Colombia's historic Women's World Cup run years in the making

SYDNEY -- Colombia's run to the Women's World Cup quarter-finals may have taken many by surprise, but for coach Nelson Abadia it is the product of years of building.

The South Americans face European champions England on Saturday in Sydney and no matter what happens, this has been a breakthrough moment for Colombian women's football.

It is only the national team's third World Cup and they failed to qualify for the previous edition in 2019, when Abadia was also in charge.

But Colombia did not panic and now they are reaping the benefits with a place in the last eight for the first time.

Forward Linda Caicedo has been one of the stars of the World Cup and in the 1-0 win over Jamaica in the last 16, Abadia also gave a start to defender Ana Guzman. Both are 18.

"Linda, as well as Ana Maria, came into the national (youth) team when they were 12 years old," said Abadia.

"We've been growing together since they were 12 years old and stimulating their growth into what they are today."

The 67-year-old Abadia has been involved with the women's national team for nearly a decade, first as technical assistant to coach Fabian Taborda.

In 2017, he was promoted to the top job and has made a point of working closely with the national youth teams.

In 2019, Colombia's women footballers won gold at the Pan American Games for the first time and they were runners-up at last year's Copa America, losing the final to Brazil but qualifying for the World Cup.

Caicedo and Guzman were part of the team which topped their group at last year's U-20 World Cup only to be defeated by regional rivals Brazil in the last 16.

"We started with that process since they were 12 years old, and then at the U-20 World Cup they were 17 years old," Abadia said.

"So it's been since 2017 that we started this renewal process."

Abadia's vision 

Abadia spent years going all over Colombia scouting for young players, part of what he called "a methodical process."

"Thank God it paid off," he said after the Jamaica win, praising Colombian football bosses for sticking with him and his vision.

"I was able to visualize them playing for the national teams.

"I was doing scouting up and down the country and collecting information on potential players."

Guzman came into the side because of suspension to Manuela Vanegas and as well as helping them to a clean sheet against Jamaica, the teenager set up skipper Catalina Usme for the winning goal with a wonderful cross-field pass.

On the eve of the match, Guzman described Abadia as "a key person in my life," saying he had shaped her as a player and person.

Sarina Wiegman's European champions England will be favorites to win on Saturday and reach the semi-finals.

But Colombia has already surprised Germany in the group phase, Caicedo scoring one of the goals of the tournament in a 2-1 win that contributed to the Germans' early exit.

Add in more established players such as Leicy Santos, Mayra Ramirez and Vanegas, and with the quality of skipper Usme, Colombia is in a confident mood.

"I've been working with this team for many years now," said Abadia, whose son Mario is part of the coaching staff.

"And when there's a process behind it, there will be a result."

If Colombia's landmark World Cup run does end in the quarter-finals, Abadia will consider this the beginning rather than the end.

"I still have four players back in Colombia and they will be the future of our national team," he said.

Agence France-Presse

Football: Colombia stun Germany at World Cup but New Zealand out in tears

 

SYDNEY, Australia -- Colombia scored a 97th-minute winner to stun Germany 2-1 on a night of Women's World Cup drama Sunday which also saw Norway and Switzerland into the last 16 but co-hosts New Zealand dumped out in tears.

Germany smashed Morocco 6-0 in their opener to underline why they were among the pre-tournament favorites, along with Spain and England, to snatch away the United States' crown.

But they came crashing back down to earth at the hands of a Colombia side inspired by 18-year-old Linda Caicedo and roared on by the majority of a rowdy 40,000 crowd in Sydney.

The Real Madrid attacker scored one of the best goals of the tournament so far, darting past two Germany defenders before curling the ball into the top corner to open the scoring.

Germany thought they had salvaged a point in the 89th minute when skipper Alexandra Popp defied the whistles to score from the penalty spot.

But with a pulsating game that deep into stoppage time appeared destined for a draw, Manuela Vanegas popped up to head home from close range and put Colombia on the verge of the last 16.

"Germany is a world power, that's a reality, but Colombia has been making great strides and today Colombia is a world power," said the defender Vanegas.

"I dreamed of scoring a goal in a World Cup, I knew it was going to come and I decided to do it for today's game."

Going into the last round of group matches, Colombia are top of Group H on six points, Germany and Morocco have three and South Korea have zero.

Germany's fate is still in their own hands when they face the Koreans next, with Colombia against Morocco.

Morocco won a Women's World Cup match for the first time after Ibtissam Jraidi struck early to give them a 1-0 victory over South Korea.

In the match, Moroccan defender Nouhaila Benzina became the first player to wear a hijab at the Women's World Cup.

- Norway through, New Zealand out -

Norway and Switzerland both emerged out of an excruciatingly tight Group A.

Former champions Norway thrashed the Philippines 6-0 in Auckland to squeeze into the last 16 on goal difference from New Zealand.

A full house in Dunedin saw the co-hosts held 0-0 by a stubborn Switzerland as the Football Ferns bowed out of their home tournament in tears.

The 1995 champions Norway needed a win and they did it in style against World Cup debutants the Philippines, who themselves were still in with a chance of reaching the knockouts.

Sophie Roman Haug scored a hat-trick as the Philippines' fairytale journey came to a shuddering halt.

With Norway well ahead, New Zealand now needed to beat Switzerland.

The hosts had the better of the first half with a string of chances, the pick of which saw forward Jacqui Hand rattle the post on 24 minutes.

As Norway chalked up the goals in Auckland, the New Zealanders upped the intensity, knowing only a win would be good enough to advance.

But the goal they so desperately needed never came.

"There are a lot of tears out there, but they should be so proud to finish on four points," captain Ali Riley said.

On Monday, Australia will hope to avoid the same fate as their co-hosts.

The Matildas must beat Olympic champions Canada to guarantee a place in the last 16 but are still sweating on their skipper and talismanic striker Sam Kerr.

She has declared herself available after a calf injury but it remains to be seen how much of a part she plays.

"Everyone involved in sport knows that with calf injuries it's one thing that you're available, but there's also risk when you come back from a muscle injury," said Australia's coach Tony Gustavsson.

Also in Group B, surprise-package Nigeria need just to avoid defeat against already-eliminated Ireland to progress.

Former champions Japan and title contenders Spain meet to decide who tops Group C with both already into the last 16.

Agence France-Presse

Colombia declares first case of coronavirus

Colombia declared its first case of novel coronavirus on Friday after a 19-year-old woman arriving from Italy tested positive for the virus, the health ministry said.

The woman "presented with symptoms and went to the health services where samples were taken for analysis. The National Institute of Health confirmed positive test results," the ministry said in a statement.

The woman arrived in the Colombian capital on February 26 from Milan, where she was studying, Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez said on Twitter.

The student was treated on March 2 at a Bogota clinic.

"We will follow protocol and the agreed treatment," wrote Lopez, calling for "calm, zero panic."

Coronavirus cases topped 100,000 worldwide across more than 90 countries on Friday, and has killed more than 3,450 people.

Colombia is one of only a handful of Latin American countries to confirm cases to date, the others being Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Chile and Ecuador.

Up to now no deaths have been reported in the region.

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Drug kingpin Pablo Escobar's family launches folding smartphone

Pablo Escobar became one of the world's richest men by selling cocaine. Now, years after his death, his family is reinventing itself by going into the smartphone business. 

Escobar Inc. is hoping to use the worldwide fame of the family's name to sell a foldable smartphone, called the "Fold 1" which they say will hit markets in January 2020. 

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China consortium wins Colombian capital metro contract

BOGOTA — China's APCA Transmimetro has won a $4 billion contract to build an elevated metro line in Bogota, Colombia's President Ivan Duque announced Thursday.

APCA Transmimetro, which includes China Harbor Engineering and Xi'An Metro as well as Spanish and Brazilian subcontractors, will build and operate the line under a 20-year concession.

"Today is a cause for celebration for all Bogota residents, and for all of Colombia," Duque said when making the announcement in Bogota.

"Here begins the real metro that the city has been waiting decades for," he said.

Bogota's mayor Enrique Penalosa said work on the project will begin in the first half of next year and the line would be operational by 2025.

A 24-kilometer elevated electric-powered line will serve 16 stations in the city of 7 million people, catering for more than a million passengers a day.

Ticket costs have yet to be defined.

But city authorities said they would hope to keep them at around the same cost as a bus ticket, around 2,400 pesos or 0.70 dollars

APCA Transmimetro beat off competition from a Spanish-Mexican consortium that included Spain's FCC Concesiones de Infraestructura and Mexico's Carso Infraestructura and Construccion and Promotora del Desarrollo de America Latina.

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Medicinal cannabis could bring in $6 billion a year for Colombia, gov't says

BOGOTA - Colombia could export $6 billion a year in medicinal cannabis products, making marijuana its third-largest source of foreign exchange, the government said on Thursday, as investors called for simpler regulations for marijuana producers.

Colombian law already regulates the possession, production, distribution, sale and export of seeds and other marijuana products like oils and creams, but investors say the export approval process is tortuous.

"It's possible to be a very important player at an international level in terms of exports. The estimates show we could effectively be at the level of $6 billion annually," commerce vice minister Saul Pineda told attendees at the country's first annual cannabis conference.

Colombia has so far only licensed seed-producing by businesses because of complex compliance standards for everything from sanitation to security, in a country still famous for being a top illegal narcotics producer.

"More forceful action in regulatory terms is needed so we don't lose the momentum that we have been growing with," said Gustavo Escobar, head of innovation at Colombian-Canadian joint venture Clever Leaves.

"We're lacking some adjustments that would allow us to attend to markets as quickly as possible, before other countries get ahead of us," he added.

Colombia's hearty sunlight and equatorial climate could make it a major producer of medicinal cannabis, whose cultivation in the country has been backed by the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board. 

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Football: Martinez cracker helps Colombia past Argentina

SALVADOR, Brazil - Roger Martinez scored an outstanding goal as Colombia beat Argentina 2-0 in an exciting finale to a Copa America Group B opener on Saturday that burst into life after a sluggish start.

Just as Colombia looked like being overwhelmed by a dangerous-looking Argentina side, substitute Martinez controlled a cross-field ball on the left wing in the 71st minute before cutting across the area and smashing it into the far top corner.

His fellow substitute Duvan Zapata made doubly sure Colombia would record their first win over Argentina since 2007 by pouncing from close range to knock in a cross from Jefferson Lerma 15 minutes later.

"We knew that it was a long time since we beat Argentina and we're delighted," Zapata told reporters.

"We'll enjoy this, it's a great result but the tournament goes on and there are lot of difficult games to go."

Both sets of supporters whipped up a lively atmosphere at a near-full Arena Fonte Nova, providing a much-needed boost for tournament organisers CONMEBOL after over 40,000 seats were left empty in Peru's game with Venezuela earlier in the day.

The fans were struggling for anything to get excited about as the first half dragged on, however.

Colombia initially looked stronger but Argentina were a different beast when Rodrigo de Paul replaced Angel di Maria immediately after the interval and captain Lionel Messi was able to find space to cause some problems.

Messi wasted the best chance of the game before Martinez's piledriver broke the deadlock when he skewed a rebound wide from close range, and the Barcelona forward also went on a thrilling solo run into the area but could not get a shot away.

MASS BRAWL

A mass brawl ensued when Messi was cut down by Colombia's Juan Cuadrado in the second half while Argentina midfielder Leandro Paredes fizzed two shots at goal.

A goal from Lionel Scaloni's side looked imminent but Colombia's usual talisman James Rodriguez split their defence with an impressive long pass to Martinez, who had come on early in the game after Luis Muriel was forced off by injury.

Martinez's stunning strike floored Argentina and although they came back with a couple more attempts, they never looked like scoring.

"We were good in the first 20 mins then we had a bad end to the half,"," said Scaloni.

"We lost the ball a lot but in the second half we were very superior to Colombia. Then, when we were playing at our best, they scored on the counterattack."

The coach also complained about the state of the pitch, calling it "lamentable".

"But the thing I will take from the game is that we were able to adjust and improve in the second half," he added. "That might not sound like much but it will help us in our next games."

Argentina, who won the last of their 14 South American titles in 1993, face Paraguay in their second match in Belo Horizonte on Wednesday.

Colombia, Copa America champions once in 2001, top Group B with three points ahead of Qatar's meeting with Paraguay on Sunday. They next play the Qataris in Sao Paulo, also on Wednesday. 

(Reporting by Richard Martin, editing by Nick Mulvenney)

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Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia denounce decision on Amazon domain

LIMA - The presidents of Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia criticized a recent decision by the organization that manages internet protocol to grant global retailer Amazon Inc the rights to the .amazon domain.

Amazon Inc has been seeking the exclusive rights to the .amazon domain name since 2012. But Amazon basin countries - including Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia - have argued it refers to their geographic region and should not be the monopoly of one company.

The four leaders - Peru's Martin Vizcarra, Colombia's Ivan Duque, Ecuador's Lenin Moreno and Bolivia's Evo Morales - vowed to join forces to protect their countries from what they described as inadequate governance of the internet.

Last week, the global Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which oversees internet addresses, said it decided to proceed with the designation requested by Amazon Inc pending a 30-day period of public comment.

The decision sets "a grave precedent by prioritizing private commercial interests above the considerations of state public policies, the rights on indigenous people and the preservation of the Amazon," Vizcarra, Duque, Moreno and Morales said in a joint statement on Sunday after a gathering in Lima of the Andean Community regional bloc.

They added that Latin American and Caribbean countries agreed in 2013 to reject any attempt to appropriate the Amazon name or any other name that refers to geography, history, culture or nature without the consent of countries in the region.

Brazil, home to the largest swath of the Amazon forest, has also lamented ICANN's decision.

Amazon.com did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside regular working hours.

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2 killed as Maduro sends troops to block Venezuela aid convoys

CUCUTA, Colombia/URENA, Venezuela - At least two people were killed and trucks loaded with foreign aid were set ablaze after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro deployed troops and armored vehicles to turn back humanitarian assistance at border crossings with Colombia and Brazil.

Maduro said he was breaking diplomatic relations with Colombia and ordered its diplomatic staff to leave Venezuela within 24 hours because of its government's assistance to opposition leader Juan Guaido.

Guaido, who most Western nations recognize as Venezuela's legitimate leader, gave a personal send-off on Saturday to a convoy carrying U.S. aid departing from the Colombian city of Cucuta. The opposition says the foreign humanitarian assistance is desperately needed to tackle widespread food and medicine shortages in Venezuela.

But Maduro denies his oil-rich nation has any need of aid and accuses Guaido of being a coup-mongering puppet for U.S. President Donald Trump.

Washington warned on Friday that it could impose tough new sanctions on Venezuela if Maduro blocked the aid shipments.

"What do the Venezuelan people think of Donald Trump's threats? Get your hands off Venezuela Donald Trump. Yankee go home," Maduro told a rally of red-shirted, flag-waving supporters in the capital, Caracas. "He is sending us rotten food, thank you!"

In the Venezuelan border towns of San Antonio and Urena, troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets at opposition supporters, including lawmakers, walking towards the frontier waving Venezuelan flags and chanting "freedom."

People in Urena barricaded streets with burning tires, set a bus alight and hurled stones at troops to demand that Maduro allow aid into a country ravaged by an economic meltdown that has halved the size of the economy in five years.

"They started shooting at close range as if we were criminals," said shopkeeper Vladimir Gomez, 27, wearing a white shirt stained with blood. "I couldn't avoid the (rubber) bullets and they hit me in the face and my back. We have to fight."

Colombia's government had said that aid trucks would be unloaded at the border and their cargo transported by "human chains" that formed on the road that leads toward Venezuela.

However, Venezuelan security forces halted the convoys with a barrage of teargas. At the crossing by Urena, two trucks caught fire, sending plumes of dark smoke into the air, while crowds started removing boxes of supplies, a Reuters witness said.

In the southern town of Santa Elena de Uairen, near the border with Brazil, at least two people were killed in clashes with security forces, according to a doctor at the hospital where they were treated. On Friday, a married couple in a nearby indigenous community were shot dead by security forces.

Rights group Penal Forum said it had recorded 29 injuries and two deaths across Venezuela in clashes with troops, though Reuters could not verify this.

"I'm a homemaker and I'm here fighting for my family, for my children and parents, resisting the military's tear gas and soldiers on motorbikes," said Sobeida Monsalve, 42, in Urena.

'THE BIGGEST BATTLE'

Guaido had appealed to Venezuela's armed forces to stand to one side and allow aid in, promising amnesty to all officers who disavowed Maduro. Several soldiers, whose families suffer from the same shortages as other Venezuelans, took up his offer.

Twenty-three members of the security forces defected on Saturday, including 18 members of the National Guard and two police officers, Colombia's migration authority said.

A social media video showed troops who abandoned their post driving armored vehicles across a bridge linking Venezuela and Colombia, knocking over metal barricades, and then jumping out of the vehicles and running to the Colombian side.

"What we did today, we did for our families, for the Venezuelan people," said one of the defectors in a video televised by a Colombian news program, which did not identify them. "We are not terrorists."

Venezuela's ruling Socialist Party calls Guaido's aid effort a veiled invasion backed by Washington and insists that the United States should instead help Venezuela by lifting crippling financial and oil sector sanctions.

Maduro blames Venezuela's dire situation on US sanctions that have blocked funds and hobbled the OPEC member's vital oil industry.

On Saturday, Maduro turned his ire on Colombia and said President Ivan Duque's government was allowing its territory to be used for "attacks against Venezuela."

"For that reason, I have decided to break all political and diplomatic relations with Colombia's fascist government," he told cheering supporters.

Nearby, thousands of white-clad protesters gathered outside a military base in Caracas to demand that the armed forces allow the aid in.

"This is the biggest battle that the armed forces can win," said Sheyla Salas, 48, who works in advertising. "Please join this struggle, get on the right side of history, allow the humanitarian aid to enter."

According to a Reuters witness, two humanitarian aid trucks crossed the Brazilian border although they had not passed through the Venezuelan customs checkpoint.

Trump's national security adviser John Bolton canceled plans to travel to South Korea to prepare for a summit addressing North Korea's nuclear program in order to focus instead on events unfolding in Venezuela, his spokesman said on Friday.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, in a message on Twitter on Saturday, said: "To Juan Guaido and all the people of Venezuela taking a stand for freedom and humanitarian relief: Estamos con ustedes. We are with you."

(Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra, Anggy Polanco, Mayela Armas and Steven Grattan; Additional reporting by Helen Murphy and Julia Symmes Cobb in Bogota, Anthony Boadle in Brasilia; Ricardo Moraes in Pacaraima, Angus Berwick in Caracas; Writing by Brian Ellsworth and Angus Berwick; Editing by Daniel Flynn, Daniel Wallis and Grant McCool)

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Vietnam wins Miss Earth 2018

Miss Earth 2018 Phuong Khanh Nguyen of Vietnam (second right) joins (from left) Miss Earth-Fire Melissa Flores of Mexico, Miss Earth-Water Valeria Ayos of Colombia, and Miss Earth-Air Melanie Mader of Austria during the grand coronation night of the Miss Earth 2018 pageant held at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City on Saturday. 

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Duque becomes Colombia's president, promising to unite divided nation

BOGOTA - Colombia's President-elect Ivan Duque was sworn in to office on Tuesday, pledging to unite a divided nation behind his plan to toughen a peace accord with Marxist rebels and rekindle economic growth.

Right-wing Duque, who replaces Nobel Prize winner Juan Manuel Santos, faces significant challenges.

The economy remains weak, a new wave of drug trafficking gangs have moved into areas once controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas, and nearly a million Venezuelan migrants have crossed into Colombia looking for food and work.

The 42-year-old lawyer and former senator for the Democratic Center party won a decisive victory against a leftist opponent in June's election, promising to make adjustments to the domestically-controversial peace accord with the FARC, cut corporate taxes and redouble security efforts in certain areas.

"I want to govern Colombia with unbreakable values and principles, overcoming left and right divisions," Duque said in an address before dignitaries, after receiving the presidential sash in Bogota's Plaza Bolivar.

"I want to govern Colombia with the spirit of building, never of destroying."

Ongoing peace negotiations with National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels, the country's last remaining insurgent group, will be evaluated over the next 30 days, Duque said, adding that any process must be "credible" and based on an end to guerrilla criminal activity over a specified timeframe.

He said he will also send an anti-corruption bill to Congress and launch measures to reactivate the sluggish economy.

Duque is a protege of hardline ex-President Alvaro Uribe, a harsh critic of the peace agreement, whose father was killed by rebels.

Uribe, facing allegations of witness tampering and bribery that he has denied, is seen by many as the power behind the relatively inexperienced Duque.

But Duque, a father of three who worked at the Inter-American Development Bank before Uribe asked him to take a Senate seat in 2014, has already shown independence in some cabinet picks and in a softening of his anti-accord rhetoric.

The 2016 peace deal brought an end to the FARC's part in more than five decades of war which killed some 260,000, and saw thousands of rebels demobilize in return for amnesty.

And though its leadership will be tried for war crimes, Duque is angry they will not serve jail time before taking up 10 guaranteed congressional seats.

Colombia's youngest president of the modern era has not specified the changes he would make to the agreement, but anything more than cosmetic will be tough to get through a Congress which has broadly backed the deal.

Even so, alterations may help satisfy some detractors in a nation polarized by the deal.

Duque can count on continued support from the United States, said Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, in Bogota.

"He very much sees the fact that the peace process, while it happened and was historic, wasn't perfect and so now it needs to be tweaked a bit," she told journalists.

The prematurely gray-haired Duque has also said he plans to cut taxes and raise revenue from an evasion crackdown. He wants to relax the so-called fiscal rule, which obliges the government to reduce the budget deficit.

"In economic matters, mistakes have been made that we must never again repeat," said Duque. "A tax policy motivated by the expansion of spending has led us to having asphyxiating burdens that affect savings, investment, job formalization and productivity."

With Colombia's debt rated BBB- by S&P and BBB by Fitch, Duque will have a hard time satisfying credit rating agencies unless he is able to replace revenue lost from weaker international oil prices. 

(Reporting by Helen Murphy and Julia Symmes Cobb, Additional reporting by Nelson Bocanegra, Carlos Vargas and Luis Jaime Acosta, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

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Pro-business candidate wins Colombian presidential election

BOGOTA - Right-wing candidate Ivan Duque won Colombia's presidential election on Sunday, beating leftist Gustavo Petro in a victory that reassured investors but raised the prospect of changes to a landmark peace accord with Marxist rebels.

With 98.2 percent of polling stations counted, Duque won the ballot with 53.9 percent of votes while Petro, who had pledged to shake up Colombia's economic model, had 41.8 percent.

Duque, 41, the business friendly protégé of hardline former President Alvaro Uribe, wants to change a peace deal he deems too lenient on Marxist FARC rebels while keeping Colombia's economic policies intact.

Former guerrilla Petro, whose positions prompted comparisons to Venezuela's former socialist President Hugo Chavez, pledged to take on political elites, redistribute land to the poor and gradually eliminate the need for oil and coal in Latin America's fourth-largest economy.

"We need a strong hand in the peace process now," said Lucero Cevallos, 42, an auxiliary nurse, at a Duque celebration in Bogota.

From the sweltering Caribbean coast to the frigid heights of the Andes, voting was largely uneventful at the 11,230 polling stations across the nation. Marking of ballots was monitored by international election observers to guard against any fraud.

Petro, 58, had called on supporters to take to the streets if he felt there was widespread manipulation of the tally.

"Petro won more votes than I had expected, and that's scary because it says that a great part of the country wants socialism," said another Duque supporter, 77-year-old retired politician Roque Diaz.

It was the first elections since a 2016 peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which ended their part in a 5-decade conflict that has killed more than 220,000 people and displaced millions.

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Colombia ships 55 tons of holiday ham to Venezuela

BOGOTA - Colombia has shipped around 55 tons of ham to Venezuela after protests broke out over shortages of the traditional holiday staple, an official said Saturday.

The first 2 trucks of ham arrived in Venezuela on Friday night, a source from Colombia's national tax and customs office told AFP.

On Saturday, there were "2 other trucks ready to go," but awaiting final procedural approval, the source added, without specifying the amount of ham in that shipment.

The transport ministry said it had issued a firm a "special permit" to transport the ham to Barinas, western Venezuela.

Hundreds of Venezuelans took to the streets this week to protest that they had not received ham promised by the government as part of a subsidized food program.

President Nicolas Maduro blamed the lack of ham on an "international sabotage" orchestrated by Portugal.

Venezuelans are suffering severe shortages of food and medicine, as well as inflation which the IMF forecasts will exceed 2,300 percent in 2018.

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Bolivian airline CEO to be jailed until soccer crash trial over

LA PAZ - The head of the Bolivian company whose plane crashed in Colombia last month, killing dozens of Brazilian soccer players, will be held on manslaughter and other charges until the investigation is complete, authorities said on Thursday.

Gustavo Vargas, chief executive of charter airline LaMia, who denies the charges against him, was brought in for initial questioning by Bolivian prosecutors on Tuesday.

After Vargas spent Wednesday in a hospital being treated for conditions including diabetes, a judge agreed with prosecutors that there was enough evidence to hold him until trial.

"The prosecution substantiated the charges and showed there was a risk that he might flee the country before trial," National Anti-Corruption Director Fanny Alfaro told reporters after a more than eight-hour court hearing in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz.

Vargas was defiant, telling reporters outside the courthouse: "The prosecutors are a bunch of liars."

The crash happened in Colombia late last month, killing 71 people after the plane apparently ran out of fuel.

The aircraft had been carrying Brazil's Chapacoense soccer team to a championship in the Colombian city Medellin.

Bolivian authorities last week suspended the license of LaMia, which was bringing the Chapecoense club to the finals of the Copa Sudamericana.

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Bodies of Colombia plane crash victims flown home

MEDELLÍN, Colombia – The bodies of the 71 victims killed in a plane crash in Colombia that wiped out a Brazilian football team began arriving home Friday, as mourners prepared a massive funeral.

The remains of the first victim, Paraguayan crew member Gustavo Encina, were handed over to his family early Friday in a coffin draped in his country's flag.

The other victims -- 64 Brazilians, five Bolivians and a Venezuelan -- were being flown home on a series of flights throughout the day.

"What we want now more than anything else is to go home, to take our friends and brothers home. The wait is the worst," said Roberto Di Marche, a cousin of football team Chapecoense Real's late director Nilson Folle Junior.

In the club's hometown, the southern Brazilian city of Chapeco, more than 100,000 people -- about half the city's population -- are expected to attend a memorial service Saturday in honor of the team, whose fairytale season was tragically cut short by the Monday night crash.

FIFA chief Gianni Infantino canceled a trip to Australia to attend the funeral.

Officials said Brazilian President Michel Temer would likely travel to Chapeco as well.

The last of the bodies were due to arrive in Chapeco early Saturday.

They will then go on a funeral procession through the city, ending with a ceremony at the team's stadium.

Authorities are still investigating what caused the charter flight to smash into the mountains outside Medellin, where Chapecoense was due to play the biggest match in its history -- the finals of the Copa Sudamericana, South America's second-largest cup tournament.

A harrowing recording has emerged of the panicked pilot asking the control tower for priority to land because he was out of fuel.

Colombia's civil aviation safety chief, Freddy Bonilla, said the plane disregarded international rules on fuel reserves.

- Bolivian probe –

The Bolivia-based charter company, LAMIA, had its permit suspended Thursday, and the government there ordered an investigation into its operations.

Bolivia has also suspended the executive staff of its civil aviation authority and the airports administrator for the duration of the probe.

Investigators are examining pilot error and air traffic control problems as possible factors in the crash.

Pilot Miguel Alejandro Quiroga's remains were flown home Friday along with four Bolivian crew who died in the crash.

The disaster killed most of Chapecoense's squad and 20 journalists traveling with them to cover the match.

LAMIA, which specializes in flying Latin American football teams, had ferried local clubs and national sides around the region, including superstar Lionel Messi.

- Haunting crash scene –

Six people miraculously survived the crash.

All remained hospitalized Friday.

"I'm in shock," said flight attendant Ximena Suarez Otterburg, who was found injured but conscious after the crash.

"God can't explain the pain I feel," she wrote on Facebook.

Other survivors were in various stages of recovery.

Chapecoense defender Alan Ruschel was in intensive care after back surgery, while goalkeeper Jakson Follmann has undergone multiple surgeries including the amputation of his right leg.

A haunting video meanwhile emerged of the moment rescuers found Bolivian crew member Erwin Tumiri.

"Alex! Angel! David! Where's my crew?" shouted the visibly disoriented man, as rescuers tried to calm him.

- Devastated families –

Co-pilot Ovar Goytia's 18-year-old son recalled his final conversation with his father.

"I spoke with my daddy 10 minutes before the flight took off. I only spoke to him to say goodbye and make sure everything was OK. He just said to take care of the home, of my brothers, that I was the man of the house, and that he'd be back," he told AFP.

Getting the news "was a dagger in my heart," he said. "As if my world was ending."

Goytia, who is in flight school to follow in his father's footsteps, called his dad a "great pilot" and said he was sure he did everything possible to save his passengers' lives.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Fans cram into Brazil football stadium to mourn dead players

CHAPECO, Brazil -- Fans of Brazil's Chapecoense football club whose team was wiped out in a Colombian air crash crammed into the home stadium late Wednesday for tearful prayers around the empty pitch.

The stadium in Chapeco, southern Brazil, was a solid wall of green as fans and mourners dressed in the team shirt stood shoulder to shoulder.

They gathered at exactly the hour their team, which just a few years ago was in Brazil's gritty lower leagues, should have been kicking off in Medellin, Colombia against Atletico Nacional for the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana finals.

Instead of participating in what would have been the biggest match in the club's history, the team, many of the chief staff, and 20 Brazilian journalists were killed when their charter plane slammed into a mountainside short of the airport late Monday.

And instead of sitting excitedly in front of televisions to watch the action in Colombia, the people of Chapeco, a provincial city of about 200,000, trooped into their stadium to mourn and join in ecumenical prayer.

Players who had not been on the doomed flight, youth academy members, relatives of those killed and throngs upon throngs of ordinary fans joined together, all in the team colors.

There were few dry eyes as a film was projected to pay homage to the dead teammates.

The team had an outsized presence here and its inspiring story of unknowns who rose to take on champions had spread across Brazil.

"I think this transcends football. It has become something human. This is why I decided to come and pay my respects for the players who left Chapeco with a dream and who will never be forgotten," said student Daniel Augusto Barrera, 21.

Teacher Aline Fonseca, 21, said the sudden deaths of the team members had torn a hole in the community.

"Chapeco is not a big city. We would meet (the players) in the street, anywhere. It's hard to keep going," she said.

"This gathering -- they deserved twice as a big a gathering," said pensioner Nelio Dalbosco, 73.

"We have to fight to try to rebuild a team that will be as good and to keep going. Life doesn't stop," he said.

- Hard to take in -

The first bodies were expected to be flown back from Colombia, where they are being identified, later this week.

Club leaders said they hope to organize a mass wake at the stadium to give the players a true Chapecoense sendoff.

"Our desire is for a group wake to be held here," said club official Gelson Della Costa at a press conference, adding that the families' permission was being sought.

Though the plans have not been finalized and there isn't even a fixed date for the bodies' return, emergency services did a dry run Wednesday of the route that the coffins would take from the airport to the stadium.

"It's still hard to believe. I think we'll only really take it in when the dead arrive. We are in deep sorrow," said Valemar Jardine, 50, who runs a newsstand.

For the vice president of the football club, though, reality has already set in -- brutally.

"It was very difficult on entering the meeting room in the morning and seeing all the empty seats of our companions, and knowing that I was also on the list to travel but didn't go in the end," said Ivan Tozzo, his voice trembling.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Plane crash kills dream of football team that defied odds

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Traveling on the doomed airliner that crashed in Colombia overnight were the players and staff of a Brazilian football club about to complete a fairy tale journey from unknowns to would-be South American champions.

The LAMIA charter plane went down near Medellin late Monday with 81 people aboard and so far only six are reported to have survived. At least two were said by officials to be football players.

For the Chapecoense Real team the disaster means the cruel end of a story that had been meant to climax with an unexpected chance for glory on Wednesday against Colombia's Atletico Nacional in the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana final.

"The pain is terrible. Just as we had made it, I will not say to the top, but to have national prominence, a tragedy like this happens. It is very difficult, a very great tragedy," club vice-president Ivan Tozzo told SporTV.

Only a few years ago Chapecoense was just another a gritty outfit in the Brazilian lower leagues, where players, unable to afford cars, took the bus to training. The stadium in Chapeco, a city of 200,000 people in the southern Santa Catarina state, didn't have a gym.

The steep climb from minnow to contender started in 2009 when Chapecoense entered the fourth division. Back then, the team's top goalscorer Bruno Rangel told Brazilian newspaper Lance, even the club's bus was "was very old."

"But a lot has changed in the club since I arrived," he said. "There are still prejudices against the club but more because we're from the (country's) interior. That's diminishing, it's true. Every day we're more respected."

By 2014 the club had fought its way into the lower half of the elite table, but the side wanted more. Even at this point Chapecoense was almost ignored by its own public, with only about 7,000 people turning up to home games, according to Globoesporte website.

SHOT FOR STARDOM

Chapecoense entered the running for the Copa Sudamericana for the first time in 2015 and didn't disappoint.

In the club's first ever international tournament, the one-time unknowns didn't go all the way, but they performed bravely, even defeating Argentina's famed River Plate club.

This year, things seemed to be going wrong. The coach credited with Chapecoense's miraculous rise, Guto Ferreira, walked out and his replacement Caio Junior lost his first game against the lowly Cuiaba.

But the little team that could roared back, taking down Argentina's Independiente and Junior de Barranquilla. They were going to the final to meet the reigning Copa Libertadores champions Atletico Nacional and no one would write them off anymore.

On the way to Colombia, the team stopped off in Sao Paulo to play the penultimate game of Brazil's domestic league. Here they lost against Palmeiras, the team which ended the season as Brazilian champion. But there was a sense that the players had their minds on the bigger challenge awaiting them against Atletico.

"I see this is a group of winners. It's as if God has put us precisely here today to taste this and to appreciate even more the challenge on Wednesday," the coach said after the Sao Paulo game.

Now their dreams have met a devastating end and on Wednesday at what would have been an intriguing first leg of the Copa Sudamericana final there'll be only silence.

Back in Chapeco, the stadium was opened up to greet grieving families and fans.

"We're all here at the stadium to help the people connected," said Tozzo.

"It hasn't really sunk in yet. We have to trust in God. Out team must carry on," he said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Colombia features writer Garcia Marquez on banknote

BOGOTA - Colombia started circulating a new 50,000-peso banknote on Friday bearing the likeness of late Nobel-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

The light purple piece of money, worth the equivalent of $17.40, "pays honor to a person who carried Colombia's name far and wide from the middle of the last century," the head of the country's central bank, Jose Dario Uribe, said.

The banknote was launched in a ceremony in Santa Marta, a town on Colombia's Caribbean coast, close to Garcia Marquez's birthplace, that served as the setting for the writer's landmark 1967 novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude."

The first retail bank customer to receive the new bill, Jadis Saker, said "this moment will remain carved into my memory," according to the newspaper El Heraldo.

Garcia Marquez, who was born in 1927, started out as a journalist before finding fame as an author and pioneering a style called "magic realism." In 1982 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature

He died in April 2014 aged 87, in Mexico, where he lived with his wife.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Colombia court paves way for same-sex marriage

BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombia took a major step towards legalizing same-sex marriage Thursday when the constitutional court voted on the matter, in a decision hailed by the gay community.

Six of the nine court justices dismissed a petition that wanted to deny equal marriage rights for heterosexual and homosexual couples, paving the way for the mostly Catholic country to join Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil in Latin America in blazing a trail for gay marriage.

"The way is open for marriage between people of the same sex," said a source at the court, the highest in Colombia, after months of discussion.

"It's almost a fact that equal marriage will be approved, but it is not accurate to say that it is valid from today."

That will come when a court judge puts Thursday's decision in writing -- which appears merely a formality.

A previous constitutional court ruling recognized same-sex couples as families and ordered Congress to pass a law that would afford gay couples the same rights as heterosexual married couples.

But when a 2013 deadline for lawmakers passed, gay couples could by default formalize their unions before notaries and judges, although it was a gray area and the court's language was vague.

Activists in the gay community gathered outside the court in Bogota's historic center to celebrate the announcement, waving flags.

In July 2010, Argentina became the first Latin American country to legalize same-sex marriage, followed by Uruguay.

Brazil has de facto authorized same-sex marriage since May 2013.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com