Colombia

At the draw for the 2026 men's soccer World Cup at the Kennedy Center in freezing Washington, D.C, there was pomp and glitz — and convoluted rules — as a host of celebrities, sports legends and President Donald Trump helped to flesh out the line-up of matches for the tournament's opening group stage.

In a petition to the premier human rights watchdog in the Americas, the first challenge to U.S. military strikes on alleged drug-carrying boats argues that the death was an extrajudicial killing.

Colombia was a top U.S. ally in Latin America until the Trump administration began deadly strikes in international waters. Now, one family wants justice.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has ordered security forces to stop sharing intelligence with the United States until it stops striking suspected drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean.

COMMENTARY Latin America's inability if not refusal to make its law enforcement more 21st-century has only helped open the door to Trump's use of 20th-century-style military intervention in the region.

An estimated 2,000 Colombian soldiers, like 32-year-old Deivis, have signed up to defend Ukraine against Russia, for life-changing pay. He tells WLRN why he joined the fight, how he lost his leg on the battlefield and his new life playing soccer in Ukraine's "League of the Mighty."

Over the decades, the U.S. government has sent billions of dollars in aid to Colombia to help the country stamp out its cocaine industry. Now President Donald Trump is threatening to cut off aid to Colombia, jeopardizing the longtime antidrug cooperation and other security arrangements, including what analysts say is a covert CIA presence in the country.

An estimated 2,000 Colombian mercenaries serve on Ukraine's front lines, defending against Russia's aggression. They face death or serious injury on the conflict's brutal battlefields, for pay that could change their lives on the return home. It's also a chance to "defend freedom" and be on the side of the "good guys," they tell WLRN.

The strikes were launched Monday and announced on social media Tuesday. This is the first time multiple strikes have been announced in a single day. They mark a continued escalation in the pace of the strikes, which began in early September and had been spaced weeks apart.

The Treasury Department announced the penalties Friday, escalating tensions with Colombia, a key U.S. ally in South America. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused Petro of allowing drug cartels to flourish. Petro has denied the allegations and plans to defend himself in U.S. courts.

He was sentenced to 12 years in house arrest in August following a nearly six-month trial in which prosecutors presented evidence that he attempted to influence witnesses who accused the law-and-order leader of having links to a paramilitary group in the 1990s. In the appeal, his lawyers questioned the validity of the evidence and argued that the former president's responsibility was not "unequivocally" proven.

Colombia's leftist President Gustavo Petro is decidedly unpopular in the country and its South Florida diaspora — but President Trump also risks backlash there and here if he carries out his aid and tariff threats.