From Colombia

Countries through which the equator passes  (red) and the Prime Merdian too(blue) Wikipedia Like almost everywhere in the world, the COVID 19 pandemic has spread to the Western Hemisphere and to the Equator. Ecuador, Brazil and Colombia are the three countries through which the equator passes. The first two nations mentioned are some of the most affected by coronavirus in Latin America. In Ecuador, about one person in 2,000 is infected with the virus and more than 400 have died, something very shocking in a small country of only 16 million inhabitants. Guayaquil is its most affected city, where people are even dying on the streets. It is believed that the virus came from Spain, since there are a lot of Ecuadorians living there and many travel back and forth. Brazil, one of the most populated countries in the world, is the epicenter of the pandemic in the region, with more than 2,000 dead. Some criticize the Brazilian president because, according to them, he is not doing eno...

Some months ago I went to the New York Fire Department store in Manhattan to buy some stuff for my brother and my nephew, who are firemen in Bogota, Colombia; and the clerk told me he had read a book about Pablo Escobar and asked me whether the drug dealer was as bad as he is said to be or was good as some people say. I responded to the clerk, from my point of view, Escobar was evil and the help he provided the poor did not by far reimburse his criminal acts. The point is that when non-Colombian people around the world learn you are Colombian most of them think immediately of drug traffic and Pablo Emilio Escobar, known also as El Patron (The Boss). It is a sentence or curse we Colombians have had to bear due to the huge illegal exportation and extraordinary profitable cocaine business in the last decades, especially in the 80´s, and the news, books, movies and series made about Escobar´s life and death. One of those movies is a documentary named ´Pablo Escobar, angel or demon´, from...

When most of Americans write the name of the South American country they spell it with U instead O. Something that irritates Colombians, since we feel Americans are trying to Americanize our country’s name. I rather understand this is more due to lack of awareness or carelessness than anything else. The word Colombia is, the same as in English, a female gender derivation of the last name of the discoverer of the American continent, which in Spanish is Colón. In Italian Columbus´ full name is Cristoforo Colombo and in Latin it is Cristophorus Colombus. In this way, the name ColOmbia comes from the name ColÓn. Unlike ColUmbia, ColOmbia does not have a poetic image. That historical one that represents the United States like a woman wearing the American flag colors. That very popularized by the Columbia Pictures film company. I also understand there are a lot of places, Media, institutions, brands, transportation means, fictitious things and many other stuff named Columbia ...

Barranquilla is one of the main cities in Colombia, it is the country's first port in its Atlantic Ocean coast and the entrance from the Caribbean Sea. Important issues for development, such as aviation, Radio and soccer, among many others, have gotten into the country through this city. Because of all of this, Barranquilla is known as the 'Colombia's Golden Gate'. Its women, as the ones from entire Colombia, are consider as some of the pretties in the world. Because of the Caribbean factor, they are happy, natural and excellent dancers. Shakira's Instagram One of the most well-known Colombians in the world is Shakira, maybe the most famous Colombian alive. Her voice, her beauty and her dancing have fascinated million of fans thanks to, in part, her singing both in English and Spanish. It was her fifth studio album the first one to be recorded in English https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weRHyjj34ZE . She has Arab roots since she is a Lebanese descendant and h...

There is a man who has been able to reencounter more than 11,000 people by using his built up searching skills. He has given all those people incalculable happiness by finding relatives who had been missing for years, even decades, and some times forgotten. Thanks to him there has been people who have had the chance of dying peacefully once they  found the person he or she had been looking for for long time. His name is Alejandro Muñoz , a Colombian journalist, and most of the people who he has reencountered are Colombian too. He has also done it with people in othe countries, especially for those children who have been adopted and later wanted to find their biological parents. It happens on the contrary too, there have been parents who wanted to reencounter with the children they have given in adoption. Either way, it is a difficuld and complex task since neither part has any information about the other. In order to fullfil this task Alejandro created 15 years ago the Foundati...

Bogota, Colombia's capital city, is divided by 20 districts (Localidades, in Sapnish). One of them was named Kennedy, after the former president of the United States who founded the district himself. This district is the most populated, 1,5 million inhabitants, and one of the largest in Bogota. John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie visted Bogota in Dicember 1961 within the framework of the Alliance for Progress, in which Kennedy founded the neighborhood for the poorest people in the city. The neighborhood was named then Ciudad Techo (Techo City) and 12.000 houses began to be build. In 1964 after Kennedy's assessination the residents of the neighborhood changed its name to Ciudad Kennedy (Kennedy City) and the Council of Bogota approved the name change in 1966.  President Kennedy inaugurates the housing project Ciudad Techo (John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum) Last November 22nd, 50th anniversary Kennedy's assassination, the residents of the d...

elcolombiano.com Today the negociation table for the peace talks between the Colombian Government and FARC was set. Talks that mean a new hope for Colombians to achieve peace after almost 50 years of war by FARC. The Revolucionary Armed Forces of Colombian was born in 1964 after an alleged election fraud that kept the then two-party government, established 6 years before, known as the National Front that used to take turns in the country's precidency. Since then the FARC has been fighting a guerilla war againt the on-duty goverment that has left thousands of victims.  What is going on in Colombia? In my opinion, the negociation will not be easy since the parts have desires totally opposed. The Goverment wants the guerrilla to stop the fight and release the kidnapped ones, among other things, and in the other hand, the FARC wants a total change of the social, political and economical system of Colombia. Most of Colombians, if you had the chance of doing a survey...

This is the translation of an article that I wrote in Octuber, 2010. It is about my point of view on the habit of Spanish speakers to call people and things from the United States 'americanos' (American), when a correct name exists: estadounidenses (something like Unitedstaters). Last week I attended the presentation of the Unitedstater Studies Institute (Instituto de Estudios Estadounidenses) in Bogota, Colombia, attracted by the posibility of getting to know something else about the United States, county which I like since my childhood and in which I have had the chance of living briefly somewhen. What attracted my attention the most was the name of the institute itself. Its name is  Unitedstater Studies Institute and not American like some others which exist in some Spanish-speaking countries. And I believe that  Unitedstater is the correct name for the people born and nationalized in the United States. Not American because that name belong to all the inhabitants o...

El Dorado is a legend place sought unsuccessfully by Spaniard and English explorers for centuries. Many of them died in the attempt. It was suposed to be a place with gold-paved streets with huge reserves of the precious metal, located somewhere in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela and Brazil. DreamWorks produced an animated movie about El Dorado (The Road to El Dorado) but it was located erroneously in Mexico. There are several version of the legend in different places but the most accepted is the one in Colombia where in a lagoon nearby Bogota (39 miles) the chief of Muisca indians used to be covered in gold dust on a rift, in a rite in which he and other indians paid tributo to the Mother Earth by throwing gold and emerald pieces into the lagoon.   After many years of wanting to go to get to know the Muisca sacred lagoon, and despite the close it is to my hometown, yesterday I went with my family and got surprised of the much I learned about my ancestors. The first s...

After the release of six more hostages kidnapped by FARC, the fate of the ones who remain captive is uncertain due to the Colombian government states that it will not release guerrilla members in exchange. They are a group of 16 people, formed by military, police and civil hostages. For FARC the hostages are either military or political prisoners, the same as the guerrilla members who are detained in the country's prisons. Along these lines, the revolutionary force expects to exchange its prisoners with the ones from the government. In the other hand, for the Colombian government the idea is not valid. That is why   the releases by FARC have been unilateral. Regardless of that, the ones who are in the middle of the storm and who get mostly affected by all this are the hostages themselves, the same as, in my opinion, the soldiers, policemen and "private" guerrillas who are the ones who face the enemy and risk their freedom and lives....

'Colombia, the only risk is wanting to stay' is tha name of a campain designed to promote this country as a tourist destination for the rest of the world. It metions 'risk' refering to the security matter, that is one of the first that come up when Colombia is the topic. The question is: could a country be safe when it is known as one of the most violent in the world, faces one of the longer armed conflict in the western hemisphere and whose crime and kidnapping rates increase and the higest rate of death is killing? Beleive it or not, the answer is yes. And I tell you why: Although the left-winged Revolucionary Armed Forces of Colombia FARC has been fighting governments for more than four dacades, its atacking power lowered in the last eight years thanks to the former president Alvaro Uribe's Democatic Security policy. The new government, whose president is Juan Manuel Santos, in two months in the power has hit FARC hardly. Even though FARC is still alive, it is re...

Mono jojoy, aka Jorge Briceño, whose real name was Victor Julio Suarez, the FARC's military chief pulled down by the Colombia Armed Forces, was the second top leader of the left-winged guerrilla but the one who led its military operations. He was nicknamed Mono Jojoy after a species of worm from the Amazon, called mojojoy, which is very skilled at scaping. In Spanish mono means 'monkey', in Spain 'pretty' and in Colombia 'blond'. Mono Jojoy joined FARC in 1975 and soon he beceme a cuadrilla (a sort of brigade) leader because of his ideals, radical stances and methods which got him several arrest warrants for rebellion, kidnapping, narcotraffick, extortion, terrorism and murder among others. He was implicated in the bombing of Club El Nogal in Bogota in 2003 that killed 36 people and injures more than 100, he was accused for participating in the kidnapping of Ingrid Betancour and the assessination of the journalist Diana Turbay, he was charged for recruting c...

General Mendieta is a Colombia National Police commissioned officer who was recently rescued from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia FARC after eleven years of kidnapping. He was took prisoner in 1998 in the city of Mitu, in the Colombian Amazon, when he was practicing as the commander of city police bureau, in the rank of litenuant colonel. During his captivity he was promoted by the Colombian Government to the the ranks of colonel, Brigade General and Major General. Mendieta was rescued with three more Armed Forces of Colombia members by Colombia Army through 'The Chameleon Operation'. Until that day General Mendieta was the police and military force kidnapped the with the highest rank in the world. Two facts involves me with this. The first one is that I produced a journalism report on it as a prelude of General Mendieta's rescue. It was by the way of his last promotion which was particular due to the general's obvious absence. Then, I attended the ceremony ...

During a meeting with children and youngster who were once in gangs and drug trouble, the American rock band Aerosmith received a plate that appoints them as Guest of Honour of Bogota, Colombia's capital city, from the mayor hours before a concert the band performed in this city. In exchange for the plate Aerosmith gave the mayor a baseball cap of the band which he put on inmediately. Aerosmith arrived in Bogota two days before the concert to, according to its vocal leader Steven Tyler, get to know the city and its young people, so the band members could talk to them. Aditionally, Tyler said that they were pleased to be in Bogota and could not wait for the concert. In the meeting one of the kids asked Steven Tyler if he was a professional musician, what he answered that one never ends learning that art because everybody can teach something new. The band members encouraged the children to explore the music's wolrd because "every one has his rythm". I was invited to the...

Antanas Mockus is a Colombian politician who is currently running for president and who is considered an electoral phenomenon because of the great rally he is performing in these days what positions him on the top of the electoral surveys above the candidate of current president Alvaro Uribe's party, Juan Manuel Santos, who is second. But what besides makes Mockus a political phenomenon, almost a political freak, is that he is a particular character due to the wierd ways he acts and his genuine policies. Aurelijus Rutenis Antanas Mockus Šivickas is not a Spanish language name although he was born in Bogota, his parents emigrated from Lithuania and he attended primary and secondary school also in Bogota. He has a Bachelor degree in Phylosophy and Mathematics, and a PhD from French universities and a Master degree from the National University of Colombia. He has been twice mayor of Bogota, the capital of Colombia, and has run twice for the precidency of Colombia. He belongs to a new...

Today we, the inhabitants of Bogota, are facing the fourth day of a public transportation strike due to a series of facts that are going on in this city. One of the longest and the gravest in the last times. The reason: the desagreement between the government of the city an the trade whose representatives are in these days negotiating the new public transportation integrated system (SITP for its abbreviation in Spanish) which includes the integration of the city's bus system, the metro (not built yet) and the suburban train. Yeah, believe or not, in full 21st century, Bogota does not have a metro system yet! In order to stablish the new transportation system, the city's government is taking measures which the transportation trade weighs up affects them. That is the apple of discord because the system will belong to and run by the government and not by the transportation trade who has been doing that since the stablishment of it in Colombia. This is a kind of struggle for the po...

Her name is Piedad Cordoba. Although she belongs to one of the traditional parties in Colombia (Liberal), she is opposite to government and, according to some sectors of the country, she sympathizes with the left-winged guerrilla FARC. The Colombian authorities have done research into her for supposed links with FARC. She leads the humanitarian group Colombians for Peace, and she certainly simpathizes with Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez. Piedad Cordoba has become well-known internationally because of her intermediary work in the Humanitarian agreement of kidnapped people and FARC prisoners, between the Colombian government and the guerrilla. In early 2008, she, together with the Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, achieved the release of six kiddnaped politicians. Because of this, she won the Prince of Asturias Prize. Even when Colombian president Alvaro Uribe din not authorized Cordoba's intermediary work anymore, she achieved again the release of three kidnapped policemen and o...

Juanes is a Colombian pop music songwriter, singer and guitarplayer who has sold more than 14 million copies of his albums in Spanish and has won one Grammy Award, 17 Latin Grammy Awards and 9 MTV Latino Awards. He is also a declared social and humanitarian activist who holds a fundation for victims of antipersonal mines named Mi Sangre (My Blood). He is the author of the civil initiative called Paz Sin Fronteras (Peace Without Borders) which consists of free music concerts performanced by him and any other famous singers and musicians, as a way of appealing for peace by ignoring the political differences . There has been two so far, and the second one caused some controversy between the involved parts. Paz Sin Fronteras II was carried out in Havanna, Cuba, for the people who live isolated in the island under the comunist governmnet of Fidel and Raul Castro and the US economical blockade. These people and the Cuban government and its political allies welcomed the concert but the oppos...

A group of Colombians who live in Bogota organized through the social networking websites Facebook and Twitter a march for today in order to demostrate against the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, because of his repeated interventions in the Colombian political, economical and social affairs. In fact, they are many marchs hold in more than 100 cities of more than 30 countries of the five continents. Something more or less like the March Against FARC made in last year's Febraury. The march was named "Chavez No More" In the last days, Chávez kept on giving his opinion about the Agreement of Military Cooperation signed between Colombia and the United States, even when he atended, as the other twelve presidents of the South American countries, the last UNASUR's (Union of South American Nations) summit in Argentina a week ago where the topic was discussed. He did not say anything remarkable there but as soon as he got back in his country he started to blame Colombian p...