In the first week of the year, nearly 30 people were murdered in the eastern Colombian border town of Arauca in less than 24 hours. Colombia is experiencing a new spiral of violence, and experts say that responsibility lies squarely on the shoulders of President Iván Duque, a firm ally of the United States.

Over 200 demobilized guerrillas have been killed since the 2016 Peace Accord between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) as a multitude of other illegal armed groups spread and grow. In October, the new FARC political party led a pilgrimage for life and peace across the country to demand that the Peace Accords be implemented and the violence stop.

President Iván Duque has said that he will not resume peace talks until all hostages are released and kidnappings end.

President Iván Duque signed a $844,000 public relations contract using money from the president’s Peace Fund, according to a report by Semana News.

On Tuesday, the rural community of Santa Lucía in northern Colombia held a ceremony to grieve the death of another ex-combatant.

Thousands of Colombians occupied the streets of different cities in the third strike against President Iván Duque.

BOGOTÁ, Colombia (AP) — Threatened with death, Wilson Florez chose a bulletproof vest.

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Former combatants for Colombia’s once-largest rebel army asked for forgiveness Monday as they acknowledged kidnappings during the nation’s long civil conflict at a special tribunal created by the peace process.

How did Colombia’s fragile peace unravel?

Under Iván Duque’s leadership, the government’s progress on fulfilling its commitments to peace has slowed to nearly a standstill.

The latest act in the drama that pits U.S. interests against its traditional allies is playing out in Colombia.

Across cities and rural areas, Indigenous, Afro-Colombian, and peasant communities are leading the resistance against the state’s dismantling of Colombia’s 2016 Peace Accords under President Iván Duque.

One by one, many of the victims of Latin America’s longest-running armed conflict are providing brutal testimony to a new Special Peace Jurisdiction that is one of the most controversial aspects of the 2016 peace accord between Colombia’s government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

In a letter made public yesterday, Iván Márquez said Colombian and U.S. authorities of had staged a “judicial set-up” against imprisoned FARC leader Jesús Santrich.

The 41-year-old Iván Duque, who has never before held elected office, begins his four-year term in August.

In late 2016, the Colombian government signed a controversial accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a guerrilla group.

The legal system has deceptively inflated its accomplishments in the war against the guerrilla groups by arresting, prosecuting and sometimes convicting innocents as guerrilla warriors.

Colombia’s violence was never just about the FARC, and peace won’t be, either.

The Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas have signed an agreement on victims’ reparations. Now what?

After Colombia’s Senate approved a nationwide ban in December, the House of Representatives, which narrowly voted down an earlier ban in November, could take up the latest legislation in the coming weeks when it returns from its three-month recess.

Colombia wants the Biden administration to grant temporary legal status to its citizens now living in the United States, noting its own efforts to address regional migration by hosting two million Venezuelans who fled their homes.