Kolumbien

Colombia’s peace commissioner said Wednesday that the government is considering steps that would block the possibility of resuming peace talks with the country’s ELN guerrillas. Peace commissioner Miguel Ceballos told press in Bogota that the National Security Council would meet in a month and hinted that it could decide to suspend the group’s political status and effectively make peace talks illegal.

Colombia’s state officials assassinated at least 348 social leaders and human rights defenders between 1985 and 2016, the chief prosecutor said in a report on war crimes committed by the state.

Most of the murders were by illegal armed groups and drug gangs fighting over former Farc territories, UN chief Antonio Guterres said in a report. Mr Guterres urged Colombian President Ivan Duque, a vocal critic of the peace deal, to do more to protect ex-rebels.