The adults in María Zenaida Puliche’s house struggle to hold back tears in front of Sofía, who is turning nine. They take turns approaching her and posing for a picture with the strawberry cake. The little girl smiles and hugs her father, her aunts, and her cousins. But not her mother. Daniela Valencia was one of the 22 victims killed in an attack perpetrated by dissidents of the now-defunct FARC on April 25 in Cauca, a region in southwestern Colombia where armed groups have cornered the state and violence lurks every hour of the day. It was the deadliest terrorist attack on civilians in the country since 2003, just a month before the presidential elections.

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No country has been willing to take in Colombia’s hippos, descendants of the four animals that drug trafficker Pablo Escobar illegally brought from Africa in 1981. “The administrative silence tells us there is no interest in receiving them,” Environment Minister Irene Vélez acknowledged on Monday at a press conference.

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