Politics of Colombia

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.

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).

BOGOTÁ, Colombia - The government of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and the Army of National Liberation (ELN), the largest rebel faction in Colombia following the peace agreement reached with the FARC, have reached an unprecedented 102-day bilateral ceasefire as Pope Francis arrived in Colombia.

BOGOTÁ, Colombia - The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are changing into, well, the FARC; the rebels are completing their transition from an armed insurgent group to a political party known as the Alternative Revolutionary Force of the Community.

Colombia's government and ELN rebels have agreed to a ceasefire after months of talks, the rebels announced on Sept. 4. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos also confirmed the announcement and said that the government has agreed to a bilateral ceasefire with the ELN that will last 102 days.

Colombia's FARC former guerrilla group has re-launched itself as the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force, sealing its transformation into a leftist political party following its disarmament after a half-century civil conflict.

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's FARC rebel group said on June 7 that it has handed in 30 percent of its weaponry to the United Nations, part of a peace deal signed with the government last year to end more than 52 years of war.

BOGOTÁ, Colombia - Germán Vargas Lleras, the former Vice-President of Colombia who stepped down two months ago as the second-in-command to President Juan Manuel Santos to focus on the 2018 election, is the frontrunner in the early presidential poll.