Friday, June 30, 2017

Rebels Lay Down their Guns - Time & Medellin Living

Colombia Takes a Big Step Toward Peace as Rebels Lay Down Their Guns

Jun 27, 2017
(MESETAS, Colombia) — Colombia reached a major milestone on its road to peace Tuesday as leftist rebels relinquished some of their last weapons and declared an end to their half-century insurgency.
The historic step was taken as President Juan Manuel Santos traveled to this demobilization camp in Colombia's eastern jungles to join guerrilla leaders as they begin their transition to civilian life.
In a short, symbol-filled ceremony, United Nations observers shut and padlocked the last containers storing some of the 7,132 weapons that members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia have turned over the past few weeks at 26 camps across the country. Yellow butterflies were released and an AK-47 converted into an electric guitar rang out plaintive chords in honor of the long conflict's victims.
"By depositing the weapons in the U.N. containers, the Colombians and the entire world know that our peace is real and irreversible," Santos, winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize, told an audience of former rebel fighters dressed in white shirts with cuffed hands shaped in a heart and a Spanish hashtag reading "Our only weapon are words."
Though hundreds of FARC caches filled with larger weapons and explosives are still being cleared out, the U.N. on Monday certified that all individual firearms and weapons, except for a small number needed to safeguard the soon-to-disband camps, have been collected.
"In a world convulsed by old and new forms of violence, by conflicts whose protagonists appear irreconcilable ... a successful process constructing peace in Colombia is also reason for hope and a powerful example for the international community," said Jean Arnault, head of the U.N. peace mission in Colombia.
The day put Colombia one step closer to turning a page on Latin America's longest-running conflict, which caused at least 250,000 deaths, left 60,000 people missing and displaced more than 7 million.
After years of thorny negotiations, the rebels reached an agreement with the government last year to give up their weapons and transition into a political party. But implementing the accord has been slow. The initial deal was narrowly rejected in a national referendum, congress has struggled to pass laws implementing the revised accord, and opposition lawmakers are threatening to overturn key aspects of the agreement if they win the presidential election next year.
Rodrigo Londono, the FARC's top commander, complained about the bureaucratic, legal and political "traps" in a sternly worded speech in which he called on the government to live up to its end of the bargain and not simply rejoice at seeing its former combat enemies disarmed.
He questioned why imprisoned rebels who were amnestied six months ago remain in jail and complained about the state of the Mariana Paez demobilization camp where the ceremony was taking place. It was supposed to contain concrete housing units with running water, kitchens and electricity, but instead has been likened to a refugee camp with rebels living under plastic tarps.
"The state of infrastructure in this rural zone is the best testimony of the slow pace in which the national government is fulfilling what we agreed to," Londono said.
Still, he and other rebels showed no outward sign of regretting their decision to abandon the battlefield.
Stefanía Rodriguez joined the guerrillas a decade ago at age 13. She said she wanted an education that her poor family couldn't provide. Her weapon, nicknamed Tasmania after the Tasmanian Devil cartoon character, was a constant companion to the point she would sleep with it during difficult missions.
"It was like our other half," she said.
Handing it over was like losing part of herself, she said. But with the prospect of peace, she has been reunited with her mother, who she hadn't seen in seven years, and now plans to study engineering.
"It's time to silence the weapons that because of the conflict caused so much damage to Colombia," she said.
Conservative opponents of the peace deal, led by former President Alvaro Uribe, have questioned whether the FARC movement has turned over its entire arsenal. But experts at Notre Dame University's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies say the one-gun per fighter ratio seen in Colombia could be one of the highest in the world, far greater than the levels of disarmament seen in recent guerrilla conflicts from Guatemala to Nepal.
Aldo Civico, a Colombia expert at Rutgers University, said doubt over the exact number of weapons turned in ultimately doesn't matter in measuring disarmament's success.
"There's always a question mark," he said. "What's more important is we are witnessing step after step the willingness of the FARC to really demobilize and reintegrate and that should be reinforced by the state and government in fulfilling the promises and agreements signed."
Beyond disarmament of the FARC it's still unclear how much more Colombians are willing to work to fulfill the 310-page peace accord's ambitious agenda of land reform, a more open political system and an end to the cultivation of illegal coca crops.
Today a smooth paved road connects Mesetas with Bogota, but the community suffers from the same neglect and inequities that gave rise to the conflict. Like many other places torn by war, residents of the small town voted overwhelmingly for the peace agreement last year though many still harbor doubts as to whether the guerrillas will abandon their involvement in Colombia's flourishing criminal economy.
There's also concern the more-ideological National Liberation Army could fill the void left by the FARC's retreat, although that smaller rebel movement has been negotiating a peace of its own for months.
The rebels are also afraid that they could be targeted. Almost every guerrilla at the Mariana Paez camp recalled the decade-long bloodletting that followed a previous attempt at peace in the 1980s, when as many 3,000 members of a FARC-aligned political party were gunned down by right-wing paramilitary assassins, sometimes in cahoots with state intelligence services.
A more-recent rash of killings of dozens of social leaders highlighted in Londono's speech is also heightening concerns. Some guerrillas, who now wear jeans instead of fatigues, wonder if it is safe for them to leave.
"The tragic experiences of the past cannot be allowed to repeat themselves," said Londono, who is better known by his alias, Timochenko. "Our motherland has learned from her pain and because Colombians will not allow themselves to be cheated again."

Thursday, June 29, 2017

So, I didn’t undress when I went to bed last night.  I catnapped, more awake than asleep, over the next few hours occasionally getting up and checking my iPad to see if I had an email from my son.  Occasionally I could hear a car approaching but it was obvious it wasn’t stopping when I heard it recede.  (At one of these false alarms Teresa woke up thinking he was here and because of her noise I couldn’t tell if the car was stopping or not.)  Finally, he arrived at 4:30am.

I buzzed him in and he carried his suitcase up to our apt.

Any thoughts of arm wrestling my son (because of my newly built muscles) melted away with the first hug – he seems to be all muscle – the opposite of me at that age.

We quickly got him into his room.  He said he’s now been awake for 24 hours, he isn’t hungry, or thirsty, just tired.  We said goodnight, I took a sleeping pill, took off my clothes and hit the sack.

I woke up at 9:10 from some metallic noise outside, got up and closed the window and the blinds and went back to bed.  I finally got up at 10am.

Jim got up closer to 11am.

After breakfast we walked down to Afrosoul – the t-shirt store.  It had moved a block further away to Carrera 46 #38A-Sur 20.  (The t-shirt I sent him for his birthday last year were size large and he wanted size medium so he brought the t-shirts back for me to use.)  He found both a short sleeve and long sleeve Calles de Medellin t-shirt that I paid 70,000 pesos for.

We walked to a pharmacy where he bought a bottle of contact lens solution for 10,500 pesos and then we went to Bancolombia where he withdrew 600,000 pesos.  Huh?  I thought my maximum withdrawal was 400,000 pesos.

Back at the apt we soon had a nice lunch of soup, salad, chicken breast and fresh juice.

Jim informed me that he has 2 buddies (Shawn and another guy) coming in tomorrow and they’re going to move into an AirBNB place and next Monday thru Wednesday they’re going to tour Cartagena.

Jim wanted to buy a James Rodriques Colombian jersey so late in the afternoon we, with Laura, took a taxi to Santafe mall.  We asked at a number of places but didn’t find one.  We stopped at a Cinnabon store and bought a sleeve of mini Cinnabons that Laura said Teresa had asked for.  We each ate one and shared a juice box of milk.  Laura believed we might at El Tesoro so we jumped in another taxi and soon were at that mall.  We walked around the mall and finally found one at one of the Adidas stores.  It was a Colombian jersey and they custom add whatever name you want to the back.  Of course, he wanted “James”.  The lady said to come back in 20 minutes.  We walked around the mall a little.  At one point we stopped into a store that had music DVDs and a few record albums.  I saw that now El Tesoro has a small Starbucks.

We quickly caught a taxi back to the apt.

From 8pm to 9pm I watched a new episode of El Socio (The Profit).  Jim and Laura left at 8:15 to check out some dance place.  They were back by 10pm because Jim was still tired from yesterday.  Jim soon went to bed.  Teresa and I went to bed at 10:30.


T-shirt of the day: Of course your opinion matters.  Just not to me.

Thursday, June 29, 2017

How One of Colombia's top Tourism Attractions is Slowly Dying - Colombia Reports

How one of Colombia’s top tourism attractions is slowly dying

written by Adriaan Alsema April 18, 2017
The Guatape water reservoir, one of Colombia’s most visited tourist attractions, is slowly killed by algae and will become poisonous unless local authorities stop procrastinating.
The man-made reservoir, located at the bottom of the iconic rock of El Peñol, has slowly but surely been filling up with the deadly cyanobacteria, better known as blue-green algae.
The increasing presence of the algae is due to polluted water that enters the reservoirs from nearby farms, and towns like Rionegro and Marinilla.
The situation has deteriorated to the point that local environmental agency Cornare recommended “the community not to enter the reservoir or use it for swimming.”
Energy company EPM, which owns the reservoir and the connected hydro-electric plant, has already put up signs warning locals and tourists not to swim when the water looks green.
No swimming warning (Image credit: Seamus Walsh)
Local tourism operators are concerned as the algae are spreading a lot faster than authorities are taking action to curb the problem.
With 19% of the lake already poisoned, the possibility for any activity in the water is reducing rapidly.
If the algae are able to take over the entire lake, the bacteria’s toxin will make any contact with the water impossible because of the strong allergic reaction of humans.
The algae problem can be reversed by regulating the use of fertilizer or filter it from incoming waters, building septic tanks at nearby farms or by planting vegetation that naturally consumes the algae.
But that’s not happening, locals say.
“Unfortunately, the reservoir at El Peñol is dying due to the indifference of both local and regional officials,” local activist Mauro Betancourt told Antioquia state television network Teleantioquia.
EPM said earlier this month that it has “adopted the regulations of the International Health Organization, which — depending on the concentration level of the cyanobacteria — establishes a series of recommendations we have been implementing.”
However, the company refuses to take full responsibility for solving the problem, mainly because this would be the responsibility of surrounding municipalities that contribute to the pollution.
“EPM reiterates its call to the institutions and authorities to undertake action that, within their competence, contribute to mitigate this problem,” it said earlier this month.
This call remained virtually unanswered with the exception of the mayor’s office of Guatape that stressed that “we are one of few municipalities that can say it is almost 100% sanitized.”
Notwithstanding, it is also the municipality that will be most affected if the algae spreads and tourist activity in and near the water becomes a health hazard.

Medellin Man Kidnaps Himself - Colombia Reports

Medellin man kidnaps himself in attempt to pay gigantic brothel bill

written by Adriaan Alsema February 10, 2017
Medellin authorities announced Thursday they had arrested a man who had faked his own kidnapping in an attempt to pay a $4,000 bill he had accumulated during a days-long sex and booze party.
The local man, whose identity was not revealed, was reported as kidnapped by his employer on February 2 after she received a message from his Whatsapp demanding $5,000 in ransom for his safe return and that of his boss’ car.
The man has not appeared at work since January 31 and was in possession of a company car.
Instead of getting the money demanded for the employee and the vehicle, the suspect’s employer called the local police’s anti-kidnapping unit.
The employer agreed to meet for an exchange.
However, when the self-proclaimed kidnapping victim and three others arrived to collect the money, they were surprised by members of the anti-kidnapping unit.
The three men proved to be employees of the brothel where the man had spent the small fortune in prostitutes and liquor.
When the fake victim found out his set-up had failed, he tried to flee, but was arrested by the present officers together with the brothel employees.
The suspect told the prosecution he had pretended his own kidnapping after a four-day binge that left him with a $4,000 bill at a local brother he couldn’t possibly afford.
According to his testimony, the brothel owner allowed him to leave and obtain the money, but kept his boss’ car as security.
The brothel employees were released.
The 27-year party animal was sent to jail to await trial on extortion charges.
Auto-kidnappings are not uncommon in Colombia.
Last year, a 22-year-old man went as far as sending his parents photos of himself looking like he had been tortured in an attempt to extort his money also while on a party binge.

FARC Completes Disarmament Process - Colombia Reports

53 years after taking up arms, FARC completes disarmament process: UN

written by Adriaan Alsema June 26, 2017
53 years after its first combat, Colombia’s oldest and largest rebel group, the FARC, have completed its disarmament process, the United Nations announced Monday.
According to the United Nations, the FARC’s approximately 7,000 demobilized guerrillas have surrendered 7,132 arms.
The weapons are now stored in UN-controlled containers located in the 26 demobilization, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) camps where the guerrillas where the guerrillas have been staying since September last year.
UN container in one of the FARC’s DDR camps (Image credit: UN Mission in Colombia)
President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC leader Rodrigo Londoño, known by his nom-de-guerre “Timochenko” are expected to attend a ceremony on Tuesday to celebrate the successful disarmament of the country’s longest-living guerrilla group.
The only weapons left in hands of FARC members are those in the hands of guards maintaining security in these camps. Also these weapons should be surrendered to the UN before the agreed deadline of August 1.
All other guerrillas that have handed in their weapons have received certificates, allowing them to take part in reintegration programs.
FARC guerrillas receiving the papers certifying they are now normal members of society.
Apart from the disarmament of the guerrillas, the UN, the FARC and state forces have removed or detonated 77 of approximately 900 weapons caches hidden in the jungles and mountains of Colombia where the FARC used to be active, the international organization said.
Some 1,600 FARC militia members, not all of whom were armed, have also reported at the camp to receive a certificate they are now no longer a member of an illegal armed group.
Guerrillas who have deserted or militias members who have failed to report themselves will no longer be able to take part in the peace process and will be targeted by the Colombian security forces.
Of the FARC’s approximately 50 fronts, six have refused to take part in the peace process. The dissident groups are primarily active in the coca-rich south and southwest of the country.

These are the FARC dissident groups Colombia’s authorities must confront


With the full disarmament of the FARC’s guerrillas, Colombia’s peace process has successfully finished a historic phase of the country’s ongoing peace process that seeks an and to more than half a century of political violence that has left more than 265,000 Colombians dead, tens of thousands missing and 7 million displaced.

A 200-year history lesson to understand Colombia’s 52-year conflict


The peace process has been plagued by a number of delays, partly due to government failures to timely facilitate the disarmament and disinformation campaigns by the country’s hard-right opposition, which — like the FARC — is expected to respond for tens of thousands of human rights violations.
Additionally, the process has been stained by the ongoing assassination of social leaders and members of FARC members, and an apparent spoiler attack on a Bogota mall little over a week ago.

The following phase of the peace process includes a transitional justice tribunal that will call an unknown number of FARC guerrillas and militia members, 24,500 state officials and almost 13,000 private individuals and companies to respond for the tens of thousands of war crimes committed by the multiple parties during the armed conflict.

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

I got up once during the night finally waking/getting up at 7:30.

I watched the first 15 minutes of the Today show and then left for the gym.  I picked up an adn newspaper outside Exito.

At the gym I spoke to Jeison about the possibility of allowing my son to workout at the gym for a few days or a week.  I didn’t understand all of his response and I couldn’t wait any longer for Jose to arrive and serve as translator.  I added a couple other lower body exercises to my routine but kept the weight and number of reps down.  I left just before 11:30.

Back at the apt Teresa informed me that Dario called to say he couldn’t play today. 

The newspaper reports that they are still searching for 2 missing women at the Guatape lagoon.

Laura and I left at 5:15 for Mayorista where she picked up some more chicken and I picked up a few ripe tomatoes. 

Well, it appears I’m finally over my diarrhea problem.

At 9pm I received an email from my son that his flight is delayed in Bogota.

We all went to bed at 11:30, sort of…


T-shirt of the day: People keep thinking that I care…weird.