BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia’s top administrative court on Friday began hearings that could be long and contentious about proposals to drill for oil using the technique known as fracking, hailed for sharply boosting supplies but criticized for causing environmental damage.

Demonstrators take part in a protest against the use of fracking, in Bogota, Colombia June 7, 2019. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

The public hearings in the Council of State, which is tasked with ruling on administrative matters, stem from a decision made late last year to temporarily suspend regulations for development of non-conventional oil deposits.

Fracking is not yet in use in Colombia. While there is no law against the practice, the government says regulations are needed before it can be used. Its possible use has sparked vitriolic debate among lawmakers, activists, officials and regular citizens about whether it could cause pollution or other environmental harms.

“We consider this high-impact litigation,” Magistrate Ramiro Pazos told Reuters after the largely procedural hearing. “It’s an issue of extreme importance for the country.”

Six magistrates could rule next month on whether the suspension should continue, Pazos said, while evidence gathering on whether fracking should go ahead will take until the end of the year.

The next hearing, which will include witness testimony, is scheduled for July.

The tribunal’s decision to suspend the regulations came after environmental lawyer Esteban Lagos, with support from the Universidad del Norte college, anti-fracking activists and a leftist lawmaker, filed a suit against the energy ministry to halt potential use of the technique.

Lagos, representing himself, said he was optimistic about the process.

State-run oil company Ecopetrol is acting as a co-defendant and asked the court to lift the suspension measure so a fracking pilot project can proceed.

The company has applied for several fracking licenses and is looking to spend $500 million on exploring unconventional deposits over the next three years.

Hundreds of activists gathered outside the court building to protest fracking - one of 70 marches set to take place around the country on Friday.

Fracking could nearly triple Colombia’s reserves of crude and gas, the government has said.

Hydraulic fracturing breaks up rock formations with pressurized liquid. Its use is credited for booming oil and gas production in the United States, but environmental activists have blamed it for water pollution and earthquakes.

An expert commission convened by the government to study fracking recommended strict monitoring of three pilot projects to determine whether the technique should be widely used.

Three commission members will be able to testify in the case, Pazos ruled. </s> BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombians are voting Sunday in a first-of-a-kind referendum that aims to curb corruption in a country where white-collar criminals are fast replacing drug gangs and paramilitary groups in penetrating the upper echelons of power.

The referendum seeks to slash the salaries of Colombia's Congress members and to bring laws that make public spending more efficient and transparent.

But while most Colombians agree that corruption is a plague that needs to be exterminated, some believe putting it to a vote is not the best way to do so.

The referendum has been boycotted by Colombia's judges over fears it will lead to wage cuts in the judicial branch since a law states that salaries for top magistrates should be the same as those of Congress members.

"We already have lots of anti-corruption laws," said Hermens Lara, a Bogota municipal judge who is director of the Board of Judges and Magistrates of Colombia. "The problem is implementing them."

Newly elected President Ivan Duque and most of Colombia's main political parties say they back the measure, but they have done little to promote it or to lure voters to the polls.

Voters on Sunday will be asked seven questions that include whether to hand down tougher penalties on corrupt officials who now often serve out sentences in multi-million dollar homes; whether term limits should be imposed on lawmakers, and whether the salaries of members of Congress should be reduced by 40 percent.

Colombian law currently sets senators' salaries at about $124,000 per year, more than what parliamentarians make in countries like Holland, Sweden and France.

The measures focus on Congress and some experts question whether the changes would do anything to curb corruption elsewhere, such as within the judiciary or police.

"Some of the proposals have no impact on corruption," says Marcela Anzola, a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank. Still she said that passage would "give greater legitimacy to anti-corruption initiatives and send a strong message to politicians."

According to Colombia's inspector general, corruption in the country is equivalent to 4 percent of gross domestic product each year. One recent study by Transparency International found that 63 percent of companies in Colombia feared losing business if they did not engage in bribery.

That face of corruption in Colombia marks a stark change from the days when cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar was elected to Congress and his rivals in the Cali Cartel helped elect a president. Just a little over a decade ago, scores of congressional members were also charged or investigated for ties to right-wing paramilitary groups.

But today, experts say the biggest threat comes from white-collar criminals.

One example is the expansion of an oil refinery in Cartagena, which ended up costing more than double its projected $3.3 billion price tag due to what authorities described as mismanagement and graft by officials who were in cahoots with contractors.

The referendum would give Colombia's Congress a year to pass legislation implementing the proposals or force Duque to do so by decree.

Getting the minimum number of votes to make the results binding, however, is a tall order.

The measures need approval from 12 million voters — or roughly a third of the 36 million registered voters. Turnout in the country's recent presidential election barely reached 50 percent, while a 2016 referendum on a peace deal with leftist rebels to end a half century of fighting barely drew 13 million votes.

Campaigning for the referendum has been spearheaded by Claudia Lopez, a former senator and vice presidential candidate for the center-left Green Party.

Lopez said she began to push for the referendum after Congress repeatedly rejected anti-corruption bills that her party had proposed.

"Corrupt politicians will never vote to place limits on themselves," Lopez told The Associated Press. "That's why this referendum is the best tool we have to tackle corruption."

Lopez and her supporters have tried to overcome voter apathy with the help of a famous satirist, recording a campaign video that shows Lopez and a handful of middle-aged congressmen dressed up as reggaeton singers who riff that corruption is the "cancer of Colombia" and must be stopped.

Julian Ramirez, an 18-year-old political science student in Bogota, said he has been campaigning for the anti-corruption referendum since last year, when activists collected 4 million signatures to get officials to fund the vote.

"Fighting corruption should be something we can all unite under," Ramirez said as he walked around a central Bogota neighborhood handing out flyers. </s> Fracking for shale gas is under way in Lancashire amid protests against the controversial process.

Energy firm Cuadrilla started hydraulic fracturing at the site in Little Plumpton earlier, with the work set to continue for three months.

A High Court appeal to stop the fracking was unsuccessful on Friday.

The work marks the first time fracking has taken place in the UK since 2011, when the process was halted after it caused two small earthquakes in Lancashire.

Police closed off the site earlier as around 50 protesters gathered before the start of the fracking.

A team had to cut a man and woman out of a set of tyres which they had apparently cemented their arms into.

One activist sat on top of a van outside the site with a banner which read "Stop the Start" while another lay down in front of railings.

Protester Ginette Evans, 60, from Fleetwood, said: "We'll be monitoring the site 24 hours a day.

"It is definitely not over, it has just got serious.

"The fight's just really started."

Justin Vanparys, 47, from Blackburn, said: "Fossil fuels should stay in the ground.

"We have already got global warming."

Ms Evans said the there was a mood of disappointment among protesters, and added: "I'm gutted really.

"It's such a dangerous industry and it shouldn't be here."

He said activists had not been listened to but added: "That just makes you come back even stronger."

The work had been due to start on Saturday but was delayed by the effects of Storm Callum.

A spokesman for the energy firm said: "Cuadrilla is pleased to confirm that it has started hydraulic fracturing operations at our Preston New Road shale gas exploration site.

"Hydraulic fracturing of both horizontal exploration wells is expected to last three months after which the flow rate of the gas will be tested."

The environmental campaigner Bob Dennett failed in a bid to temporarily stop the work at the High Court in London on Friday.

Mr Justice Supperstone dismissed Mr Dennett's application for an injunction, which would have prevented the company from fracking pending his proposed legal challenge.

Mr Dennett claimed Lancashire County Council's emergency response planning and procedures at the site were inadequate, but the judge ruled there was not a "serious issue" to be tried which would justify an interim order.

The fracking is under way as the UK Government kicks off its first Green GB Week initiative to highlight the green economy.

It comes after a UN report warned of the urgent need to cut emissions to avoid dangerous climate change, and that carbon from electricity, heating homes, transport, industry and land use must reach net zero by 2050. </s> Image copyright EPA Image caption The court's original ruling had sparked new protests against the government

The Venezuelan Supreme Court has reversed its ruling to strip congress of its legislative powers.

It made the decision after the government of President Nicolas Maduro urged it to review the ruling "to maintain institutional stability".

The initial decision - announced on Wednesday - had been denounced as a "coup" by the opposition, which dominates the National Assembly.

Anti-government protesters have staged daily protests against the move.

The supreme court announced the reversal on its website.

A day earlier, chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega, an ally of President Nicolas Maduro, became the first high-ranking official to criticise the judges.

Speaking live on TV, she expressed "great concern" about a measure which, she said, violated the constitution.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption The opposition says Mr Maduro is turning Venezuela into a dictatorship

Promising dialogue to end the crisis, Mr Maduro had convened a late-night meeting of the state security council.

Afterwards Vice-President Tareck El Aissami said: "We urge the supreme court to review the decisions... in order to maintain institutional stability and the balance of powers."

Mr Maduro said: "This controversy has been overcome, showing the power of dialogue."

How did the dispute start?

In its original ruling, the supreme court had annulled the powers of the assembly, allowing the judges to write laws.

The court had accused lawmakers of "contempt" after allegations of irregularities by three opposition lawmakers during the 2015 elections.

The court has backed the leftist president in his ongoing struggles with the legislature. On Tuesday it removed parliamentary immunity from the assembly's members.

There has been widespread international condemnation, with the Organisation of American States talking of the "final blow to democracy" in Venezuela.

Why the reversal? By Will Grant, BBC News, Havana

It seems that a combination of internal and external pressures forced President Maduro's hand.

Inside Venezuela, the opposition's outcry was to be expected. However the sight of the normally loyal Attorney General, Luisa Ortega, openly criticising the move as unconstitutional was for many observers a turning point, and perhaps evidence of a wider split within "Chavismo".

Externally too, the response was very robust. Cuba, arguably Venezuela's staunchest ally, has been unwavering in its support. The Organization of American States held a special meeting in which other allies of Venezuela also lent their support to Mr Maduro. However, Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and others called for cooler heads to prevail and for a return to the democratic order.

In the end, it seems President Maduro may have decided that the supreme court's move was a step too far politically and hoped to avoid a repeat of the massive street protests which have led to violence in the past.

Perhaps even the election this weekend in Ecuador played a role. The race in the Andean nation is very tight and it can't have helped President Rafael Correa, as a close friend to Venezuela, to have to support a move that was being billed by some as a "self-coup" in the days before a presidential election.

Tensions have been high in Venezuela because the country has been engulfed in a severe economic crisis.

It has the world's highest inflation rate, which the International Monetary Fund predicts could reach 1,660% next year. Long queues, power cuts and shortages of basic goods are common.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Mr Maduro blames the difficulties on an "economic war" waged by his rivals

The government and opposition blame each other for the country's problems, made worse by the falling price of oil, Venezuela's main export product.

President Maduro has become increasingly unpopular and the opposition has called for his removal.

Correction 25 April 2017: This article has been amended to clarify that the OAS held a special, rather than an emergency, meeting and that Cuba's support was unrelated to that meeting. </s> "We celebrate the decision of the @CConstitutional (Constitutional Court) to prohibit sport hunting in Colombia," the Environment Ministry wrote on Twitter.

The court, charged with protecting the constitution, ruled late Wednesday in favor of a suit filed by activist-lawyer Laura Santacoloma. She sought to have sport hunting outlawed as environmentally negative in the country that boasts the world's second-greatest biodiversity, after Brazil.

"It is not constitutionally allowable to kill or mistreat animals for the sole purpose of recreation," magistrate Antonio Jose Lizarazo told a news conference explaining the sentence.

Lizarazo said that the ruling considers sport hunting "incompatible" with the Constitution's mandate to protect the environment.

Plaintiff Santacoloma highlighted the "message" sent by the Court with the ruling.

"The purpose behind killing an animal for fun or for obtaining food is different; in the end you see compassion, respect and care ... Animals are not things, they are beings with feelings," he told RCN Radio.

The Court's ruling will take effect one year from Wednesday so that the authorities and individuals who currently have some kind of relationship with this practice can take the necessary measures to adapt to the ban, Lizarazo said.

Until now, Colombia allowed sport hunting in certain places, and with prior authorization from the authorities.

Explore further: US Supreme Court takes on tribal rights, treaties and elk hunting </s> * Proposed bill being debated as peace talks take place in Cuba

Nov 27 The United Nations warned on Tuesday that a proposed constitutional reform in Colombia could lead to soldiers and police being let off the hook for alleged war crimes committed during the country's long-running conflict.

The office of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called on President Juan Manuel Santos and the head of Congress Roy Barreras to "reconsider" their support for the reform.

The proposed changes to the military justice system come amid peace talks with FARC rebels aimed at ending five decades of war, in which tens of thousands of people have died and millions have been displaced.

"If adopted, this reform would seriously undermine previous efforts undertaken by the Colombian government to ensure that human rights violations, allegedly committed by members of the Colombian military and police forces, are duly investigated and perpetrators held to account," U.N. rights spokeswoman Cecile Pouilly told a news briefing in Geneva.

Under the proposed bill, war crimes and arbitrary detention carried out by the army or police would be tried in military courts. Determination of the crimes would be handled by a military body, "with the consequent risk of impunity", she said.

Crimes against humanity and most gross violations would be excluded from the military criminal jurisdiction, she said.

But a preliminary investigation phase, essential for clarifying facts and identifying suspects, would be conducted by military or police criminal justice institutions, rather than an independent evaluation by competent judicial authorities.

Independent U.N. rights investigators, who report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, warned last month that military and police forces suspected of war crimes could escape prosecution under the proposed constitutional reforms.

"Noting that this bill comes at a time when the government and the FARC guerrillas are in the middle of peace negotiations, we wish to stress that transitional justice mechanisms are available for Colombia to address the serious human rights and humanitarian law violations that occurred and continue occurring during the internal armed conflict," Pouilly said.

"Only justice can bring true peace and reconciliation." (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Jason Webb) </s> Protesters have gathered near a shale gas exploration site in northwestern England, as fracking began in the UK for the first time since 2011, AP reported. Hydraulic fracturing had been stalled in the country after two earthquakes in the same area led to legal challenges. Last week, environmental campaigners failed in Britain’s High Court to keep the work in Lancashire from proceeding. Energy firm Cuadrilla said on Monday that it was “pleased to confirm that it has started hydraulic fracturing operations at our Preston New Road shale gas exploration site.” The company plans to drill at two horizontal exploration wells for about three months. Demonstrators say they’ll monitor the site around the clock. </s> MADRID (AP) - A judge in Andorra has charged 28 people, including former officials in Venezuela, with money laundering offenses over a kickbacks-for-contracts scheme that plundered $2 billion from the Venezuelan state oil company between 2007 and 2012.

Investigating magistrate Canolic Mingorance issued the indictments on Thursday, wrapping up a five-year investigation into opaque deposits in the Banca Privada d'Andorra, or BPA, according to court documents seen by The Associated Press.

Among those accused are nine people from Andorra, five from Spain and 14 Venezuelans, including former deputy ministers Nervis Villalobos and Javier Alvarado, as well as Luis Carlos de Leon-Perez, a former official at a state-run electric company in Caracas.

The judge places Diego Salazar, the high-powered cousin of Venezuela's longtime oil czar Rafael Ramirez, at the top of the alleged scheme.

Ramirez, a close aide of late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, was energy minister and ran Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, from 2004 to 2013, before becoming Venezuela's envoy to the United Nations until last year, when he fell out with the country's current leadership, resigned and went into hiding.

The Andorran judge says the group received illegal payments from companies, many of them from China, that were rewarded with contracts related to the oil industry. The Andorra-based bank's management then hid the profits in shell companies in various countries, but the money was eventually made available in BPA accounts.

The group "joined forces to control the public bids of PDVSA and the construction of energy-related infrastructure" contracted by the company and its affiliates, the judge wrote in the indictment. She added that its members were so close to "the circles of power of the state" that some of them were informed when early notices of the investigation were shared with Venezuela by Interpol.

In 2015, Andorra intervened in the private bank after the United States Treasury Department accused it of laundering money from groups in China, Russia and Venezuela.

Since then, the tiny mountainous country of 75,000 has taken steps to shake off its reputation as a tax haven, scrapping bank secrecy laws and passing legislation to meet international standards.

The Diari d'Andorra, a local newspaper, said that none of the Venezuelans indicted in the case showed up on Thursday in the capital, Andorra La Vella, to receive the court's notice.

De Leon has pleaded guilty to money laundering and other charges in the U.S., where judicial authorities are also investigating the bribery scheme within and around PDVSA. A court in Houston is scheduled to deliver a sentence later this month.

Spain agreed to extradite Villalobos as part of the same case, but Ramirez's former deputy at PDVSA can't be sent to the U.S. until he is tried by Spanish courts in two separate cases.

Alvarado's whereabouts is not known, while Salazar has been in pre-trial detention in Venezuela since the country's top prosecutor there ordered his arrest late last year. </s> CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the arrest of opposition leader Julio Borges, the former president of Congress, for allegedly plotting to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro with exploding drones at a rally over the weekend.

Maduro said in a broadcast on Tuesday night that Borges was living in neighboring Colombia.
Colombia’s top administrative court begins hearings on proposals to drill for oil using the technique known as fracking.