towns of Santander Department

On Saturday, an attack on the presidential candidate from the Colombia Humana movement, Gustavo Petro, was perpetrated in the city of Cucuta, in the northern department of Santander. Petro accused former Colombian Vice-President and Presidential Candidate German Vargas Lleras of being behind the attack.

... injured a soldier during an ambush in the mountainous Catatumbo region, Norte de Santander department. Several cargo trucks were destroyed by the guerrilla near the Pacific port city of Buenaventura, and an inter-municipal bus transporting passengers from Miranda to Corinto, Cauca, was set on fire.

Photo: Residents of Sucre celebrate results of a special referendum on October 1. In this small Colombian town, 99% of voters said they did not want mining projects in the mostly agricultural county. (Credit: Juan Carlos Higuera). “This was a vote for life,” said Marelba Quiroga, a 60-year-old campesina.

As short-term options are affordable, many tourists opt to stay in small towns near Betania rather than spend on the impersonal chain hotels of the capital. ... Feliza Tovar has been churning out achiras for most of her life, and runs a successful small business in the town based entirely on a recipe her mother ...

Angelica Lamos Ballesteros, 51, was welcomed in Venezuela when gun-toting guerrillas forced her from her home in Colombia's mountainous Norte de Santander department. Now back in Colombia, she has opened her home to Venezuelans in their hour of need.