The Colombia Briefing | 12th May

🗞️ Sunday was Mother’s Day across Latin America and in the United States. In Colombia, the day is one of the most violent of the year.

Police deployed more than 31,000 uniformed officers nationwide, along with drones and helicopters to survey the cities with historically high violence.

Data is still being consolidated but figures currently show that four homicides were reported in Medellín. Two fatalities also occurred in Cali, and one person was shot and killed in Cartagena. All of the victims were male.

Alcohol consumption, extended family gatherings, and a culture of violence associated with domestic, marital and gender violence, are believed to contribute to the increased violence that takes place on Mother’s Day in Colombia.

🗞️ On Thursday, Robert Prevost was announced the 267th pope. He will be known as Pope Leo XIV and is the first US-born pope to be elected.

His parents are of Spanish and Franco-Italian descent and he also has Peruvian nationality due to his long-term missionary work in the country. In his introductory speech at the Vatican, Pope Leo briefly spoke in Spanish, sending greetings to his Diocese in Peru.

The only Colombian to participate in the vote for the new pope was Cardinal Luis José Rueda, Archbishop of Bogotá. It was the first time that Rueda was part of the Vatican conclave.

Writing on X, President Gustavo Petro said that the new pope is ‘more than an American’ because of his heritage and that ‘he lived forty years in our Latin America, in Peru.’

🗞️ Afro-Colombian, Indigenous, and rural communities have gathered in the Plaza de Bolívar this morning to request improved security conditions in their territories.

People from Huila, Cauca, Meta, and other departments have set up tents in the square and announced that they will remain indefinitely until they can engage directly with the government.

Illegal armed groups fighting for territorial control in the largely rural and indigenous areas that protestors come from have led to increased violence, forced displacement, and killings of social leaders in recent years.

A representative from the protestors has also stated that they want the government to address shortcomings in areas such as health, education, housing, and opportunities for young people in their departments.

The Mayor's Office of Bogotá issued a statement that an official is liaising with a community leader from the protest, and posted on X reminding participants that structures in the plaza are prohibited.

According to the Ministry of Security, up to 500 people will join the protest.

🗞️ President Petro has said that Colombia will join China’s ‘Silk Road’ strategy. Petro landed in China today and is due to meet with finance ministers and ambassadors from the country.

The Silk Road focuses on developing trade and infrastructure connections between China and other nations. It involves more than 150 countries and international organisations, and promotes investments estimated to be worth over one trillion USD.

Via social media, Petro said, “Both Latin America and Colombia are free, sovereign, and independent. And the relations we establish with any people in the world [...], must be based on conditions of freedom and equality. To that end, we have decided to take a profound step forward between China and Latin America.”

The agreement would mark a new direction in Colombia and China’s trade relations, and would be signed as the US tariff trade war continues.

However, the president of the National Business Association of Colombia has called for an evaluation of the costs and benefits of signing the agreement, as well as its potential impact on geopolitics and existing trade ties.

🗞️ Colombia has rejected acts of violence between India and Pakistan. On Wednesday morning local time, India launched airstrikes on Pakistan, killing 31 people and leaving more injured in the provinces of Punjab and Kashmir.

In a press release on Thursday morning, the Colombian Foreign Ministry expressed condolences to the victims in Pakistan and urged both nations to find a “peaceful resolution and dialogue, mutual understanding, and respect for international law.”