BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A Colombian judge on Monday ordered the nation’s government to protect more than 30 historical artifacts that officials removed from exhibits in Bogota’s National Museum last week, as part of an effort by Colombia’s conservative government to change how the nation’s history is told in museums and schools.
The artifacts were related to the country's social movements and guerrilla fighters, which have led critics to describe the initiative as an attack on leftist movements and sexual minorities.
In a ruling Monday, Bogota judge Cesar Enrique Osorio said that the objects, which include a copy of the first magazine published by Colombia’s LGBTQ+ community and a poster depicting a former guerrilla leader who later became a presidential candidate, should be preserved in a safe place while a ruling is made on whether they should once again be shown to the public.
The judge also ordered officials to refrain from removing any more objects from the museum’s exhibits, alleging that the rights of Colombians to free expression and historical memory could be jeopardized.
The removal of dozens of objects from the national museum’s exhibit halls last Thursday sparked protests outside the historical building over the weekend that lasted several hours and were eventually broken up by riot police.
Feminist groups, left wing activists and members of Bogota’s LGBTQ+ community have accused the government of conservative president Abelardo de la Espriella of trying to erase their constituencies from the nation’s historical record.
On Thursday, de la Espriella gave a speech in the country’s Ministry of Culture, where he urged officials to protect the nation’s heritage and embark on what he described as a cultural battle against “wokeism” and “moral relativism.”
“The extreme left has permeated all facets of society for decades, particularly the cultural and academic spheres,” de la Espriella said. “We have the duty to confront it, exalting the principles that Colombians value.”
The president also argued that the state’s cultural institutions “belong to all Colombians” and could not be used to promote a political doctrine or an “ideological” interpretation of history.
Some of the items removed from the museum’s halls include a pen used to sign the 2016 peace deal between Colombia’s government and the FARC rebels, an agreement that has long been criticized by Colombia’s conservatives for being too lenient with the rebels — and for not stopping new waves of violence in rural areas.
Another item removed was a campaign poster of Carlos Pizarro, a former leader of the M-19, a guerrilla movement that signed a peace agreement with the government in March 1989, in which its leaders were pardoned for kidnappings and other war crimes. Pizarro was assassinated a month later while he was running for Colombia’s presidency.
De la Espriella said last week that Colombia’s cultural entities should not “promote terrorism” or treat members of guerrilla groups “as if they were national heroes.”
Pizarro’s daughter, former Sen. María José Pizarro, said the exhibits at the museum were modified suddenly, without any technical criteria.
“My father is a symbol of rebellion against tyranny,” Pizarro said in a video published on her social media accounts. “We will not allow sexual minorities to be censored in Colombia, and for the memory, the life, of the leaders of the left to be persecuted.”
Follow AP’s Latin America coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
Demonstrators protest against President Abelardo de la Espriella's order to remove exhibits about political violence from the National Museum in Bogota, Colombia, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
A man looks at photocopies of the works that were removed from the National Museum by order of the PresidentPresident Abelardo de la Espriella during a protest in Bogota, Colombia, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Demonstrators protest against President Abelardo de la Espriella's order to remove exhibits about political violence from the National Museum in Bogota, Colombia, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
A Japanese spacecraft rocketed toward Mars on Tuesday on an unprecedented quest to explore its mysterious moons and bring back samples.
Five of the world’s space agencies joined forces for the five-year mission that will attempt to land a robotic prospector plus a rover on Phobos, the larger and closer of Mars’ two pint-sized moons.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, which is leading the bold sampling effort, launched the spacecraft before dawn from the country's main spaceport on Tanegashima Island. Officials declared success an hour later when the spacecraft separated as planned from the rocket's upper stage. Flight controllers burst into applause and jumped to their feet, shaking hands and embracing.
While NASA has successfully landed nine spacecraft on Mars over the past 50 years and China scored a 2021 touchdown, no one has ever ventured onto Phobos or its sidekick Deimos. And no one has managed to fetch samples from Mars, let alone its moons.
If successful, bits of dust, soil and rocks from Phobos will arrive on Earth in 2031.
“There’s a lot of adrenaline and a lot of excitement and a lot of wow,” said NASA astrophysicist Tom Statler, who’s involved with the project.
Japan has an edge going in, with two asteroid sample returns already under its cosmic belt.
Phobos is a lumpy, potato-shaped rock just 14 miles (22 kilometers) or so across. Examining pieces of it can explain how Mars’ moons — and possibly moons elsewhere — came to be.
Dubbed MMX for Martian Moons Exploration, the $578 million mission features a hefty 5-ton spacecraft that should reach Mars by late next summer. It will sync up with Phobos’ tight orbit around the red planet, before ejecting the French-German rover that’s named Idefix after the white terrier in the Asterix comics.
No bigger than a microwave oven, Idefix will plop onto Phobos by itself, bouncing for several minutes before coming to a halt in the moon's extraordinarily low gravity.
The four-wheeled rover is designed to right itself if it lands upside down. All bets are off, though, if it sinks into soft soil or gets wedged between rocks, said the French Space Agency’s Julien Baroukh. Once the rover’s solar panels are deployed, the vehicle can no longer right itself, he added, which is why it will move at a glacial 1 millimeter per second (0.04 inches per second).
Idefix will serve as a “scout for safety,” according to Baroukh, as it prowls around Phobos for 100 days. Japanese flight controllers want to avoid powdery soil and rough terrain when the mothership — a four-legged stationary lander — descends to the surface to gather samples in late 2028 or 2029.
The lander will spend just two hours on Phobos, drilling and vacuuming up at least one-third of an ounce (10 grams) of material, before launching back into space. It will study Deimos during a series of flybys before leaving the Martian neighborhood in 2030 and hustling back to Earth for a 2031 sample delivery in the Australian desert.
It’s a treacherous undertaking, with wreckage littering the path.
The moons’ names aren’t exactly comforting: Phobos is Greek for fear and Deimos means dread. They’re the twin sons of the god of war Ares — Mars in Roman mythology.
Russia stumbled in all three of its Phobos attempts as well as many other Mars endeavors. In its only other Mars mission, Japan failed to get a spacecraft into orbit around the red planet. Even NASA has had its share of flops in a bid to answer the burning question: Did life ever exist on Mars?
By studying Mars’ moons, scientists hope to learn whether Phobos and Deimos formed in the aftermath of an ancient collision between Mars and a battering space rock. It’s also possible that the moons might be stray asteroids that became ensnared in Mars’ gravity.
Either way, scientists anticipate finding traces of Mars on Phobos, making the samples an irresistible two-for-one that should help demystify planetary and moon formation, and perhaps even the recipe for life. The findings will help shape future Mars missions, including those by astronauts, said NASA’s acting planetary science director Lindsay Hays.
“It is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. We are part of the first sample return mission from the Martian system,” said the Germany Space Agency's rover chief Markus Grebenstein.
Japan isn’t the only one looking to claim the scientific riches packed into the Martian system’s rocks and dirt. China plans to launch a sample return mission to Mars in 2028, while NASA is still debating how to retrieve the more than 30 sample tubes collected by the Perseverance Mars rover, the new champion for off-Earth driving.
Japan and China could be neck-and-neck in getting samples back from the Martian system. Both are targeting 2031.
Japan is investing $350 million in this mission. NASA is contributing $87 million, the French Space Agency about $68 million, the German Space Agency about $56 million and the European Space Agency some $17 million.
The Associated Press’ health and science coverage receives financial support from the AP Fund for Journalism and private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org
An H3 rocket lifts off from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima prefecture, southern Japan, Tuesday Oct. 20, 2026. (Naoki Hiraoka/Kyodo News via AP)
An H3 rocket lifts off from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima prefecture, southern Japan, Tuesday Oct. 20, 2026. (Naoki Hiraoka/Kyodo News via AP)
An H3 rocket lifts off from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima prefecture, southern Japan, Tuesday Oct. 20, 2026. (Naoki Hiraoka/Kyodo News via AP)
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency unveils a spacecraft for its Martian Moons eXploration mission at the Tanegashima Space Center in Minamitane, southwestern Japan, Aug. 13, 2026. (Yuika Kawazoe/Kyodo News via AP)
This photo provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona, taken with NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows Phobos, one of Mars' moons, on March 23, 2008. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona via AP)
