Far-right defence attorney and businessman Abelardo de la Espriella topped the first round of Colombia’s presidential election Sunday, followed closely by leftist senator Ivan Cepeda. A fervent supporter of US President Donald Trump as well as the authoritarian crime crackdown of El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, De la Espriella has promised to wage an uncompromising war against the splintered armed groups that continue to hold out in the country’s hinterlands. 

Brazilian health authorities isolated two patients who recently arrived from African countries after they showed symptoms consistent with Ebola, officials said Friday, although one later tested negative. The move comes as the Democratic Republic of the Congo battles an outbreak that has surpassed 1,000 suspected cases and nearly 250 deaths since May.

Colombians voted Sunday in the first round of presidential elections, choosing between a reformist left seeking to retain power and a hard-line right promising security amid escalating violence by armed groups. With 99.99% of votes counted, far-right outsider Abelardo de la Espriella leads with more than 10 million votes (43.70%), followed by leftist Iván Cepeda with 9.6 million (40.93%). Amid mutual accusations, the two will face off in a runoff on June 21.

Ballots for the first round of Colombia's presidential election open Sunday, as candidates with radically diverging visions for the future face off. The vote, seen as a referendum on outgoing President Gustavo Petro’s policies, comes 10 years after Colombia signed an historic peace pact with guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). 

Colombia's presidential election is headed to a run-off after voters delivered a sharply polarised first-round result on Sunday, setting up a contest between hard-right populist Abelardo de la Espriella and leftist senator Ivan Cepeda. The vote came at the end of Colombia's bloodiest campaign in more than a decade, with issues of security and rising violence dominating the race.

The Trump administration has announced that it has selected several nuclear start-ups to participate in a project that would allow them to use plutonium stockpiles inherited from the Cold War. This plan has alarmed nuclear non-proliferation specialists.

The United States on Thursday designated two of Brazil’s most powerful criminal organisations, the Red Command and First Capital Command, as terrorist organisations, escalating tensions with Brasilia, which strongly opposes the move. US officials said the groups operate transnational criminal networks and pose a security threat.

Fighting between rival armed groups killed at least 52 guerrilla fighters in the Colombian Amazon, one of the groups said Thursday. The clashes come just days ahead of crucial presidential elections that centre in part around rival strategies towards dealing with the country's decades-old insurgencies.

The US Justice Department has launched an investigation for perjury into E. Jean Carroll, the columnist who a 2023 civil trial found had been sexually assaulted by US President Donald Trump in a New York department store 30 years ago, a source close to the matter told AP Thursday. 

Veteran French banker Matthieu Pigasse has emerged as a central figure in Venezuela’s debt restructuring efforts after his firm Centerview Partners was appointed adviser on the country’s more than $150 billion debt overhaul without a formal competitive process.

Brazilian conservative presidential hopeful Flavio Bolsonaro said on Tuesday he asked US President Donald Trump during a White House meeting to designate Brazil's two largest criminal groups, Comando Vermelho (CV) and Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), as terrorist organisations, arguing they meet the criteria for the label.

Growing concern over emerging infectious threats has once again intensified the international debate on biosecurity. Under the guise of medical and biological cooperation programs with Latin American countries, Washington continues to increase both the scale and intensity of work with dangerous pathogens, raising concerns about the potential development of biological weapons. As fresh fears over […]