ASTRID SUÁREZ

An aide holds an umbrella over Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a light drizzle, as she departs National Police headquarters after meeting with the Counter Organized Crime Group, in Bogota, Colombia, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
US Homeland Security Secretary Noem visits Colombia to discuss immigration and crime
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has visited Colombia as part of a tour of three Latin American nations to discuss deportation, immigration and crime.
 
From left, Colombian Air Force Commander Gen. Luis Carlos Cordoba, Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez, President Gustavo Petro and Armed Forces Commander Adm. Francisco Cubides, review the troops during a military ceremony where Sanchez formally takes command of the military in Bogota, Colombia, Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Colombia’s new defense minister vows to reclaim territory lost to rebel groups
Colombia’s newly appointed defense minister says he will focus on taking back territory lost to rebel groups that have forced thousands to flee their homes this year.
 
Colombia's President Gustavo Petro arrives at the opening ceremony of COP16, a United Nations' biodiversity conference, in Cali, Colombia, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, file)
White House says Colombia agrees to take deported migrants after Trump tariff showdown
The White House is claiming victory in a showdown with Colombia over accepting flights of deported migrants from the U.S., hours after President Donald Trump threatened steep tariffs on imports and other sanctions on the longtime U.S. partner.
 
Residents cross a river to Venezuela from Colombia's Tibu, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, following guerrilla attacks that killed dozens and forced thousands to flee their homes in the Catatumbo region. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Colombia’s president will declare an emergency over deadly ELN attacks in the northeast
Colombian President Gustavo Petro says he will declare an emergency over the guerrilla attacks in the northeast that have killed dozens of people and forced thousands to flee.
 
Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino, left, receives from Venezuela's opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia a copy of Venezuela's 2024 election tallies at the presidential palace in Panama City, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Agustin Herrera)
Venezuelan opposition leader rallies support in Panama ahead of Maduro inauguration
Self-exiled Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González is rallying regional support for the opposition’s claims that he won the July election against President Nicolás Maduro.
 
Media swarm Fabio Ochoa, center, a former member of Cartel of Medellin, upon his arrival at El Dorado airport, after being deported from the United States, in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Medellin Cartel victims demand truth and justice as cartel boss Fabio Ochoa walks free in Colombia
 
FILE - Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos, front left, and the top commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, Rodrigo Londono, known by the alias Timochenko, shake hands after signing the peace agreement between the government and the FARC to end over 50 years of conflict, in Cartagena, Colombia, Sept. 26, 2016. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)
Dozens of former FARC fighters abandon ‘reincorporation’ village in Colombia after death threats
Dozens of former guerrilla fighters and their families have been forced to abandon their village in southern Colombia after receiving death threats from a rebel group that is still fighting the government.
 
Prince Harry and Meghan attend a welcoming ceremony, at the Delia Zapata National Arts Center, accompanied by director Xiomara Suescun, right, in Bogota, Colombia, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)
Prince Harry and Meghan arrive in Colombia to promote mental health and combat cyberbullying
Prince Harry and his wife Meghan have arrived in Colombia, where they will participate in several events promoting mental health for young people and how to combat cyberbullying, one of the couple’s latest philanthropic causes.
 
FILE - The Bolaños children, from left, Sebastian, Kamila and Miguel Angel, from Venezuela, watch videos on a mobile phone outside the bus terminal where they are living with their single mother Keilly and one other sibling, along with other migrants in Villahermosa, Mexico, June 8, 2024. Their mother was captured in the northern state of Juarez, where she said she was beaten by the military in front of her children, loaded on a bus for two days, and left in Villahermosa. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez, File)
As fallout surges from Venezuela’s election crisis, the region fears another mass exodus
President Nicolás Maduro’s contested claim of victory in last month’s election didn’t just throw Venezuela into uncertainty. It also spread anxiety from neighboring Colombia to faraway Chile as the region braced for a new migration surge.
 
FILE - Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at United Nations headquarters, July 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
Prince Harry and Meghan will visit Colombia for the first time. Here’s what they will be doing
Prince Harry and his wife Meghan will arrive in Colombia on Thursday. Invited by Colombia’s Vice President Francia Márquez, they will take part in several events, including a forum against cyberbullying.
 
FILE - Migrants, mostly Venezuelans, walk across the Darien Gap from Colombia into Panama, hoping to reach the U.S., Oct. 15, 2022. Refugee agency UNHCR estimates more than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left since 2014, the largest exodus in Latin America’s recent history, with most settling in the Americas, from neighboring Colombia and Brazil to Argentina and Canada. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)
Forced to emigrate, Venezuelans living abroad hope for change — and to eventually return home
The prolonged economic and political instability in Venezuela has forced millions of Venezuelans to leave over the past decade, quashing many of their dreams and leaving many wondering if they’ll ever return to what was once South America’s most prosperous country.
 
Colombian bullfighter Jose Luis Vega, 30, aims his sword as he trains at the bullring in Choachi, Colombia, Saturday, June 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Colombian bullfighters decry new ban on the centuries-old tradition and vow to keep it alive
Sebastián Caqueza says that a new law to ban bullfighting in Colombia in three years will not dampen his passion for the tradition that he has been practicing since has was a small boy.
 
Colombian President Gustavo Petro speaks at the International Workers' Day march in Bogota, Colombia, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. Petro on Wednesday described Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide” and announced his government would end diplomatic relations with Israel effective Thursday. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Colombia breaks diplomatic ties with Israel but its military relies on key Israeli-built equipment
Colombia has become the latest Latin American country to announce it will break diplomatic relations with Israel over its military campaign in Gaza.
 
Female emerald miners chat after work at an informal mine near the town of Coscuez, Colombia, Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. The lack of job opportunities, combined with the hope of a find that will make them rich, has pushed the women into mining. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Women blast through gender barriers in Colombia’s emerald mines, but struggle to emerge from poverty
Deep inside mountain tunnels in Colombia where the heat is so intense it causes headaches, women with power tools are chipping away at boulders in search of gems.
 
FILE - Migrants gather in Necocli, Colombia, a stopping point for migrants taking boats to Acandi which leads to the Darien Gap, Oct. 13, 2022. The flow of thousands of migrants daily through the migratory highway, the Darien Gap, has been cut off following the Feb. 26, 2024 capture in Necoclí of some boat captains who had been ferrying the migrants to the starting point of their jungle trek. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)
Transit of migrants through the Darien Gap resumes as Colombian boat companies end work stoppage
Migrants bound for the U.S. are once again crossing the Darien Gap in large numbers after being stranded for much of last week in a small Colombian town due to a work stoppage by local boat captains.
 
In this photo released by the Colombian Immigration agency, migration officials meet former Colombian paramilitary leader, Salvatore Mancuso, at the gate of the plane at El Dorado International Airport in Bogota, Colombia, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, upon arrival from the U.S. which deported him after he served time for drug trafficking. (Colombian Immigration Agency via AP)
Warlord involved in hundreds of murders repatriated to Colombia after serving US drug sentence
Colombian warlord Salvatore Mancuso has been returned to his native country after serving a drug trafficking sentence in the United States. He has been denied several requests to be sent to Italy, where he also has citizenship.
 
FILE - This undated photo taken by Colombia's Anthropology and History Institute and distributed by Colombia's Ministry of Culture, shows sunken remains from the Spanish galleon San Jose, on the sea floor off Cartagena, Colombia. Colombia’s government announced Friday, Feb. 23, 2024, an underwater exploration to explore objects from the mythical galleon San José, sunk in the 18th century in the country’s northern Caribbean and believed to contain cargo valued at billions of dollars. (Colombia's Anthropology and History Institute via AP Photo, File)
Colombia will send deep-water expedition to explore 300-year-old shipwreck thought to hold treasure
Colombia’s government has announced an underwater exploration more than 600 meters deep to investigate and try to raise objects from the mythical galleon San José.
 
Colombian government representative Vera Grabe, left, and Colombian commander of the National Liberation Army guerrilla group (ELN) Pablo Beltran exchange their signed ceasefire extension agreement in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024. Behind are Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, left, and an unidentified Cuban official. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Colombia extends cease-fire with National Liberation Army as rebels promise to stop kidnappings
Colombia’s government and the nation’s largest remaining guerrilla group have reached a last-minute deal to extend a cease-fire that began last year by six months. ELN rebels also promised that they will stop kidnapping civilians for ransom.
 
FILE - Founder and organizer Tou Ger Xiong, front, poses with a group of Hmong dancers during Hmong Minnesota Day at the Minnesota State Fair, in Falcon Heights, Minn., Sept. 6, 2021. Colombian prosecutors said on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, three people have been jailed in the kidnapping and killing of a Xiong who was found dead on Dec. 11, 2023, near Medellín after going out to meet a woman he reportedly met on social media. (Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press via AP File)
3 people charged with murdering a Hmong American comedian last month in Colombia
Colombian prosecutors say three people have been jailed in the kidnapping and killing of a Hmong American comedian and activist who was found dead near Medellín after going out to meet a woman he reportedly met on social media.
 
Mayor-elect Mikhail Krasnov waves to a supporter as he walks through Bolivar Square in Tunja, Colombia, Monday, Dec. 11, 2023. Krasnov, a 45-year-old university professor from Russia, was one of the unexpected winners in Colombia’s regional elections in October. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Meet the Russian professor who became mayor of a Colombian city
Mikhail Krasnov, a Russian-born professor of economics, this year became the mayor of Tunja, a city in Colombia’s Andean highlands.
 
2 Guinean children are abandoned in Colombian airport as African migrants take new route to US
Colombian authorities say two children from the West African nation of Guinea were abandoned in Bogota’s airport and taken into government custody this week after spending several days on their own in the international departures terminal.
 
Luis Manuel Díaz waves to neighbors at his home in Barrancas, Colombia, after he was released by his kidnappers Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023. Díaz, the father of Liverpool striker Luis Díaz, was kidnapped on Oct. 28 by the guerrilla group National Liberation Army, or ELN. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)
Father of Liverpool striker Luis Díaz released after his kidnapping in Colombia by ELN guerrillas
 
Migrants camp on the beach, in Necocli, Colombia, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. New York City Mayor Eric Adams has capped off a four-day trip to Latin America with a visit to the northern Colombian city where thousands of migrants start the trek across the Darien jungle, as they head to the United States. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)
Migrants flounder in Colombian migration point without the money to go on
In Necocli, Colombia, the local economy has shifted, revolving around the migrants who have been arriving for several years. Those hanging around no longer number in the thousands, as in 2021 after Haiti’s earthquake.