Columns & Blogs

An intersection of four streets is closed off to cars in Barranquilla. A cumbiamba is installed in the center. A wheel of people dancing cumbia of all colors moves around it. Hips move. Foreheads sweat. Skirts wave amid the remains of a December breeze.

Probably the book of the year in social sciences was the text by Thomas Piketty, Capital in the 21st Century, which in certain aspects is a call for egalitarian politics. The Piketty's central thesis is well-known as many have commented on his book and as such my analysis is very short.

29 years after the facts, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights released a sentence in which it found the Colombian State responsible for the military operation for the retaking of the Courthouse.

The year ended and the Senate plenary did not advance the debate about medicinal marijuana. In the session Monday 15 December everything seemed favorable for Senator Galán's bill.

The countries with British influence celebrated today the 26th of December Boxing Day.

Much work lies ahead for the thawing of the long freeze between the U.S. and Cuba. Part of this work, if it is to succeed, will involve a broader and deeper assessment of Cuba in all its social and political complexity, and an imagining of what a 21st century relationship between Cuba and the U.S. might look like

Holiday meals provide us an opportunity to demand more information from the food industry.

José Manuel Acevedo, who seems to be very well informed, explained in a recent column in Semana.com that a proposal is circulating for a type of blanket amnesty law, that would be looked at by many political leaders, including the president and the attorney general.

Last Sunday the paper published an article by James Robinson where he argued that it is not possible to modernize the country with programs of land redistribution, as the negotiations in Havana seek to do.

With the prohibition of fracking in New York state, announces just a few days ago, three things become clear for the debate in Colombia and other countries.

Colombia counts with the necessary tools to confront the enormous impunity facing sexual violence in the armed conflict. It is time to put them into practice.

Rather than addressing inequality, the dismantling of race conscious and affirmative action policies in the US has further entrenched it, leading to increased poverty, lower home ownership, and lower university enrollment of black Americans.