Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in Colombia RECAP: Duke and Duchess of Sussex to meet Invictus Games athletes in Bogota

Diana Basto, the CEO of La Giralda School, told the Mirror: 'It was so special for us to have Harry and Meghan come and visit us and the staff and children were all very excited.

'They visited various parts of the school including the memorial museum section where they learned about people who have been killed in previous conflicts in Colombia's history.

'It was emotional for them and from there to the kindergarten and then finally onto the garden where they helped plant two trees.

'There was music and dancing as they went around the school and they joined in with the dancing.

'Then Harry had a go at the punching bag in the gym.'

As the Sussexes toured the school in the Santa Fe district of Bogota, Harry was seen getting into the groove and showing off his dance moves during a musical performance.

The pair spoke in Spanish to a kindergarten class, browsed through student artwork and helped to plant a walnut tree.

Watch it all play out here:

The Sussexes, accompanied by the Vice President, visited the school's gymnasium where pupils learn to take care of both their physical and mental wellbeing.

Harry donned boxing gloves and hit a punching bag in the gym - an exercise that is part of the student's wider programme to learn how to balance their personal wellbeing.

Pupils also showed Harry and Meghan how use meditation to regulate their emotions.

Harry and Meghan have clearly been brushing up on their Spanish skills!

While visiting a kindergarten class and completing puzzles with the youngsters, Meghan was heard saying in Spanish: 'You're the same age as my son Archie!'

Harry also impressed the pupils by asking their names and ages in Spanish.

As the Sussexes moved between classrooms, pupils at La Giralda School presented gifts for Archie, five, and Lilibet, three.

Harry and Meghan will head back to their $14 million Montecito home with Colombian style ponchos as well as numerous pictures and letters in hand.

To celebrate the arrival of Harry and Meghan, the entire school prepared a series of special moments.

Students wore traditional Colombian dress and performed songs with live percussion for the couple.

Walking hand-in-hand with school pupils, The Sussexes went into the school's garden to plant a tree and commemorate their visit.

Harry got his hands dirty using a spade to dig a hole before Meghan helped five-year-old Manuela to plant the walnut tree.

After being greeted by the school’s headmaster Serafin Ordoñez, Harry and Meghan took part in a brief tour of the school - with the country’s Vice President Francis Marquez still by their side.

Their first stop was the school's memorial exhibition where students had set up an art exhibit for the Susssexes to admire.

The artwork is made to honour the resilience of the Colombian people and serve as a tribute to the people who have been killed in conflict - including their own relatives.

Harry and Meghan listened as student's told the stories behind their work before participated in an art session themselves.

One particulalry impressive piece of artwork by a student was titled 'The persistence of memory and the ashes of oblivion'.

By Jessica Green

Meghan Markle proved her fashion prowess once again yesterday as she stepped out in Colombia alongside Prince Harry to begin their four-day tour of the South American nation.

The Duchess of Sussex, 43, wore a £596 collared vest from New York-based brand Veronica Beard.

Looking effortlessly elegant, the mother-of-two teamed her sleeveless, buttoned garment with matching navy, ankle-grazing trousers from the designer, priced at £349.33.

Cinched at the waist to flatter the Duchess' slender figure, the smart ensemble was paired with black Manolo Blahnik high heels and a cream $4,700 handbag from Italian company Loro Piana.

Adding a touch of glitz to her ensemble, the Duchess sported her Lorraine Schwartz 'Against Evil Eye' bracelet, thought to cost a cool £15,011.84 ($18,815).

By Maureen Callahan

This cannot be the victory lap the Sussexes had in mind.

As they touch down in Colombia, embarking on their latest non-royal international visit, the Gruesome Twosome seem more adrift than ever.

Their newly hired chief of staff, veteran public relations expert Josh Kettler, has departed after just three months on the job.

'The decision to part ways was mutual,' a source told People magazine, 'with both sides agreeing it wasn't the right fit.'

Really? If this split was so amicable, why wouldn't Kettler have stayed on long enough to at least see them through this foreign trip, rather than exit days before?

Kettler was, we were told in May, hired to 'guide' Harry 'through his next phase'.

But now he is one of at least 18 Sussex staff who have left their employ since 2018 — the newest member of the 'Sussex Survivors Club', as some of these refugees call themselves.

Harry and Meghan will visit a local school in the crime ridden area of Santa Fe in Bogota - one of Colombia's most nototorious no-go zones.

Colegio La Giralda has 1,400 students between the ages of five and 17.

A heavy police and army presence can be seen outside the school to ensure the couple's safety in a massive ring of steel.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were escorted to the school amid tight security with at least 16 armoured police vehicles.

Much like yesterday, roads have been blocked off and residents forced to take lengthy diversions to get home.

Ensuring the couple's security will be a high priority during their stay in Colombia - which is seen as a high risk destination in parts by UK and US officials.

by Caroline Graham in Los Angeles

When Meghan Markle and Prince Harry touched down in Colombia this week for their second 'quasi royal tour' they will, no doubt, be hoping the trip will boost their image on the world stage.

The Sussexes will began their four-day tour of the crime-ravaged South American country on Thursday and will visit the capital, Bogota, the historical colonial city of Cartagena on the Caribbean coast and Cali – where they will attend a cultural festival.

Arriving at the invitation of Colombian vice president Francia Marquez (the first black woman to hold that job), the faux royal duo will, according to Marquez, 'have the exceptional opportunity to engage with elders, youth and women who embody the aspirations and voices of Colombians... and illuminate Colombia's role as a beacon of culture and innovation'.

The trip will allow Meghan, who celebrated her 43rd birthday last Sunday, to show off her fluent Spanish which she learned at private school in LA and perfected at the US Embassy in Argentina.

But for many Colombians, the Sussexes' visit is viewed as little more than a cynical attempt by a failing Left-wing government to use the glamorous couple as 'political pawns' to divert attention from a series of scandals that have engulfed the regime.

We are yet to see the Duke and Duchess of Sussex today but we understand they will continue to carry out engagements in Bogota with a visit to the school while the couple will also meet Colombia's Invictus Games athletes.

Here are some more pictures from the first day of their visit after they arrived in Bogota.

Royal expert Michael Cole has suggested Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are missing the expertise on foreign trips from Buckingham Palace as he reacted to their first day in Colombia

The former BBC royal correspondent told GB News he believed the Royal Family would have vetoed a trip the South American nation because of its 'volatility'.

Watch the video below:

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by Richard Eden

My first inkling that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex may have trouble holding onto staff came back in 2018 when I received a tip that Meghan’s personal assistant, Melissa Toubati, had quit suddenly, just six months after the American actress had married into the Royal Family.

‘It’s a real shock,’ a source told me at the time. ‘Why would she want to leave such a prestigious job so soon?’

Officials usually decline to discuss staffing matters, so it took me aback when a senior Palace source chose to pay tribute to her publicly.

‘Melissa is a hugely talented person,’ the source said. ‘She played a pivotal role in the success of the royal wedding and will be missed by everyone in the Royal Household.’

by Maria Chiorando

Prince Harry appeared 'keen to avoid pulling royal rank' as he and wife Meghan Markle met Colombia's vice president, according to a body language expert.

Judi James spoke to FEMAIL about photos from the engagement.

She said: 'Harry’s body language on their arrival and as they greet their host suggests some status-lowering as though he is keen to avoid pulling royal rank here.'

Judi suggested that the Duke was purposefully taking a backseat when it came to the spotlight.

'He walks ahead, towing his wife along and allowing her to soak up all the attention with her elegant posture, that designer bag and her perfect, Duchenne smiles and excited eye-smiles, while his own facial expression looks less performative for the cameras,' she explained.

The idea of Harry trying to avoid 'pulling royal rank' also appeared to be present as he greeted the vice president, according to Judi.

This is the moment Prince Harry and Meghan Markle literally got into the swing of their South American visit as they danced with Colombian locals in Bogota.

The couple dropped in to the Center for the Arts in Bogotá where they enjoyed a theatre performance as well as a musical and dance performance at the venue.

See the video below:

The Sussexes are being given a full security detail throughout their visit alongside Ms Marquez.

Besides several police cars and vans, armed soldiers were deployed to protect Harry and Megan in a massive ring of steel in Bogota on Thursday.

Roads were blocked off and residents forced on lengthy detours to reach their homes or wait at checkpoints for events to finish so they could carry on.

Ensuring the couple's security will be a high priority during their stay with Colombia, like Nigeria where the couple visited in May, seen as a high risk destination in parts by UK and US officials.

The Foreign Office warns against all but essential travel to certain parts of Colombia, with kidnapping rates remaining high.

It also describes the country as 'seriously afflicted by conflict' with a resurgence in violence in parts of Colombia despite the peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) movement to end the civil war.

As a result, officials have kept the itinerary a closely guarded secret because parts of the country are described as 'best avoided' due to ongoing internal conflicts.

by Jon Brady

Harry and Meghan's host in Colombia, vice-president Francia Márquez, is a politician unlike most in the Latin American country - and is demanding the West pay for what it did to her ancestors.

Ms Márquez, 42, is the country's first black vice-president and its first minister for equality, who took office in August 2022 more than 160 years after its first black president, Juan José Nieto Gil.

She has said she is among those descended from the legions of Africans who were brought to Colombia as slaves in the 17th Century to work the country's gold mines and sugarcane fields, many of whom still face racist abuse.

And as she invites the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to Colombia in what some have seen as a diversion from her government's domestic problems, she has called for Meghan's home country of the US to lead on forgiving its billions in foreign debt.

Her journey from housekeeper to right-hand woman of the heavily left-leaning former armed revolutionary Gustavo Petro is an extraordinary one - punctuated with as much community campaigning as there is controversy.

Harry and Meghan were invited to Colombia for their quasi royal tour after the country's vice president saw them on Netflix and was 'moved' by their story.

Francia Márquez made the revelation as she briefed media ahead of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's arrival for their four day trip.

They will take on the cities of Bogotá before heading off to Cartagena and Cali as part of a 'cultural and social' visit.

Speaking to media Ms Marquez - who continually referred to the couple as 'Prince Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex', said she asked Meghan to visit Colombia last year, but the visit had been delayed due to other commitments.

Ms Marquez, who has been accused of using helicopters like taxis, was asked by a local journalist why she had invited the couple to Colombia.

She replied: 'I learned their story through Netflix and I was moved by it. Meghan is a woman who deserves to come to the country and tell her story.'

We can bring you footage of Prince Harry's remarks at a a summit on digital responsibility and appeared to blame fake news for sparking the disorder in Southport.

The forum was staged by the Duke's Archewell Foundation.

See the videos below:

The Duke of Sussex attacked misinformation on social media during a summit on digital responsibility and appeared to blame fake news for sparking the disorder in Southport.

What happens online within a matter of minutes transfers to the streets. People are acting on information that isn't true.

He added that a lot of people were 'scared and uncertain 'about the potential impact of AI and that 'education and awareness' would be key to tacking misinformation.

X founder Elon Musk has come under intense criticism for misinformation on his platform relating to the events, with the world's richest man even falling victim to it after sharing a fake story about Sir Keir Starmer looking at detainment camps for rioters.

Harry said:

It comes down to all of us to be able to spot the true from the fake. In an ideal world those with positions of influence would take more responsibility.

We are no longer debating facts. For as long as people are allowed to spread lies, abuse, harass, then social cohesion as we know it has completely broken down.

by Nick Pisa, Mark Duell and Elizabeth Haigh

Prince Harry appeared to criticise Elon Musk following the Southport riots in Britain as he and wife Meghan Markle began their four-day quasi-royal tour of Colombia.

The Duke of Sussex attacked misinformation on social media during a summit on digital responsibility and appeared to blame fake news for sparking the disorder.

Some 80 adults have so far been sentenced following violence which broke out in parts of the UK in the wake of three girls being murdered in Southport on July 29.

And Harry told an audience yesterday: 'What happens online within a matter of minutes transfers to the streets. People are acting on information that isn't true.'

He added that a lot of people were 'scared and uncertain 'about the potential impact of AI and that 'education and awareness' would be key to tacking misinformation.

Here is a snapshot of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's first day in Colombia after they touched down in Bogota ahead of a four-day visit.

Yesterday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrived in Bogota to start their four-day visit of Colombia

The couple are being hosted by Colombia's vice-president Francia Márquez, who invited them after watching the Harry & Meghan Netflix documentary

Here's what you need to know from the first day:

• Harry and Meghan spent the day visiting a school in capital Bogotá to talk to teenagers about the impact of social media.
• In their second public appearance, Meghan and Harry attended a ceremony at the Delia Zapata National Arts Center in Bogota, where Meghan embraced artisan design by wearing a maxi dress by Colombian designer Johanna Ortiz.
• Later, the Duke and Duchess spoke at a summit on digital responsibility staged in part by Harry and Meghan’s Archewell Foundation.
• Across the next three days, the Sussexes will take in more of Bogotá before heading off to Cartagena and Cali as part of a 'cultural and social' visit.
• Harry will also meet members of the Team Colombia squad participating in the Invictus Games, who are gearing up for the 2025 games in Whistler, Canada.

Officials have kept the itinerary a closely guarded secret because parts of the country are described as 'best avoided' due to ongoing internal conflicts.

Hello and welcome to MailOnline's live coverage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's visit to Colombia.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrived in the Colombian capital Bogota on Thursday for the start of a four-day visit aimed at tackling cyber-bullying and online discrimination as well as promoting women’s leadership in Colombia.

We will bring you the latest news and pictures from the royal couple's trip in South America plus reaction.