreversible currents of life force.
Those who hold power will lose it. The kidnapping of the human conscience is over.
The water dam has cracks; it will break, the water has more power than any of them imagined and will storm through the new generations transforming it all.
This is just beginning. Live all the transfers that generate it inside and out.
Long live National Unemployment, Long live planetary unemployment, Long live Universal Unemployment...... Juajuajua.... Long live art, Long live music, Live the new generations awake, Live all those who still sing the song of the heart, Live the efforts of transformation each one makes within himself, Live collective transformation efforts, Live ancestral tribes and the memory and engineering of their ample wisdom, the teaching we inherit from resilience and community consciousness that support the return of beauty,.
Live contemporary tribes around the planet that create and generate new systems of life, liberation and conscience, Live all individuals acting from the place of each, Live all who enrich the thought and spirit of the human being, Living the power of accumulation of all individual and collective efforts, Long live the return of essence, connection to life, love and infinite wisdom that dwells deep in nature itself.
Strength, strength, connection to tour, and Luminous Insurance... Muakaaaaa.'

[Bill Ryan]

From DD Geopolitics:

https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/185375

Colombia votes today in one of the most consequential elections in recent history, a referendum on whether the nation continues left-wing President Gustavo Petro's "Total Peace" approach or pivots to aggressive military crackdowns.

THE CANDIDATES:

Iván Cepeda (Left): A 63-year-old senator, philosopher, and human rights activist who leads polls. Offers continuity with Petro's social programs and peace negotiations with armed groups. His support comes from Petro's governing coalition.

Abelardo de la Espriella (Far Right): A combative criminal lawyer and outsider who models himself after Javier Milei and Nayib Bukele. Rising rapidly in late polling. Promises mega-prisons, aggressive crackdowns on crime, military confrontation with armed groups before any talks. Has pledged to join Trump's Americas Counter Cartel initiative.

Paloma Valencia (Center-Right): Backed by former president Álvaro Uribe. Positioned as the institutional conservative candidate. Also committed to Trump's Counter Cartel approach.

Over 41.4 million Colombians are voting. No candidate is expected to reach 50%, likely triggering a runoff in June. The election determines Colombia's response to decades of armed conflict, spiraling violence, and narco-trafficking.

Petro was the first leftist president in Colombian history. His tenure has been mixed: praised for social programs, criticized for inability to control rising violence and gang activity. His allies have faced corruption scandals.

[Ravenlocke]

EL MERIDIANO

Translated from Spanish

#Colombia | President Gustavo Petro's statement following the presidential election results once again sparked national controversy after he announced that he does not recognize the outcomes of the electoral pre-count released after voting day, which positioned Abelardo De la Espriella as the winner in the first round over Iván Cepeda.

Through his declaration, Petro asserted that the transmitted count “has no binding force” and questioned the transparency of the software used in the process, pointing to alleged modifications in the algorithms during the last week and the inclusion of nearly 800,000 IDs that, he claimed, do not appear in the official census. #ElMeridianoTeUbica
@petrogustavo

@Registraduria

https://x.com/elmeridiano_co/status/2061240875162698085

La Jornada

Translated from Spanish
🗳️ 🇨🇴 #Colombia | Leftist Iván Cepeda seeks to win elections today

This Sunday, the elections are taking place.

He asserts that “just like in Mexico, for the good of the country, first the poor.”

Aída Quilcué, an indigenous Nasa woman, is his running mate for vice president.

Read more here 👇


https://x.com/lajornadaonline/status...08722294743251

[Ravenlocke]

Carlos Montero

Translated from Spanish
President #Colombia🇨🇴,
@petrogustavo
, does not accept the results of the electoral count that place Abelardo de la Espriella as the most voted candidate in the first round.



Translated from Spanish
The so-called transmitted count has no binding force. Its data are not public norm. As president, I do not accept the results of the pre-count from the private firm of the Bautista brothers, because the algorithms of the counting and scrutiny software should have remained static,

https://x.com/CMonteroOficial/status...44772358951422

[Ravenlocke]

Daniel Mayakovski

Translated from Spanish
As a young man, he used to grab cats, tie five firecrackers to their bodies, and blow them up, hoping they'd fly... but you can imagine what actually happened.

This psychopath is named Abelardo de la Espriella, the fascist handpicked by the US to be Colombia's next president under its new Monroe Doctrine, in which it's bringing the worst Nazi scum of Latin America to power through rigged elections.

These are the criminals spawned by capitalism, the standard-bearers of the US's "freedom," psychopaths who could easily turn into dictators in waiting and wipe out half the population just to please their Yankee master.

https://x.com/DaniMayakovski/status/2062077830935069118

[Ravenlocke]

Daniel Mayakovski

Translated from Spanish
The new Monroe Doctrine that the US wants to bring to Latin America with rigged elections like those in Honduras or now Colombia was announced by Trump's deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller:

"The world is governed by force. The US uses its military to protect its interests in its hemisphere, in our backyard; to trade, they need our permission."

https://x.com/DaniMayakovski/status/2062080079321039332

[Ravenlocke]

Daniel Mayakovski

Translated from Spanish
The CIA created credible fake elections, funding campaigns of both the winner and the symbolic opposition; the OAS accepted the elections as democratic... but the CIA already knew the winner 4 days before the elections.

This declassified CIA document reveals how the CIA organizes fake elections and uses "democracy" as a staged play. In the 1960s, in Bolivia, the CIA literally fabricated a theatrical scenario with the 2 bought-off political sides.

To make the rigging believable and for people to believe they were truly opposed, they funded both sides and made them clash as "enemies"... but it was all a lie; they were 2 puppets, and the CIA already knew the outcome of the "elections"... 4 days before they were held.

Coincidentally, right when the Trump administration announced a new Monroe Doctrine in Latin America, election riggings occurred and brought their puppets to power in Honduras, in Chile, in Argentina... Is Colombia next?

https://x.com/DaniMayakovski/status/2062084695081275652

[Ravenlocke]

La Catrina Norteña

Translated from Spanish
🚨 UNIVERSITY STUDENTS GO ALL OUT AGAINST TRUMP'S FAR-RIGHT CANDIDATE

‘Abelardo, fascist, you are the terrorist’.

This after the tremendous fraud he pulled off in the first round with the help of the United States and
@alitomorenoc
...

📽
@IsabelVeraPacto

https://x.com/catrina_nortena/status...10215881011608

[Ravenlocke]

The Hindu

Colombians began voting in a presidential runoff on Sunday (June 21, 2026), choosing between a hard-right, White House-backed lawyer and a leftist senator to decide the fate of a stumbling peace process and strained ties with Washington.

https://x.com/the_hindu/status/2068724553845703138

https://x.com/AJEnglish/status/2068635418380103927

Orlando J. Pérez

#Colombia 95% counted

@ABDELAESPRIELLA
49.93%
@IvanCepedaCast

48.43% A difference of 367,691 votes. Closer than expected, but
@ABDELAESPRIELLA
is in the driver’s seat


https://x.com/Perez1oj/status/2068818951274889282

[Ravenlocke]

BreakThrough News

Colombian political activist Beto Coral was detained by HSI agents in Phoenix last Tuesday after publicly speaking out against Trump-backed presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed the memo declaring Coral “deportable,” noting that despite his pending asylum application, allowing Coral to stay “undermines US foreign policy interests in Colombia’s democratic processes.”

Trump has expressed strong support for the far-right de la Espriella in Sunday’s runoff election, and many Colombians have accused the administration of interference.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has demanded Coral’s release, calling him a “political prisoner.”

On Saturday, BT spoke to Coral’s former partner Tatiana Camacho, who has been in contact with him since his arrest. Camacho says deportation back to Colombia would bring “imminent risk” to Coral’s life

https://x.com/BTnewsroom/status/2068760885460381999

[Ravenlocke]

Max Blumenthal reposted

The Grayzone

Jun 20
Colombians slam interference by Trump and Noboa

The Grayzone visits Huila, Colombia, to hear what voters think about Trump's backing of the ultra-right candidate Abeldardo De La Espriella, and interference by Ecuador's US-backed president Daniel Noboa

https://x.com/TheGrayzoneNews/status...83926234628208

[Ravenlocke]

Max Blumenthal

The Bautista brothers are convicted fraudsters who own the private off-shore company that manages Colombia's voting software

Their company botched Colombian elections in 2014 and 2022, when 400,000 votes for Petro's party went missing

Before any official tally, Trump and Israel-backed De La Espriella only leads by 250,694 votes






Gustavo Petro

Translated from Spanish
With the same data from the registry office, the pre-count result at this moment is 49.3 for Abelardo and 49 for Cepeda.

Neither can be proclaimed president.

It is the scrutiny that determines who is the president. I obey the judges.

Calm among the citizenry, please. Reality gives us a country split down the middle, and foreign interference taking away our freedom.

A National Agreement is imposed if we want to maintain the Homeland and peace in the years to come.

Translated from Spanish
I warned that the software of the Bautista brothers was vulnerable according to the 2018 Council of State ruling and that it should be replaced with public software.

I timely requested an expert audit of the Bautista brothers' software, and the registrar did not allow it.

Well, today we have evidence of a change in IP addresses of several servers of the national registry.

This means that the software was compromised and others wrote data for polling stations and voting posts.

The only entity in the world capable of doing that is the state of Israel.

I will pass to the judges with precision the changed servers so that they conduct the expert audit of the electoral software that has not been carried out, to do it in the very process of scrutiny.

I request a scrutiny of all polling stations and a new count of all votes with a study of vulnerabilities in the electoral software and the stations that suffered impacts.

To the entire population, I request calm and restraint to achieve a thorough and well-done scrutiny that reflects the true decision of the citizenry.

I maintain that it is time, before letting hatred win, to seek a national dialogue among the fundamental political currents that divide Colombian society in half, whatever the real outcome of the scrutiny may be.


https://x.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/2068922337613779124

[Ravenlocke]

The Specter

🇨🇴 | Unrest in Colombia after far-right candidate claims victory in disputed elections.

Mass protests have erupted across Colombia after Trump-backed far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella claimed a razor-thin victory.

Preliminary counts show de la Espriella leading by fewer than 250,000 votes. Leftist Senator Iván Cepeda announced that party lawyers are contesting 27% of the ballot boxes due to irregularities.

'Outgoing President Gustavo Petro leveled serious allegations of foreign meddling, claiming Israeli intelligence interfered in the electoral process.

The far-right leader’s victory speech has already escalated tensions. De la Espriella issued a chilling openly urged his supporters to "confront" anyone questioning the vote.

His aggressive rhetoric mirrors his recent pledge to Donald Trump, where he vowed to use his platform to target the left and aggressively dismantle progressive political movements.

De la Espriella, a millionaire lawyer turned ultra-conservative influencer, anchors his hardline platform in deep-rooted alliances with traditional corporate elites and the global far-right.

Known for defending figures linked to right-wing paramilitary groups, he campaigns on aggressive military crackdowns and mega-prisons.

https://x.com/contra_press/status/2069057823301149061

[Ravenlocke]

Al Mayadeen English

Mass protests have erupted across Colombia after preliminary results from Sunday's presidential runoff placed conservative candidate Abelardo de la Espriella ahead of left-wing candidate Iván Cepeda by a narrow margin.

President Gustavo Petro has called for a full recount of all ballots, an investigation into irregularities in the electoral system, and a review of polling stations that experienced disruptions during voting.

Petro also raised concerns about possible interference by "Israel", saying there is evidence that servers belonging to Colombia's National Registry were hacked.

#Colombia #LatinAmerica #GustavoPetro #ColombiaElections

https://x.com/MayadeenEnglish/status...13533778411585

[Ravenlocke]

Novara Media

A far-right millionaire backed by Donald Trump has won the Colombian presidential election by the thinnest of margins.

With more than 99.9% of the ballots counted, lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella received 12.96 million votes (49.66%) compared to his leftwing opponent Iván Cepeda’s 12.7 million (48.7%) – a difference of only 250,000 votes.

The margin was smaller than in the first round of voting, in which De la Espriella beat Cepeda by 673,000 votes.

De la Espriella’s victory represents a hard swing to the right for the South American nation after four years of president Gustavo Petro, who had promised to break with the country’s “neoliberal model”.

Petro, a member of the Marxist guerrilla 19th of April Movement (M-19) in his teens, pursued a progressive domestic agenda including strengthening worker protections, an increase in social spending and agrarian reform – redistributing 570,000 hectares to peasant farmers and indigenous communities.

The sitting president was unable to seek reelection, having reached his term limit under the Colombian constitution.

Cepeda, who stood as the leftwing Historic Pact candidate, was one of the key architects of the "total peace" negotiations with armed groups aimed at achieving a permanent end to paramilitary violence in Colombia.

The 63-year-old alleged irregularities in the vote count and said that lawyers for his party were “proceeding to challenge 33,000 polling stations across the country” as supporters demonstrated across the country, The Guardian reported.

De la Espriella has been a US citizen since 2023 after living and working as a lawyer in Miami. He has styled himself as his country’s answer to Donald Trump, with some of his supporters even donning hats reading "Make Colombia Great Again!"

The admiration cuts both ways, with Trump vocally backing De la Espriella and responding to the Colombian’s electoral victory with a Truth Social post that read: "He Won, BIG!"

During the campaign the US president offered his endorsement to De la Espriella and said he would have the "total support and strength of the United States behind him" while denouncing Cepeda as a “radical left Marxist”



https://x.com/novaramedia/status/2069051552480809091

[Ravenlocke]

COMBATE |🇵🇷

🇨🇴 One day after a runoff decided by under 1%, Colombia's Iván Cepeda declines to concede and files 57,189 challenges, calling the preliminary count "unofficial, not final or binding."

To his far-right rival who told him to "pack your bags": "We are not going anywhere."

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/2069088377782083756