From Colombia

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...