Uruguay striker Darwin Nunez unleashed a flurry of punches at Colombian supporters.© X (Twitter)

Ten-man Colombia defeated Uruguay 1-0 to reach the final of the Copa America for the first time in 23 years after an ill-tempered semi-final on Wednesday. A 39th-minute Jefferson Lerma header sealed victory for the Colombians, who will now face holders Argentina in Sunday’s final in Miami. It was an anarchic semi-final played in front of a packed and passionate crowd which ended with scuffles on the field and fighting in the stands, including several players who had climbed in among supporters amid the flying punches.

Colombia, despite having Daniel Munoz sent off just before the interval and facing plenty of Uruguay pressure, hung on for a famous victory to the delight of their massive following of fans.

The downtown streets of the North Carolina city were packed with partying fans in bright yellow Colombia jerseys hours before the kick-off.

Inside the 74,800 capacity Bank of America Stadium, it was like a home game in Bogota with only pockets of Uruguayan supporters breaking up the wall of yellow on all four sides of the venue.

Not surprisingly in such an atmosphere, Colombia started strongly with their livewire Liverpool winger Luis Diaz doing well to wriggle some space for a cross on the left, finding Daniel Munoz at the back post but the full-back’s header was off target.

Uruguay were, as always, a threat on the counter-attack and their Liverpool star, Darwin Nunez, was close to finishing off one break when Rodrigo Bentancur found him with a clever pass but the forward poked his shot wide.

Nunez had another opening when Maximiliano Araujo played him clear in the inside-right channel but the striker rushed his shot, blasting high and wide.

At the other end, Colombia forced a turnover which led to James Rodriguez curling in a cross from the right but Jhon Cordoba’s header was off target.

Lerma breakthrough

The breakthrough came in the 39th minute when Lerma rose majestically above Jose Maria Gimenez and powerfully headed home Rodriguez’s corner.

It was the sixth assist of the tournament for Rodriguez with the former Real Madrid midfielder beating the record for most assists in a single Copa, which was set by Lionel Messi in 2021.

Colombia looked to make the most of their momentum with Richard Rios forcing a save out of Uruguay keeper Sergio Rochet, after being played in by Munoz.

But having been so influential down the right in the opening half, Munoz lost his head completely, just before the break, picking up a second yellow card, after landing an elbow on Manuel Ugarte.

It was a moment of madness which left Colombia to defend their lead with just 10 men for the entire second half.

Colombia coach Nestor Lorenzo took off Rodriguez, who was also on a yellow card, in the 62nd minute as Uruguay gradually began to turn their numerical advantage into real pressure.

Nicolas de la Cruz threatened with a low drive before substitute Luis Suarez clipped the outside of the post with a drive from the edge of the box after good work from Federico Valverde.

Valverde, the Real Madrid midfielder, then went close himself with a low drive as Colombia’s back-line continued to ride their luck.

Giveaway from Uruguay keeper and fell to Mateus Uribe, who despite time and space placed his shot wide of the post.

In stoppage time Uruguay had a great chance to force penalties when Nunez laid the ball off to substitute Giorgian de Arrascaeta on the edge of the box but he leaned back and put his shot over the bar.

There was still time for Uribe to waste another chance to make sure of the win, this time hitting the bar in the final minute, but he will be forgiven his wastefulness by the delirious Colombian supporters.

The celebrations were marred by ugly scenes in the stands will concern organizers CONMEBOL ahead of a final which is sure to attract huge numbers of Argentines as well as Colombians.

Bogota:

Colombia’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday annulled a controversial carbon credit deal in the Amazon rainforest, which six local tribes said had been signed without their consent.

Indigenous communities living in the remote area of Pira Parana had accused US-based Ruby Canyon Environmental and Colombian company Masbosques, which acted as an intermediary, of illegally foisting the deal on them.

Carbon credits are bought by corporations — or countries under certain conditions — from forest preservation or other projects to offset or “compensate” their greenhouse gas emissions.

This money is supposed to go to local communities that protect their home regions from deforestation.

In Pira Parana, the credits — also known as green bonds — were sold for about $3.8 million to a Colombian data processing firm called Latin Checkout.

According to EcoRegistry, which keeps tabs on carbon credit trading, Latin Checkout then sold the credits to US airline Delta which faces a lawsuit at home for alleged “greenwashing” by claiming to be carbon-neutral while purchasing questionable carbon offsets.

The deal, signed in March 2021, was for the Indigenous communities to preserve an area of 7,100 square kilometers (2,741 miles) — close to the size of Puerto Rico.

But the tribes said the deal was signed with false representatives of their communities.

They went to court claiming violations of their rights to territorial autonomy and self-government.

On Monday, the court ordered the tribes’ legitimate representatives to meet and decide within six months whether to authorize a new agreement.

If they do not, authorities must “ensure” the carbon credit project “is no longer carried out in the territory,” the judges ruled.

The concept behind carbon credits has taken a major hit recently as scientific research has repeatedly shown claims of reduced emissions being hugely overestimated — or even nonexistent.

In late 2023, AFP walked, motor-boated and overflew part of the Pira Parana territory, an area so remote it is accessible only by million-dollar private flights or a boat trip of at least six days from the nearest city of Mitu.

There, local leaders said they wished they had never heard of the deal.

While it brought an economic “bonanza,” it also led to conflict in communities unaccustomed to handling large sums of money and a loss of Indigenous autonomy, they said.

The project “contaminates spiritually, physically, it destroys everything… in this territory, for money,” Indigenous leader Fabio Valencia said at the time.

Some experts have said there was no real deforestation threat in the area and therefore no emissions “savings” to be made.

The Constitutional Court case was the first of its kind in Colombia.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Colombia came from behind to grab a 1-1 draw with Brazil on Tuesday, ensuring their qualification to the Copa America quarter-finals as group winners. An equalizer from Daniel Munoz in first half stoppage time was enough to earn Colombia a share of the spoils after Raphinha had fired Brazil into the lead with a sublime 12th-minute free-kick at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. The result means Colombia advance to the knockout rounds as winners of Group D, where they will face Group C runners-up Panama in Glendale, Arizona, on Saturday.

But Tuesday’s draw means Brazil will face a titanic showdown in Las Vegas on Saturday against arch-rivals Uruguay, winners of Group D with a perfect record.

Brazil goalscorer Raphinha insisted the five-time world champions would be unfazed at the prospect of playing Uruguay.  

“Our team is evolving with each game, with each training session and we think we’re on the right track,” Raphinha said.

“Unfortunately it wasn’t the result we wanted, and it wasn’t the position that we wanted to qualify for the quarter-finals in.

“But whoever wants to be champion shouldn’t be worrying about who they play in the next round; we have to be prepared for anyone.

“If we want to win this competition we have to be prepared to play our best.”

Vinicius Jr out

Brazil will head into the quarter-finals without Real Madrid star Vinicius Jr, who picked up his second yellow card of the tournament for a reckless early foul on James Rodriguez on Tuesday.

Colombia playmaker Rodriguez had alarm bells ringing amongst Brazil fans from the ensuing free-kick, just clipping the top of the bar with goalkeeper Alisson beaten.

But although Colombia made the smoother start it was Brazil who took the lead after 12 minutes, with Raphinha curling a sensational free-kick into the top corner to make it 1-0.

Colombia however continued to threaten, Rodriguez volleying over the bar on the turn after 16 minutes. 

Rodriguez thought he had set up Colombia’s equalizer three minutes later, supplying a pinpoint cross from a free-kick on the right for Davinson Sanchez to home.

The goal was ruled out for offside after a VAR review.

Tempers threatened to boil over midway through the first half, and Venezuelan referee Jesus Valenzuela issued three yellow cards in quick succession to Colombia’s Deiver Machado and Jefferson Lerma along with Brazil’s Joao Gomes.

Colombia looked the more assured side throughout the first half and in stoppage time their slick play got its reward, with Crystal Palace wing back Munoz blasting home after being released by a superb pass from veteran forward Jhon Cordoba.

Colombia — who have now gone 26 international games unbeaten since a defeat to Argentina in early 2022 — looked comfortable through the second half and should have wrapped up victory in the final minutes only for substitute Rafael Borre to shoot over from eight yards with the goal gaping.

In Tuesday’s other Group D game Costa Rica defeated Paraguay 2-1 in Austin to finish in third place.

Colombia marched into the quarter-finals of the Copa America on Friday with a confident 3-0 victory over Costa Rica in Arizona. Goals from Luis Diaz, Davinson Sanchez and Jhon Cordoba sealed all three points for the Colombians, who are now guaranteed a top-two finish in Group D. Colombia will qualify for the quarter-finals as group winners if they can secure at least a point against Brazil — a 4-1 winner over Paraguay in Friday’s other Copa contest — in their final group game next Tuesday.

The Colombians will head into that game brimming with confidence after extending their unbeaten streak to 25 games at Glendale’s State Farm Stadium on Friday.

Nestor Lorenzo’s well-organised side have not lost since a defeat to Argentina in February 2022, and never looked in danger of changing that Friday.

Liverpool star Diaz opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the 31st minute after Costa Rica goalkeeper Patrick Sequeira inexplicably crashed into Cordoba on the edge of the area.

Diaz stepped up to smash an emphatic spot-kick into the top corner.

Colombia almost doubled their tally on 37 minutes, with veteran midfielder James Rodriguez picking out Diaz at the back post.

Diaz poked a cross into the six-yard area but center-back Sanchez just couldn’t get a touch to guide the ball into the net.

Sanchez made no such mistake in the 59th minute, however, as he glanced in Jhon Arias’s cross from the left to make it 2-0.

Cordoba then grabbed Colombia’s third on 62 minutes with the best goal of the game.

An exquisite through ball from Rodriguez split the Costa Rica defence and sent Cordoba racing in on goal, with the 31-year-old whipping a shot across goal into the far corner.

Brazil winner in Vegas

In Las Vegas, the Brazilians — coming off a 0-0 draw with Costa Rica — jumped to a 3-0 halftime edge over Paraguay on the way to victory after squandering a golden chance to open the scoring.

Paraguay’s Adrian Cubas, who would receive a red card in the 81st minute, committed a foul in the penalty area, but Brazil’s Lucas Paqueta missed from the spot in the 31st minute.

But Paqueta delivered an assist to set up Vincius Junior’s goal in the 35th minute that gave Brazil a 1-0 lead.

Savinho doubled Brazil’s lead with a goal in the 43rd minute and Vincius Junior gave Brazil a 3-0 half-time lead in the fifth minute of stoppage time, racing in behind the play and delivering a right-footed shot just inside the left post.

Paraguay answered in the 48th minute on a goal by Omar Alderete but Paqueta scored on a redemption penalty kick in the 65th minute for a 4-1 Brazil lead and that’s how it finished.

James Rodriguez rolled back the years with a vintage performance to help Colombia open their Copa America campaign with a 2-1 victory over Paraguay in Houston on Monday. Rodriguez, whose club career has languished in the decade since he rose to prominence with a dazzling performance at the 2014 World Cup, created both of his team’s goals in a deserved Group D victory at the NRG Stadium. The 32-year-old midfielder, who has played just a handful of minutes for Brazilian club Sao Paulo in the two months leading into the Copa America, set up the opening goal for Colombia in the 32nd minute.

After finding space on the left flank, Rodriguez flighted a pinpoint cross to the far post to pick out Daniel Munoz, who beat Paraguay goalkeeper Rodrigo Morinigo with a firm downward header to make it 1-0.

Ten minutes later Colombia doubled their lead and again it was a goal engineered by the trusty left boot of Rodriguez.

This time the goal arrived from the opposite flank, with Rodriguez swinging in a wicked free-kick that was glanced in by Crystal Palace midfielder Jefferson Lerma.

That made it 2-0 at half-time to leave Colombia firmly on course to extend their unbeaten streak to 24 games.

Colombia continued to carve out the better chances in the second half, but Paraguay set up a nervy finish after Brighton and Hove Albion’s Julio Enciso pulled one back in the 69th minute.

Ramon Sosa crossed from the left and Enciso punished slack marking in the Colombia area to hook an angled first-time volley into the bottom corner past Camilo Vargas.

Colombia, however, controlled play after the Paraguay goal and looked the more threatening team.

How may I assist you? pic.twitter.com/xlDE0FrTnF

— CONMEBOL Copa AmericaENG (@copaamerica_ENG) June 25, 2024

The Colombians thought they had earned a penalty in the 84th minute when another teasing Rodriguez cross into the box ended with defender Yerry Mina appearing to be hauled down by Gustavo Velazquez.

Argentinian referee Dario Herrera pointed to the spot but subsequently overturned the decision after a VAR review.

Colombia play Costa Rica in their second group game of the tournament on Friday, before wrapping up their first round campaign against Brazil on July 2.

Brazil open their Copa America campaign against the Costa Ricans in Inglewood, California, later on Monday.

Bogot, Colombia:

Three people died, including a policeman, and eight others were wounded in a car bombing in a region of Colombia where a leftist rebel group remains active, officials said Saturday.

“An explosive charge placed in a private vehicle was detonated, causing the death of police officer Santiago Moreno Rios along with a shopkeeper and a man,” the country’s defense ministry said on social network X.

El atentado terrorista en Taminango, Nariño, fue perpetrado por el frente ‘Franco Benavides’, bajo el mando de alias ‘Mata’, del autodenominado Estado Mayor Central.

Se ofrece una recompensa de hasta 50 millones de pesos por información que dé con la captura de los responsables… pic.twitter.com/OmrUZGkI9y

— Mindefensa (@mindefensa) June 22, 2024

It said two other officers and six civilians were wounded in the Friday explosion in the southwestern Narino department.

The incident occurred in a region where a FARC dissident group called Estado Mayor Central (EMC) operates, according to authorities.

The EMC and Segunda Marquetalia are two splinter groups that refused to disarm when the FARC — the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, once the most powerful guerrilla organization on the continent — signed a peace deal in 2016.

Friday’s attack came the same day rebels in the Cesar department killed one policeman and wounded another.

President Gustavo Petro expressed solidarity with the families of victims of both attacks and said “those who choose the path of war over peace will continue to face the full weight of the law.”

The attacks come ahead of negotiations on Monday in Caracas between the Colombian government and representatives of Segunda Marquetalia.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Bogota:

President Gustavo Petro said Wednesday that Colombia will sever diplomatic ties with Israel, whose leader he described as “genocidal” in its war in Gaza.

“Tomorrow (Thursday) diplomatic relations with the state of Israel will be severed… for having a genocidal president,” Petro told a May Day rally in Bogota — referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Petro has been a harsh critic of the assault on Gaza that followed an unprecedented Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, resulting in the deaths of some 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.

Hamas militants also took about 250 hostages, 129 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 Israel says are presumed dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,568 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

On Wednesday, Petro told thousands of supporters that the world cannot accept “genocide, the extermination of an entire people.”

“If Palestine dies, humanity dies,” he said to loud applause from the crowd, some of whom flew pro-Palestinian banners.

Israel responded by describing Petro as “anti-Semitic and hateful” and saying his stance amounted to handing a reward to Hamas.

“The Colombian president has promised to reward Hamas murderers and rapists — and today he delivered,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on X.

“History will remember that Gustavo Petro decided to stand by the most despicable monsters humanity has known, who burned babies, murdered children, raped women and kidnapped innocent civilians,” Katz added.

– ‘Fueling anti-Semitism’ –

In October, days after the start of the war, Israel announced it was “halting security exports” to Colombia after Petro accused Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of using language about the people of Gaza similar to what the “Nazis said of the Jews.”

Israel at the time accused Petro of “expressing support for the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists, fueling anti-Semitism,” and summoned Colombia’s ambassador.

Bogota subsequently demanded that Israel’s envoy leave the South American country.

Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, has also asserted that “democratic peoples cannot allow Nazism to reestablish itself in international politics.”

In February, he suspended Israeli weapons purchases after dozens of people died in a scramble for food aid in the war-torn Palestinian territory — an event he said was “called genocide and recalls the Holocaust.”

Colombia’s armed forces, engaged in a decades-long conflict with leftist guerrillas, rightwing paramilitaries and drug cartels, use Israeli-made weapons and aircraft.

The country has a history of strong diplomatic and military relations with Israel and the United States.

Petro had come out in support of Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who also drew the ire of Israel by saying its Gaza campaign “isn’t a war, it’s a genocide.”

Colombia and Brazil supported South Africa’s complaint against Israel to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, alleging the Gaza assault amounted to a breach of the Genocide Convention.

Colombian May Day demonstrator Sandra Gutierrez, a 38-year-old teacher, welcomed her president’s announcement Wednesday.

“One cannot be an accomplice of the murderers,” she told AFP on the Plaza Bolivar square.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Bogot:

Nine Colombian soldiers died Monday when their helicopter crashed in the northern Bolivar department, where the military is battling the biggest cocaine cartel, authorities said.

The crash happened as the helicopter was delivering new troops for operations against the Gulf Clan, President Gustavo Petro said on X.

Neither Petro nor the military mentioned the cause of the crash of the Russian-made Mi-17 helicopter or whether the Clan, with some 4,000 armed fighters, had anything to do with it.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A man accused of killing his girlfriend told a court in Colombian capital of Bogota that he remembers stuffing the woman’s body in a suitcase and throwing it in a garbage bin, but couldn’t recall strangling her while high on drugs. Thirty six-year-old John Poulos from Texas described the moment he woke up next to 23-year-old Valentina Trespalacios in bed next to him, with a zip tie the couple had used as sex toy tightened around her neck, as per CBS58. Trespalacios was found dead in January 2023.

“I tried to wake up Valentina, and she didn’t respond. When I initially saw her, I knew right away that something was wrong. She was very pale,” Poulos told the court.

“I just completely broke down. This was a girl that I loved,” he added.

As per New York Post, they met on a dating app in 2022 and their romance continued for nine months before he went to Colombia to meet Trespalacios and marry her.

She was 13 years younger to Poulos.

“I loved her. So, imagine killing someone that you loved,” he told the court.

The man said he did drugs with Trespalacios and used alcohol to wash it down. But on January 22, 2023, the routine gave him a bad reaction and impaired both his judgement and memory.

“I’d never done drugs before I met Valentina. My guess is what happened, I was in a drug-induced, alcohol-induced… I wasn’t completely lucid at that time, and I don’t know if I did it, I don’t know if she did it,” the 36-year-old said.

He did admit to disposing of his girlfriend’s body and running away, which he blamed on his panicked state.

Her body was discovered by a homeless man near Bogota’s main airport who alerted the police.

An autopsy found that Trespalacios died from “mechanical asphyxia,” or “strangulation”, the Post said, citing a report from The City Paper Bogota.

Poulos pleaded before the court to not send him to prison, claiming that he will be “killed there”. He was arrested from Panama while trying to board a flight to Turkey.