Beautiful Horizons

Anthony Bourdain in Colombia

If you didn't get a chance to see it when it aired last night, check out Anthony Bourdain's visit to Colombia on the Travel Channel. It was probably the most moving edition of the show that I've seen.

More Good News

More good news on Medellin, Colombia: tourism may be in its future. Where there is tourism, there are jobs, and where there are jobs, there will be safety and stability.

Sergio Fajardo

Sunday's New York Times has an intriguing profile of the Mayor of Medellin, Colombia, Sergio Fajardo. Medellin is the capital city of Antioquia province and the second largest city in Colombia, after Bogota. In the 1980's into the mid-1990's, Medellin was known as the home of Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel, making Medellin at one point, a sum equivalent to fifty US dollars could buy a contract killing, according to Tina Rosenberg's excellent book, Children of Cain. The situation was so bad, homicides in 1991 averaged 17 per day.

Fajardo has made improvements in infrastructure his hallmark since he became mayor.

“Our most beautiful buildings,” said Mr. Fajardo, 51, “must be in our poorest areas.”

With that simple idea, Mr. Fajardo hired renowned architects to design an assemblage of luxurious libraries and other public buildings in this city’s most desperate slums. Their eccentric shapes — one resembles an immense blackened loaf of bread sliced in half — occupy areas where foot soldiers in Colombia’s cocaine wars once died by the thousands each year. But several years ago, residents here say, a tenuous peace was imposed by paramilitary drug traffickers who outfought their rivals.

Now, Medellín is no longer stymied by being described as the world’s deadliest city.

This city of about two million people had 29 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2006, down from 381 per 100,000 when killings peaked in 1991.

He has his detractors, but in my  humble opinion, they are really just carping. By any objective measure, Medellin is better off with him in office. It's heartening to see good news coming out of Colombia for a change.

Lysistrata Lives!

I'm coming in a little late to this, but I do find it encouraging:

They are calling it the "crossed legs" strike.

Fretting over crime and violence, girlfriends and wives of gang members in the Colombian city of Pereira have called a ban on sex to persuade their menfolk to give up the gun.

After meeting with the mayor's office to discuss a disarmament program, a group of women decided to deny their partners their conjugal rights and recorded a song for local radio to urge others to follow their example.

"We met with the wives and girlfriends of gang members and they were worried some were not handing over their guns and that is where they came up with the idea of a vigil or a sex strike," mayor's office representative Julio Cesar Gomez said.

"The message they are giving them is disarm or if not then they will decide how, when, where and at what time," he told Reuters by telephone.

While I remain skeptical that it will have an impact on the AUC, the FARC or the ELN, anything that reduces violence in a non-violent fashion in Colombia is good news.

In other Colombia news, Adam Isacson writes of encouraging news regarding government talks with the ELN.

If Ann Althouse ever tires of teaching law, she could learn Spanish (if she doesn't already know it) and turn to writing telenovelas.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

I have been critical of Colombian President Álvaro Uribe. I still believe that he has a bit of a soft spot for the AUC, the right-wing terrorist narcotraficantes fighting the left-wing terrorist narcotraficantes.

Nevertheless, the idea of a tourism campaign in Colombia a few years ago would have been considered a waste of money. As The Economist reports, there is one growing in fits and starts:

Tourism officials expect 1.5m foreign visitors this year, more than 50% up from the 925,000 in 2005. (Mexico, Latin America's top tourist destination, attracts 20m foreigners a year.) Lonely Planet, a travel publisher, has chosen Colombia as one of its top ten travel hotspots for 2006, in large part because of the improvement in safety.

Of course it's far from perfect:

But care is still needed. Lonely Planet advises tourists to steer clear of Chocó on the Pacific coast, Putumayo in the far south and “anywhere east of the Andes”, where there are still guerrillas. America's State Department and the British Foreign Office also warn travellers against wandering into rural areas.

Progress nevertheless is progress and this is certainly a smidgen of good news.

Another Passing

I was stunned to find out today that Colombian-American singer/songwriter, Soraya died last week. She had become a model for breast cancer victims even before she was first diagnosed in 2000.

She was public with her struggle against the disease and became involved with the Susan G. Komen Foundation, traveling extensively throughout Latin America advising women as to the value of early detection. She certainly knew from her family history about how devastating the disease was: her mother, grandmother and an aunt all succumbed to breast cancer. I'm deeply saddened that she could not escape her family history of the disease that took her life at the much too young age of 37.

Donations in her memory can be made to the Susan G. Komen Foundation in her memory.

Congressional Campaign

There's a congressional campaign going on in my neighborhood. The election is tomorrow.

Unfortunately, I cannot vote in this election. It's for the Colombian Congress and it includes a position for someone to represent Colombian expatriates living in my neighborhood, Jackson Heights, Queens, New York and around the world. Saturday's New York Times has an article profiling some of the candidates.

Meanwhile, here's a glimpse of what one can see around my neighborhood lately.

This is a campaign flyer being passed around.

The only sign in this store gives one the impression that they are solidly in President Uribe's camp:

While this bakery seems squarely non-partisan:

Finally, this one seems rather reluctant to display anything, but gave in anyway:

Location, location, location, indeed!

Adam Isacson has a good breakdown of the different parties and where they stand here.

Colombian Independence Day

A thought worth repeating from last year:

Today my neighborhood is festooned in these colors:

This is the Colombian flag, and although the official Independence Day is July 20, today at nearby Flushing Meadows Corona Park the Colombian community, a significant part of the ethnic makeup of Queens, has been celebrating Colombia's Independence today.

With all the troubles the country has it is easy to forget that Colombia is a land with a lot to offer. There are more species of birds found in Colombia than anywhere in the world. Colombian Spanish is arguably the most musical and pleasing to the ear in all of Latin America. It is the only country in South America with a Pacific and Atlantic coast and it's territory encompasses, the Andes, the Caribbean, and the Amazon basin.

Colombian music is as varied as its ethnic background: it encompasses Cumbias, Salsa, the Vallenato of Artists like Carlos Vives and who can forget Shakira?

Colombia also is the home of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, possibly Latin America's greatest writer.

There is so much more to this country than drugs and violence. So for the people of Colombia proud of their country and yearning for peace, let me say this:

Deseo para la justicia, la paz y la prosperidad muy pronto para toda la Colombia.

A Pleasant Story From Colombia

I'm a bit busy today and tomorrow, but I really wanted to call your attention to this article by Juan Forero in Saurday's New York Times. It's encouraging to read articles about Colombia that are upbeat, that celebrate decent people trying to live honest lives and don't even have the words narco or terrorist in them.

More on Cartagena

In light of the bogus claims of a FARC plan to assassinate President Bush in Cartagena, Colombia last month, I was reminded of this article from a couple of years ago about Cartagena that underscores the argument that this was the safest place in Colombia for Bush to visit.

Read it. I'm itching to go there after having read it.