Jim Wyss
Monday, August 1, 2016 - 15:06
When Colombia’s government and its biggest guerrilla group agree to lay down their arms later this year, it ends something much bigger than one country’s civil war. For the first time in 60 years, not a single nation in Latin America will be locked in armed combat with a viable guerrilla army.
Wednesday, February 10, 2016 - 05:12
The White House on Tuesday requested $450.6 million for fiscal year 2017 to support Colombia’s anti-narcotics campaign and peace-building efforts in a program it’s dubbing Paz Colombia, officials said. In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, William Brownfield, the assistant secretary for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, said the money would be roughly split 50-50 between economic and social programs
Friday, June 19, 2015 - 06:30
Despite years of security gains, Colombia continues to have more than 6 million people who have fled their homes due to violence — the highest rate in the world after Syria — the United Nations reported Thursday.
Friday, May 8, 2015 - 06:34
U.S. and Colombian authorities are investigating allegations that more than 50 children may have been sexually abused by U.S. military personnel or contractors from 2003-2007, even as questions about the veracity of those allegations began to surface.
Thursday, April 30, 2015 - 05:21
Here we are in 2015 with a Venezuelan governor saying there are as many as 4,000 FARC combatants in his state. On one hand, that is an incredibly large number, about half of what Colombia estimates are the active number of FARC combatants. The size of the claim is why some Colombian analysts are skeptical.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - 07:17
The report, called “Visualizing what’s behind crime,” was produced by the Observatory on Organized Crime, a program of the Paz Activa civil society group. Venezuela, despite being rich in oil, has some of the highest murder and kidnapping rates in the world.
Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - 08:57
As a child soldier for Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, Jairo watched his fellow fighters seed trails and pastures with anti-personnel mines designed to kill and maim. Sometimes they made careful maps indicating where the explosives were buried. Other times they carried the knowledge in their heads — and when they died in combat the mines became a perilous mystery.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - 05:13
As government and guerrilla negotiators begin the 34th round of peace talks in Cuba on Tuesday in hopes of ending Colombia’s half-century conflict, they’re going to have a powerful force behind them: momentum.
Friday, February 13, 2015 - 06:05
Colombia’s largest guerrilla group Thursday said it would no longer allow 15-year-old children to join its ranks, bumping-up the minimum age to become a member of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to 17.
Wednesday, January 21, 2015 - 07:01
Colombia saw its homicides drop 7 percent in 2014. Government and guerrilla negotiators will resume peace talks in Cuba on Feb. 2.