President Barack Obama will be making good use out of Air Force One while he still can. [...] The travel will be aimed at cementing a foreign policy legacy he hopes will include the Trans Pacific Partnership, increased attention to Asia, an opening of Latin America, progress on ISIL and significant global movement on climate change.

As the country's five-decade war winds down, how the government disarms female fighters could define the coming truce. After 50-plus years, 222,000 deaths, $9 billion in U.S. aid, and 34 rounds of negotiations, one of the world’s longest civil wars might finally be nearing its end. Colombia’s president wants an agreement signed within months. Still to be resolved, however, is the question of how to return over 8,000 FARC fighters to civilian life, often within communities that bore the brunt of the violence.

Latin America’s Colombia and Turkey are sharing a mutual fate of ending decades-long conflict in their countries. According to experts, reconciliation in such processes could face obstacles, but with real commitment both sides can solve the problematic issues.

The US government must increase diplomatic and financial support to help Colombia prepare for the possibility of a post-conflict scenario, stated a report published Monday by the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).

President Barack Obama brimmed with optimism after he met with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos in the White House last December. Obama lauded Colombia’s “tremendous progress” over the past decade and praised Santos for his peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). He commended Santos’ efforts on human and labor rights, and hailed the “success” of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

Criminal agendas could represent a critical "blind spot" in attempts to resolve armed conflicts in Latin America, capable of sabotaging negotiations and derailing entire peace processes. Taking these agendas into account in two ongoing peace processes in Latin America could now be the difference between sustainable peace and continued turmoil.

Colombian police reported that 292 cases of kidnapping were registered in 2013, of which 32 could be directly traced to the FARC, despite the rebel group's promise to cease the practice -- a government precondition for peace talks. In February 2012, the rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) announced they would cease the practice of “retentions” (the guerrilla word for kidnapping), which was a government precondition for sitting down and negotiating an end to the 50-year civil conflict.

About the foreign policy being carried out with taxpayer money, in our names: Does the American public want to spend billions of dollars helping Colombia to assassinate the leaders of its leftist insurgency movement (with apparent success, such that the rebel forces are in disarray)? Do Americans want their NSA and CIA directly complicit in a Latin American army's program of assassinations?