John Otis

Rebel fighters in Colombia have laid down their arms ending a more than 50-year conflict. But now comes the tough part: Former guerrillas have to figure out how to make a living.

After more than 50 years of conflict, Colombia's largest guerrilla group officially disarmed and is transitioning into a political party.

As the South American nation of Colombia transitions from war to peace, it is trying to lure visitors to places once rendered off limits by conflict. One village is trying to market its natural beauty through a bike race.

Colombia's FARC guerrillas are disarming, but it's taking longer than planned. Under a peace deal signed with the government late last year, the rebels are supposed to turn in all arms by May 31.

Amid a huge boom in cocaine production, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos meets with President Trump. Santos will try to convince the U.S. to maintain its support for Colombia's peace process.

A peace treaty in 2016 largely ended a half-century war waged by the guerrilla group FARC against Colombia's government. But a handful of FARC dissidents extort business owners and refuse to disarm.

During 50 years of guerrilla war, FARC women rarely gave birth. Babies were considered a liability. Now rebels are becoming parents. "Many couples are very hopeful about the future," says a commander.

Colombia wants to get at billions of dollars worth of gold in territory once made off limits by a guerrilla war. But locals are having none of it. They fear their bucolic life could be destroyed.

Venezuela's ruling party is threatened by an opposition fueled by an economic crisis and related public anger over fuel and food shortages. It's kept power in part by stalling all manner of elections.

Authorities control flour, and bakers say there isn't enough. But officials say bakers are diverting flour to more profitable brownies and trying to bring down the government.

In Mocoa, Colombia, entire neighborhoods were wiped out over the weekend by flooding and landslides. Colombia's president says more than 200 people have been killed.

At least 193 people were killed after floods tore through a small city in Colombia. President Juan Manuel Santos has declared a state of emergency.

In a move critics are calling the point of no return toward a dictatorship, Venezuela's Supreme Court took over the opposition-controlled Congress. The court ruled Congress "in contempt' and said it would take over all "parliamentary capacities."

Joshua Holt, a Mormon, was on his honeymoon in Venezuela last year when he was arrested in an anti-gang operation. He's been in jail since. The U.S. has called for his release on humanitarian grounds.

The economic meltdown in Venezuela is contributing to Indian children across the border in Colombia dying. Health experts say the Wayuu tribe has been particularly hard-hit.

In Colombia, Marxist rebels have agreed to disarm by May 31 under the terms of a hard-fought peace treaty. But harder than agreeing to peace might be transforming 7,000 rebels into civilians.

A new TV series recounts the life of the late strongman — and suggests his rule laid the groundwork for the food shortages, hyperinflation and political polarization plaguing Venezuela today.

A pistol-packing reporter who snuck into Nazi territory to break the news that World War II had begun has died. Clare Hollingworth was a trail-blazer for female war correspondents. She was 105.

As Colombia's FARC guerrillas have laid down their weapons, criminal gangs are moving into their turf. There are signs violent right-wing factions hope to sabotage the peace accords.

Authorities also released audio of the conversation between the pilot and the airport's communications tower during the doomed plane's final moments on Monday. Only six of 77 people aboard survived.