Colombia's FARC rebel group says it will become political party on Sept. 1

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group said Monday that it planned to reorganize as a political party effective Sept. 1.

Source: EFE

Colombia to denounce Venezuela militarization before UN

Colombia's president on Wednesday accused his Venezuelan counterpart of further militarizing the civilian population and said he had asked his foreign minister to convey those concerns to the United Nations.

"I asked the foreign minister to urge the UN secretary-general to pay attention to the worrying militarization of Venezuelan society," Juan Manuel Santos wrote on Twitter.

Source: EFE

Colombian gov't blames FARC for delays in building disarmament camps

The delays in completing the 26 disarmament camps for the FARC are due to several "commanders not allowing progress to be made," Colombian High Commissioner for Peace Sergio Jaramillo said Monday.

Source: EFE

Suspect in Odebrecht case implicates Colombian president's campaign manager

A former senator arrested in connection with the corruption case involving Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht alleges that the manager of President Juan Manuel Santos's 2014 re-election campaign received $1 million from the scheme, Colombian Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez said Wednesday.

Source: EFE

Colombian small farmers using eBay-type app to boost profits

After years of being battered by onion crop losses, a family in this central Colombian town leveraged its modest computer programming knowledge to create an eBay-type app for buying and selling agricultural products with no need for intermediaries.

The online tool, known as Comproagro and now used by thousands of small farmers in Colombia, was created by 39-year-old Rosalba Vergara and her twins, Brayan and Alejandra Jimenez.

Source: EFE

Brazil and Colombia pledge to fight drug trafficking

Defense ministers from Brazil and Colombia agreed to step up their fight against drug traffickers at a meeting on Tuesday in the Brazilian city of Manaus, where feuding drug gangs set off a recent string of deadly prison riots.

The countries promised to share intelligence and transportation along a porous 1,000-mile (1,600 km) border cutting through the Amazon rainforest, where they have struggled to slow the flow of drugs in recent years.

Demobilization of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) as part of a deal ending more than 50 years of war has raised concerns that heavily armed former combatants could join with increasingly powerful drug gangs in Brazil.

"We cannot let peace in Colombia be cause for concern in the region," said Colombian Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas. "We must stop the so-called dissident FARC forces from advancing toward our borders ... All of our military and policing muscle will be brought against the dissidents."

The splintering of FARC forces coincides with a bloody realignment among the drug gangs running the roughly $4.5 billion cocaine trade in Brazil, the world's biggest consumer after the United States, and funneling drugs to Europe.

For years, Brazil's two most powerful gangs, the Sao Paulo-based First Capital Command (PCC) and the Red Command, based in Rio de Janeiro, divided the national drug market and shared the most lucrative trafficking routes.

However, a wave of prison massacres starting in Manaus this month signaled a violent break between the PCC and gangs allied with the rival Red Command, leaving about 140 dead and underscoring the chaos in Brazil's penitentiary system.

Brazilian Defense Minister Raul Jungmann stepped up visits to the country's remote border regions, pledging to double the budget for a high-tech surveillance program supporting some 1,500 soldiers in the 24 garrisons along the Amazon border.

Source: Reuters

In boost for faltering process, Colombia's Santos wins Nobel Peace Prize

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his efforts to end a 52-year-old war with Marxist rebels, a surprise choice and a show of support after Colombians rejected a peace accord last Sunday.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said Santos had brought one of the longest civil wars in modern history significantly closer to a peaceful solution, but there was still a danger the peace process could collapse.

The award excluded FARC guerrilla leader Rodrigo Londono, better known by his nom de guerre Timochenko, who signed the peace accord with Santos in Cartagena on Sept. 26.

Santos has promised to revive the plan even though Colombians narrowly rejected it in a referendum on Sunday. Many voters believed it was too lenient on the FARC guerrillas.

"There is a real danger that the peace process will come to a halt and that civil war will flare up again. This makes it even more important that the parties, headed by President Santos and FARC guerrilla leader Rodrigo Londoño, continue to respect the ceasefire," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.

"The fact that a majority of the voters said "No" to the peace accord does not necessarily mean that the peace process is dead," it said.

More than 220,000 people have died on the battlefield or in massacres during the struggle between leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and government troops.

Millions have been displaced and many beg on the streets of the capital, while economic potential has been held up in the mostly rural nation.

The committee quoted Santos as saying the award would help further the peace process.

"He was overwhelmed. He was very grateful. He said it was of

invaluable importance to further the peace process in Colombia,"

committee secretary Olav Njoelstad told Norwegian state broadcaster NRK after having spoken to him by phone.

Colombia's ambassador to Norway, Alvaro Sandoval Bernal, said it was a message of hope for his country.

"It reiterates that there is hope for the peace process in Colombia."

Asked why Londono was left out, committee leader Kaci Kullmann Five said Santos had been central to the process.

"President Santos has been taking the very first and historic initiative. There have been other tries, but this time he went all-in as leader of the government with a strong will to reach a result. That's why we have put the emphasis on president."

She declined to elaborate on Londono's role. The rebel leader's initial reaction indicated no disappointment that he had been left out.

"The only prize to which we aspire is that of peace with social justice for a Colombia without paramilitarism, without retaliation nor lies," he wrote on his Twitter account.

POSSIBLE ANGER

Santos is the first Latin American to receive the peace prize since indigenous rights campaigner Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala won in 1992, and is the second Colombian laureate after writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who won the literature prize in 1982.

The scion of one of Colombia's most prosperous families, Santos was not thought likely to spearhead a peace process with FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).

But though he had served as defence minister under hardline ex-president Alvaro Uribe, when the FARC were weakened by a U.S.-backed offensive, Santos used his two terms in office to open negotiations with rebel leadership at four-year-long talks.

His family once owned leading Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, where Santos worked as an editor before turning to politics. He also trained as an economist at the London School of Economics.

He was finance minister in the 1990s, helping to steer the Andean nation through one of its worst fiscal crises.

The peace talks made bitter enemies of Santos and Uribe, who accused his former protege of betraying FARC victims, and who founded a new right-wing political party and won a Senate seat, in an effort to undermine Santos' peace efforts.

The news may anger those Colombians who see Santos' bid for peace with the FARC as selling out the nation as he negotiated terms that they see as an embarrassment.

But the fact that his rebel foe did not receive the prize alongside him may be a relief to Santos, given the political tension following referendum. On the other hand, it may give Santos the moral upper hand in talks with Uribe.

A joint win may have set back sensitive talks with the opposition as Santos tries to negotiate new terms with the "No" camp and possibly convince the FARC to accept changes to the original accord.

The "No" vote was a disaster for Santos, who had hoped to turn his focus quickly to other matters including possible talks with the smaller ELN rebel group, tax reform and other economic measures to compensate for a drop in oil income.

The government had hoped peace would lead to a boom in investment by commodities investors, in gold mines, oil and agriculture in Latin America's fourth-largest economy

ACHIEVEMENT AFTER SETBACK

Some Nobel watchers had taken Colombia off their lists of favourites after the referendum "No".

"The peace accord was indeed a major achievement and, although the referendum was a setback, hopefully this award will help peacebuilders maintain the momentum needed to keep the process moving forward,' Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Director Dan Smith said in a statement.

The United Nations human rights office, which does not usually comment on Nobel Peace Prizes, said the award was a recognition of how important the conflict in Colombia was.

"I think the High Commissioner would hope this gives a big boost to the peace process which has been going through a bit of a roller coaster in the past few weeks," U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said in Geneva.

The one-sided prize echoes previous awards, such as to South Korean President Kim Dae-jung in 2000 for his work for reconciliation with North Korea. West German Chancellor Willy Brandt won in 1971 for his policies of reaching out to the communist East.

But often the awards go to both sides in peace negotiations, such as to Israelis and Palestinians in 1994 or to Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin in 1978.

The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 8 million Swedish crowns ($930,000), will be presented in Oslo on Dec. 10.

Source: Reuters

Santos and FARC coming to terms with new reality after No wins in referendum

Bogota, Oct 2 (efe_epa) The president of Colombia late Sunday recognized the victory of the "No" side in the referendum on the peace agreement signed with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and said this result would open a new political reality which could be an opportunity for the country.

Juan Manuel Santos, who had promoted the "yes" campaign, ordered government negotiators to return to Havana on Monday to consult with the FARC leaders.

Colombian FARC top leader, Timoleon Jimenez, known as "Timochenko" said in Havana that the insurgent group maintained "its desire for peace" and repeated that they will "use only words as a weapon to build toward the future."

"The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia deeply regrets that the destructive power of those who sow hatred and rancor have influenced the opinion of the Colombian population," Timochenko said in a first statement after the surprise victory for the No camp in the referendum.

"To the Colombian people who dream of peace, count on us, peace will triumph," concluded Timochenko.

At the end of counting, the insurgent group asked reporters in Havana to leave the room so that they can talk before issuing an official statement.

The FARC guerrillas plan to hold a meeting to "calmly analyze all the details" of the outcome.

The Colombian president stressed that the "definitive bilateral ceasefire and cessation of hostilities" between the Colombian government and FARC rebels, which took effect on August 29, "is still in force, and will remain in force."

"I won't give up," said Santos and promised to continue "the search for peace until the last moment" of his mandate, because that's the way to leave a better country for Colombia's children.

According to the official result, with almost 100 percent of the vote counted, 49.77 percent or 6.374.491 voted for while 50.22 percent of voters or 6,430,909 voters voted against the deal.

Source: EFE

FARC moving slowly, but in unified way, toward approval of peace pact

After an intense first day on the weekend, the FARC on Sunday continued their 10th Guerrilla Conference where they are slowly, but apparently in a united way, debating the peace pact reached with the Colombian government and moving toward its ratification.

Before the start of the second day of debate, the head of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, negotiating team at the peace talks with the government, Luciano Marin Arango, alias "Ivan Marquez," gave a brief statement to the press that shed some light on what is occurring at the assembly.

Source: EFE

Brazil and Italy among winners at FIFA Futsal World Cup

Italy beat Paraguay 4-2 in Group C action at the 2016 FIFA Futsal World Cup, while Brazil defeated Ukraine 3-1 in a Group D match.

In other Group D action, Vietnam pulled off a 4-2 win over Guatemala, while Australia edged Mozambique 3-2.

Brazil, the defending FIFA Futsal champion, had to fight off a tough Ukrainian team in a match that featured 120 shots.

Up next for the defending champions is Australia, which barely survived Mozambique's furious comeback at the Coliseo Bicentenario in Bucaramanga.

Italy managed to rally and beat Paraguay with three points in the second half against the South American squad's stout defense at the Coliseo el Pueblo in the southwestern city of Cali.

Minh Tri Nguyen had a hat trick for Vietnam, scoring the Southeast Asian nation's first-ever goal in a FIFA tournament.

Vietnam dominated the match almost from start to finish, preventing Guatemala from implementing its game plan.

Paraguay's next opponent will be Vietnam, while Italy will take on Guatemala.

The FIFA Futsal World Cup 2016 started on Saturday and runs until Oct. 1.

The cities of Medellin, Cali and Bucaramanga will host 24 matches during the tournament.

Medellin, the capital of Antioquia province, is the seat of Group B, which includes Russia, Egypt, Thailand and Cuba, and Group F, consisting of Spain, Iran, Morocco and Azerbaijan.

In addition, the city will host the matchups between Portugal and Uzbekistan in Group A and Kazakhstan's contest with the Solomon Islands in Group E.

Source: EFE

Frog species with yellow eyebrows found in Colombia

The frog has a dark camouflage pattern which allows it to blend in with the rocky soil on which it dwells.

Researchers with the Humboldt Institute found the frog, which they named Pristimantis macrummendozai, in the Iguaquen Merchan moorlands, in central Boyaca province.

Colombia is one of the world's most biologically diverse countries.

Researchers said that the species was well adapted to its moorland surroundings.

They said that female Pristimantis took advantage of the moist soil to lay their eggs in the ground.

According to their studies, the Pristimanti's preferred breeding environment was at high altitude, above 3,500m (11,500ft).

Environmentalists in Colombia have been fighting for the country's moorlands to be protected.

Last month, they celebrated when Colombia's constitutional court banned mining in the moorlands, arguing that it could cause irreversible damage to their fragile ecosystem.

Source: BBC

Comércio ilegal é segunda maior economia do mundo

O valor do comércio ilegal é de 8% a 15% da economia mundial, de acordo com um estudo recente da consultoria Euromonitor assinado por Philip Buchanan e Lourdes Chavarria.

A estimativa mais alta bate nos US$ 12 trilhões em 2014, mesmo tamanho do PIB da China, a segunda maior economia mundial.

Em 2013, 2,3 bilhões de produtos farmacêuticos e 470 milhões de produtos eletrônicos foram confiscados ao redor do mundo. Só nos EUA, mais de US$ 1,7 bilhão em falsificação foi retido na fronteira no mesmo ano.

Comércio ilegal é definido como a "produção, importação, exportação, venda e compra de bens que não sigam a legislação atual em alguma jurisdição específica".

Entram aí desde a venda de medicamentos vencidos até a falsificação de marcas famosas ou a fabricação de bebida alcoólica dentro de casa.

Ganhadores e perdedores

O comércio ilegal não é lucrativo apenas para quem o faz; o ganho obtido também acaba fluindo para os fornecedores dos insumos necessários (fabricantes de garrafas, por exemplo).

Enquanto isso, perdem as indústrias legais: seja pela competição desleal, pela perda de participação de mercado ou pelos danos à reputação das marcas.

Os consumidores ganham ao pagarem menos por itens de status. No México, perfumes legais e ilegais chegam a ter uma diferença de preço de 46%. Uma bolsa de luxo que sai por 3 mil euros na loja é encontrada por 35 euros na rua.

"A aceitação social é outro estímulo ao comércio ilegal ao redor do mundo. Em muitos países, os consumidores não percebem a compra de produtos ilegais como uma atividade criminal", diz o relatório.

Ao mesmo tempo, quem compra produto ilegal fica mais expostos a riscos. Em junho, 25 pessoas morreram em Mumbai, na Índia, por consumirem álcool ilegal com altos níveis de metanol (e isso sem falar em medicamentos falsos).

Isso também prejudica os governos. Apesar do comércio ilegal gerar em algum nível empregos e fontes de renda, estimula a atividade criminal e funciona como uma draga de de receita.

Em 2013, 570 milhões de cigarros foram comercializados ilegalmente no mundo com receita de US$ 39 bilhões. No mercado legal, teriam gerado praticamente o mesmo valor em impostos (US$ 40 bilhões).

Cerca de um quarto do álcool vendido na América Latina é ilegal, e o Brasil responde por 63% deste mercado. Por aqui, domina o álcool artesanal (55%) ou falsificado (38%), com pouca participação de contrabando (6%), que domina na Colômbia.

Fonte: Exame/abril

Brasil goleia Colômbia e termina em terceiro lugar na Copa América

O fixo Rodrigo fez dois dos cinco gols na vitória da Seleção sobre a Colômbia (Foto: Luis Domingues/CBFS)

Ao menos com a medalha de bronze a Seleção Brasileira de futsal deixará Portoviejo, no Equador, onde foi disputada a Copa América. Neste domingo, os comandados de Sérgio Schiochet golearam a Colômbia, por 5 a 1, e terminaram a competição em terceiro lugar, já que no sábado o time verde e amarelo caiu para a Argentina nos pênaltis após empate por 2 a 2 no tempo regulamentar.

Após um primeiro tempo equilibrado, em que o Brasil abriu o marcador com Jackson, a Seleção nacional ligou a máquina de gols. Já no começo da segunda etapa Rodrigo chutou forte, de longe, para fazer 2 a 0. Os colombianos descontaram com Barranechea, em cobrança de falta, mas a reação dos adversários pararia ali.

Dois minutos de tomar o gol, o Brasil voltou a ter vantagem confortável com Dieguinho desviando chute cruzado na área: 3 a 1. O placar seria decretado com mais dois tentos. Um de Rodrigo, após receber passe de calcanhar de Simi, e outro de Arthur, que encobriu o goleiro colombiano com leve toque na bola.

A Argentina acabou conquistando o bicampeonato da Copa América após ter goleado o Paraguai na final por 4 a 1. Stazzone, Gonza Abdala, Alamiro Vaporaki e Lucas Bolo foram às redes pela Alviceleste, enquanto Nico Zaffe descontou para os paraguaios. O argentino Santiago Basile, autor de um dos gols contra o Brasil, foi eleito o melhor jogador do torneio. Já Juan Salas, do Paraguai, levou o troféu de artilheiro por ter marcado dez gols na competição.

Posto isso, a Seleção Brasileira encerrou sua participação na competição continental com quatro vitórias e um empate. Na primeira fase, a equipe nacional venceu Uruguai, Colômbia e Venezuela. Esta foi a segunda vez que o Brasil não conquistou a Copa América. Com nove títulos no histórico, o País não levou o caneco em 2003, quando viu a Argentina erguer o troféu.

O próximo desafio da Seleção será um amistoso contra Portugal, na Arena Castelão, em Fortaleza, no dia 22 de setembro. A partida terá como destaque o retorno do craque Falcão à equipe verde e amarela.

Fonte: http://www.gazetaesportiva.net/futsal/brasil-goleia-colombia-e-termina-em-terceiro-lugar-na-copa-america/