Preferable to Starmer he may be, but there is scant sign of a sharp political break in Burnham’s policies so far — while left challenges aren’t making much of a running either, finds ANDREW MURRAY. How can socialism be put back on the map?
SINCE entering office in August 2022, Colombia’s progressive government of Gustavo Petro has acted swiftly to implement its own version of “levelling up” – no small feat in a country where chronic underdevelopment and violence have produced one of the planet’s most unequal societies.
In Colombia’s northernmost region of La Guajira, Wayuu indigenous communities experience some of the most deprived social conditions on the South American continent, due in large part to the devastating social-environmental impact of El Cerrejon, the massive coal mine owned by London-based multinational Glencore.
Last September, the government instigated an emergency relief plan to provide significant state investment in education, healthcare and environmental protection in La Guajira, a region where 55 children died during January-September 2023 owing to food insecurity, preventable disease and lack of clean water.
Latin America is being swept by a series of right-wing electoral victories. But behind that shift to the right lies less of an ideological conversion than anger, fear, insecurity, and a deep crisis of democracy, asserts MARC VANDEPITTE
With Petro, Colombia has been making huge strides towards peace — but is all that at risk with the elections next year? MARK ROWE reports back after joining a delegation to the Latin American country
Colombia’s success in controlling the drug trade should be recognised and its sovereignty respected, argues Dr GLORY SAAVEDRA



