And now for something completely different.

It may boggle the mind, but there are apparently people out there who prefer to drink alcoholic beverages that aren’t beer. While those people are unequivocally wrong, it is worth pointing out that cider is also a lovely and enjoyable alcoholic refreshment, and that you can get hold of Colombia’s first ever cider right here in the capital. 

In 2013, Aotearea New Zealander Dan Hill was looking for an excuse to stay in Colombia after his contract with the country’s Air Force was up. He’d been in Colombia for three years by then, and it occurred to him that one thing this country didn’t seem to have, just as its craft beer industry was about to take off, was a cidery. Cider was booming in the States and the UK at the time and he couldn’t understand for the life of him why no one had really given it a crack here. He was introduced by his rugby teammate to Jairo Andrés Venegas, a local cricket and rugby fanatic (first Colombian wicketkeeper to represent the national team), and by the end of the year, they were working on the beginnings of Golden Lion Cider. Eight years later, the pair now run one of Bogotá’s biggest craft booze success stories.

Hailing from the small town of Timaru, just south of Christchurch, Dan has a background in homebrewing and spent five years in England before arriving here in Bogotá. As the cidery’s slogan quite literally states, that’s where the inspiration originally came from. 

Starting the country’s first ever cider business hasn’t been nearly as straightforward as one might have expected it to be. Invima (Colombia’s national medication, food and beverage regulator) threw up hurdle after hurdle (even at one stage claiming that the product needed to be made in a specific area of Europe in order to be called cider) at the trailblazers. At one stage they spent eight months just paying rent and awaiting certification before being able to sell their product. Dan and Andrés insisted on playing it by the book and in 2017, they finally managed to sell the country’s first ever nationally licensed bottle of cider. 

There’s no argument that it was worth the wait though. Golden Lion currently has the capacity to pump out 10,000L of cider a month and their product can be found all over the city, including on the shelves of Carulla. Dan still hopes that he and Andrés can grow their influence over Colombian drinking preferences, and the former seems to welcome any future competition with open arms – ‘The difficult thing is getting people to try cider in the first place’, he says. ‘The more cider that’s here, the more likely people are to try it.’

The cider

Golden Lion Cider is made with apple juice imported from Chile and Argentina. They use a mix of juice from six different varieties of apples, in order to blend in varying degrees of acidity, sweetness and bitterness. The fermentation is slow and controlled over 4-5 weeks to maximise flavour and quality consistency.

The cider starts off sweet with a touch of bitterness to follow, before a tart, dry after-taste. It’s refreshing, as crisp as the apples it’s made from, and perfect for those glorious Bogotá days when the sun’s out. 

How to get ‘em

Other than popping into your local Carulla, the easiest way to get hold of Golden Lion is to jump on their website. They sell by six-pack, 12 pack and cases of 24, which will set you back COP$30,000, $50,000 and $95,000 respectively. Delivery goes out within 48 hours (except for 

weekends) and generally costs around $6,000, depending on where you are. Various pubs also have it on tap.

You can pay through the website or directly into the company’s Bancolombia account.

The post Golden lion cider: not beer but delicious appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

Latin America (LATAM) is currently at a pivotal point for Venture Capital (VC). The region had a hallmark year in investment in 2021, but as they say—what goes up, must come down. 

The region isn’t alone in its investment slowdown, however. Overall, global venture funding is down significantly, according to Crunchbase—mostly as a result of numbers being compared to record highs. And naturally, when records are set, a slowdown is not only predictable but is sometimes even projected. 

This past spring, the Latin American Business Associations (LABA) VC conference made this very prediction for LATAM’s regional market. Leaders forecasted this partly because LATAM still lacks a lot of the entrepreneurial infrastructure that startups need, such as more seed investors and better infrastructure. 

But not all hope is lost. 

In an interview with Bloomberg Linea, Carlos Ramos De la Vega, the VC director for LAVCA, an association for private capital in Latin America, said there is still a positive outlook for LATAM. According to the association’s data, 2022 is already the region’s second-strongest year for LATAM’s VC—meaning that the movements made by founders and investors on the ground floor will be critical for where the business sector lands at the end of 2022.

For Colombia, this slowdown could actually be an excellent opportunity to achieve certain benchmarks that need to improve in order to be more competitive in the LATAM VC landscape. 

Fostering the growth of its technological infrastructure, building strategies that help pique the interest of both local and international investors, and developing a supportive network for entrepreneurs on the ground floor will help Colombia evolve into a more mature player in the  LATAM business ecosystem.

Stage 1: Fostering Colombia’s Technological Boom

As of 2022, Colombia is one of the top economic contenders in LATAM alongside Mexico and Brazil, and the country’s economic year in 2021 blew away forecasts—growing at the fastest pace seen in more than a century. This has a lot to do with the country quickly getting on board with digital implementation, allowing modern industry to hit its stride. With much of Colombia’s economic rebound between 2021-2022 due to the technology industry, the country is experiencing a technological renaissance.

Out of the roughly 50 million Colombians, nearly 34 million started using the Internet following the onset of the pandemic, of which about 22 million then became regular online shopping users. According to the Colombian Chamber of Electronic Commerce (CCCE), in 2021, eCommerce remained at levels of more than double what was registered in 2019—even when physical stores had reopened their doors.

“The e-commerce sector went from being considered as a complementary sales channel to becoming the engine for economic reactivation,” said María Fernanda Quiñones, executive president of the Colombian Chamber of Electronic Commerce (CCCE).

This interest in the digital interface is good for innovation and local startups looking to lead the technological transformation. Yet, only 2% of Colombian companies carry out cross-border operations through electronic channels—making for some seriously untapped potential in the country’s online market. The CCCE is one governmental entity currently taking steps to implement infrastructure that will help get the ball rolling for companies wishing to digitize operations. 

“We recently launched eXporta.online, a free digital platform which is sponsored by Google. The platform seeks to prepare people, medium to small enterprises, and entrepreneurs for cross-border electronic commerce,” continued Quiñones. 

The platform analyzes close to 1,517 data points collected from different sources such as the World Bank, UNCTAD, and International Trade Center, among others. The data then creates an automated process that provides recommendations for the three best destination market options for companies who are looking to start utilizing eCommerce. The engine chooses these destinations based on the ideal confluence of demand, market stability, eCommerce, language, and access to that company’s product.

“Through cross-border e-commerce, businesses have the opportunity to diversify their market and not depend solely on the local economy,” said Quiñones. “In addition, strategic alliances can be created abroad that allow businesses to gain experience and become more competitive, expand opportunities, and increase their sales capacity.”

Digitizing commerce will be vital for ensuring that Colombia can remain competitive within the larger regional and international business markets. Now technologically primed and ready, the country can provide new opportunities to startups hailing from the country.

Stage 2: Transitioning Colombian VC From Seed to Series A 

Within the last decade, VCs from all over have been looking to Colombia for investments. Thanks to startups showing significant growth in both size and number, the VC sphere in the country has seen a noteworthy upward trend. 

This is backed by 2021’s numbers, as Colombia increased its overall value of funding to $1.24 billion—making for a 144% increase compared to 2020. Rappi is one example from the country that has helped to prove Colombian startups have the capacity to increase their valuations tenfold and build multi-billion USD companies. 

But this unicorn was the first of its kind, and there are many other startups in the ecosystem wondering how they can also see this kind of success.

“Startups have to show their path to profitability,” says Diego Noriega, Managing Partner at Newtopia, a venture capital firm that has made 60% of its most recent investments in Colombia. “It doesn’t always have to be immediate, but investors are preferring startups that have done their homework in making their company robust and know how to scale themselves.” 

According to the most recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), carried out by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Colombia actually presents the best conditions for entrepreneurship out of all the countries in LATAM. Investors’ confidence in the country has also grown at a global level, with Colombia now ranking at 25 as an investment destination worldwide. 

Global investors often inspire the growth of capital into emerging markets. With international investor notoriety, a ripple effect in funding occurs, leading to investment from multiple local sources and leveling up the market. This gives growing startups access to the knowledge and resources it takes to scale globally. It also means that founders and their teams must step up to the new level of play.

“At the beginning of a startup’s lifecycle, trust (from investors) is built around the problem that the company is solving, as well as their internal team. But, for Series A the game changes dramatically,” says Noriega. “Startups are not going to reach Series A unless they can show metrics that they can do so. There is no magic trick to fast-track this. Companies must achieve revenues and growth rates that show traction to get the interest from VCs who invest at this level.”

The next critical step for Colombia’s emerging businesses is to show investors that they have what it takes to climb the investment ladder from the seed stages to Series A—helping to propel the country to new entrepreneurial heights.

Stage 3: Creating a Supportive Startup Ecosystem

With digital transformation well on its way, and increasing interest from local and foreign investors, Colombia’s last step in maintaining competitiveness in LATAM commerce will be to build a supportive network for startups and enterprises alike. This is especially important in the current funding drought, and even more critical for developing startups that are just coming into their own.

According to Embroker, about 70% of startups fail during years two to five. This phase of hardship is termed “The valley of death”, and typically occurs after the company launches a product but has not yet seen any revenue. For Colombian companies navigating these growing pains, experiential insight can go a long way.

“The CCCE understands the importance of the country’s medium to small enterprises. This is why we seek to create a large community of companies, brands, and people with immense relationship potential that everyone can benefit from,” said Quiñones. “Training is still needed to develop new skills for entrepreneurs in their digital appropriation process. Understanding the importance of business models in digital commerce will make it easier to complete and foster sustainable digital transformation over time.”

The CCCE offers asynchronous courses that guide business owners and entrepreneurs in the construction of their internationalization plans. By improving the business sector’s digital literacy, and working on the articulation of state policies, they hope to promote the adoption of technology to both mature and emerging companies.

Startups also need to understand how the global marketplace works in Colombia, and this is where more seasoned players can come in to help support young startups. The insight of those who have come before them will help emerging companies understand the complexities of the business market within Colombia. 

Newtopia, a hands-on VC firm based in Argentina, is helping to connect startups from either side of the growth spectrum in the Colombian community. One of the most active venture capital firms in LATAM, Newtopia, recently arrived in Colombia to join the country’s entrepreneurs as they find the right product-market fit. Newtopia offers a hands-on mentorship model that guides startups through the more vulnerable initial stages—helping them to grow sustainably.

“Early-stage growth is vital. Without this, it’s impossible to achieve later stages. Latin America is a higher-risk market because sometimes there is no traction and in some cases, no product or revenue—a risk not many VCs are willing to take. At Newtopia we aim to help build startup-to-startup relationships to create healthier local, and thereby regional, ecosystems.”

Each semester, the VC accepts 10-15 startups for a 10-week program, filled with content and advice to help teams take their startups to the next level. The aim of the program is to share knowledge, channel smart money, and enhance experiences for early-stage startups. This week, the VC hosted a demo day in the capital city of Bogota, bringing startups together to exchange knowledge on navigating Colombia’s startup ecosystem.

This limited partner (LP) day was an opportunity for Colombian startups to pitch to Newtopia´s team, plus LPs, and investors hailing from top VCs in the US. Up-and-coming Colombian startups such as Beu, Ubanku, Lizit, Creditop, Orkid, and Alfred were all a part of the session. 

A Future for Colombia’s Entrepreneurial Community 

For Colombia to continue its consistent climb as one of the region’s most viable markets for startups, young companies must show VCs that they can achieve bigger outcomes—which will allow the ecosystem as a whole to graduate to the next level. 

“We must work together, as a society, to articulate the factors that will lead us to a digital as well as an inclusive economy,” said Quiñones. “This will help to promote the country as a business leader in the region.”

The future of Colombia’s startup community is bright, but ensuring that each one of these stages is achieved along the way will help the country commence a new wave of impacting startups for both the LATAM and global markets. 

Disclaimer: This article mentions a client of an Espacio portfolio company. 

The post Fueling The Startup Ecosystem: The Stages of VC Evolution in Colombia appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

Startups from every corner of the map had a tough time in 2022, with global VC funding down 69% from $70 billion in November 2021. In the European Union (EU), the aftershocks of this financial hit were felt unequally amongst its member countries, however, on account of an imbalanced startup ecosystem.

The majority of fundraising for EU startups takes place in the West, accounting for 60.4% of private equity in 2021, with Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) only receiving 1% of funding, according to the most recent data from Invest Europe. Widening the gap are structural disparities in access to technology and digitization amongst member countries.

According to a report by the European Commission, the EU needs to stay vigilant in its regulation of competition amongst its member states, especially in the current post-crisis rehabilitation. 

BEYOND, a consortium of investors and accelerators backed by the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, is spearheading an initiative to help close the funding gap in Europe and establish a more cohesive and prosperous economic network. 

“We recognize the importance of balancing the opportunities provided to startups across the EU. If we don’t act now to narrow the gap between mature and emerging startup ecosystems, Europe’s business ecosystem as a whole will suffer,” said Jesus Tapia, Head of the ISDI Accelerator and one of the BEYOND partners.

“BEYOND is a platform that connects startups, investors, accelerators, and business mentors from across the EU and provides a framework for trust, collaboration, and sharing resources that will uplift emerging players, making the whole ecosystem stronger,” he said.

Equity in entrepreneurship

Europe offers a startup landscape much different from the US because its hubs of entrepreneurship aren’t concentrated in select cities, such as Silicon Valley. According to McKinsey, only 30% of European startups have located their headquarters to hubs such as Paris or Stockholm. 

With a completely decentralized startup space, a huge opportunity for new hubs to be established exists. This allows startups to establish themselves freely across locations and invites the opportunity for programs that encourage entrepreneur mobility. 

One such program is BEYOND, which was created by a consortium of partners across Europe, including: 

• Accelerace, a Scandinavian accelerator that’s helped to grow 800+ startups including Trustpilot, Templafy, and Densou. (Denmark) 
• ISDI Accelerator, the venture builder from one of Spain’s leading business schools. (Spain)
• FundingBox, a European Deep Tech funding ecosystem that counts over 470 startups accelerated and €80 million under management. (Denmark/Poland)
• Overkill Ventures, a leading Nordic-based angel fund investing up to €200,000 in early-stage companies. (Latvia) 
• XLRadar, an accelerator program in different verticals for pre-revenue startups that awards equity investments of up to €50,000 + follow-on as well as many added-value services. XLRadar is backed by Sofia-based venture capital firm Innovation Capital. (Bulgaria)

BEYOND is a platform where leading influencers from more developed ecosystems in Europe can help to create stronger pathways to lesser-known but still thriving startup ecosystems. 

Through its Virtual Accelerator Marketplace (VAM), the BEYOND platform directs investment flows from more developed ecosystems toward emerging ones, according to a press release shared with The Sociable. 

The VAM performs a variety of tasks to increase the effectiveness and dependability of investment between EU nations, thereby promoting a healthier, more diverse, and more inclusive network of startups within the larger EU business ecosystem.

Initiatives for inclusiveness

Startups have had their endurance tested by a multitude of factors in 2022, but none more so challenging than the funding lull. According to the consortium, filling out applications for funding opportunities from organizations such as the European Commission, as well as publicly available funding opportunities from VCs and corporations, can take founders as much as 150 hours. 

To try and mitigate this, some of the BEYOND program’s initiatives include: 

• The development of a cross-border funding passport, called OnePass, that streamlines startup fundraising while also making it easier for investors to invest in them. 
• An acceleration approach that can be used by both mature and emerging ecosystems to build trust and exchange resources. 
• A marketplace where platform partners’ resources are available to companies (including accelerators and investors). 
• A reward system for partners so they can profit from adding value for startups. 
• A global marketplace for startup investment.

OnePass will serve as a centralized platform, allowing startup founders to submit a single application to gain access to curated financing and funding opportunities, as well as customized mentoring, training, and acceleration while lowering the barriers to securing investment. 

Additionally, the OnePass funding passport provides investors with access to vetted, trustworthy entrepreneurs from all over Europe. Meanwhile, it assists accelerators and incubators in matching their programs with qualified applicants, providing certificates upon completion, and significantly reducing the amount of time applicants must spend on the application process.

Funding for all

Cross-integration between Europe’s mature and emerging markets will be vital for the future of entrepreneurialism in the union. 

By helping local startups secure funding from larger EU investors, initiatives such as BEYOND can inspire capital holders from Eastern Europe who have traditionally refrained from funding to be motivated to get into the VC game. This will encourage and attract founders to launch companies in more countries and can facilitate a more cohesive yet diverse ecosystem. 

Furthermore, the BEYOND program will help startups in the EU to achieve greater exposure and connections, while also enabling investors to get to know promising young businesses —  helping to build synergy amongst all of the EU’s players. 

Disclosure: This article mentions a client of an Espacio portfolio company.

The post There’s a funding gap for startups in Europe. BEYOND has launched to close it.  appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

Applications for the prestigious scholarship programme opened this week and will close on May 12. 

The Fulbright Commission launched its 2023 scholarship scheme earlier this week, offering 51 Colombians the chance to study postgraduate degrees at some of the best universities in the United States. Applications opened on February 21 and will close on May 12. 

The Fulbright Commission is one of the biggest scholarship programmes in the world, offering funding to students from 157 countries. 

The Colombian branch of the initiative is jointly financed by the US State Department, the Colombian government, and a number of NGOs and political bodies from both countries. Last year it celebrated its 65th anniversary and since its launch, more than 5,200 students have received financial aid from the commission. 

The scheme aims to support students from groups underrepresented in academia, in particular first-generation scholars, women, indigenous peoples, people of Afro-Caribbean descent, and disabled people. There are also specific opportunities for those seeking to study a STEM subject at Master’s or PhD level. 

The nature of the scholarships depends on individuals’ programmes of choice, but in general, they cover all academic expenses, living costs, plane tickets, a basic insurance policy and visa costs. 

On completion of their degrees, Colombian Fulbright scholars are required to return to the country for at least two years during which time they should share the knowledge they have acquired during their time in the United States. 

The Executive Director of the commission, Diana Basto Castro said that the organisation is looking for people from across the country who will act as “agents of change” and who have a desire “to transform their lives and the lives of those in their communities”. 

Six forms of postgraduate scholarship are available:

• Minciencias scholarship: Up to 40 places available for people interested in research. 80% of recipients will be undertaking STEM degrees and at least 12 will belong to ethnic groups. 
• Scholarship for communities of Afro-descent: Three places are available for people from communities of raizales, palenqueras or of afro-descent. There is no restriction on degree subjects.
• Scholarship for agricultural and rural development: Three places are available for master’s students carrying out a research project focusing on cocoa production in Colombia. The scheme is part of the ‘acuerdo de cacao para la paz’ and aims to promote sustainable production and agricultural climate resilience.
• Indigenous communities scholarship: One place for a student from an indigenous community to study a master’s or PhD in any area of study. 
• Saldarriaga Concha scholarship: One spot for a student with a disability to carry out a master’s programme.
• J. William Fulbright scholarship for the mitigation of climate change: Three opportunities for students undertaking degrees focusing on adaptation to and mitigation of climate change. 

Candidates are required to have completed an undergraduate degree before 31st December 2022 and have a qualification in English. 

There are also funding opportunities for English-teaching programmes and non-degree academic-professional development activities. 

More information about the scholarships is available at the Fulbright Commission’s website.

The post Fulbright offers 51 scholarships for Colombians to study at US universities appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

Daniela Restrepo, a Colombian PR professional who lives in Pereira, who studied marketing and communication prior to working in international brand management and strategy execution, has been supporting companies in PR fro close to a decade, while also serving as a Mentor at the Founder institute.

For International Women’s Day, we had the opportunity to ask her for advice for founders looking to approach the Colombian media market, with a focus on female entrepreneurs.

Tell us what tips women entrepreneurs can use to start doing public relations for their startup. What would those first steps be to understand how to start connecting:

Public relations is an important element in supporting the reach and value of a brand for all stakeholders. All the corporate elements of the brand, from the tone and personality, the functional and emotional benefits, the central message, the final objective, and even its reputation -if they are fully harnessed with the internal and external public- can help to increase the performance, credibility and return of a brand or company.

Define your objective: What is the result you expect or seek from your efforts through public relations? Is it visibility? Do you want to position your CEO? Are you looking for traffic on your website?

Define your audience: Before you start creating any public relations strategy, you must clearly define who you are talking to. Who are they? What interests you? What problems do they face? This will help you create narratives and angles that resonate with them.

Create relevant and compelling stories: Good public relations is all about telling a fresh, interesting and compelling story around your industry. Identify the unique aspects of your venture and create coherent narratives aligned with your purpose.

Identify your relevant media: Investigate the media that are relevant to your business, specialized publications, podcasts, influencers, among others. Look for opportunities to connect, build relationships and collaborate with them, bringing actionable insights.

Connect with journalists: As you identify your relevant outlets, look for journalists who cover the issues related to your business and industry. You can follow them on social networks, initiate contact and keep them updated about the news of your venture.

Create quality content: The creation of quality content is a fundamental part of any public relations strategy. Publish articles on your blog, create infographics, post opinions about big news in your industry, and more. The key is to create content that is valuable and relevant to your audience.

Maintain an active presence on social networks: Social networks such as LinkedIn or Twitter are an excellent way to reach your audience and keep it updated.

Why and how can Social Media and Public Relations strategies create identity and credibility of my brand?
As I mentioned earlier, a recurring and well-executed social presence allows you to create relevant and useful content for your audience, which can increase your brand visibility and generate an emotional connection with followers.

On the other hand, a Public Relations strategy keeps you in permanent contact with journalists and the media, which can increase the exposure of your brand and establish it as a reliable source of information. Journalists often look for the prior presence of your startup in the media to verify its credibility, and an effective PR strategy can ensure that your brand is present and seen positively in those media.

Strategies to facilitate meetings between investors and audiences.
Attending industry events to which your venture belongs allows you to start building relationships, stay current, and be on the radar of investors and potential customers.
Apply to venture capital funds and investment programs in your country to present your business and get appointments with investors.

Enroll in pre-seed accelerators that accompany you throughout the process and help you shape your ideas and your final product/service.
Monitor the networks of the investors you are looking for, pay attention to your venture to find out their tastes and preferences.
Make a calendar of events relevant to your industry and the investors you are looking for, to provide more networking spaces.
How to identify which communication channels are best suited to my business model?
They say that if you don’t try, you’ll never know. This is the case with the different resources that you have available through a PR strategy, articles, blogs, podcasts, events, interviews, all of the above represents an opportunity to make your venture and your voice known. Many startups feel more affinity for speaking at interviews or events, others connect better with their audience through written articles. So I would not dare to say that there is a suitable channel for each business model, the more channels explored and a presence achieved, the better. Of course, always evaluating how linked it is to the objective sought with the PR actions.

How to stand out in the eyes of investors, press and clients?
Definitely, a solid public relations strategy focused on “brand awareness” or brand presence can be key to obtaining multiple benefits when looking for investors. By implementing this strategy, the press, investors and potential clients are provided with various sources of information about the news, capabilities and services of your venture.

Brand presence is essential for any business, since it allows consumers to easily identify the company, its products or services in the market. In addition to improving brand visibility, it can help build your business’s reputation and improve consumer trust; especially important factors when looking for investment.

Digital support tools that can be used to strengthen the media strategy and brand positioning.
Social networks

Web page

Blogging

Importance of the perception of the CEO’s image as accessible and close within storytelling.
The perception of the CEO’s image as accessible and close is crucial for a successful company. A CEO must be able to balance his leadership skills and business skills with the ability to learn and connect with his team on a personal level. Humility is essential to understand that a company depends on teamwork and the dedication of its employees.

In today’s business world, the image of a humane, inclusive, values-based CEO has become increasingly important. The way the CEO presents himself to the public and how he relates to his team and the media is crucial to the perception of his company and industry. A CEO who seeks to have an inclusive and positive impact not only on his company, but on society as a whole, is seen as an exceptional leader and is often admired by his employees and the community at large.

How to challenge gender stereotypes through egalitarian advertising, which includes the gender perspective in communication.
It is an important business responsibility that can have a significant impact on society, the team and the relationships between men and women and their roles within a company, providing equal value to both.

This can be mitigated by avoiding traditional gender roles, implementing and executing diversity programs in different areas of the company and having it reflected in company communications, empowering women on teams to discover their potential, emphasizing on gender equality as a premise and pillar of the company, and Considering both genders during decision-making in each company process are some of the things with which you can start to make a significant change from the inside out.

The rate of female entrepreneurship in Latin America in 2021 was described as one of the lowest according to the Mastercard Index of women entrepreneurs.

However, according to the data offered by the World Bank, female entrepreneurship in Latin America has reached 50% during the year 2022, data that encourages us to share information that trains in education related to the success of their projects, as well as giving visibility of them, so that every day the statistics grow in our favor.

The post Interview with Colombia PR pro Daniela Restrepo appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

Colombia will head to the polls this year to elect the country’s next president and members of Congress. A report released this week by the Ombudsman’s Office found that the government is failing to implement over half of the watchdog’s recommendations to ensure safe and fair elections. 

On Monday, the office released a follow-up report to its October 2025 Electoral Early Warning (ATE 013-25), saying that around 42% of recommendations for safeguarding elections were being implemented.

Last June, the country made international headlines when pre-presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay was shot in the head while holding a rally in Bogotá’s Modelia neighborhood. He would succumb to his injuries two months later. 

Since then, Ombudsman Iris Marín Ortiz’s office has registered 457 cases of death threats against social leaders, human rights defenders, and political actors in the pre-election period, which officially began in January 2025 when President Gustavo Petro convened his cabinet to decide which members would step down to run for elected office in 2026.

The report noted that candidates face ongoing risks, from constraints on campaigning in armed group–controlled areas to stigmatization, threats, and even homicide.

“The risk is not that the elections will be canceled,” said Marín, but rather that un-safeguarded elections could ignore the “forced silence of communities in the face of the governance of armed groups in some regions of the country.”

The Ombudsman’s report categorized municipalities into five risk levels from lowest to highest intensity of identified violence, in order to guide authorities on security, protection, and the safeguarding of political rights.

Two hundred fifty-seven were classified at Ordinary Action Level, 216 at Permanent Monitoring Level, 425 at Priority Action Level, 162 at Urgent Action Level, and 62 at Immediate Action Level — the most critical stage. In the follow-up Report, although the number of municipalities at Permanent Monitoring Level decreased (195), there was an increase in municipalities that required Priority Action (433), Urgent Action (168), and Immediate Action (69).

Political violence has continued in the period since Uribe Turbay’s death. Earlier in February, Senator Jairo Castellanos’s armored vehicle was attacked at an ELN rebel checkpoint in the northeastern Arauca department, killing two of his bodyguards. A few days later, Indigenous Senator Aida Quilcué was temporarily kidnapped in an area of western Cauca where FARC dissidents are active.

Upon reviewing the Government’s response, the highest rate of implementation for the 11 recommendations is 65% and the lowest is 0%. Strengthening and support for political organizations was the least advanced recommendation, followed by inter-institutional coordination and joint action for rapid response.

According to the Report’s conclusions, insufficient implementation of ATE 013-25 led to weak institutional coordination, allowed illegal armed groups to maintain control, jeopardized victims’ political participation in Special Transitional Peace Electoral Districts (CITREP), and perpetuated impunity through ineffective justice mechanisms.

The Ombudsman issued six new recommendations and reinforced the previous ones, urging the Ministry of the Interior to lead the Intersectoral Commission for Rapid Response to Early Warnings (CIPRAT), align action plans, ensure measurable budgets, and eliminate overlapping measures that cause operational gaps.

On March 8, Colombians will head to the polls for legislative elections where they’ll vote for representatives to the national congress, senate as well as primary elections where political parties will choose presidential candidates to represent them in the first round of presidential voting on May 31.

The post Colombia’s Ombudsman warns government not acting sufficiently to safeguard elections appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

Medellín, Colombia – On Thursday morning, a drone dropped a mortar shell on a home in Segovia, a town in the northeast of the Antioquia department, killing three occupants of the house and leaving one critically injured.

The police identified the victims as María Cecilia Silva Silva and her two adult children, Yalusan Cano Silva and Alsonso de Jesús Silva. Silva’s other son was also wounded in the attack.

Segovia is a key center for illegal gold mining and is being contested by multiple armed groups, including the Gaitanist Army of Colombia (EGC), also known as the Clan del Golfo, and dissident groups of the now-defunct FARC rebels.

Authorities are still working to establish if the attack was directed at the family or if it was an error by the drone operators, an increasingly common occurrence as drones become the latest technology used in Colombia’s internal armed conflict. 

According to the Secretary of Security of Antioquia, General Luis Eduardo Martínez Gúzman, the victims were “a family who have nothing to do with the conflict, who were simply attacked by a drone.” 

Martínez highlighted the danger of these devices, suggesting that the explosive device was detached from the drone, which means the mortar could “fall anywhere.”

The Director of the National Police in Colombia, General William Oswaldo Rincón Zambrano, released a statement of condemnation: “[we] categorically reject this criminal act which plunges a Colombian family into mourning and demonstrates the contempt of illegal armed groups for human life and dignity.” 

He also reported that state security forces have headed to the area where the attack took place in order to verify what happened and assist in locating and capturing those responsible. He also expressed solidarity with the victims and their families.

The Governor of Antioquia, Andrés Julián Rendón took to social media to blame the security policies of the national government for the attack: “Who in their right mind could consider that this government has achieved transformations for Colombia?”

Rendón criticized President Gustavo Petro for negotiating with the armed groups involved in the conflict in Segovia, part of the leftist leader’s “total peace” policy. 

“This is the so-called ‘total peace’: concessions for criminals and burials for civilians. Antioquia demands an unwavering military offensive, full backing for the security forces, and zero leniency towards the criminals,” said Rendón. 

Drone attacks, both against armed groups as well as against security forces and the civilian population, have become widespread in Colombia. Between April 2024 and February 2026, the government recorded 418 attacks using drones. 

Tackling the mounting security crisis is a key issue in upcoming elections, which the United Nations warns may be undermined by the armed conflict.


Featured image description: Drone with GoPro digital camera mounted

Featured image credit: Don McCullough, Wikimedia Commons

The post Drone attack on home in Colombia kills three, injures one appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

An express kidnapping highlights the risks of taking a taxi in Colombia’s capital. What happened, and how to avoid it happening to you.

Bogotá breathed a collective sigh of relief on Tuesday morning when news broke of the safe arrival home of Diana Ospina, a rola missing for almost 40 hours after being kidnapped by a taxi she had hailed in the street after a night out in Chapinero.

Ospina was the latest victim of El Paseo Millonario, the ‘millionaire ride’, where passengers riding in yellow public taxis are physically attacked and forced to hand over cash and valuables.

The technique varies, but victims are usually targeted late at night in busy streets in party zones outside restaurants or discotheques, then driven to a quiet spot where two accomplices of the driver climb in the back seat and threaten the passenger with knives, guns or syringes.

See also: Bogotá’s Murder Mosaic

The following ordeal can last minutes or hours or even days. Victims are intimidated with beatings or stab wounds, and hooded or blindfolded. Some are killed, as in the case of a university professor found dead on the outskirts of the city in January this year.

Foreigners are also targeted: in 2013, a DEA officer Terry Watson was stabbed to death in a Bogotá taxi after two assailants jumped in the back seat. Authorities later said the army veteran resisted the attack. Seven taxi drivers were later captured and extradited to the U.S. to face charges for his murder.

According to police data, during 2025 in Bogotá there were registered 37 cases of kidnapping for ransom or extortion, though these crimes are highly under-reported. This is because the same gangs threaten the victims to keep quiet, and in the case of taxi gangs, know where their targets live.

Publicity blitz

In the case of Ospina, her kidnap started early Sunday morning when she hailed a yellow taxi that took her to within one block of her home in Engativá, where two men from a following taxi climbed in the back, threatened her and took her blindfolded for a three-hour driver around the city while using her phone and bank cards.

The ordeal did not end there. Ospina was then passed on to another kidnap group operating in the south of the city and held in a house there while more extortion demands were made. Late on Monday night, after being captive for nearly 40 hours, Ospina was dropped off in the hills above Bogotá where she eventually walked to a police station for assistance.

According to information on FM radio, from contacts close to the family, the kidnap gang released her after the “feeling pressure from the media blitz” with social media platforms widely publicising her disappearance. Other news reports stated they released her only after draining 50 million pesos (US$15,000) from her bank accounts.

This week the authorities were still hunting the perpetrators, expecting arrests imminently.

Your world in your phone

The Ospina case highlights how smartphones have upped the risks for kidnap victims in Colombia.

Whereas in the past a paseo millonario was usually a short-term event – passengers held for an hour while the gang used their bankcards at an ATM – criminals nowadays are eyeing much bigger profits from emptying bank accounts held on smartphones.

The insistence by banks and other financial platforms to use biometric approvals such as face recognition or fingerprint scanning has created the need for gangs to keep their targets captive for many days, in some cases drugging them into compliance or subduing them through threats of violence.

See also: Bogotá Police take down gang drugging victims in Teusaquillo and Chapinero

The rise of the digital nomads in Colombia often with juicy crypto accounts accessed through their phones has also created opportunities for tech savvy criminals. After such attacks, platforms are reluctant to reimburse funds arguing that they were transferred with the biometric approval of the victim.

One thing is clear: apart from increased financial losses, the longer victims are held captive the worse their outcome, both in terms of physical and psychological damage, the risk of sexual violence, or death from an overdose of the powerful drugs such as burundanga administered by the gangs.

The Canaries

Bogotá has more than 55,000 public taxis circulating on any given day sometimes referred to as ‘Los Canarios’ (the canaries) after their yellow cars and a popular telenovela depicting taxi drivers. It is worth noting that taxi drivers are themselves frequently the victims of robbery, extortions and murder.

Yellow taxi companies in Bogotá are registered and controlled by the Secretería de Movilidad with each driver given a Tarjeta de Control, the plasticized card hanging down the seat back that – in theory – displays the name, details and photo of the driver as well as the fare scale, and is revalidated every month.

In Bogotá, passengers can independently check the status of registered drivers by entering the numberplate into the menu at SIMUR at  www.simur.gov.co/conductores-de-taxi.

But in a random test by The Bogotá Post, out of 10 taxis entered by number plate, only six had a registered driver. Four were reported “without an active registration”.

That lack of control is further weakened by the fact that registered taxistas often allow other drivers to take the wheel, said transport companies this week.

“We work on good faith, but we can’t guarantee that drivers don’t hand over their cars to other persons to commit crimes,” Maria  Botero, manager of Radiotaxis told Noticias Caracol.

In the case of Ospina, the taxis that abducted her were quickly identified along with their owners, but not the actual attackers. One car was not currently registered on SIMUR.

No dar papaya

How to avoid becoming a victim? A good tip is to use a ride platforms like Didi, Cabify, Uber or Indrive. Some like Didi are also linked to the yellow public taxis, but safer because the ride is traced. At times hailing a street taxi is the only option because app cars are far off, and you weigh the risks of standing on the street, or (as in the case of Diana Ospina) the app ride is suddenly cancelled.

Attacks are usually at night, on weekends, on persons leaving bars or restaurants. But passengers can be targeted in daytime, particularly in financial districts or leaving a bank. If you are riding the yellow taxis, here are some ways to no dar papaya, as they say in Bogotá (‘don’t be a sucker’).

Before going out:

• Carry a clean phone with no banking apps and limited personal data. Many people in Bogotá are now leaving their financial transactions on a second phone or tablet stored safely at home.
• Carry a wad of cash. Perhaps counterintuitively, in the digital world cash makes you less of a target. And it is easy to hand over.
• If you do carry a bank card, take just one linked to a low-balance account.

Getting the taxi:

• Travel in a group. Criminals generally target solo passengers.
• Check the taxi numberplate in SIMUR, see above. This takes seconds and confirms if there is a registered driver. If not, walk away.
• Take a photo of the taxi numberplate, send to friends or family. Ensure the driver sees you doing this.
• Before entering a taxi, look carefully to ensure there is no-one hidden inside.
• Check the Tarjeta de Control photo with the actual driver. Do this before setting off.
• Check doors can be locked and unlocked from the passenger seat.

During the trip:

• Lock doors on both sides.
• Share your real-time location with a family member or friend.

Signs of danger:

• The driver changes the route without explanation.
• The taxi turns onto dark or deserted streets.
• The driver suddenly stops to pick up other persons.
• Motorcycles or other cars or taxis closely follow the vehicle.

During an attack:

• Prioritize your physical safety.
• Give up any valuables without resistance.

If you suspect someone you know has been abducted by a taxi gang, call the GAULA special police unit (Grupos de Acción Unificada por la Libertad Personal) that deals with extortion and kidnapping, on Line 165.

“Safe taxi” zones

Even with these precautions, street taxis are still a risk, and a growing one according to Bogotá security authorities who during 2025 arrested at least 20 persons from several different Paseo Millonario gangs such as La 57 and La Zona T.

A recent advance by the city has been the recognition of the crime as “kidnap with extortion”, with up to 40 years in jail for perpetrators.

Another nitiative announced by the Secretaría de Seguridad this week was taxi seguro zones where uniformed teams patrol outside nightspots and assist revellers to take only registered taxis.

But while mediatic, such initiatives are likely to have only limited impact. Taxi gangs are generally compact, with three people, and mobile so they can cruise new zones. And new gangs seem to pop up as quickly as old ones are taken down.

So while the city can celebrate the safe return of Diana Ospina, and hopefully soon see her attackers rounded up, there will be plenty more candidates for the Millionaire Ride.  

The post Paseo Millionario: don’t be taken for a ride appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

Student leaders declare ‘indefinite strike’ at Bogotá’s sprawling Universidad Nacional as controversial rector reappointed.  

In another twist in the saga of who runs the ‘Nacho’, Colombia’s largest public university, controversial candidate Ismael Peña was formally inducted as rector last week ending a two-year legal wrangle.

Peña was sworn in during a small private ceremony on Thursday just days after a Bogotá tribunal ordered his reinstatement in the job. This followed the resignation last November of another rector whose possession was ruled illegitimate by Colombia’s state council.

Read more: Court Ruling Expected to Spark Trouble at the National University.

The initial controversy was sparked in 2024 in the highly politicized campus when a popular candidate, Leopoldo Múnera, lost out to Peña in the last voting round by the university council.

#BOGOTÁ | Este es el panorama a esta hora (6:53 p.m.) en la calle 26 a la altura de la Universidad Nacional.

Los servicios troncales que transitan realizan retornos en Corferias y Concejo de Bogotá.

Los vehículos particulares no pueden circular en sentido Oriente-Occidente.… pic.twitter.com/WWfyIrqwXi

— ÚltimaHoraCaracol (@UltimaHoraCR) February 19, 2026

The ensuing strikes and protests galvanized the university for four months setting back the academic agenda and creating an exhausting three-term year in 2025, from which students and professors are only just recovering.

Protests and vandalism spilled over onto major nearby transport routes around the Bogotá campus. In Bogotá, the Nacho sits in the corner of the busy Avenida NQS and Avenida El Dorado, two of the most vital throughfares for both public and private transport.

Return of Torres

Even as news of Peña’s legal victory and imminent reinstatement was announced last week, students and supporters quickly blocked the Avenida El Dorado forcing Transmilenio buses to suspend operations and thousands of commuters to make their way on foot.

Student assemblies at the university’s two main campuses, Bogotá and Medellin, called for “indefinite strikes” to protest Peña reinstatement.

To add to the confusion, the Bogotá campus was also invaded by a large group of campesinos from Cauca whose later protests detained workers in government buildings, part of a plan to draw attention to conflict-related problems in their department.

On Friday, when The Bogotá Post visited the university, most of the faculties were closed but the campus was filled with students busy painting fresh murals to celebrate the return of the remains to the campus of Camilo Torres, a revolutionary priest and founder of the university Sociology Department, who joined the ELN guerrillas and was killed in action against the army in 1966.

See also: Remains of Rebel Priest Set to Return to Bogotá.

Many students gave their views on the return of Peña but  declined to be fully identified.

Roberto, a sociology student selling food in the campus, said he supported the strike to “preserve the autonomy of the university”. Peña was seen as an unpopular candidate “linked to private interests that will privatize the curriculum and syphon off profits”, he said.

Corporate spinoffs

Similar sentiments were expressed across the campus: that Peña was being parachuted in with the backing of the Centro Democratic party to advance both a right-wing agenda and disburse lucrative contracts to a select group of private companies.

According to an investigation by magazine La Raya last year, Peña was the continuity candidate for “a parallel administration system” embedded in a company called Rotorr that dished out deals on behalf of the university, but bypassed internal auditing procedures leaving an opaque tangle of beneficiaries.

During his rectorship Múnera described these corporate spinoffs as engaging in “crimes against the university” and flagged them to the judicial authorities, but so far with no clear resolution.

Despite these controversies, Peña’s return was boosted by support from the Consejo Superior Universitario, the highest decision-making body of public universities in Colombia, that unanimously agreed to respect the tribunal ruling, clearing any final legal hurdles.

Strike Down

In another unexpected outcome, an online poll of students revealed that a majority were against the suspension of classes.

 The initial strike call came after a hastily convened student assembly on the Bogotá campus where some student representatives later complained that their voices were not heard.

“There was one classmate, he raised his hand and they wouldn’t let him speak. So, the next day we decided to conduct a survey to ask the students if they agreed with the strike,” student representative Kevin Arriguí told City TV.

The results, based on a total of 5,438 respondents, showed that 56 per cent (3,060 students) disagreed with the strike, while only 36 per cent (2,141 students) supported it. There were 237 undecideds.

Tellingly, the online strike survey had a higher participation among students than last year’s vote to install a Constituyente Universitaria – a people’s body – that is now in place.

Some students consulted on the campus by The Bogotá Post last week were mindful of the outcome of the 2024 strike which lasted several months and created hardships, particularly for poor students from rural areas who had spent money to travel to the capital to study, only to face severe interruptions to their curriculums and the risk of having to study another year to gain their degrees.

“We don’t want Peña. People are angry. But we don’t want to stop the term either,” said Carla, a student outside the newly constructed 70,000-million-peso arts faculty building.

Fragile mobility

Finding a compromise could be problematic. Activists on the campus were pressuring undergraduates to not attend classes and most lessons were abandoned. Some professors offered their classes on-line.

The student assembly planned this week at the Bogotá site could reverse the strike plans, though this seems unlikely. The general mood among students on the campus was that they would “block Peña, whatever it takes”.

Such talk is common at a university that is a petri dish for the national condition and at times – literally – a battleground for political divisions, particularly in a city nominated as the country’s “protest capital”.

This was revealed by data published in an El Espectador op-ed this week which showed Bogotá had 1,678 mass mobilization recorded during 2025, roughly 32 per week, and an increase of 17 per cent on the previous year.

While celebrating this increase as a “symptom of democracy”, it also pointed out that these protests “affected public order and the fragile mobility of millions of Bogotanos”.  

 That included two million people using the Transmilenio each day, with a majority of these on lines passing close to the Universidad Nacional. Easy targets for agitators based on the campus.

Which is why trouble at the Nacho generally means headaches for the whole city.

The post More trouble at Bogotá’s Universidad Nacional? appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

The Colombian national parks agency announced the temporary closure of the Tayrona National Park on Tuesday, February 17, citing threats against park staff by armed groups.

Tayrona, located on the country’s northern Caribbean coast, is one of the country’s most visited national parks, attracting as many as 750,000 visitors from around the world each year.

Its closure comes amid a war between two criminal organizations fighting to control territory and strategic drug trafficking routes in the region.

“The National Government announced the temporary closure of Tayrona National Natural Park as a preventive measure to protect the lives and safety of visitors, communities, and officials, and to ensure their security,” read a government statement on Tuesday. 

The dispute began with an operation on February 11 to dismantle “unauthorized constructions in the protected area” in the park. The director of the national parks agency explained that these included houses, bathrooms, and hiking trails built without state permission.

The demolition prompted threats online against park personnel, according to the government. The situation escalated on Monday, February 16, when locals blocked park employees from entering Tayrona. They also reportedly took over government functions, charging tourists for access and allowing people to enter without formal registration. 

“This created a situation that prevents a minimum level of security from being ensured within the protected area,” said authorities.

While the government did not specify who it believes to be behind the actions, the closure comes amid a mounting turf war in the area between two criminal organizations: the Conquering Self-Defense Forces of the Sierra Nevada (ACSN) and the Gaitanist Army of Colombia (EGC), or Clan del Golfo, designated a terrorist organization by the United States last December. 

“This latest escalation in Tayrona is yet another chapter in this very unfortunate territorial contest that’s been underway now for several years,” said Elizabeth Dickinson, deputy director for Latin America at the International Crisis Group. 

For decades, the ACSN – under different names – has controlled the Sierra Nevada, Tayrona and the city of Santa Marta through a web of powerful family clans. But in recent years, the EGC has been pushing east along the coast from its stronghold in the Gulf of Urabá, trying to displace the ACSN.

The EGC’s long-term goal is to reach the border with Venezuela and surround the key coca-producing region of Catatumbo, says Dickinson. 

“[The Sierra Nevada] is sort of a route on the route to their goal. And… the effect on the civilian population from both sides has been pretty devastating,” said the analyst, who noted a rise in forced confinement, recruitment, and targeted killings.

While tourists tend to be insulated from criminal violence in the area, with armed groups preferring to profit from drugs and prostitution, Tayrona’s closure may signal a shift. 

But local tourism operators tell a different story; they say the closure has nothing to do with the security situation. Instead, members of the community say the problem is that the government, which collects revenue from ticket sales, is not re-investing it in the park. 

“The communities are tired, and the Indigenous people are tired because they don’t receive the money either; it’s taken to Bogotá,” said Luis Eduardo Muñoz, a local leader. 

He explained that members of the community took action to renovate vital tourism infrastructure in the park because the national government failed to invest in it. When the state demolished it, they protested.

“Why do they have to resort to extreme measures and try to close the park if it is necessary for people’s livelihoods?” said Muñoz, who called for dialogue between the government and local leaders.

Although the cause of the closure remains disputed, security analysts nevertheless say it underscores increasing insecurity in the Sierra Nevada region around Tayrona. 

It also marks another setback for President Gustavo Petro’s peace process, with the government actively engaged in negotiations with both the ACSN and the EGC.

Petro said the ACSN had signed a deal after Tayrona’s closure to guarantee civilian safety and suspend attacks on state security forces. 

But the prospect of a peace deal remains uncertain as the group faces a mounting threat from the EGC.

“I think the fundamental question remains the tactical situation on the ground because, of course, they can’t negotiate if they’re under immediate threat from another force,” said Dickinson.

The post Colombia’s popular Tayrona National Park closes over alleged armed group threats appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

Bogotá, Colombia – On February 10, the Grenoble Prosecutor’s Office launched a worldwide call for victims or witnesses of Jacques Leveugle, a teacher arrested in 2024 in France and accused of sexually assaulting at least 89 minors around the world since 1967.

During a press conference, French prosecutor Étienne Manteaux said that the sexual predator was reported in 2023 by one of his nephews, who discovered a USB drive containing written memoirs, pictures, and other documents related to the abuse of teenagers. 

The French Embassy in Colombia called for witnesses to come forward to identify potential abuse victims in the country, as Leveugle worked as a teacher in Bogotá on two occasions between 1996 and 2023.

The suspect was living in Morocco when the investigation began, but had spent his life moving between Switzerland, Germany, Portugal, Algeria, Nigeria, the Philippines, New Caledonia, Colombia, and France. In all of these countries, he allegedly targeted minors while working in educational or social roles.

Authorities revealed that in his “autobiography,” the alleged abuser gave horrendous details about 89 teenagers, between 13 and 17 years old, being manipulated and abused from 1967 to 2022.

“We need Jacques Leveugle’s name to be known because the objective is to reach the victims and encourage them to come forward,” Manteaux confirmed.

He said that 40 of the 89 victims had been identified and that authorities were working to find the rest. 

“Sometimes names are not even mentioned; we are facing a wall in certain situations… This call for witnesses is to allow victims we haven’t been able to identify to come forward,” the prosecutor explained. “Perhaps not all victims are recorded in these documents.”

Manteaux also said that the man, who has been under arrest since 2024 and never officially graduated as an educator, also confessed in his writings to killing two women: his mother and one of his aunts.

The uphill battle to find victims in Colombia

Investigations revealed that Jacques Leveugle spent several years living in and visiting Colombia between 1996 and 2000, and again from 2000 to 2023. 

In an interview with Caracol Radio, the prosecutor confirmed that the sexual predator worked as a French teacher in a shelter for children and teenagers in the capital city, Bogotá.

“It’s hard to reach victims outside France; that’s why we have made a special invitation to Colombian victims. We need them and their experiences to understand what this man really did,” he said during the call, adding that they decided to take a “traditional” approach due to the difficulty of reaching witnesses.

Authorities are also trying to determine if Leveugle had collaborators and what his “modus operandi” was to ensure that none of the teenagers ever complained or reported the abuse to the police.

Latin America Reports contacted the Grenoble Prosecutor’s Office, and they confirmed that the investigation remains active and ongoing in Colombia. They also committed to briefing the media on any significant breakthroughs as they continue to work toward identifying more victims internationally.

The French Embassy in Bogotá has shared the channels established to find Colombian victims:

Anyone with information or seeking to report an incident can communicate via email at sr-grenoble-leveugle@gendarmerie.interieur.gouv.fr or by calling the international hotline at +33 800 005 321.

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Failures in Colombia’s health system were highlighted this week after a young boy died from “completely preventable” complications from blood condition after going off treatment for two months.

Seven-year-old Kevin Acosta was rushed to hospital in Pitalito, Huila, on February 8 after falling off his bike and hitting his head, a situation complicated by his hemophilia.

According to his mother Katherine Pico, the boy required regular injections of clotting factors to prevent the genetic condition that can cause fatal bleeding if untreated.

But due to failings by his health insurer, Nueva EPS, Kevin had missed his regular injections for two months, and on the day of his accident he was denied emergency doses even while bleeding from his head in the hospital in Pitalito.

When the health insurer finally agreed to evacuate Kevin by air ambulance 24 hours later to Bogotá, where clotting factors were available, the blood loss was severe. Kevin died four day later in the Intensive Care Unit of the Hospital de la Misericordia in Bogotá.

Since then, Kevin’s death has caused huge indignation in Colombia both among medical experts who claim the death was preventable and critics of the current government’s political intervention in the health system which has left many users worse off.

Get off your bike

Adding to the furor, President Gustavo Petro waded into the debate blaming the mother for allowing Kevin to ride a bicycle.

“A hemophiliac child shouldn’t ride a bike; it’s a matter of prevention. We need to know if the doctor or the health system isn’t providing education, because mothers don’t learn about it, especially given the low educational levels in Colombia,” he said.

His own health minister, Guillermo Jaramillo, added: “Children with hemophilia should be restricted from activities that can generate violent trauma,” he said.

These comments were challenged by patient’s rights groups, who pointed out that cyclists with hemophilia have competed in the Tour de France, and medical experts who emphasized that in recent decades in Colombia prevention has been based on weekly or monthly injections of “clotting factors” which allowed hemophiliacs to lead normal lives.

Many medical experts concurred that children with regular prophylaxis to prevent excess bleeding could, and should, integrate in physical activities.  

“The child died from the accident, but the reason he died was because he didn’t have the medication,” Dr Sergio Robledo, president of the Colombian League of Hemophiliacs, told Blu Radio.  “Prevention in hemophilia means having the drugs, not locking the child up at home.”

“For more than 20 years in Colombia we have not had any [hemophilia] deaths specifically due to a lack of medicine,” Robledo continued.

Chaotic plan

Kevin’s case was symptomatic of problems in Colombia’s health system which had worsened under the Petro government, Denis Silva told the Bogotá Post this week.

Silva, spokesperson for Paciente Colombia, a coalition of 202 patients’ rights groups, said Kevin’s death was “100 per cent avoidable”.

“If Kevin had been given the prophylaxis or given the treatment when he went to the clinic to coagulate his blood, the situation would have been different”.

Kevin’s mother had been asking Nueva EPS for the life-saving medicines since December, he said, but they were never delivered because the EPS had “failed to pay the clinic” that administered the drug in Pitalito.

Blame for these errors should bounce back to the Petro government, said Silva. State entities had forcibly intervened in Nueva EPS in 2024, claiming fraud in the huge health insurer, and were thereafter legally responsible for managing the entity that covered 11 million Colombians.

Interventions in EPS insurers was not unusual in Colombia, he said. Previous governments had done the same to avoid a crisis for patients.

But were timely actions to “administrate, improve and, where necessary, rescue” the health insurers, though in some cases they were shuttered and patients moved to other companies. Petro’s current takeovers were more chaotic and linked to political overhaul of the health system, he said.

Health system in crisis

This agenda was heavily criticized in an opinion article ‘How Politics Destroyed Colombia’s Model Healthcare System’, by Colombian-based journalist Luke Taylor and published in the prestigious British Medical Journal in January.

Referring to President Petro’s “bungled reforms”, the story claimed that maternity wards and neonatal units were shutting their doors, emergency departments becoming overwhelmed, and training programs for specialist doctors being shut down.

It also quoted the Colombian president as stating that health companies were being “run by crooks”, even as the his government’s interventions triggered a slew of complaints by patients suddenly finding their health care a lot worse.

For patients with chronic ailments reliant on monthly checkups and regular medical supply, the decline was becoming an existential threat, said Colombia’s ombudsman, Iris Marín, this week.

Kevin Acosta was “yet another victim of the failures in the availability and access to medicines that thousands of Colombians face today, in order to access timely treatments that are crucial for their health”.

According to documents released by Nueva EPS, Pico had tried to transfer her son’s care from Huila to Santander department, then switched back to Huila, suggesting a paperwork logjam had delayed the treatment. In another statement, it denied suspending the prophylaxis.

Need for treatment

This was “a big lie” said Pico, talking to Semana, since even before the administrative switch the local clinic treating Kevin had told her in early January that Nueva EPS had ended its contract. Without payments from the EPS, the clinic was forced to suspend treatment.

“By January we had no medication, no appointments, nothing,” said Pico.

Her position was supported by the fact that, across the country, other chronic or rare disease sufferers – including hemophiliac suffers in Pico’s same family – were reporting the same shortages, in many cases linked to contractual or payment problems with health suppliers. 

ACHOP, the Colombian Association of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, warned in a public communication that children and adolescents “were not receiving in a timely and continuous manner the essential medicines to preserve their lives in conditions of dignity”.

These shortages fell mostly on patients with the state-intervened Nueva EPS, confirmed hemophilia specialist Dr Jorge Peña, who said he regularly treated dozens of children with the condition.

Talking to Caracol Radio, Dr Peña said that children with other insurers were receiving their prophylaxis on time and were “happy, free from bleeding, and going to school as usual”.

“In comparison Nueva EPS patients are not getting the medicines, and I see them every day with bleeding. They can’t go to school.”

Leaked records

Meanwhile attempts by the government and President Petro to push back on Pico even while grieving her son’s death caused condemnation across the political spectrum, particularly since the state had taken over Nueva EPS.

“The responsibility is clear: when the state intervenes and controls, it is held accountable,” said Senator Jorge Robledo on X.

“The healthcare system already had problems, but under this government it’s worse. And meanwhile, more and more Colombians are suffering from illnesses that medicine knows how to treat.”

More criticism piled on President Petro after he leaked details from the Kevin Acosta’s medical records during a speech in La Guajira. Patient spokesperson Denis Silva called on the government to respect patient confidentiality

“These are confidential in Colombia,” said Silva. “By law the EPS insurer should guard the medical records, and no-one should access them without permission from the family”.

The leaks came even as the state agency overseeing the system, the Superintendency of Health (also known as Supersalud), announced an investigation into the Kevin’s care, including looking at “administrative barriers and the delivery of medication by Nueva EPS and the service provider”. This audit should clarify differences in accounts from the family and Nueva EPS.

But even with results pending, President Petro again doubled down in a speech claiming the family was primarily responsible for Kevin’s health outcomes.

“It’s the family that first of all cares for its children,” he said, “Not everything is the responsibility of the state, because the state can’t respond to everything, otherwise we lose our liberty”.  

Colombians living with hemophilia might want those liberties to include the right to life-saving drugs – and to ride a bike.

The post Young hemophilia patient dies after delay in life-saving medicines appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

2026 has started off unusually wet, with downpours in Bogotá and floods elsewhere in Colombia. What’s going on and how can you help?

While this is meant to be the dry season for most of Colombia, it’s instead been raining heavily. Vast swathes of the Caribbean region have flooded, and in Bogotá, it’s led to collapses in the traffic systems. That’s led to an emergency declaration by the president and frantic relief efforts (links at article end).

Colombian president Gustavo Petro has declared a state of emergency yet again to address the situation in the northern department of Córdoba and elsewhere. While the emergency measures were declared for Córdoba, this was later extended to 22 departments, underlining the severity of the situation.

Within the capital, flash floods have swamped roads and forced traffic to grind to a halt as well as collapsing roofs and flooding buildings. Luckily, Bogotá has so far escaped the levels of damage seen elsewhere in the nation.

Barrios such as Nicolás de Federman have been hit by hailstorms heavy enough to resemble a blizzard, leaving them carpeted in white as though snowed in while the autopista norte has been forced to close as it resembles a swamp.

One silver lining to the rainclouds is that the reservoirs will be nice and full, alleviating fears that Bogotá will be forced to return to water rationing, as happened in 2024. That will be little comfort to many who have lost everything in the floods.

Why is it raining so much?

Colombia’s weather monitors, IDEAM, have explained that there are four main factors: the Madden and Julian wave; high Amazonian humidity; a lack of winds to move that humidity and la Niña-esque conditions.

All put together, these four factors combine to make a perfect storm and unseasonably high January rainfall levels. That’s continued into February and with March and April around the corner there is little relief in sight.

That’s led to half the country being put on alert for potential floods and high precipitation, which leads to all sorts of other trouble such as landslides. Colombia’s disaster relief agency UNGRD is underprepared currently, having endured corruption scandals recently.  

This is meant to be the dry season, too. Bogotá in particular is meant to receive heavy rain October-December and April, not January and February. In fact, these months are normally characterised by blazing sunshine, clear skies and hot temperatures.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that we’re supposed to be heading into an El Niño cycle, meaning dry weather and lower rainfall than expected. Instead, we’ve had the precise opposite so far. While Colombia is the world’s rainiest country, it’s not meant to fall in January and February, at least not in the north.

Floods in the Caribbean

The rains have been annoying and disruptive in Bogotá, but other parts of the country have faced genuine devastation. First among those is the department of Córdoba, which has suffered widespread floods. However, over half the country has been affected.

The capital of Córdoba, Montería, is the worst hit major city in the country, with thousands of people evacuated in the city and surrounds. Over a quarter of a million people have been directly affected by the rains nationally.

Sadly, politics have come into play here too, with Petro clashing with regional governor Erasmo Zuleta over the management of the department. The pair have had a lot of differences over the years. He also said he was initially unable to land in Córdoba due to the risk of an attack.

More reasonable are Petro’s claims that the situation has been exacerbated by water management systems such as reservoirs. These have diverted normal water flows and critically diminished the region’s ability to handle pressure from unusual weather patterns. Zuleta’s response is that the national government oversees the Urrá hydro plant.

The worst affected regions are on the Caribbean coast, with Uraba Antioqueño, La Guajira and Sucre joining Córdoba, but the Amazon and Pacific regions have also seen unusually high rainfall for the start of the year.

There has been flooding in Medellín, as well as the risk of landslides in hillside comunas, while coastal cities such as Cartagena have had heavy downpours and storms, affecting much-needed tourism income in high season as beaches close.

Even when the rains stop, the long term effects will take years to overcome. Already, bad actors are starting to take advantage of the situation, with desperate houseowners paying through the nose for boaters to rescue their belongings before thieves arrive.

Fields that are now underwater will take an age to fully drain and even longer to recover from the damage currently being wrought upon them. Thousands upon thousands of hectares of farmland will be unusable for the near future.

With what looks like a fraught year ahead for Colombia, this is an unwanted extra pressure to deal with and exposes the fragility of infrastructure in the face of increased climate change pressure. Whoever wins the next election, investment will be needed to avoid similar problems going forward. 

The Cruz Roja Colombiana are taking donations of clothes and building materials at their Salitre centre (Av.68 #68b-31), and you can donate money directly on this link. The local government in Bogotá is also organising donation drives on this link.

The post Rain, rain, go away appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

Judges ordered the recapture this week of a Violeta Arango Ramírez, a prime suspect in the 2017 bombing of Bogotá’s Andino shopping mall, after she lost her legal protections as an ELN peace manager.

The Colombian attorney general’s office requested that Arango, thought to be active in the ranks of the ELN guerrillas, “be found immediately to comply with an order for prison detention” based on accusations she was a key participant in the attack that left three dead and 10 more injured.

Arango, a sociologist, was previously arrested in 2022, but then released from prison to assume the role of a gestora de paz (‘peace manager’) during peace talks between the ELN and the the Petro government.

The controversial release was criticised at the time by survivors and families of victims of the Andino attack as Arango remained a key suspect. By being nominated as a gestora de paz, Arango was allowed both her freedom and temporary avoidance of homicide and terrorism charges while whe was “collaborating with the peace process”.  

This week’s recapture order followed breakdowns in government talks with the ELN with the Justice Department officially removing many combatants’ designations as peace managers. The news gave a glimmer of hope for justice after nine years of uncertainty as to who was behind the attack.

Arango herself has always denied any involvement in the attack, pointing to a plot from within the state prosecutors’ office to frame left-wing activists during the political fallout from the 2016 FARC peace deal.

Pamphlet bombs

The Andino attack unfolded during the evening of Saturday, June 17, 2017, inside the crowded women’s restroom of the busy shopping mall at a peak hour. It was the eve of Father’s Day.

A bomb placed in a toilet cubicle exploded killing one French and two Colombian citizens and maimed at least eight more women in or around the restroom.

Police investigators quickly blamed the Movimiento Revolucionario del Pueblo or MRP, a left-wing group that had evolved in Bogotá’s public universities and was dedicated to mediatic events such as dangling flags from buildings and letting off weak explosives that launched political leaflets into the air.

Over the space of two years the MRP had targeted public spaces outside tax offices, health insurers and banks with messages such as: “Today in Colombia the peace process is a business plan”, and “Health in Colombia is a problem of democracy”.

In the months following the attack, a dozen suspects accused of being linked to the MRP were rounded up, detained over many months, then tried and released after none of the evidence against them could be proven in court.

Meanwhile an alternative theory emerged: that the Andino bombing was part of a right-wing plot carried out to destabilise the then-Santos government’s closeness to left-wing guerrilla groups in the wake of the historic 2016 peace process with the FARC, previously Colombia’s most powerful armed group.

False positives

In this narrative, the MRP, with its history of small-scale attacks and rumoured links to the larger ELN guerrilla group, made a convenient scape-goat.

Investigators claimed to have found similarities between the Andino bomb and the pamphlet explosives, but an analysis by news website Las2Orillas at the time pointed out that the attorney general’s office at the time “had a long history of fabricating evidence” to bring down left-wing political targets, partly as a distraction from their own implications in high profile corruption cases.

Violeta Arango, an activist with links to left-wing causes, found herself officially accused of being an MRP leader and coordinator with the much larger ELN guerrilla group.

She avoided capture and publicy declared herself the victim of a “falso positivo”, or false positive, referring to the practice by the Colombian military of murdering civilians and disguising their bodies as guerrilla combatants.

“This legal persecution I am suffering, along with my family who are being harassed and abused, is nothing more than a setup by the police and the attorney general’s office,” she wrote in an open letter, before fleeing Bogotá.

What happened next is subject to speculation. According to Arango herself, she escaped into the arms of the ELN (literally, as she became the romantic partner of a senior commander) fearing for her life in the face of “political persecution”.  

But her smooth transition into the ELN guerrilla’s Darío Ramírez Castro Front – active in the conflict zone of Sur de Bolívar – also seemed to vindicate the prosecution’s narrative of her links to urban terrorism.

Alias ‘Talibán’

Meanwhile in Bogotá, 10 other people were detained as suspected MRP members linked to the attack.

After searches of their homes, some were accused of carrying false IDs, carrying weapons, and, in some cases, having printed plans of the Andino shopping centre showing entrances and exits, and notes which appeared to show preparations for the bombing, and USB sticks with messages from the MRP.

But in many cases the police arrests and searches were themselves found to be illegal and without due process which, added to the flimsy evidence presented in court, lead to the the cases falling apart under legal scrutiny.

Some of these investigations were later examined in a documentary called Andino File: A Judicial Set-up? produced by journalism collective La Liga Contra el Silencio. One of the main accused, Iván Ramírez, described how the police produced CCTV used to identify him “scoping out the Andino”. This “evidence” later turned out to be video of a regular mall worker with a similar look.

In another twist, Ramírez described how the police themselves invented the aliases to which the suspects were presented as a “terrorist cell” to the media; for example, ‘El Calvo’, ‘Japo’, ‘Aleja’ and, in the case of the bearded sociologist, ‘Talibán’. The scary name stuck and Ramírez was thereafter referred to by Colombia media as ‘alias Talíban’.

He was also constantly described by prosecutors as the “explosives expert” of the MRP cell, a charge he consistently denied.

Ramírez was released from custody in 2021 after spending four years in pre-trial detention, during which time every case against him collapsed. But even after his release he continued to be “linked to the investigation”.

Peace managing

Then in June 2022, Violeta Arango, now in the ELN, was captured in the Sur de Bolívar in the same military operation that killed her partner, known as Pirry.

According to a post on X by the then minister of defence, Diego Molano, alias Pirry was “one of the top ELN commanders responsible for attacks on the civilian population, forced recruitment, and terrorism”.  

Arango was jailed for her guerrilla links even while the process continued against her for the Andino bombing.

That panorama changed when Petro Gustavo took the presidency in August 2022; with peace talks in the air, and after a visit from a Cuban and Norwegian delegation to her jail, Arango was released to her gestora de paz role in November that year. She resurfaced a month later in Caracas, Venezuela, as part of the ELN talks with the Petro government.

This appearance caused anger among the Andino victims. Pilar Molano, who lost a leg in the explosion, told Vorágine magazine that “it’s insane that they let her out and put her in the peace negotiations with the ELN”.

Six years after the Andino attack, in April 2023, the prosecutor’s office again filed charges against Arango based on evidence that prior to the bombing she had downloaded plans of the shopping mall from the Internet.

Cell structures

The indictment formally accused Arango of the “detailed planning” of the bomb attack. It further alleged that Arango was a senior member of the MRP “responible for attracting new members to the criminal organization in Bogotá and apparently participated in at least 21 terrorist attacks against EPS headquarters, public transport and infrastructure”.

With this week’s recapture order the case can move ahead – assuming she can be found.

Any trial could shed light on the who and why of the Andino bombing, and also the complex backstory of ‘Violeta’. But, given the shambolic history of the judicial process, it could also put the investigation back to square one.

In interviews in the intervening years leaders of MRP have repeatedly denied their groups involvement, as well as denying any links to the ELN, or any connections to the original suspects.

But the truth might be hard to find even within the two armed groups; both the ELN and the MRP are known to work in cell structures which plan autonomous actions often without the co-members or leaders aware.

Such was the case with the devastating car bomb that killed 20 young police recruits in Bogotá in 2019, initially denied by the ELN – their leadership claimed not to know of the plot – but eventually taking responsibility.

An unusual element of the Andino bombing is that no armed group or political movement has ever taken responsibility. And so far the prosecutors have not only failed to pin the attack on the MRP, but also ignored alternative lines of investigations such as a false flag operation by paramilitary or right-wing groups.

Lawyer for the Andino victims and survivors Franciso Bernate, said this week that “on behalf of the 11 female victims we hope Violeta is found so she can respond to these grave accusations”.

The post Is justice in sight for the Andino mall bombing victims? appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

It’s no secret that Colombia’s startup ecosystem is booming. Over the past few years, the country has emerged as one of the leading business hubs in Latin America. 

But where do women fit into the picture? According to KPMG’s latest annual tech report, one in five Colombian founders is a woman. The good news is that there’s a nationwide drive to close the gender gap in leadership, and the numbers are reflecting that: the number of women occupying C-suite roles jumped to 40% in 2025. 

As momentum continues to move forward in Colombian entrepreneurship and innovation, here are the 2026 female tech leaders to watch.

Isabella Fernandez Abraham, Chief Revenue Officer at MiDi

Isabella is leading the charge to empower remote workers to gain access to U.S. financial infrastructure. In fact, Midi is the only fintech in Colombia to do so, removing payroll barriers for Colombian-based freelancers. With Colombia ranking among the world’s most prominent leaders for outsourcing talent, Midi’s offering is crucial. Moreover, the startup recently raised $10 million in a funding round, paving the way for accelerated growth.

And Isabella has helped people take leaps and bounds in other ways, too. In 2013, she founded Kangoo Jumps Colombia, where she opened and managed three boutiques in Bogota. 

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Florence French, Co-founder and COO, Leal 360

Florence is at the helm of transforming customer engagement across Latin America’s retail landscape. Founded in 2015, Leal 360 now boasts over seven million users and has established partnerships with one thousand brands across eight countries. Leal’s AI software helps businesses access and action powerful customer insights for optimal lifetime value. 

In 2025, Leal 360 was recognized by Gartner’s Capterra for being the ‘best ease of use’ CRM platform. This is a testament to Florence and her team’s dedication to making customer engagement easier and smarter. 

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Valentina Valencia, CEO of Vaas

Having seen multiple sides of private debt, and how convoluted the process can be, Valentina set out to rectify the situation, which led to the founding of Vaas. At just 25 years old, she raised $5 million in seed funding and last year made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. 

At Vaas, Valentina is helping lead the charge to revolutionize financial infrastructure so it can keep pace with private credit growth. She comes with more than eight years of fintech experience in Latin America, which includes overseeing the financing of 250,000 devices and managing $150 million across top-tier fintechs. 

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Zaira Hurtado, Founder of Daxus LATAM

Zaira’s passion for data inspired her to make analytics accessible to everyone—hence, she brought Daxus LATAM to life. Data knowledge has fast become a core skill that’s redefining the future of the workplace. In the span of just three years, Zaira now has 30,000 alumni who have built their knowledge on data and analysis principles via the Daxus learning platform. 

She’s also a founding member and principal CEO of Zakidata, helping individuals translate data into powerfully actionable insights. Throughout her career, Zaira has impacted over a million minds to build their data and analytics capabilities. 

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Gabriela Tafur, CEO of Idilio TV

From law to pageantry to authoring a book to becoming a well-known national TV host, Gabriela’s journey to becoming a tech founder is uniquely impressive. She’s now shifted her focus to behind the camera as the founder and CEO of Idilio TV, Colombia’s first vertical screening platform. 

Upon her return to Colombia after completing her MBA at Stanford University, Gabriela quickly realized a massive yet untapped opportunity in Latin America: streaming short-form novelas. All around her, people were streaming Spanish-dubbed Asian micro-dramas. The demand was there, but the natively Spanish supply wasn’t. At Idilio TV, Garbiela and her team are on a mission to create original and entertaining micro-dramas—all in Spanish, and all available from the comfort of your smartphone. 

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Valentina Agudelo, Founder and CEO at Salva Health

Valentina’s mission is clear: democratize the early detection of breast cancer. One of the world’s deadliest diseases, breast cancer accounts for 27% of cancer cases in Latin America. However, early-stage detection remains elusive for the majority of individuals. 

Valentina and the team at Salva Health are changing that with their cutting-edge technology, Julieta, which uses electrical bioimpedance technology to assess how breast tissue responds to small, safe, and painless currents.

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Manuela Gutierrez, Project Director at 360 Health Data

Manuela has forged a strong career, helping international entrepreneurs create and refine their offerings through her expertise in visual design and UI/UX. Now, she’s running projects at Source Meridian, a Medellin-based healthcare software innovator, and 360 Health Data, a startup transforming medical knowledge in Latin America. Manuela’s leadership at the two companies not only enables her to propel tech innovation in Colombia but also directly impacts local communities to access better health opportunities. 

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Estefania Molina Ulgar, General Council, Addi

Legal frameworks matter just as much as technical ones in startups, and Estefania has built and scaled Addi’s legal and compliance function from the ground up. With 15 years of experience, she’s no stranger to the legal intricacies of fintech and the financial world. Her background includes working in the Colombian Securities Exchange and the Colombian Financial Regulator.

Estefania has guided Addi, one of Colombia’s biggest payment apps, through complex equity raises, debt transactions, and the process of becoming a regulated financial institution. 

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Daniela Lopera Hernández, Legal Director at VaxThera

Daniela spent almost a decade managing the legal side of SURA before she moved to VaxThera, a leading biotechnology provider in Colombia. Since joining the company, Daniela has established an important role in ensuring VaxThera’s innovations can reach the public.

Just last year, VaxThera announced a partnership with the Colombian Ministry of Health and the National Institute of Health to strengthen health sovereignty across the nation. VaxThera also announced its partnership with Seguros SURA to launch the region’s largest HPV program in the bid to prevent cervical cancer. 

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Daniela Restrepo, Principal at Publicize

Daniela leads strategic initiatives at Publicize, a global PR firm serving technology startups and Fortune 1000 enterprises from its hubs in Medellin and Barcelona. As a graduate of Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Social Communications and PR, she leverages her academic background and industry expertise to position clients at the forefront of the media landscape.

Beyond her executive role, Daniela is a driving force in the ecosystem, actively mentoring talent at both the Founder Institute, Universities and top tech events. Her industry authority is further recognized through her contributions to Entrepreneur Magazine and Forbes, her speaking engagements at conferences like TechBeach, and her recent role as a Judge for Colombia’s National Digital Journalism Award.

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Paula Andrea Ruiz, Head of Culture at Somos Internet

Innovation needs talent to thrive, and Paula is ensuring this need is constantly met so Somos Internet can continue to scale its software and services in more than 50,000 Colombian households. 

Late last year, Somos Internet raised $18 million in Series A funding, a significant chunk of which will go to strengthening the company’s engineering and operations teams. As  the head of culture and recruitment, Paula has a major role to play in ensuring talent continues to be nurtured and innovation propelled. 

Whether founders, CEO, or heads of departments, Colombian women have carved a firm place in the country’s tech landscape. As 2026 unfolds, keep a pulse on these powerhouses and how they’re helping amplify innovation opportunities for women and men alike. 

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Laura María Hernández Ospina, Project Manager at Source Meridian

Laura has dedicated the past 11 years to Source Meridian, evolving from an international business background into a specialized leader in healthcare technology. With a comprehensive 360° view of the software lifecycle, she currently directs cross-functional teams focused on Security and Compliance, successfully guiding clients through rigorous SOC 2, HITRUST, and HIPAA certifications for the U.S. market.

Driven by a spirit of continuous learning and a passion for mentorship, Laura views leadership through a human-centric lens. She is committed to empowering her colleagues to grow from scratch, fostering a collaborative culture where teams succeed united as “galaxies” rather than individual stars, ensuring that technical excellence is always matched by collective professional growth.

The post 10 Female Tech Leaders in Colombia to Watch in 2026 appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

Stark figures show expansion of fighting groups under ‘Paz Total’.

Colombia’s illegal armed groups have grown by 84 per cent during the three years of the Petro government’s Paz Total plan, thinktank Fundacion Ideas para la Paz (FIP) announced last week.

The alarming data showed the country’s main guerrilla factions and organised crime gangs totalled 27,000 active members at the end of 2025, adding 5,000 new recruits in just 12 months.

And humanitarian crises associated with the expansion of illicit economies, such as combats, displacements or confinement of communities, attacks on social leaders and extortion were also on the rise.

According to Gerson Arias, co-author of FIP’s El Deterioro de la Seguridad Marca el Inicio de 2026 (Deteriorating Security Marks the Start of 2026), the endless peace talks played out under President Petro’s expansive Paz Total policy had only incentivised armed groups to grow in terms of fighters, weapons and territory.

“Paz Total was based on a state ceasefire – but without any conditions put on the groups, such as ceasing recruitment, including child recruitment, or ending expansion,” he told The Bogotá Post.

“As such, the policy gave a gigantic strategic advantage to the armed groups to strengthen their fighting forces.”

Big surge

The biggest surge was in the organised crime group Clan de Golfo, up by 30 per cent to 9,840 active agents, reported FIP (see chart below).

Next in terms of size was the ELN, the guerrilla group dominating the eastern borderlands of Colombia, with 6,810 members, an increase of 9 per cent.

Dissident FARC groups also grew, some by almost a quarter, such as CNEB (Coordinadora Nacional Ejercito Bolivariano) which despite drawn-out peace talks with the Petro government – and numerous plans for a disarmament – ended the year 25 per cent bigger than started, now numbering 2,089.

And these were probably underestimates, said Arias. The FIP figures were based on military and intelligence data collected annually since 2002,and generally considered to be lower than the actual numbers.

“We tend to undermeasure illegal activity. It’s impossible to say with precision, but we would say the real data could be 20% or 30% higher,” he concluded.

Unlucky 13

These numbers included both armed fighters – often uniformed and carrying heavy weaponry – and support members tasked with infiltrating civilian communities to “ensure compliance”, often carrying pistols. Armed groups were increasingly deploying explosives by drones.

According to the FIP report, none of the negotiation processes had managed to curb their recruitment capacity.

Territorial expansion had also triggered disputes over illegal gold mining, coca, and trafficking routes. The FIP report identified 13 zones where two or more groups were facing off, more than twice the number of disputed territories that Petro inherited from the Duque government in 2022.

Top in terms of combat last year were Catatumbo in Norte de Santander, and areas of Guaviare, Cauca, Nariño, Valle and Arauca (see map).

But even departments considered peaceful in recent years, such as Tolima and Huila, were being drawn back into the fray, said Arias.

This rise in conflict brought a host of humanitarian impacts. Armed groups strictly controlled their zones, at times displacing or confining populations, but also imposing daily controls such as travel permissions and ID cards.

Last year, according to UN figures quoted by FIP, one million mostly rural Colombians were affected by armed group controls, tripling the number recorded in 2024.

Civilians in the crosshairs

And according to Arias, the government had itself increased the risks to civilians by involving them as third parties in the peace talks while failing in any robust plan to pacify the zone.

“Petro reached partial agreements with the groups – even while they were still armed, still controlling, extorting, confining and pressuring civilian communities. There was no cost to the armed groups,” said the researcher.

Part of the problem was that Paz Total had initially failed to link to any coherent military strategy that could had protected civilian communities. This had put civic leaders “in the crosshairs of armed groups” as one side accused them of siding with the other.  

The statement is backed by a graph showing a year-on increase since 2022 in attacks both between armed groups, and against civilians and state forces. Last year there were 150 attacks on civilian targets.

In fact, by Arias’s estimate Colombia had gone back to 2011 in terms of the numbers of non-state armed actors – 27,000 – potentially in conflict.

That compared to a recent low of 12,800 combatants in 2018, two years after former president Santos signed the 2016 peace deal with the FARC guerrillas.

From bad to worse

In fact, to explain the current situation, Arias pointed to failures in the both the current administration and the previous right-wing government under Ivan Duque.

Taking over in 2018, Duque rolled back many of the agreements made with the FARC sending many ex-combatants back to the bush along with a wave of new combatants.

But then left-leaning Gustavo Petro, taking over in 2022, surprised even his own military advisers by declaring a unilateral ceasefire. This was the opening salvo of the Paz Total policy which announced negotiations with armed groups and criminal gangs on multiple fronts – in some cases even without informing them.

Petro’s plan was conceived “with good intentions”, said Arias, but had put misplaced trust in armed groups busy enriching themselves by illegal activities and with little incentive to demobilize.

By comparison, during the 2013-16 process with the FARC, the military forces under Santos had continued operations against the guerrilla up until the final signing: “This pressure incentivised the FARC to take serious decisions in terms of the peace process,” he said.

Too little, too late

The failings of Paz Total were apparent on the ground in the first few months of inception in 2022, with community organisations raising the alarm over the increased fighting between groups.

It took until late 2024 for the state military to step up offensive actions in areas such as Cauca, with battles against the dissident FARC factions of Ivan Mordisco. Then, in early 2025, the Catatumbo region of Norte de Santander caught fire with fierce combat between the ELN and FARC 33, leading to the largest humanitarian crisis in Colombia’s recent history.

But it took until August last year for President Petro himself to acknowledge that the policy had “not achieved peace”.

During 2025 military actions increased by 30 per cent, but with reduced state forces – many experienced soldiers and commanders had left – facing stronger armed groups, said Arias.

“The offensive came slowly and without an analysis of what was required to combat the strengthened armed groups.”

“Years of intelligence capacity was lost, along with military presence and air deployment. This explains why – despite the offensives – there are few concrete improvements for many communities.”

For soldiers on the ground, the job got harder under Paz Total with a strengthened enemy and less military intelligence to rely on. According to President Petro’s own presentation to the Trump Whitehouse early this month, 360 state forces have been killed “in the fight against drug trafficking” in the last three years, with 1,680 wounded.

But even away from the front line, Paz Total was not up to the monumental task of negotiating peace with multiple armed groups given that most governments had failed to pacify even one.

At whatever cost

“Paz Total never evaluated the institutional capacity required. It’s good to say: ‘we have to negotiate with everyone’. But that requires a method,” said Arias.

The government often pushed talks ahead even without any legal framework that would allow, constitutionally, the state to make peace with certain criminal gangs, or groups of recycled combatants that had previously demobilised. This created a credibility gap which continued to undermine the peace initiative.

“Even today, no group has taken a serious position on disarming or demobilisation or reducing violence,” said Arias.

FIP also questioned the government’s own seriousness in finalizing any negotiations, terming Paz Total an “electoral peace”; endless rounds of talks through the upcoming election period.  

It’s a strategy Arias condemned: “This government seems intent on continuing the process at whatever costs and put the burden of resolution on the next government. This is politically irresponsible.”

Lack of concrete results could also taint future processes, he said.

“The poor results have thrown doubt on the idea that political solutions to conflict is the best route, which is very worrying, and eventually exposes communities to more risk.”

His main message – and the key finding of the FIP report – was that ending conflict in Colombia required more than goodwill, he told The Bogotá Post.

“It’s incoherent to talk of ‘peace or security’. We need to talk of ‘peace and security’. Without that, we’ve gone backwards.”

The post Peace plan has caused more conflict, says thinktank. appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

Festival Estéreo Picnic 2026 is nearly here, and is a great way to find out more about Latin music alongside serious international superstars

Festival Estéreo Picnic 2026 is only a few weeks away now, with artists including Tyler, the Creator and Sabrina Carpenter topping a typically star-studded bill on the 20th-22nd of March. Having cemented its place in the centre of Bogotá, the event continues to be the biggest draw in town.

This year, it’s a three-day event. That seems like a good move, concentrating quality into a long weekend rather than stretching things over four days. Adult tickets start at COP$523,000 for a single day and are available online via Ticketmaster here. 

Full fest regular passes are at COP$1,413,000 and Sat-Sun at COP$939,000. VIP rates are significantly higher, with a full 3 day pass clocking in at COP$2,899,000. Prices will increase in the coming weeks.

Cultural tourism is now a heavyweight part of the sector and is rapidly diversifying away from purely traditional events like Barranquilla Carnival. That means a lot more travellers timing trips to coincide with festivals like Estéreo Picnic.

It’s easy to see why. Not only do you get a stellar international lineup, but also a peek at the flow of a Latin crowd. With prices competitive compared to North America and Europe, it’s a good way to see international stars along with your holiday.

What is Festival Estéreo Picnic in Bogotá like?

In a word: fantastic. Since the move back to the heart of the city, everything now flows pretty much seamlessly. Considering the size of the event, this is quite an achievement. It’s a cashless wristband affair, meaning you don’t have to worry about carrying too much cash.

There’s two big stages as well as a frequently interesting third stage set behind the second stage, often home to some of the more quirky and/or local acts. Hometown hip-hoppers La Etnnia’s set in 2024 was emblematic of that.

Of course, you’ll find getting to the front tricky with thousands of people in front of you, but there’s no VIP barriers to contend with and good views of most stages across the site. Bands are timed to avoid clashes, so you should be able to catch everyone on your list, even if from far away and there’s little dead time to contend with.

Food and drink is reasonably priced: you won’t be able to find a corrientazo bargain, but neither is it airport pricing. There’s a wide selection of local chains and some internationals with all tastes catered for, usually including fully vegan stands. The park’s normal drinking water fountains keep running through the festival too, with long lines.

If you’re getting tired after hours in a field, there are lots of seated spaces or grass to lie on, as well as tents in which to keep warm or shelter from rain. If you find yourself between bands, there’s a wide selection of shops and stalls to peruse. If things are really going south, there are dedicated chill-out spots and medical support.

Who’s headlining Festival Estéreo Picnic 2026 in Bogotá?

Festival Estéreo Picnic 2026 will be starting off front foot forward, with Tyler, The Creator headlining Friday night. Kiwi popster Lorde is the undercard here, with Turnstile bound to attract a big audience, given how much of a rock city Bogotá is.

On Saturday night, traditionally the biggest party of the weekend, the festival is going back to a tried and trusted favourite: The Killers. They’ve played Colombia a half dozen times over the past decade, so this isn’t breaking new ground, but will be popular.

There’s plenty of international quality down the bill on the middle day too, with Swedish House Mafia likely to go down an absolute storm, The Whitest Boy Alive popular and Tom Morello guaranteed to make a political statement.

For the final night, there’s a mix of contemporary talent and big name legends. Sabrina Carpenter ticks the first box, while Skrillex, Deftones and Interpol tick the latter. Scottish Britpop survivors Travis are timing things perfectly for a rendition of Why Does It Always Rain On Me.

Who else should I check out at Festival Estéreo Picnic 2026?

So, there’s plenty of well-known names you’ll recognise from international charts, but what about the local and Latin talent? After all, you can catch many of the big names around the world, but this might be your only chance to check out local talent.

These bands are usually scheduled earlier in the day, giving you the perfect excuse to rock up early and miss the queues for peaktime entrance around 6pm. Sadly, the local scene isn’t always the best attended, meaning that it’ll be easy to get up nice and close for most of these bands.

Nicolás y los Fumadores are as classic rolo rockcito as they come and command a strong following in the capital. 80s-infused Pirineos en Llamas are popping over from Medellín. Up-and-coming popster Manú is touring last year’s album, while Zarigüeya mix pop with carranga rhythms.

Viral Mexican sensation Macario Martínez is a young version of the classic Latin pop-rock crooners of yesteryear.  From Quito is Machaka, highlighting Ecuadorian and wider Latin culture via tropipop. Spain is represented by Guitarricadelafuente and Judeline.

Cult kitsch octogenarian Peruvian legend La Tigresa Del Oriente plays the cabaret tent. It’s hard to describe precisely what she’s like, as she ploughs her own furrow, but this will be packed and spectacular. FEP fixture La Ramona will also play there. DJs such as Briela Veneno, Babath and Silvia Ponce are also onsite for electronica fans.

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Inside the Salón del Nunca Más (Hall of Never Again), where the faces of victims of Colombia’s half-century-long internal conflict stare silently from their pictures hung along the walls, former combatants, members of the security forces, and survivors of the armed conflict sat together on February 2 to talk. 

This wasn’t a hollow symbolic gesture, nor a staged act of reconciliation. It was something far more fragile, and far more real: an uncomfortable, human exercise in restorative justice.

The meeting in the hall took place in Granada, a municipality that endured some of the worst violence of Colombia’s long-running conflict. Between 1980 and the mid-2000’s, this corner of eastern Antioquia was caught between the crossfire of guerrilla groups, paramilitaries, and state forces. 

The result was mass displacement and violence. An estimated 90% of rural residents and 70% of the urban population were forced from their homes, nearly 3,000 people were disappeared, 460 were victims of selective killings, and dozens of kidnappings and sexual assaults left a community deeply fractured.

Now, ASOVIDA, the local victims’ association, together with representatives from Comunidades Restaurativas, a program supported by Prison Fellowship Colombia, brought together victims of the conflict, former combatants from the demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and former members of Colombia’s security forces appearing before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP). 

While participants meet regularly throughout the process, the February 2 gathering marked the culmination of the process and took the form of a symbolic celebration.

“This place is sacred”

The gathering opened with words from Gloria Ramírez, a community leader, member of ASOVIDA, and a victim of forced displacement. She reminded those present that this was no ordinary meeting hall.

“This place is sacred,” she said. “We are not here to victimize ourselves again. We are here to find tools to move forward.”

In Granada, memory has become a form of resistance. For more than 18 years, victims groups have worked to transform grief into collective action, often under threat, often in silence. Gloria admitted that for a long time, the idea of sitting across from those who caused the harm felt impossible.

“We were terrified of getting close to them,” she said. “But we understood that without truth, there is no path forward.”

That insistence on truth echoed throughout the encounter. For the victims, reconciliation does not mean forgetting, nor abandoning the most painful questions: what happened, why it happened, and where the bodies of the disappeared are located.

Walking through the hall makes that tension visible. Archival photographs show war-battered streets and faces of victims and their loved ones frozen in grief. Yet alongside them are images of community members rebuilding together, evidence of resilience layered on top of loss.

The long road to restorative justice

The Comunidades Restaurativas program, or “Communities of Reconciliation,” did not arrive in Granada to open arms. It emerged from a recognition that traditional justice mechanisms often fail to fully address victims’ needs, that legal rulings alone do not always translate into a sense of reparation or closure.

Its early attempts to convene dialogue sessions and community meetings between victims and former perpetrators were met with rejection. The community was not ready to receive their victimizers. Trust had to be built slowly, conversation by conversation.

A turning point came on September 23, 2017, when former FARC members publicly asked for forgiveness inside the town’s church, led by demobilized guerrilla commander José Lisandro Lascarro, known by the nome de guerra “Pastor Alape”. Granada was later declared a “Territory of Peace,” and the Day of Forgiveness and Reconciliation was formally established.

Since then, between 50 and 60 former guerrillas, paramilitaries, and ex-members of the security forces, have taken part in symbolic acts of victim reparation. 

Many have contributed to rebuilding community spaces, gestures meant to acknowledge responsibility rather than erase the past.

“They were not mistakes. They were actions.”

One of the most powerful moments of the gathering in February was the intervention of Gabriel Montaño, who is appearing before Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace in connection with extrajudicial executions. 

Montaño reflected on his responsibility. “I used to think what we had done were mistakes,” he said. “Today, I understand they were not mistakes. They were actions, and those actions caused profound harm.”

His words captured a core principle of restorative justice: taking responsibility without euphemisms.

“I am responsible for what I did,” Montaño added. “And part of this process is learning to live with that truth—without ever forgetting the victims.”

For those listening, such acknowledgment does not erase pain. But it shifts the conversation.

“When someone looks you in the eye and says, ‘Yes, I did this,’ it changes the possibility of moving forward,” said Sonia Suárez, a member of ASOVIDA.

Survivors, not enemies

William Forero, a former FARC combatant who is now a community leader, offered a reframing that resonated across the room: moving beyond the language of “victims and perpetrators” to recognize one another as survivors of the war.

According to Forero, the conflict cannot be reduced to a simple battle between good and evil.

“Most of those who carried weapons were pushed there by a system that denied them opportunities,” he said.

In Granada, the war did not arrive as an external invasion. It was local young people who ended up on opposing sides.

Granada became a corridor of violence largely because of its strategic location in eastern Antioquia. 

Situated along key routes connecting Medellín with the Magdalena Medio region and the eastern plains, the municipality served as a passageway for armed groups seeking territorial control, mobility, and access to supply lines. 

Its rural geography, combined with a weak state presence during the height of the conflict, made it a contested zone for guerrilla groups, paramilitary forces, and state security forces alike. 

Control over Granada meant control over transit routes, local populations, and strategic depth, placing the civilian community at the center of competing military and political interests.

Remembering, so it does not happen again

The meeting closed around a shared conviction: memory should not trap communities in pain, but prevent repeating the offenses.  

In Granada, roads once used for war are being reimagined as paths toward reconciliation. Spaces of mourning are turning into places of collective learning.

“War is not welcome here,” one community leader said at the end of the event. “We do not want to leave our children a territory marked by violence. Our inheritance will be peace.”

In a country where armed conflict persists and political polarization runs deep, what is happening in Granada offers an uncomfortable but powerful lesson: reconciliation cannot be decreed from above.

It is built slowly, when former enemies choose to sit face to face and decide to speak.

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Colombia is off to the polls in a little under a month, but what’s at stake and what could happen? And why can’t you have a drink while watching results roll in?

Every Colombian over the age of majority (18) and with a correctly registered cédula ciudandanía can vote. In return, each voter gets a half day off work. Non-citizens are not eligible to vote in national elections, but holders of resident visas will be able to vote in next year’s local elections.

The polls are open from 8am until 4pm and counting is usually very fast with the first results coming in just an hour or so later. Due to the PR system (see below), final results come through in the week. 

Land and fluvial borders will be closed for Colombian nationals on the day of the election, although foreigners can cross. From the Saturday afternoon before voting until the Monday morning, ley seca will apply, meaning no alcohol sales in bars, restaurants or shops. That applies for everyone, so no representation or boozing.

Oversight is carried out by the CNE (Consejo Nacional Electoral). In order to do this over the vast territory and number of stations, over 800,000 citizens are selected to be vote-counters. This is similar to jury duty in other countries and is compensated with a day off as well as a compulsory day of training a couple of weeks beforehand.

As the electorate is growing, there are now some 13,000 voting sites across the country, most with multiple voting tables. Colombians have to vote where their cédula is registered, so don’t be surprised to see some people trekking to other cities if they forgot to update their registration.

Some parties run a closed list system, meaning you simply vote for them, whereas others have open lists, meaning you vote for the party and can also vote for your preferred candidate within the party. For closed lists, the party will decide who enters congress, with an open list it will be done in order of preference.

A smidgen under 50% turnout is common for house elections, with higher figures expected for the presidential elections later this year. The Colombian parliament is a bicameral system with the Senate acting as the upper and more powerful house and the Cámara the lower house.

Most parties do not really have well-defined manifestos as such, although better-funded candidates will give a range of positions on matters. In general, there will simply be slogans and general aims that give voters an idea of where their candidates stand.

Who’s up for election?

With a PR system in place there are a plethora of parties to peruse. The country was dominated for decades by the Conservadores and Liberales and both remain strong across the country. In recent years they’ve been joined by the Centro Democrático as the third force. Expect all three to do well.

Mid-level parties include the likes of the right-wing Cambio Radical, particularly strong on the Caribbean, centrist (and not ecologically centred) Alianza Verde and ex-president Santos’ centrist partido de la U. The last election saw the leftist Colombia Humana rocket up to join these blocs.

Then there are the smaller parties, often operating essentially as almost one-man-bands. These usually have an enormous amount of support in a particular area or for a certain candidate but fail to translate this to a wider audience. It’s common to see them banding together, as with the governing coalition Pacto Histórico.

Finally, there are guaranteed seats in both the Senate and Cámara for certain groups and people. This year sees the Comunes party no longer receiving an automatic five seats in both houses that they had in the last two votes as part of the peace process. 

If you are a fan of PR, this system allows a diverse number of voices to be heard and limits the power of government, especially when there is opposition to their plans. For those more cynically-minded, it is a way to make sure that little gets done and few significant bills are passed.

There’s also the curious option of voto en blanco. Different from a spoiled vote, which is simply disregarded, this is an active protest. If it ranks highest in any race, then a rerun of the election must take place within a month with entirely new candidates and/or party lists. 

Colombian Senate Elections 2026

The Senate now has 103 seats (known as curules) and is the upper house in the bicameral system. Of those, a straight 100 are chosen by the electorate as a whole, while Indigenous communities select a further two and the runner-up in the presidential election will receive the final seat.

The Senate currently boasts a whopping 17 parties, but only six of those have double figure representation with the Conservadores’ 15 being the biggest single group. 26 parties are running 1,000 candidates between them this time. Voting is done on a national basis and tallied up across the territory, meaning this takes a little while to work out.

While there is a diverse group of parties, they hang together in loose blocs roughly delineated as government, opposition and neutral. With the government only controlling 34 curules and the opposition 24, the neutrals are incredibly important for horse-trading.

This will be a huge litmus test for the ruling leftist bloc. They will lose their guaranteed  Comunes seats, so any further losses will be highly problematic. On the other hand, gaining curules would be a huge shot in the arm in terms of public support, hence why they are campaigning in places like Huila, outside of their traditional strongholds.

The most likely outcome is that there will be little change in the makeup of the Senate, with neither the government nor opposition likely to take outright control or make large gains. Whichever of those two groups increases their representation will quickly turn it into a sign that they are on the right track and use that as support for their presidential campaign.

Cámara de Representantes election Colombia 2026

The lower chamber, too, is also up for election. It is significantly larger, with 188 seats and 23 parties. The government is also in a minority here and relies on support from independents to get things done. There are over 2,000 candidates representing nearly 500 parties, or listas of similar candidates.

The key difference in voting here is that it is largely territorial, with 161 seats divided between the departments and Bogotá, DC. The latter returns the most seats, with 18, closely followed by Antioquia with one fewer. Colombians living abroad and voting in embassies get one between them

However, these are not equal, as departments receive at least two seats, meaning Vaupés gets one representative for every 20,000 or so people, while the national average is more like 300,000. Changes in population have led to odd situations like Caldas returning more representantes (5) than Cauca (four) despite only having ⅔ of its population.

Then there are the special seats. Again, the Comunes party will lose their five extra seats in this term and it is also the last election to feature the 16 seats reserved for conflict victims. Colombians of Afro descent get two seats, while Indigenous Colombians and raizales from San Andres and Providencia have one apiece and the VP runner-up rounds it out.

Consultas for the presidential election

Just in case you thought there was enough on the plate, there are further considerations at stake. To avoid spreading the vote, various presidential candidates with similar positions group together for a preliminary vote. The losers in each consulta will drop out on March 9th. This year there are three on the voting card.

The biggest of these with 9 names is the Gran Consulta Por Colombia, which stretches the credibility of political similarity. It’s nominally centrist but features prominent rightists Vicky Dávila and Paloma Valencia alongside traditional centre voices such as Enrique Peñalosa and Juan David Oviedo. The latter is also the Centro Democrático candidate. 

The leftist consulta is under intense scrutiny as candidate Iván Cepeda, currently leading the polls, was blocked from taking part. That led to further withdrawals and angry denunciations from Cépeda and sitting president Gustavo Petro. Roy Barreras is now the favourite to win this five person race.

Then there’s a centrist competition between former Bogotá mayor Claudia López and little-known candidate Leonardo Huerta. López is the clear favourite here after perennial runner Sergio Fajardo chose to go directly to the first round of presidential voting.

At the moment, the presidential campaign is very unclear. Iván Cepeda leads polling and is extremely unlikely not to make the second round. Who joins him is hard to see at this point, so the consultas will trim that field significantly.

While the Senate and Cámara will be decided by mid-March, this is only the first lap of the field for the presidential candidates. Some will fall out, others will consolidate their position and things will start changing throughout the spring until the May 31st first round.

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With Superbowl weekend about to kick off, we take a look at the best places to watch the big game as well as where to get involved with local American Football clubs.

Football that you play with your feet and a ball reigns supreme in Colombia, but there’s also plenty of support for the types of football that you play with your hands and an egg. We’ve covered Aussie Rules football and Rugby Union before, but with the Superb Owl between Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots coming up on Sunday, it’s time to look at the USA’s favourite sport in Colombia’s capital.

There’s a Colombian element this time around too, with star cornerback Christian Gonzalez lining up in the Patriots’ backfield. Born in Texas to a Caleño family, he went 15th in the 2023 draft and anchors pass coverage for New England.

He retains a great love for Colombia, saying that he’ll have mixed feelings if his country of birth and country of descent meet in this year’s World Cup in North America.

The game kicks off at 18:30 Colombian time, pretty much perfect for Sunday evening viewing. The pregame show by Green Day will be popular in Colombia, but it’s halftime that will draw all eyes to the screen.

Puerto Rican megastar Bad Bunny is scheduled to play and he hasn’t held back in commenting on ICE actions across mainland USA. He said “ICE out” while accepting an award at the Grammys, adding “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.” That has made him the highest profile US Latino speaking out on the issue.

Watching is easy, but playing is certainly possible, with a wealth of clubs throughout la nevera and elsewhere in Colombia. We spoke to local organiser Javier Zuleta about how local American Football works and how to get involved, whether that’s full kit or flag.

Where to watch

This is by no means an exhaustive list – the match will be widely shown around Bogotá. However, it’s a Sunday night, and that means there will be a limited number of places open anyway, so it pays to check ahead. If you’re looking for a proper atmosphere, these places will sort you out on Sunday evening.

All these venues are running DAZN and Gamepass, so you won’t have to deal with dodgy streams or any sort of hiccups. All should feature a mixed crowd of Americans watching their home sport and Colombian fans of the NFL, making for a different atmosphere than you might previously have experienced.

International Centre

Meeting House

Closest to the centre, by the centro comercial San Martín at Calle 32 #6b-43 (3rd floor), the Meeting House offers a huge screen, plenty of tables and a long bar. They expect to busy, so reserve here to assure yourself of a place at the party.

They have a large terrace/patio for smoking, as well as activities such as Beer Pong if you’re not glued to the halftime show or Bad Bunny’s been cancelled. Expect a lively party atmosphere.

There’s a range of offers on cocktails and the full kitchen menu, with picadas probably as a special offer as well for the extra-hungry. Both bottled and draft beer is available as well as a range of spirits. They have pitchers up to a whopping 5 litres to make sure you’ve no chance of going thirsty.

Teusaquillo

Shots Lab

Open from 3pm, the Shots Lab at Calle 45 #20-20 has a plethora of screens across three areas for your viewing pleasure. The early start means you can make sure you get a good seat and the number of screens means you’re assured of a good view wherever you are.

The owner is a Saints fan, so it’s pretty neutral. There’s two indoor spaces as well as an open-air patio which is cooler if it’s crowded and a dartboard if the game turns into a blowout. Rock music provides a solid backdrop.

They are running all their usual menu, as well as offers on cubetazos up until kick off o clock. Águila, Póker and Andina are at six for COP$25,000 while Club Colombia is at COP$30,000. They have an extensive menu and a good range of both beers and spirits.

Zona T

Irish Pubs

The Usaquén, Quinta Camacho and Zona T are your best bets here. They will have the games on at all locations with a dependable selection of beers and food. Best one for atmosphere is probably the Zona T where there are offers on nachos and wings with beer on a 100 inch screen.

Gigante

If you’re looking for craft beer while watching the match, this is your best bet. Owner Will Catlett serves up his own Gigante brews made locally. A California native, he’ll be backing fellow NFC West team the Seahawks.

Unsurprisingly, the screen is, well, gigante and there’s plenty of space inside to make sure you can see it. It’s conveniently located right in the heart of the Zona T at Carrera 14A #83-44.

Litre-and-a-half beer pitchers at COP$50,000 are a great deal, with 2×1 cocktails on a slew of options if you don’t want to chug the beers. Also at COP$50,000 are beer plus food (hamburger or choripan) combos to help make sure your stomach’s lined.

Wherever you end up, watching the Superbowl in Bogotá is great if you know what you’re doing. And why not consider popping along to check out some of the local teams’ training sessions – they’re friendly, welcoming and always looking for new members.

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