International
Colombia to allow assisted medical suicide: court
AFP
Colombia on Thursday became the first Latin American country to authorize assisted medical suicide for patients under a doctor’s supervision, according to a constitutional court decision.
The country’s highest court ruled that a doctor can help a seriously ill patient take their own life by consuming a lethal drug, without risking going to jail.
Colombia already allows euthanasia — where a doctor is the one to administer a life-ending drug to a patient.
“The doctor who helps someone with intense suffering or serious illness and who freely decides to dispose of their own life, acts within the constitutional framework,” read Thursday’s court ruling that passed by six votes to three.
Colombia decriminalized euthanasia in 1997, and in July 2021 a high court expanded this “right to dignified death” to those not suffering from a terminal illness.
Fewer than 200 people have opted for euthanasia in Colombia since 1997, according to official data.
It is the first and only Latin American country to have taken this step and one of just a few in the world, and did so despite being mostly Roman Catholic.
The church categorically opposes both euthanasia and assisted suicide.
– ‘Intense’ suffering –
According to the Right to Die with Dignity foundation (DMD), the difference between euthanasia and assisted suicide “is basically who administers the drug.”
“In the case of euthanasia, it is health personnel who administer the medicine that causes death and in the case of assisted suicide it is the patient who self-administers the medicine that another person has provided,” it explained.
Despite its decriminalization of euthanasia, a doctor still risked jail time of 12 to 36 months for assisting a person end their own life.
Thursday’s court ruling said assisted suicide would be allowed only for people dealing with “intense physical or mental suffering arising from bodily injury or serious and incurable illness.”
A doctor acting outside of this framework could still go to jail for up to nine years.
According to the World Federation of Right to Die Societies, “aid in dying” is allowed in some form or another in the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Austria, some states in Australia and some in the United States.
Elsewhere in Latin America, Chile’s lower house of Parliament approved a bill last year that would allow euthanasia for adults. It still requires approval by the Senate.
And a court in Peru last April ordered the government to respect the wishes of a polio-stricken woman to be allowed to die, a rare allowance for euthanasia in that country.
International
Petro accuses top guerrilla leader of bribing officers to evade military strikes
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, said Saturday that the country’s most wanted guerrilla leader is bribing members of the security forces to obtain advance information and evade military operations.
According to the government, Iván Mordisco, a dissident leader of the now-defunct FARC, is currently on the run in the जंगल following an الجيش bombardment last week that killed six of his closest collaborators in the department of Vaupés.
Authorities believe the guerrilla commander had been at the site shortly before the operation. “He buys off the commanders who are supposed to capture him; that’s how he escapes the bombings, but leaves his own people to die. He is warned before every strike,” Petro wrote on social media platform X.
The six individuals killed in the strike were part of Mordisco’s security ring, according to Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez.
Local media reported that one of those killed was a woman known as “alias Lorena,” who was allegedly Mordisco’s partner and the mother of his child.
After failed attempts to negotiate peace, Petro’s administration has shifted to a more aggressive military strategy against the guerrilla leader. In recent months, three of Mordisco’s brothers have been captured and now face charges including homicide, kidnapping, and arms trafficking.
Central America
Costa Rica urges China to halt actions against Panama-flagged vessels
The government of Costa Rica on Saturday called on China to halt retaliatory actions against vessels flying the Panamaflag, amid escalating tensions over control of two strategic ports linked to the Panama Canal.
In a statement shared on social media, Costa Rica’s Foreign Ministry warned that the situation “puts global trade at risk” and expressed its “deep concern and strongest condemnation” over what it described as “arbitrary and unjustified delays and inspections in Chinese ports.”
The Costa Rican government urged “full respect for international law, particularly the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,” while reaffirming its “unconditional support and solidarity” with Panama.
San José’s position aligns with growing international criticism from countries including Honduras, Peru, Paraguay, Israeland Ukraine.
Paraguayan authorities described the detentions as “unacceptable” and pointed to what they called “undue pressure” on the Panamanian government.
International
Mexico leads global cases of enforced disappearances, UN report finds
Mexico accounts for the highest number of urgent actions related to enforced disappearances worldwide, according to the latest report by the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances.
The report, released by I(dh)eas, indicates that Mexico has accumulated 819 cases between 2012 and February 2026, representing 38% of the global total.
In the past five months alone, 40 new urgent requests have been recorded — more than one-third of all such actions worldwide during that period.
The report warns that this trend reflects a structural problem, as the urgent action mechanism — originally intended as an exceptional measure — has become routine in Mexico.
Although the Mexican state formally complies with response deadlines, the Committee identified significant shortcomings in the implementation of these measures. These include the lack of comprehensive search plans, delays in key investigative procedures such as video surveillance and phone data analysis, and insufficient inquiries into possible links involving state agents.
The report also highlights inadequate protection for relatives and individuals involved in search efforts, including cases of reprisals.
Among the most serious incidents documented is the disappearance of a father who had denounced alleged involvement of authorities in his son’s case in the state of Guanajuato.
The accumulation of cases could lead to the application of Article 34 of the Convention, which would allow for the launch of an international investigation into systematic enforced disappearances.
Geographically, the state of Chiapas accounts for 30% of the new urgent actions, many of them linked to collective disappearances of migrants.
Petro accuses top guerrilla leader of bribing officers to evade military strikes
Costa Rica urges China to halt actions against Panama-flagged vessels
Mexico leads global cases of enforced disappearances, UN report finds
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