John Otis

Even though COVID-19 deaths are spiking and the country is climbing out of a deep economic downturn, the president has proposed new taxes. Colombians are defying restrictions by protesting.

Protesters are taking to the streets of Colombia demonstrating against the government's mishandling of the pandemic, and its proposal to raise taxes at a time of deep economic pain.

"We want to demonstrate that although we're not a rich country, we can do something that is humanitarian ... but at the same time is an intelligent and sound migration policy," Iván Duque tells NPR.

More than 5 million Venezuelans have fled their country, many of them to neighboring Colombia, whose president is winning praise for his open-door policy toward Venezuelans.

Colombia's president has unveiled a program to let undocumented Venezuelan migrants live and work legally in the country for up to 10 years. Nearly a million Venezuelans in Colombia lack legal status.

More than 5 million Venezuelans have fled their country, many of them to neighboring Colombia, whose president is winning praise for his open-door policy toward Venezuelans.

The country is the top flower exporter to the U.S. When the pandemic hit, farmers feared they'd have to destroy flower beds and lay off thousands of workers. Here's why that didn't happen.

Human rights activists have reported a sharp increase in sexual assaults and human trafficking involving Venezuelan women and girls trying to reach Colombia since the border closed amid the pandemic.

About 2 million Venezuelans have settled in Colombia in recent years amid their country's deep economic crisis. Some of the migrants are shocked by their neighbors' anti-Venezuelan attitudes.

The latest target was a statue of Sebastián de Belalcázar, a Spanish conquistador who founded two Colombian cities and led a military campaign that killed and enslaved thousands of Indigenous people.