International
Colombia car bomb kills one, injures 20

AFP
A car bomb detonated in Colombia overnight outside government offices and the seat of a human rights body, killing one person and wounded 20 near the Venezuelan border, authorities said Thursday.
The army in a statement blamed the late-night attack in Saravena, an area with a strong military presence, on dissidents of the FARC guerilla group who rejected a 2016 peace deal.
Defense Minister Diego Molano said the attack was “planned and financed from Venezuela.”
“The explosives used in this terrorist act were brought into Colombia from Venezuela,” said Molano.
The explosion killed a security guard and injured 20 other people. No further information was provided about them.
The blast also damaged private buildings, the army statement said.
Jose Luis Lazo, an official in charge of human rights in Saravana, told W Radio that a dissident going by the name Antonio Medina had ordered the attack in a WhatsApp message.
Colombia President Ivan Duque has often accused neighboring Venezuela of shielding rebels on its territory.
The two countries have not had diplomatic relations since shortly after Duque took office in 2018.
The region in which the attack took place is one of the hardest-hit by a wave of violence plaguing Colombia in the aftermath of a 2016 peace pact that disarmed the FARC and officially ended decades of conflict.
Despite the agreement, fighting continues over territory and resources between dissident FARC guerrillas, the ELN rebel group, paramilitary forces and drug cartels.
Earlier this month, almost 30 people were killed in fighting in the northeastern Arauca department, where Saravena is located, and hundreds fled the region, according to official data.
The government has since deployed an additional 1,300 soldiers to join 5,600 already operational in the area.
An independent study center, Indepaz, says the ELN has around 2,500 fighters while the FARC dissidents are comprised of around 5,200 members.
International
Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.
“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.
“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.
Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.
International
Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.
Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.
However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.
International
Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.
“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.
The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.
His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”
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