There is life after Uribe

After a long time of uncertainty Colombia’s Constitutional Court finally pronounced itself on the referendum which should make Álvaro Uribe’s second reelection possible. It was banned. Many things were wrong and inconstitutional, but I don’t want to elaborate on that here. I would like to express my view on Colombia’s future.

Open letter to Álvaro Uribe

Dear mr. president,

Awful, the FARC’s last attacks in Colombia’s Cauca department. As I understood from an interview with Cauca’s governor at Caracol Radio this morning, the army and police reacted adequately. Hopefully that is true. In the meantime the guerrilla doesn’t want to see that it is the civilians who suffer most from their attacks and those civilians are poor moreover. And that is also the case with the hostages. They are poor.

When love kills

Every four days in Colombia a woman is killed by her husband or boyfriend, Colombia’s newspaper El Tiempo wrote yesterday. The other important newspaper, El Espectador, published an article called ‘When love kills’. The reason is that within a few months at least five killings of wives and girlsfriends were reported by the Colombian press. One of the latest was the murder of a woman in the Caribbean town of Barranquilla. Her very jealous ex husband suspected she had a lover. He shot her.

Colombia es pasión (3), for big trouble

Bad news for Colombia and bad news for president Uribe, who is still in crossroads of soul if he is going to try to be reelected or not. The amount of coca and cocaine produced in Colombia hardly has been reduced, writes the National Council for Planning. The Council warns against a ‘gangsterisation’ of the country.

Crimes are crimes, no matter who commits them

Colombia’s president Álvaro Uribe thinks that the victims of his country’s horrible violence cannot be treated the same way. Those who are victims of crimes commited by the army, the police or the intelligence service DAS do not have the same facilities to get repaired by the state as the victims of the left wing guerrillas or the right wing paramilitaries.

Cocaboeren in voormalig FARC-bolwerk worden braaf

Don Daniel (geheel links) met twee projectmedewerkers op een voormalige cocakwekerij

Een paar jaar geleden nog had Daniel Escobar een discotheek waarmee hij 50 miljoen pesos (ruim 16.000 euro) per maand omzette. Zijn discotheek stond in het gehucht La Cooperativa, op twee uur rijden over een modderig weggetje vol kuilen vanuit het dorp Vistahermosa in Centraal-Colombia. Waarom verdiende Escobar bakken met geld op zo’n veraf gelegen plek? De hele plaatselijke economie draaide op de cocaplantages, de grondstof voor cocaïne.

Clara Rojas regrets accompanying Ingrid Betancourt

Clara Rojas

“It  was a blatant stupidity having accompanied Ingrid on her journey to San Vicente del Caguan”, former FARC hostage Clara Rojas told the Spanish press agency EFE. According to the press agency, Rojas states that in the book she is going to publish about her kidnapping in February 2002. The book is expected to be published in Colombia mid April.

Soccer keeps FARC hostages alive

Colombia celebrates its soccer-victory over Bolivia (2-0) and the country’s daily El Espectador publishes a nice story about how soccer alleviates the suffering of the FARC hostages.

FARC want to negotiate or Piedad 6

The leftist guerrilla group FARC in Colombia wants to negotiate with the government about a humanitarian agreement, in which hostages of the FARC are exchanged with guerrilla fighters in prison. The controversial senator Piedad Córdoba said that the guerrilla is ready to talk immediately.

It even appointed a spokesman, commander ‘Pablo Catatumbo’ (photo), who supposedly is close to highest commander, Alfonso Cano.

Waar is FARC-leider Tirofijo begraven?

Tirofijo

Het is maart en in Colombia herdenkt de linkse guerrillabeweging FARC enige gevoelige verliezen. Een jaar geleden bombardeerde het Colombiaanse leger het kampement van commandant Raúl Reyes plat. Reyes en een stuk of 16 guerrillero’s werden gedood. Niet lang daarna werd bekend dat de legendarische FARC-leider en -oprichter Tirofijo overleden was, ook wel bekend onder de naam Manuel Marulanda.