Colombia | GlobalPost

A monument to shoddy reporting

John OtisApril 23, 2010 11:05

BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombia’s right-wing government and Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s socialist leader, are always squabbling and have even talked of going to war. Usually, the rhetoric is overheated. The latest diplomatic brouhaha is a good example: it involves a statue of a terrorist — that doesn’t exist.

Colombia's election graft enough to make a dictator blush

John OtisApril 21, 2010 11:43

BOGOTA, Colombia — With so much focus in Colombia on the presidential race, it’s worth noting that the laundry list of electoral shenanigans from last month’s congressional balloting would make a Banana-Republic dictator blush. The accusations include vote-buying and ballot-box stuffing. More 20 newly elected senators are the relatives of disgraced former lawmakers accused of collaborating with paramilitary death squads.

Medellin's failed redemption

Nadja DrostMay 20, 2010 06:37Updated May 30, 2010 13:30

MEDELLIN, Colombia — A city synonymous with murders and drug cartels had finally started to shed its image. Paramilitary fighters gave up their weapons. The city poured money into re-integrating ex-gang members while increasing basic services like running water to neglected hillside barrios. Homicides plummeted. Headlines about a “transformation” and “re-birth” started to appear to describe what had once been one of the world’s most dangerous cities.

Colombia after Uribe

John OtisApril 16, 2010 07:06Updated May 30, 2010 13:29

BOGOTA, Colombia — Although he has yet to receive a single vote, Juan Manuel Santos carries himself with the swagger of a president. Thanks to his close alliance with Alvaro Uribe, Colombia’s immensely popular outgoing president, Santos stands as the frontrunner heading into the May 30 first-round election. A long-time figure in Colombian politics, Santos, 58, became a serious contender following his dramatic three-year stint as Uribe’s defense minister.

World Economic Forum comes to Colombia

John OtisApril 8, 2010 18:01

CARTAGENA, Colombia — Bono once called the World Economic Forum in Davos a gathering of “fat cats in the snow.” But for the past three days, the fat cats have opted for palm trees and Caribbean breezes. The forum held its Latin America regional meeting in the gorgeous colonial port city of Cartagena. In a way, it was a coming out party for Colombia, which thanks to improved security is now deemed safe enough to host the Davos crowd.

In the land of cocaine and cartels, two math professors could change the equation

John OtisApril 5, 2010 12:46

BOGOTA, Colombia — In the land of cocaine cartels and kidnappings, why are two mathematics professors dominating the headlines? It turns out that a political alliance between the two profs — former Bogota mayor Antanas Mockus and former Medellin mayor Sergio Fajardo — could change Colombia’s electoral equation.

Remains of Easter

John OtisApril 2, 2010 13:13

BOGOTA, Colombia — Easter Week is the holiest — and quietest — time of year in Latin America. People hole up in churches or evacuate the cities to stake their sandy claims on crowded beaches. The end result for on-duty journalists is a news vacuum. But this week, Colombian reporters have been scrambling. Courtesy of the FARC guerrillas, the nation has been treated to a macabre spectacle on live television in which the rebels handed over two live hostages and one dead one.

Bloodshed returns to Medellin

Nadja DrostMay 20, 2010 06:23Updated May 30, 2010 13:27

MEDELLIN, Colombia — Even the prescience of 13-year-old Luis Serna Varela couldn't save him. He worried he would find himself caught in a shootout, or even with his finger pressed to the trigger of a gun, just another teenager unable to escape the gang warfare in his poor neighborhood atop Medellin. He asked his mother one morning: "Why don’t we leave from here?”

FARC rebels release hostage held for 12 years

Nadja DrostMarch 31, 2010 13:54Updated May 30, 2010 13:27

BOGOTA, Colombia — For more than 12 years, the family of Sgt. Pablo Emilio Moncayo received only periodic assurances the captured soldier was alive. They heard reports from former hostages and saw proof-of-life photos sent by the country’s main rebel group.

Women seek political place of jailed menfolk

Nadja DrostMarch 13, 2010 10:23Updated May 30, 2010 13:26

BOGOTA, Colombia — In the week before Sunday’s congressional election here, many articles in the Colombian press expressed concern over the deplorably low rate of women candidates — only 20 percent.