LatinNews Daily Report - 24 July 2013

POLITICS | Colombia’s ambassador to the US resigns. On 22 July, Carlos Urrutia, the Colombian ambassador to the US, quit.  Urrutia has been under mounting pressure in relation to controversial land sales facilitated by his former law firm, Brigard & Urrutia. While defending the legality of the acquisitions in question, Urrutia said in his resignation letter that he didn’t want his “presence in the embassy to serve as a pretext for disrupting the political discussions” on land reform, a key component of the peace talks currently underway between the government led by President Juan Manuel Santos and the country’s main guerrilla group, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc). Opposition politicians had called for Urrutia to go. Senator Jorge Enrique Robledo of the Polo Democrático on 20 June sent Urrutia a letter calling on him to clarify the acquisition of 40,000 hectares in the Vichada department, in the Orinoquía region.

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