So, want to know what's going on in Colombia lately?

Tuesday 20 October, 2009


When people think of Colombia, and by extension Medellin, it's hardly surprising that the foremost image to spring to mind is that of mustachioed drug kingpin Pablo Escobar... and cocaine. Travellers who think nothing of gallivanting across Mexico, Gautemala and Brazil draw the line at Colombia, and in doing so miss out on one of the most interesting countries in Latin America.

Okay, so the news is not so good. Trying to find a positive news story for a friend who lives in Medellin so that she could assuage her mother's concerns turned out to be impossible. Here's one, I reported, Colombia is 92% kidnap-free! Oh wait... at the end it says that the Medellin region's crime is increasing alarmingly. Whoops. Don't tell her that. Okay, how about Medellin winning the soccer last weekend? Uh-oh, scratch that, someone died in a fight afterwards. Umm... you could remind her that the weather's always great? Oh, but there is a huge drought at the moment, and looming water rationing. Well, I have this article on tourism in Bogota booming...? Just don't tell her that last weekend twenty-five people were killed in the city.

But if you can get past all the bad news, or you're a journalist who thrives on stories like these, then Colombia is a great place to be. For an adventure, a thrill, and the knowledge that something bad could happen any minute, Colombia can't be beat.

Just kidding... sort of. Crime might be a big part of the country and I would be foolish to pretend that it doesn't exist. Yes, for every night that I've gone out and haven't been mugged, a new arrival to the city has been killed (a Colombian guy we know came back to Medellin for the first time in 8 years and not only was he mugged but they stabbed him for his compliance. The knife nicked his heart and he spent his first week in the city in a coma. But last week he was mugged at an ATM while our tiny blond English elf skips through the city unharmed, so maybe he's just unlucky). I marvel at the safety that I feel when I walk down the street and then am reminded that a few months ago two bombs went off a block away from my apartment building. No... Medellin is not particularly safe. And you only need to look to the news to hear the latest.

The Colombian news is an amazing phenomenon that needs to be seen to be believed. A story that would dominate Australian news for months in Colombia is just one of many new scandals that break every day. 48,000 government officials being investigated for corruption? Check. The President buying senate votes to ensure his re-election? Sure, all he had to do was change the Constitution... and now he's trying to do it again. Check. Vice-President being investigated for ties to paramilitary groups? The President's former adviser is a cousin of Escobar and has his name all over international million-dollar bank accounts that contain Medellin Cartel cash? Of course.

Warlords cut deals with the prosecution to serve preposterously short sentences, the city's crime rate is accelerating due to a power vacuum left by the recently disbanded Office of Envigado gang and homicides for the 18-28 male demographic are booming. Friends reported bus burnings in the north of the country, and the rumour is that the FARC guerrilla group are preparing a large-scale attack for early next year when the presidential elections take place. Investigations into paramilitary massacres continue, with so far scanty results. They are a mercenary army originally founded to protect landowners from the rebels, but have since grown exponentially and exist outside of the law, buying off politicians and arranging hits for political rivals, dominating the Colombian political scene to such an extent that there are precious few members of President Uribe's government that haven't been implicated in parapolitics.

The government is keen to show citizens that it's taking a stand and producing results in regards to the FARC. The civil war has been raging for about fifty years and shows no sign of slowing down. However, the military killing civilians and passing them off as guerrillas is perhaps not the best way to do so. This practice has been going on for years and the family members that are finally taking a stand and protesting have been rewarded with death threats for their troubles. There has been a highly publicized ongoing negotiation with the FARC to release hostages, some of whom have been held in jungle camps for as long as twelve years. Proof-of-life videos released last month showed chained prisoners sending messages to their families, but their haunted eyes and nervous tics would be hard for anyone to forget. Every day there is a new delay in the release of three of the prisoners, and the father of one has threatened to cruicify himself in Bogota's main square in protest.

Journalists are threatened all the time and one recently fled the country due to death threats. Radio newscaster Herbin Hoyos has left Colombia a number of times due to FARC death threats - he broadcasts a hostage radio station, agitating for their freedom. There is a sort of tacit media censorship and any article we translate needs to be carefully read for subtext and propaganda. I filmed part of an almost-riot last weekend and a sympathetic policewoman told me to put my camera away, and that if I was seem filming I could be arrested.

Government agriculture subsidies are being distributed among the rich, a presidential candidate is a former member of the M-19 rebel group, and fake tit-and-assed bimbos on TV are sleeping with each other's boyfriends, calling each other drug molls and suing. So really... Just like anywhere else, no?