Colombia

Leftist Gustavo Petro, a former member of the M-19 guerrilla movement who has vowed profound social and economic change, won Colombia's presidency Sunday, the first progressive to do so in the country's history.

Colombians will choose between construction magnate Rodolfo Hernandez and former guerilla Gustavo Petro in the upcoming presidential election on June 19. But Hernandez had so far refused to debate Petro. The Bogota High Court ruled on Wednesday that the two candidates in Colombia's presidential runoff must hold a debate, to be broadcast on public TV and radio, by Thursday at the latest.

Colombia's next president will be a choice between a former leftist rebel and a man dubbed the country's Trump after Sunday's first round of voting. … Mr Hernández and Mr Petro will face off in the second round on 19 June.

Leftist presidential candidate Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla fighter promising to "democratize" Colombia's economy, is polling nearly double the support of his closest rival, center-right Federico Gutierrez, and would beat him in a runoff.

More than 4,600 members of a leftist party in Colombia were killed and another 1,100 went missing between 1984 and 2007, a special tribunal set up to try the worst atrocities committed during the country's half-century conflict said in a report released Friday.

At least six Colombian soldiers have been killed and five injured in an ambush in north-western Antioquia province, the army says. … Officials said they suspected the Gulf Clan criminal gang to be behind the attack.

President Ivan Duque asked the United Nations to continue monitoring Colombia’s peace process until 2034 amid concerns over escalating violence.

Colombia’s dynamic peace process – which saw fresh strides with the holding of a largely peaceful parliamentary election last month – will succeed or fail based on efforts to halt the deadly violence faced by former combatants, social leaders and human rights defenders, the senior UN official in the country told the Security Council on Tuesday. 

Colombian Senator Gustavo Petro, who polls suggest is the favourite to win May's presidential election, has secured the nomination of the left-wing Historic Pact coalition. Mr Petro, a former guerrilla with the M-19 rebel group, won Sunday's primary by a wide margin. He will face five other candidates in the presidential election on 29 May. … The 61-year-old ran for president in 2018 but was defeated by the right-wing candidate Iván Duque.

A bombardment carried out by Colombia's armed forces killed 23 FARC dissidents on Thursday as part of a military offensive to seize control of an area in the northeast of the country which sits on the border with Venezuela, the government said.