Coauthored by Angélica María Cuevas

The idea calling for a second phase of the El Cercado dam in the Riego Ranchería District of La Guajira (a Department in Northeastern Colombia), has revived the indigenous group Wiwa's concerns. They belive that, for a second time, their opinion has not been considered in the government's plans to authorize, since this year, the construction of preliminary public works for the construction of damns and irrigation systems in the Districts of Ranchería and San Juan del Cesar. These works, according to Ariel Borbón Ardila, head of the Colombian Institute for Rural Development (Incoder, by its name in Spanish), are estimated to cost $546 Billion Colombian Pesos (about $227.5 Million U.S. dollars). 

Peace, according to the FARC, is basically a political process that should remove the "legal vine" with which some would like to choke the life out of it. César Gaviria has weighed in similarly ashis idea of "transitional justice for everyone" is not legal but political: the ex-President thinks of it as a "collective political decision," that cannot be put off by international law.

One time I found myself with a foreign colleague that moved to Colombia. I asked how he was doing and he said he was doing very well, that he loved traveling through the country and enjoy the diversity of climates, fruits, and landscapes.