The Duty Not to Fumigate
In asking for the suspension of aereal fumigations with glifosate, the Health Ministry not only folowed scientific findings, but also legal duties and elemental principles of public policy.
Read MoreWill Land Restitution Wait 10 or 500 years?
The land restitution debate needs to progress. The researcher Francisco Guitérrez has already sensibly and with solid arguments responded to Benedetti’s contentions in 2013. The discussion that should have taken place in Congress through the four years of the law’s implementation should have been centered on the effectiveness of land restitution following the ruling.
Read MoreConnecting the Dots in Egypt
It is important to develop a clear understanding of the correlation between the crackdown on civil liberties and the predominance of non-inclusive economic policies.
Read MoreBlack Lives Matter Everywhere
Violence and apathy toward the black population has been a historical constant since colonial times.
Read MoreLet’s Be Serious: Popular Consultations for Mining Projects Are Viable
Before the Piedras popular consultation, one had never been done before, but that does mean they were not obligatory, and even less that they are not legal.
Read MoreEnsuring Illegality
The Attorney General has the right, as a person, to be against euthanasia, but it is illegitimate for him to abuse his powers to impose his religious views. This is exactly what he did by presuring the Ministry of Health to not fulfill an order given by the Constitutional Court about euthanasia.
Read MoreTeachers’ Pay
In a just society, merit and effort are reflected in a person’s pay for his or her job. This idea is illustrated in a famous quote from Bill Clinton: “if you work hard and don’t break the rules, you can expect the country to give you an opportunity to a decent life and that your kids will have a better life than you did.”
Read MoreSurprises in Express Decrees
Many have correctly criticized the “express compilation” of norms that the Ministry of Environment promulgated last week, a hefty volume of 732 pages that although seeks to replace all the decrees in the matter, was released only three days prior to the end of the period for comments.
Read MoreDo We Want Peace?
The call by a significant portion of society to intensify attacks agains the FARC and suspend peace talks in Havana contradicts our indignation in the face of violence and wish for building peace.
Read MoreWho Is Who?
An important question for policies regarding racial and ethnic diversity is who is who?
Read MoreThe challenges of land restitution
Land restitution, which seems to be starting seriously with the handing over of the farm Las Catas last Thursday to 164 displaced farm families, is a necessary step. But it will not only be very difficult to achieve significant results but even if successful, the return is insufficient to consolidate peace, democracy, and justice in the rural sector.
Read MoreLGBT families: equal rights, equal protection
This discussion paper seeks to contribute in understanding the transformation that has occurred with the recognition of LGBT families, as well as identifying their main implications in order to guarantee a proper implementation of such recognition.
Read MoreInstitutional incorporation of the periphery in Colombia: Decentralization, royalties, and the National Plan of Consolidation
This paper starts from the analysis presented in the book “The states of the country. Municipal institutions and local realities”(2011) in order to analyze, with a less academic approach and more of a public policy recommendation, three processes of state formation in Colombia: the decentralization process, the impact of royalties in the municipalities, and the National Territorial Consolidation Plan currently being implemented in some parts of the country.
Read MoreMunicipal stories of institutional weakness. The cases of Riohacha, Mocoa, and Arauca
This document complements, from a qualitative approach, the research contained in the book “The states of the country. Municipal institutions and local realities”. Here are the “life stories” of three municipalities -Riohacha, Mocoa, and Arauca- in which state power is not as strong as in other territories. In these stories we wanted to “contextualize” the hard data of the quantitative part and link some institutional indicators with a history and a specific social and political reality. We wanted, in short, to “tell a story of institutional weakness.”
Read MoreCrime, armed conflict, and state in Colombia, Mexico and Guatemala.
Until recent years, crime in Colombia, Mexico, and Guatemala was a phenomenon confined almost exclusively to national environments. This has changed in recent years. Crime is a phenomenon that has acquired increasingly global connotations in the region. Despite the importance of this issue, there is very little comparative regional literature that explores this problem. This paper makes a preliminary contribution in this sense and, to this effect, tries to make a comparison of crime in Colombia, Mexico, and Guatemala without losing sight of its relation to the capacity of state institutions.
Read MoreDiatribe against the “great men”
Today, Colombians believe more in democracy than two years ago. For some it will be a surprise, for others just a platitude, but the fact that Uribe is no longer in power has a lot to do.
Read MoreFreedom, by Jonathan Franzen
Against a backdrop of how the United States has seen itself after 9-11, Jonathan Franzen portrays in his latest novel, Freedom, the private life of an american family. The American dream is not a dream, nor does it become a nightmare, it becomes a reality that nobody wanted and with which they have to live.
Read MoreReformulating drug policy: inescapable challenge for Colombia
Prohibition has failed and has caused enormous damage. There are practical, feasible and proven alternatives. But the international status quo will not change until a key player, like Colombia, gives the first step.
Read MorePoliticians, reading and literature
SHOULD A POLITICIAN, especially if he/she aspires to be president, be a good reader, even an intellectual?
Read MoreAbuses of the Secretariat for Mobility
The story I relate below happened in real life. You judge if I am wrong in saying that the Secretariat ofr Mobility committed an abuse.
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