By Luis Jaime Acosta BOGOTA/QUITO, March 18 (Reuters) - Explosions in cocaine labs in Colombia near its border with Ecuador killed 14 people in January, Colombia's Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday,

President Gustavo Petro’s political party has emerged victorious in Colombia’s congressional election, but will have to build coalitions with other parties to advance its agenda.

Paloma Valencia’s win in the center-right coalition may reset the race, but the next government will need to build alliances in a fragmented Congress.

Colombians are voting in primaries Sunday that will produce three candidates — one each from the conservative, leftist and centrist blocs — who will go on to face hardline frontrunners Iván Cepeda and Abelardo de la Espriella in May’s presidential election.

Colombia says it is seeking a license from the U.S. Treasury Department to invest in several electricity and natural gas ventures in Venezuela.

Attorney Nikolas De Bremaeker said deaf 6-year-old boy Joseph Lodano Rodriguez, who was snatched from Northern California and deported to Colombia earlier this month, needs to be returned to the U.S.

After years spent honing his craft abroad, the Colombian chef is building his Medellín restaurant, Zombra, around a zero-waste philosophy.

Expertos en explosivos de Colombia realizaron el miércoles la detonación controlada de una bomba encontrada en una zona fronteriza con Ecuador luego de que el presidente Gustavo