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These are the trending news headlines in Colombia on Friday March 10, 2023

Colombia and Ecuador have launched a joint security alert system to protect Indigenous and environmental activists near their shared border. This move comes as new data from the UN's Colombian office reveals that at least 116 activists were killed last year, up from 100 in 2021. The UN report also highlights a rise in massacres, defined as the killing of three or more people at once, from 78 in 2021 to 92 last year. Sadly, these deaths include that of José Albeiro Camayo Güetio, a co-founder of an Indigenous-led lands rights guard in the Cauca region. Violence continues to devastate parts of Colombia despite the 2016 peace agreement between the government and the largest guerrilla force, the Revolutionary Armed Forces. NGOs and UN experts attribute most assassinations to armed criminal groups that aim to take control of remote jungle areas for drug trafficking and other illegal activities. We must watch this situation closely, especially as the Colombian President Gustavo Petro seeks to establish ceasefires with armed groups and curb violence in rural areas.

Colombia's President Gustavo Petro has signed a law that will allow 5,000 head-of-household mothers who serve sentences for theft, narcotics cultivation, or trafficking to visit their homes for five days each week. This law aims to prevent their children from growing up without affection and becoming criminals. Petro stresses that the alternatives to imprisonment will reduce recidivism and prevent social and family ties from breaking. The act will apply only to women with sentences of less than eight years who provide unpaid services to their communities. This bill was previously rejected by the former president but was now passed by the Constitutional Court.

Colombia’s Civil Aviation Authority (Aerocivil) has given the green light for JetSMART to launch its Colombian branch, a new domestic airline that will operate 27 routes within the country using an Airbus A320neo fleet. JetSMART Colombia will be based in Bogota, and the company will immediately begin the certification process to comply with all the requirements in the shortest time possible. The approval allows JetSMART to launch 11 routes from Bogota El Dorado International Airport, and a maximum of 424 weekly flights across other airports in Colombia. This marks the company’s fourth domestic carrier in South America, with existing branches in Chile, Argentina, and Peru. JetSMART Colombia has three months to begin the process of obtaining its Air Operator Certificate.

For more trending news headlines in Colombia, simply search ‘Auscast Colombia News Headlines’ in your favourite podcast app. 

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