Colombian conflict

A dissident former leader of the FARC guerrillas was shot dead in Venezuela by other rebels, Colombian media reported on Dec. 5.

Citing Colombian and Venezuelan intelligence sources, several newspapers said Hernan Dario Velasquez, nicknamed "El Paisa" ("The Peasant"), had been ambushed in the state of Apure, on the border with Colombia.

Colombian former rebel movement FARC said 24 of its ex-combatants had been killed since the beginning of the year, sounding a warning over continued violence threatening Colombia's fragile peace agreement.

Colombia has located and exhumed the bodies of 9,000 people killed by far-right paramilitary groups during the country's decades-long civil war, judicial officials said on May 2.

Right-wing parties opposed to a peace deal with the FARC won historic elections in Colombia on March 11 but fell short of a majority in polls that saw the former rebels enter the Congress.

A leader of Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas was arrested on Feb. 15 in Bogota on suspicion of planning two attacks on police that killed seven and left dozens wounded, prosecutors said.

BARRANQUILLA, Colombia - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has suspended the ongoing peace talks between his government and the Army of National Liberation (ELN) after a faction of the rebel group claimed responsibility for several attacks that left seven policemen dead in the northern coastal region of the country.

BOGOTÁ, Colombia - The decision to promote ten military personnel involved in the heinous "false positives" scandal in which thousands of innocent civilians lost their lives was strongly criticized by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

President Juan Manuel Santos declared Colombia's 50-year conflict with FARC guerrillas finally over on Aug. 15, as the last truckloads of decommissioned weapons rolled away to be melted down.

Colombia's leftist FARC rebel force declared its disarmament complete on June 27 after half a century of war against the state, bringing an end to Latin America's oldest armed guerrilla force.

"Farewell to war. Farewell to arms, welcome to peace!" said commander Rodrigo Londono, alias Timochenko, in a speech in the central town of Mesetas, the group's historic base.

Colombia created a "truth commission" to help it heal after decades of war under a recent peace deal with the leftist FARC rebels.

President Juan Manuel Santos also signed into law a decree establishing a special unit to search for people still missing in the country's 53-year conflict.