THE NEW HUMANITARIAN: Venezuelan migrants face rising xenophobia in Latin America →

During her time in Ecuador and Colombia, Adriana Aldana, a 34-year-old Venezuelan, has sold sweets on the street, washed dishes in restaurants, and worked at a tombstone business, where she engraved names and painted religious pictures. 

Aldana, a single mother of three, told The New Humanitarian how she was recently sacked from the engraving job in the Ecuadorian capital because locals who needed work started criticising her employer for taking on Venezuelans, who, desperate for money, tend to work for less.

Adriana Aldana's son sits on her knee in the small room they share between four people in Quito, Ecuador. Photo: Steven Grattan

PUBLIC RADIO INTERNATIONAL: Northern Ireland still divided by peace walls 20 years after conflict →

Frank Brennan vividly recalls the shootings and bombings in Belfast, Northern Ireland, when he was a young man in the early '70s as well as attacks on his own life. 

Brennan, a member of the Irish republican movement, grew up in Short Strand, a staunchly Catholic, working-class neighborhood in predominantly Protestant east Belfast. 

Since the late 1960s, a bloody, 30-year guerrilla war was waged throughout Northern Ireland, leaving over 3,600 dead. Commonly referred to as "the Troubles," this period is defined by the conflict between Catholic republicans and nationalists, and Protestant loyalists and unionists. Catholics aimed to have a united Ireland, while Protestants fought to keep their British allegiance. This still continues today. 

Irish Republican Frank Brennan stands near a peace wall in the Catholic republican Short Strand neighborhood in East Belfast. Credit: Steven Grattan/The World

AL JAZEERA: Ex-FARC woman forced to have abortion granted 'victim status' →

A Colombian Court late on Wednesday granted "victim status" to a former female fighter of the FARC rebel group who faced sexual violence in a historic ruling that rights groups hope will set a precedent and encourage other survivors of sexual violence to come forward.

A woman points towards a place in the mountains where the Revolutionary Armed Forces used to be before the 2016 peace deal [Nacho Doce/Reuters]

PUBLIC RADIO INTERNATIONAL: Photos: Colombia’s Indigenous Guard, defenders of land, the environment and their own lives →

Unions, students and ethnic groups have been protesting for weeks in Bogotá over President Ivan Duque's social and economic policies. In this photo essay, see the demonstrators joined by Colombia’s Indigenous Guard as they mark a third national strike with marches, chants and dancing to demand their rights.

Jose Albeiro Camayo, a member of Colombia's Indigenous Guard. Credit: Steven Grattan/The World

THE ESSENTIAL: Colombia joins regional tide with biggest protests in decades →

In a continent that has been growing increasingly restless, Colombia has become the latest country in which political conflict is erupting, seeing its largest anti-government strikes and street rallies in decades and prompting comparisons with the mass-scale protests seen in Chile and Ecuador. But are these comparisons valid, or do they ignore Colombia’s idiosyncrasies?

Colombians are unhappy with President Ivan Duque's response to nearly a week of protests over a slew of issues including economic reform and corruption [Ivan Valencia/AP Photo]

AL JAZEERA: 'We'll continue until Duque listens': Colombians hold 3rd strike →

Waving flags and beeping horns, tens of thousands of Colombians marched in the country's largest cities on Wednesday, marking two weeks since protests against President Ivan Duque began.

Colombia's Indigenous Guard - the authority responsible for security in indigenous territory across the country - travelled from the violent southwestern Cauca region to express outrage at Duque's government, which was unable to persuade protest organisers to call off this week's demonstrations after failed talks.

A young member of the indigenous guard rides on an open top car, pictured with the indigenous flag from the Huila region. Photo: Steven Grattan

PUBLIC RADIO INTERNATIONAL: This senior center is helping Mexico’s ‘invisible’ LGBTQ seniors →

Gustavo Pérez's memories of growing up as a gay man in Mexico City are scarred by discrimination and struggle.

Still, he said, his youth was a happier time. The 80-year-old has struggled with something even harder in his old age: loneliness.

Pérez often spent several days with no one else to talk to — until a few months ago, when he walked by a rainbow flag in his neighborhood and discovered it was a day center for LGBTQ senior citizens. It has now become his second home.

Samantha Flores, a trans woman, stands at the entrance to the Vida Alegre, a day center for older LGBTQ people in Mexico City that she cofounded. Credit: Steven Grattan/The World

REUTERS: Protests in Colombia spark backlash against Venezuelan migrants →

Daniels Herrera kept quiet on his long walk home from work following violent protests in the Colombian capital Bogota last week, fearful his Venezuelan accent would give him away.

The 26-year-old had arrived in the sprawling city high in the Andes almost two years ago, one of more than a million Venezuelans who have fled crime and an economic meltdown at home to seek refuge in Colombia.

Herrera never expected to feel more unsafe here than in Venezuela, which has one of the highest rates of violent crime in the world, but that changed when violence erupted in Bogota during a nationwide strike and authorities imposed a citywide curfew.

Daniels Herrera from Venezuela gestures as he poses for a photograph after an interview with Reuters in Bogota, Colombia November 28, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

AL JAZEERA: 'Enough is enough': Protests continue into 7th day in Colombia →

Thousands of Colombians took to the streets for the seventh-consecutive day on Wednesday amid anger over economic reforms, to push for an end to corruption, better implementation of a crucial peace deal, and with many demanding the resignation of President Ivan Duque.

Medical student Benjamin Calderon was at the spot in Bogota's main square where 18-year-old Dilan Cruz was hit on Sunday [Steven Grattan/Al Jazeera]

AL JAZEERA: Colombia protests: What prompted them and where are they headed? →

For nearly a week, thousands of Colombians have taken to the streets across the country in some of the largest anti-government protests the country has seen in decades.

What started as a plan for labour unions to strike has since ballooned into more widespread actions by indigenous groups, pensioners and students, among others, against the right-wing government of President Ivan Duque.

A man holds a placard reading 'Duque is not my president' during a protest as a national strike continues in Bogota, Colombia [Carlos Jasso/Reuters]