International
Colombia landslide kills 34
| By AFP |
Heavy rains in northwest Colombia sent a wall of earth crashing onto a winding road, swallowing up a bus and other vehicles and killing 34 people, emergency services said Monday.
The landslide Sunday evening prompted a large rescue effort, with dozens of people in hard hats using backhoes and excavators to dig through the earth looking for victims.
The National Unit for Disaster Risk Management said the fatalities included eight minors and that nine other people were injured in the disaster in the remote town of Pueblo Rico.
The bus had set out from the city of Cali with 25 passengers, and traveled 270 kilometers (170 miles) before being hit by the landslide as it passed through the Andes mountain region, civil defense officials said.
Colombian media reported that a child had survived and was pulled from the arms of its mother, who did not make it.
One survivor said the bus driver had at first managed to dodge the worst of the landslide.
“Part of it was coming down and the bus was a little bit back from that. The bus driver was backing up when it all came crashing down,” Andres Ibarguen told radio station Lloro Stereo.
The rainy season that began in August is Colombia’s worst in 40 years, according to the government, causing accidents that have left more than 270 people dead.
The country has declared a national disaster over the rains linked to the exceptionally long La Nina weather phenomenon, which cools surface temperatures and is currently causing drought and flooding around the globe.
Today, the landslide “puts this town in mourning, tomorrow it could be in another area, because we really have many unstable areas in the country, and the rainy season has not ended,” said Javier Pava of the UNGRD.
The UN’s World Meteorological Organization said last week the La Nina conditions could last until February or March 2023.
In Colombia, the phenomenon has also caused crop damage, compromising food supplies and leading to soaring prices.
In July, three children were killed in northwestern Colombia when a landslide buried a rural school. In February, 14 people died in a mudslide triggered by heavy rains in central-western Risaralda province.
Internacionales
U.S. to restore ambassador-level relations with Bolivia after 17 years
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau announced on Saturday that the United States will restore ambassador-level diplomatic relations with Bolivia after 17 years. The statement came during his visit to La Paz to attend the inauguration of Bolivia’s new president, Rodrigo Paz Pereira.
In a brief appearance before the media, Landau noted that in recent weeks Washington had maintained “very close relations with the president-elect.”
“And now that he is officially president, we will restore relations at the ambassador level, as it should have always been,” he said, speaking alongside President Paz.
Landau described it as “highly unusual” and “very unfortunate” that the two nations have spent years without ambassadors in each other’s capitals — Washington, D.C., and La Paz.
“Diplomacy is ultimately about communication. Without an ambassador in the other country’s capital, that becomes more difficult,” the U.S. official emphasized, expressing hopes that the appointment of new ambassadors will be announced “very soon.”
He also recalled that President Paz has expressed his interest in maintaining a strong bilateral relationship, adding that the United States “reciprocally wants to establish a good relationship with this new Bolivian government.”
For his part, President Paz thanked the U.S. delegation led by Landau for attending his inauguration and asked him to “convey a message of cordiality and friendship” to President Donald Trump and all levels of the U.S. government.
International
Trump says GOP ‘learned a lot’ after democratic election wins
U.S. President Donald Trump said that he and the Republican Party “learned a lot” from the Democratic victories in Tuesday’s state and local elections. He also compared Democrats to “kamikaze pilots” over the ongoing budget standoff.
Speaking at an event with Republican senators on Wednesday, Trump described the results as an unexpected setback.
“These were very Democratic areas, but I don’t think it was good for Republicans. In fact, I don’t think it was good for anyone. But we had an interesting night and we learned a lot,” he said during remarks broadcast by the White House.
Trump agreed with pollsters that two key factors led to Republican losses in New York’s mayoral race and the gubernatorial contests in New Jersey and Virginia.
International
Bolivia’s Jeanine Áñez freed after Supreme Court annuls her conviction
Former Bolivian interim president Jeanine Áñez was released from a women’s prison in La Paz on Thursday, where she had spent more than four and a half years for an alleged coup, after her conviction was annulled, AFP journalists confirmed.
Dozens of supporters and family members gathered outside the facility to celebrate her release. Áñez left the prison waving a Bolivian flag around 15:00 GMT.
“It is comforting to see that justice will once again prevail in Bolivia. She was the only woman who took on the role with bravery and courage,” said Lizeth Maure, a 46-year-old nurse who had come to show her support.
Áñez, a 58-year-old lawyer and conservative politician, governed Bolivia for nearly a year until November 2020, when she handed power to leftist leader Luis Arce.
She was arrested in 2021 and sentenced the following year to 10 years in prison for “resolutions contrary to the Constitution,” accused of illegally assuming the presidency after Evo Morales resigned in 2019 amid social unrest.
Her sentence was overturned on Wednesday by the Supreme Court of Justice, Bolivia’s highest judicial authority.
The court ruled that Áñez should have been subjected to a “trial of responsibilities” before Congress— a constitutional process reserved for sitting presidents, vice presidents, ministers, and top judges — rather than prosecuted in an ordinary criminal court.
As she was welcomed by relatives and supporters upon release, Áñez declared:
“I feel the satisfaction of having fulfilled my duty to my country, of never having bowed down. And I will never regret having served Bolivia when it needed me.”
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