Medellín, Colombia – The Venezuelan government on Wednesday published a declaration saying it regretted recent violence in the Catatumbo region of Colombia just days after Bogotá announced bombing in cooperation with Caracas.

The statement muddies the waters about whether or not Venezuela was involved in the military operations against the National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels near the two countries’ joint border, which allegedly killed 7 guerrilla fighters. 

“The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela expresses its profound concern and regrets the escalation of violence in the border region of Catatumbo,” read a statement shared on X by Foreign Minister Yvan Gil.

The declaration came after Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on Monday that he had ordered the bombing in cooperation with Venezuela. 

“I gave the order to bomb the ELN camp in accordance with the agreement reached with the Bolivarian government of Venezuela,” wrote Petro on X.

Petro appeared to allude to an agreement with Caracas to cooperate on tackling cross-border crime following his visit to Venezuela in April. 

But Caracas appeared to wash its hands of the recent bombing operation; while it did not directly acknowledge the bombing or Petro’s statement, its declaration said that it “rejects any armed action that compromises the peace, stability, and security of border communities.” 

It added that the only way to preserve peace and stability in the region is through “mechanisms of understanding and mutual respect, avoiding actions that can aggravate tensions or generate greater risks for border populations, who for decades have faced the consequences of a conflict out of their control.”

Since last year, Catatumbo has been the site of what has been described as “the most serious humanitarian crisis of recent times” in Colombia. In January 2025, a family of three, including a nine-month-old baby, was killed, marking the collapse of fragile peace pacts between the ELN and the Frente 33 – a dissident faction of the demobilized FARC rebels – and triggering a humanitarian crisis on a scale not seen in the country for over a decade.

The Red Cross said that 2025 was one of the most complicated years for humanitarian conditions in Colombia: more than 235,000 people were individually displaced, over 176,000 people have been unable to move freely because of armed conflict, and there has also been a sharp increase in cases of mass displacements.

Venezuela’s statement highlights the cross-border nature of the conflict, noting that the country “has historically suffered the consequences of Colombian internal conflict.” Colombian armed groups like the ELN and dissident FARC factions have traditionally had a significant presence in Venezuela and were known to have ties to the Nicolás Maduro regime.

But both the interim government under Delcy Rodríguez and Petro have been under pressure from the White House to confront guerrilla groups.

This article originally appeared on The Bogotá Post and was re-published with permission.

Featured image description: Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Venezuelan Interim President Delcy Rodríguez at a meeting in Caracas on April 24, 2026.

Image courtesy of: Colombian President’s Office.

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Medellín, Colombia – Chihuahua state Attorney General César Jáuregui, resigned on Monday following the death of two CIA agents in a car crash in Mexico on April 19.

In a press conference announcing his resignation on Monday, Jáuregui admitted that there had been “omissions” in relation to the presence of the American agents in the country.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum earlier ordered an investigation into why the U.S. agents – who were apparently working with local authorities – were in the country.

The two spies were returning from a drug raid in the El Pinal area of Chihuahua alongside Mexican security forces when the fatal crash occurred. 

Following the crash, Sheinbaum said, “neither had formal accreditation to participate in operational activities” and one had entered the country as a tourist.

Attorney General Jáuregui had initially claimed that the U.S. operatives had been giving drone lessons in the mountains of Chihuahua, and had coincidentally got a ride with the police convoy..

U.S. President Donald Trump has long advocated for Washington’s involvement in Mexican anti-drug operations, but Sheinbaum has been opposed to U.S. forces or agents participating in domestic security operations, though she welcomes intelligence sharing. 

Trump has threatened that the U.S. could “go it alone” in the case that Washington deems Mexico’s anti-cartel efforts insufficient.

Jáuregui is not the only Mexican official facing scrutiny for his involvement in covering up the unregulated presence of the CIA agents. The Governor of the state of Chihuahua, Maru Campos, was supposed to meet with the Senate of the Republic on Tuesday to clear up unknown details regarding the presence of the CIA agents in Mexico. 

She was expected to explain the level of their participation in the operations, whether there were formal or informal agreements with U.S. agencies, the extent of the knowledge of the Mexican federal government, and if there was a potential exchange of sensitive information.

However, on Tuesday, Campos announced that she would not be attending the meeting, in order to “ensure the proper development of the ongoing proceedings, avoiding at all times the compromising of information of a confidential or classified nature.” She also reiterated that her conduct has “always been under the principles of legality and transparency.”

The deaths of the two agents and the circumstances surrounding it have raised tensions between Mexico and Washington, but Sheinbaum highlighted on Tuesday in her daily press conference that she does not desire “conflict” between the two nations.

Featured image description: Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua

Features image credits: On^ste82 via Wikimedia Commons

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Medellín, Colombia – On Wednesday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced plans to begin fracking in order to more than double the country’s natural gas production and “strengthen national sovereignty”. 

Despite Mexico possessing 141 billion cubic feet of unconventional gas reserves, the country has hardly extracted it, instead importing more than 70% of its natural gas from the United States, making it the world’s largest buyer of U.S. gas.

Sheinbaum’s announcement signals a U-turn in her party’s traditional opposition to fracking due to its deleterious environmental impacts.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a method of extracting oil and natural gas by forcing water, sand, and chemicals into the ground to fracture deep rock formations and allow oil and gas to flow up to the surface. 

Fracking has long been controversial due to its environmental effects, such as causing earth tremors, air and water pollution, massive water consumption and increased greenhouse gas emissions.

However, in a press conference on Thursday, Sheinbaum, who is an energy and climate change scientist by profession, defended the plans to begin fracking, arguing that there are “new technologies which open the possibility of recycling water, that don’t use such powerful chemicals which are so hard to recycle”, therefore providing a sustainable alternative to traditional fracking practices. She emphasized that for all of her life, she has been “against traditional fracking.” 

Sheinbaum said that a technical committee will spend two months evaluating the feasibility of these new fracking technologies. 

The president’s announcement signals a departure from the historical rhetoric of her party, Morena. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum’s predecessor and the founder of Morena, had previously attempted to impose a constitutional ban on the practice. 

The announcement will likely also prove unpopular with people who considered Sheinbaum’s previous position on fracking when voting for her; in February a spokesperson for the Mexican Alliance Against Fracking described a potential shift towards fracking as “a betrayal to those who voted for President Sheinbaum, who said fracking would not be carried out,” and suggested that the president was “only listening to the industry and fracking promoters,” according to El País. 

The spokesperson also highlighted the risks that fracking can have on indigenous communities, where it “fracture[s] the social fabric and create[s] risks for women.”

Although Sheinbaum recognizes that contracts with the U.S. for natural gas imports remain in place, the priority is to ensure energy stability in Mexico and reduce reliance on foreign powers in case of shortages caused by situations like the current war in the Middle East.

Featured image description: Claudia Sheinbaum in 2020

Featured image credit: Maritza Ríos via Wikimedia Commons

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Medellín, Colombia – Ecuador’s Foreign Minister announced on Wednesday morning that Ecuador’s ambassador to Colombia, Arturo Felix Wong, has been recalled.

The move follows comments made by Colombian President Gustavo Petro regarding Ecuador’s jailed former Vice President, Jorge Glas, who he called a “political prisoner” and said was not being given sufficient food. 

The spat is the latest in a series of diplomatic rows between the two neighbors this year, which have included tit-for-tat tariffs and accusations about border security.

Gabriela Sommerfield, Ecuador’s Foreign Minister, justified the withdrawal of the Ecuadorean ambassador from Colombia as “a protest towards Colombia over the terms used by Petro and the interference in decisions made by different branches of the Ecuadorean State” in an interview with Centro Digital Radio.

The announcement followed several inflammatory statements about Glas by Petro in recent days. On Monday, the President said, “it is undeniable that Jorge Glas is a political prisoner.” 

Glas has faced several convictions for corruption-related charges but his supporters, including Petro, accuse Ecuador’s right-wing government of persecuting him for being associated with the progressive Citizen Revolution Movement. 

“Letting someone die of hunger, while under the care of the government, is a crime against humanity,” said Petro on Tuesday. 

Glas is currently serving an eight-year sentence for bribery and criminal association, and a thirteen-year sentence for embezzlement in the maximum-security El Encuentro prison, which is modelled on Salvadorean president Nayib Bukele’s infamous prison system.

He was first convicted in 2017 for his involvement in the Odebrecht case, one of the largest corruption cases in recent Latin American history, after it was revealed that he had received millions of dollars in bribes from the Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht.

He has since received further sentences and was released temporarily in 2022 but re-imprisoned shortly after. Later that year, he was released again, and sought asylum in the Mexican embassy, claiming political persecution. But two years ago, he was arrested in a controversial police raid of the Mexican embassy in Quito, leading to the severing of diplomatic ties between the two countries. 

Now, Ecuador also faces chilly relations with neighboring Colombia; on February 1st, Quito imposed a tariff of 30% on Bogotá, which it increased to 50% in March. President Daniel Noboa said that the levy was a response to Colombia failing to cooperate in the fight against narcotrafficking.

Colombia responded with tariffs of 30% on 73 types of products coming from Ecuador, including rice and sugar, which later increased to 50% for more than 185 products.

A further dispute emerged last month when Petro accused Ecuador of bombing across the two countries’ joint border.

After recalling Ecuador’s Ambassador to Colombia on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Sommerfield announced that meetings to address the ongoing trade war between the two countries would be suspended.

Featured image description: President Gustavo Petro at a cabinet meeting, October 22, 2025.

Featured image credit: @InfoPresidencia via X.

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Medellín, Colombia – José Antonio Kast was sworn in today as the new president of Chile, inaugurating the country’s first far-right government since the fall of Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship in 1990.

Kast beat Jeanette Jara from the Communist Party last December, winning 58% in second-round polls following a campaign focused on law and order and tackling illegal immigration through mass deportations.

He succeeds left-wing president Gabriel Boric, forming part of a broader right-wing wave across the Americas. 

Chile’s new president resembles U.S President Donald Trump in his approach to certain policy matters, such as his promises to curb illegal immigration, increase mass deportations and even build border walls.

Kast is a controversial figure: his father was a member of the Nazi party, and he was raised deeply conservative. 

While studying law at the Universidad Católica, he was mentored by Jaime Guzmán, who was a trusted advisor of Pinochet.

Kast is now the first president to defend the legacy of Pinochet, and he has suggested that the dictator would have supported his candidacy. He has also appointed two ex-Pinochet lawyers, Fernando Barros and Fernando Rabat, to his cabinet as Minister of Defence and Minister of Justice and Human Rights, respectively. This move has drawn criticism from human rights groups.

Kast previously failed in a 2022 bid for the presidency, losing to Boric. Boric, however, was a deeply unpopular president, with polling from July 2025 highlighting a 66% disapproval rating.

Kast recently withdrew from transition talks with his predecessor, claiming that he had not been informed about the construction of an underwater sea cable connecting Chile and China. The spat raised concerns regarding democratic transfer of power.

Kast is part of a growing right-wing coalition across the Americas, supported by Trump, who has announced a return of the Monroe Doctrine, which maintains Washington’s dominance across the Western Hemisphere.

Before assuming office, Kast attended Trump’s “Shield of the Americas” summit on Saturday alongside other Latin American leaders, signalling his eagerness to cooperate with Washington in its invigorated counter-narcotics strategy. 

His swearing-in ceremony, held in the coastal city of Valparaíso, was attended by many prominent political figures from the Americas, including conservative leaders like Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa and Argentina’s Javier Milei.

The left-wing president of Brazil, Lula Inácio da Silva, canceled at the last minute after finding out that his potential rival in the next elections, Flávio Bolsonaro – the son of jailed former president Jair Bolsonaro – would be attending. 

Venezuelan opposition figure, María Corina Machado, also attended the inauguration, posting on X that she was excited to meet with Venezuelans in Chile during her visit.

Kast has singled out Venezuelan immigrants, having centered his campaign on fighting irregular migration through mass deportation with his “Border Shield” plan; it references “hundreds of thousands of illegals, bringing with them crime, narcotrafficking, human trafficking and gun smuggling, and labor exploitation”. Migrants represent almost 10% of the population in Chile, the largest group being Venezuelans – 17% of which entered irregularly, according to El País. Despite this, figures shared by the Minister of Defense, Adriano Delpiano, indicate that the number of irregular entries to Chile decreased by 54% between 2021 and 2025.

Despite Kast’s promises to restore public order amid rising crime, Chile remains one of the safest countries in Latin America.

Featured image description: José Antonio Kast in European Parliament

Featured image credit: @joseantoniokast via X.

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