LATAM POLITICS TODAY-Fifty one dead in prison riot in Colombia

"There was a situation, apparently a riot, the prisoners lit some mattresses and a conflagration occurred." Castellanos later confirmed that 51 people had died - 49 in the prison and two after being taken to hospital. Mexican president will meet with Biden on July 12 MEXICO CITY - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday he will meet with his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden in Washington on July 12. Speaking at a news conference, Lopez Obrador said migration would be at the center of their discussions.

The latest in Latin American politics today:

At least 51 dead in prison riot fire in Colombia, prisons agency says BOGOTA - At least 51 prisoners died after a fire started during a prison riot in the southwestern Colombian city of Tulua, the head of the national prisons agency said on Tuesday, one of the worst incidents of recent prison violence in the country.

"It is a tragic and disastrous event," General Tito Castellanos, director of the INPEC prison agency, told local Caracol Radio early on Tuesday. "There was a situation, apparently a riot, the prisoners lit some mattresses and a conflagration occurred." Castellanos later confirmed that 51 people had died - 49 in the prison and two after being taken to hospital.

Mexican president will meet with Biden on July 12 MEXICO CITY - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday he will meet with his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden in Washington on July 12.

Speaking at a news conference, Lopez Obrador said migration would be at the center of their discussions. He announced the date of the meeting after expressing his condolences over the deaths of dozens of migrants found in a truck in Texas. Truth commission delivers final report on Colombia's armed conflict

A truth commission in Colombia will publish its long awaited report into the Andean country's internal armed conflict on Tuesday, shedding light on atrocities committed during almost 60 years of fighting. The commission was established as part of a 2016 peace agreement with the now-demobilized rebel group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which ended the guerrillas' role in the conflict.

Despite the FARC deal, the conflict - which has left some 260,000 dead and millions of displaced peoples - continues across much of Colombia between the ELN rebel group, FARC fighters who reject the accord, crime gangs and the military. Mexican president to open oil refinery far short of completion

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's president will inaugurate on Friday a new oil refinery at the heart of his plan to make the country energy self-sufficient even though it is unfinished and two people familiar with the matter said it will only be running near capacity in 2025. In 2019, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Energy Minister Rocio Nahle said the refinery in the southern port of Dos Bocas would be ready in 2022 for $8 billion, in defiance of oil industry predictions that the goal was not feasible.

Lopez Obrador, a left-leaning energy nationalist, last week conceded the refinery would cost more, putting the price tag at some $12 billion. But he emphasized the refinery would be producing gasoline "at full capacity" next year. (Compiled by Steven Grattan Editing by Paul Simao)

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