Columns & Blogs

The Council of Bogotá recently approved a bill that would allow citizens to avoid the alternate-day travel system for the sum of approximately four million pesos per year. In short, the measure allows people to buy an exception so that they do not have to obey.

"Let's go people damnit, the people don't give up damnit" was sung for more than ten days during the Rural Workers and Ethnic Communities Summit.

The poor debate about the current rural worker and ethnic communities strike shows that we still do not take social movements seriously. The blindspot is not only Santos'– "such strike does not exist," he said during the marches in 2013– it extends to the media, the state, and the academy.

To read this post in English click here.

Hundreds of migrants travel invisibly through Latin America toward the United States and confront regressive migration policies in our continent.

The Inter-American Commision on Human Rights (IACHR) has been fundamental in the struggle for democracy in Latin America. In many cases it has been the only institution to which victims of violations could turn to when they found no response in their own countries, like the families of those that were forcefully disappeared by the Argentine and Chilean dictatorships, or the victims of political persecution in Venezuela, or the censored journalists in Ecuador. And IACHR has also played an essential role in crucial moments, like the resistance of Peruvians against Fujimori's dictatorship or the investigation about the missing Mexican students of Ayotzinapa. 

A few weeks ago the Human Sciences School of the National University paid homage to a group of profesors for their academic accomplishments. Among them was the sociologist Miguel Ángel Beltrán, who, as public opinion knows, was removed by the General Solicitor's Office, accused of collaborating with the FARC, and later convicted on appeal by the Superior Court of Bogotá.

The question that everyone asks here in Salento, Quindío is the same I have heard from mayors and social leaders in many municipalities: can the mining titles given by the National Government supercede local decisions to privilege other activities, like tourism, agriculture, or the conservation of water sources.

This past Thursday, the Constitutional Court held a public hearing about the statutory bill that authorizes a plebiscite to put the peace accords to a popular vote.

We should take advantage of this moment when Colombia begins to question the role of culture in peace building to consider its contributions more broadly.

It was a sunny day in February and the entrance to the family's house was decorated with a purple ribbon. In a room, Juanse's photos and the paintings his friends had given him were visible. We talked for hours with his parents and sister, we got to know Juanse through his family. Two weeks ago, they had had to say goodbye to their 14 year-old son and brother.

Throughout the 20th century, Colombia passed a series of agrarian laws that regulated ownership and exploitation of the land, one of the most important causes of armed conflict. The most important were Law 200 of 1936, Law 135 of 1961, Law 1 of 1968, and Law 160 of 1994. All were ambitious proposals. Nonetheless, the implementation of these laws has been a failure.

There are ways of fighting that are so atrocious that there is no ideal, no matter how noble it may be, that can justify them. Kidnapping of civilians is one of them and for this reason it is almost unanimously condemned by all Colombians. These kidnappings are also war crimes in international law, and, if they are committed in a generalized or systematic way, are also a crime against humanity.