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Angela Alvarez is a natural-born storyteller, her latest venture of the podcast: "When Home is a Foreign Word" is testament to this. In fact, there's no way we can keep on topic - is there ever one? - and we enjoy a far-reaching conversation, a great deal of laughs about life and death in Colombia (the funny side), the origins of the word syphilis, identity and witchcraft.
Angela states, when we discuss what it means to be an immigrant, "humans are reliable narrators of their own existence," and then we plunge into a conversation which I count as one of my favourite in over 500 episodes broadcast on the Colombia Calling podcast.
The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. Her Substack can be found: https://harte.substack.com/
Please consider supporting our podcast: www.patreon.com/colombiacalling
Tune in, you'll not regret it. -
As the United States prepares for its pivotal presidential election on November 5, 2024, we join our friends at Colombia Risk Analysis to discuss their new report: "The Future of U.S.-Colombia Partnership: Impact of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election" which delves into how the election results—whether a second term for former President Donald Trump or a first term for current Vice President Kamala Harris—will reshape U.S.-Colombia relations and influence Colombia's political and economic landscape.
We discuss the potential scenarios and outcomes with Sergio Guzman and Amelia Thoreson of Colombia Risk Analysis.
The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart.
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With a hypnotising mix of charming coastal cities, world-class cuisine, and lush landscapes hiding immense biodiversity have made the bicoastal country of Colombia one of the most sought-after destinations in the Americas. We speak to Simon Faulkner, Lecturer in International Tourism Management at University College Birmingham about regenerative tourism, how it differs to sustainable tourism and where Colombia fits into this.
Regenerative Travel is a relatively new term in travel circles that aims to go beyond sustainable travel practices. While sustainable travel focuses on minimising negative impacts and returning a net neutrality on the environment and local communities, Regenerative Travel aims to have a positive and transformative effect on those environments and communities.
Put simply, the core principle of Regenerative Travel urges travellers to have a positive impact by giving back more than they take from the destinations they visit.
The term was born during the Covid pandemic, when locations typically overtouristed began to see improvements in key indicators like air quality, and less pollution.
The question was soon posed - how can these improvements continue when travellers return? How can a destination benefit yet still incentivise the protection of natural and cultural assets AND still provide an enriching experience for the traveller?
Enter, Regenerative Travel.
The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. Please check out her Substack: https://harte.substack.com
Tune in! -
Nadya Ortiz is Colombia's first woman chess grandmaster. Hailing from humble origins in Ibague, chess became a conduit for her success. By succeeding in the chess world, she won a scholarship to study at university in Texas, later another one to go to Purdue and then by virtue of her excellence in computer science now works for Apple in San Francisco.
We hear Nadya's story on episode 533 of the Colombia Calling podcast. As a woman from the provinces, playing an unpopular sport, she made it all happen for her. We discuss her life, politics in Colombia and much more in what is an inspirational story.
The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. Please support her Substack: https://substack.com/@ehart
and the Colombia Calling podcast: https://patreon.com/colombiacalling -
Hallo and welcome to another episode of Colombia Calling - I’m Emily Hart and this week I’ll be chatting to Nubia Rojas about journalism at war – how journalists fell victim to, but also took part in, Colombia’s civil conflict.
Nubia is a journalist and researcher who has worked on conflicts across the world both as a correspondent and an analyst, working for the United Nations, Doctors without Borders, and Oxfam, as well as numerous Colombian outlets.
Most recently, Nubia authored a chapter of the final report of Colombia’s Truth Commission – a historic publication which was the outcome of an unprecedented investigation into the causes and consequences of Colombia's internal armed conflict – the final report was the result of nearly four years’ work and tens of thousands of interviews.
Today we’ll be chatting about Nubia’s chapter – digging in to the historical and present relationship between journalism and Colombia’s political elites, paramilitary PR, rebel elites, corporate takeovers and more.
Please sign up for my substack: https://substack.com/@ehart and support the podcast: https://www.patreon.com/colombiacalling -
"From Ambition to Stagnation: the road ahead for Petro's administration," is the title of a new report by Eitan Casaverde and Sergio Guzman of Colombia Risk Analysis and this is what we are discussing this week on the podcast.
There are questions that abound:
Is the Colombian system structured for radical change?
What have been the success stories of the Petro presidency so far?
What is this strategic ambiguity towards the situation in Venezuela?
Who will be Petro's successor?
How is the list of potential candidates for the elections in 2026 shaping up?
And, hear the Colombia Briefing by Emily Hart and subscribe to her Substack: https://harte.substack.com
Support us: https://www.patreon.com/colombiacalling -
The Latin American Review of Books – LatAmRoB – has been publishing online continuously since 2005 as a small, independent website based in the UK that reviews books and films. And we are very fortunate to have founder Gavin O'Toole here on the Colombia Calling podcast this week.
The Latin American Review of Books is commercially and politically independent and value, above all sharp writing and commentary that brings to a wider audience knowledge, understanding and insight about all things Latin American.
So, this week we chat about literary offerings from the region, goings on in Venezuela and Colombia, Boris Johnson's bizarre trip to Venezuela and much much more.
Check out the website: https://www.latamrob.com
Support the Colombia Briefing and Emily Hart on Substack: https://substack.com/@ehart
and
support us: www.patreon.com/colombiacalling -
I’m Emily Hart and today, I’ll be speaking to two experts and campaigners on Colombia’s San Agustín Statues – getting into what they might mean and why they matter, as well as how so many of them ended up not in Colombia, and how important it is to get them back here.
In San Agustín, Huila, hundreds of ancient megalithic statues have been found, the region’s largest collection of pre-Hispanic sculptures, dating back to the 9th century BC. Some are human-ish figures, but with fangs and wings, others are simian, some combination of animal and man - some are carved in situ, others onto single rock slabs 15 feet tall – the statues both invite and totally defy interpretation and theories about them abound, from burial rights, shamans, and psychedelic drugs to aliens.
These statues were made by the Sculptor People, the Pueblo Escultor, an enigmatic community we are still trying to decipher. Surprisingly little is known about the people who created the mounds in which most of the statues were found – what they represent is much-debated, as is their purpose – the community also disappeared, moved away, or simply stopped sculpting well before the Spanish arrived – there are competing explanations as to why.
Though there are hundreds of statues at archaeological sites around San Agustín, there are statues missing – in the 20th Century, European institutions and individuals removed statues from sites – many ended up in museums in cities like London and Berlin, others in private collections. But the movement to get this cultural patrimony back is gaining momentum – the current president has taken up the fight and hundreds of artefacts have been returned to Colombia over the last two years.
It’s a conversation which has been growing across the world – and the clamour from Colombia is being heard.
The Colombian government has now officially requested the return of a number of these statues held in Germany, a big step for the campaign group to achieve the return the statues to their place of origin.
There is, of course, also a San Agustin statue in the possession of the British Museum, which has not responded to attempts at communication.
So, today on the show I have David Dellenback and Martha Gil, who are key to this campaign and will be telling us about the academic and ethical issues around repatriation, as well as digging into the history and lore of the statues themselves.
David is originally from the US but has lived in San Agustín since the 1970s, author of the book ‘The Statues of the Pueblo Escultor’, along with the most complete set of diagrams and studies of the statuary, their measurements, locations, and features.
Martha Gil is a guide and cultural activist, as well as translator of David’s book into Spanish.
The two, who are married, have presented the study, as well as an illustrated campaign book about the repatriation of these spiritual and cultural artefacts at Bogota’s international bookfair, the FilBo.
We are going to be talking about the ancient mysteries of the Pueblo Escultor and their megalithic language – as well as about the modern history of plunder and theft – and whether these perplexing statues might one day soon, be coming home. -
“Petro.” Watch the documentary by Sean Mattison and Trevor Martin following Gustavo Petro during his run for the presidency of Colombia in 2022.
"Petro" begins in September 2021 at the launch event of Gustavo Petro's campaign. The documentary makers enjoy unprecedented access to Colombia's most charismatic and polarizing politician, the film follows the highs and lows of the Colombian progressive movement and Petro's historic campaign for president through Election Day.
On the Colombia Calling podcast this week, we speak to Sean Mattison about the documentary, how it came to be, what Petro is like behind the scenes and with his family, why the president is so polarizing and accusations of propaganda.
Check out: https://seanmattison.com -
From the author of El Narco, Ioan Grillo presents us with a searing investigation into the enormous black market for firearms, essential to cartels and gangs in the drug trade and contributing to the epidemic of mass shootings.
The gun control debate is revived with every mass shooting. But far more people die from gun deaths on the street corners of inner city America and across the border as Mexico’s powerful cartels battle to control the drug trade. Guns and drugs aren’t often connected in our heated discussions of gun control-but they should be.
In Ioan Grillo’s groundbreaking new work of investigative journalism, he shows us this connection by following the market for guns in the Americas and how it has made the continent the most murderous on earth.
On the Colombia Calling podcast, we discuss the arms trade, the drugs trade, the so-called war on drugs and how this all affects Colombia. Grillo is one of the foremost experts on these topics as he is based in Mexico and appears in the world's press reporting on said issues. Check out his website: https://www.ioangrillo.com
The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. Sign up for her Substack: https://substack.com/@ehart -
On the Colombia Calling podcast this week, we welcome back both Ervin Liz and Simon Winograd and discuss Native Root, their coffee-growing company based in rural Colombia.
Check out the page: www.nativerootcoffee.com
Colombia, the land of coffee...but which coffee should you choose? My advice - completely uncalled for and unwarranted - is to do a little bit of research and source a coffee where the money returns to the growers, with no middle-men and enables social change.
This is where Native Root comes in. I have had the pleasure of hosting both Ervin Liz and Simon Winograd of Native Root on the Colombia Calling podcast on various previous occasions. What I love about Native Root is that it is a family-run outfit, based in Tierradentro, Cauca and between 12 and 30 per cent of all proceeds return to the community.
This is an important detail, as Cauca is one of the most complex and conflicted departments in Colombia at the moment. There are warring criminal groups, splinter guerrilla groups, dissident groups and others, all vying for control of this strategic region for the transhipment and production of illicit drugs, people trafficking, arms trafficking, extortion and more. Who suffers, the regular people on the ground, the indigenous communities, the farmers, the smallholders and people just trying to make ends meet.
We discuss this and more as we enjoy an engaging conversation about the world of coffee, the coffee market and Colombian politics and conflict.
Check out: NATIVE ROOT
Online purchases can be made WITHIN COLOMBIA directly on their website, for orders overseas, contact them via Email or WhatsApp as they ship everywhere.
The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart.
https://substack.com/@ehart -
On the Colombia Calling podcast this week we discuss Pablo Escobar's influence on Colombian football in the early 1990's with David Arrowamith, author of a new book:
"Narcoball: Love, Death and Football in Escobar's Colombia."
In a far-reaching conversation David and I discuss Pablo Escobar, his role in politics, the reality of Colombia in the 1990's, Colombian football in general and much more.
If you like the true crime genre and have a smattering of interest in football, then this one's for you!
Buy the book: https://a.co/d/0hZPJRF0
Support the podcast: www.patreon.com/colombiacalling
Sign up to Emily Hart's Substack: https://substack.com/@ehart -
Where is Matavén, you may well ask? So, this week on the Colombia Calling podcast, we discuss an award-winning community tourism project with people of the Piaroa indigenous community and the Colombian Project. Joining us on the podcast is Camilo Ortega, product manager of the Colombian Project.
The Matavén Jungle is the fourth largest Indigenous Reservation in Colombia, with an extension of 1,849,613 hectares and located in the north-eastern area of the department of Vichada, between the Vichada rivers to the north, Orinoco to the east, Guaviare to the south and the Chupave canal to the west.
Today it constitutes one of the last refuges of the transition forest between the Colombian Amazon and Orinoquía region. This territory has a great diversity of landscapes and different habitats such as floodplains, large stone hills of the Guyanese shield, or open savannah areas in the middle of its jungles. Its name is due to the Matavén river, which crosses this extensive region in a west-east direction.
Approximately 10,500 indigenous people live in the Matavén Jungle, distributed among the Sikuani, Piapoco, Piaroa, Pinave, Curripaco, and Cubeo tribes. This characteristic of multiculturalism that exists in the reservation makes this region a space of great importance for the conservation of the existing natural and cultural heritage.
https://www.colombianproject.com
www.patreon.com/colombiacalling -
We are incredibly fortunate to speak to Jenny Pearce, Research Professor at the Latin America and Caribbean Centre (LACC) at LSE about her current research which focuses particularly on the role of Elites and Violence in Latin America.
She worked with young researchers in Colombia, led by Juan David Velasco (Lecturer, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana), on elites and the Peace Accord.
Together they designed a database to better define and differentiate elites in Colombia and the families behind them. Learn about the power wielded by a few families and how their far-reaching influence defines Colombia's wealth and politics.
The research is funded by the Instituto Colombo-Alemán para la Paz (CAPAZ). Read the original report here:
https://www.lse.ac.uk/lacc/assets/documents/PEARCE-VELASCO-ELITES-Y-PODER-EN-COLOMBIA-1991-2022.pdf
The Colombia Briefing is reported by journalist Emily Hart: https://harte.substack.com
and please consider supporting the Colombia Calling podcast: https://www.patreon.com/colombiacalling -
The aim of "Colombia at a Crossroads" is designed not only to focus on Colombia’s politics and history, but also to celebrate her culture and society and this is the reason it’s divided into several parts and includes contributed essays by experts in their fields.
This is not a guide book, nor a travelogue and nor is it a list of dry facts, but it has a heartbeat as the author has been located in Colombia for almost two decades.
Writing this has been a multi-year challenge and the hope is to create something which is more of a summary of Colombia, something with a pulse.
In keeping with the idea that this book has a “heartbeat”, there are chapters and essays contributed by: Adriaan Alsema, Nicolas Forsans, Andrei Gomez Suarez and Peter Watson amongst others. There are also collections including forgotten histories in Colombia, curiosities, further anecdotes and some articles which have been published in the mainstream press as well, all of which add to the colour and depth of the book.
The publication of this book has been delayed due to the election of Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president and "the Last South American Guerrilla", it makes sense to begin with an overview of his first year and a half in power 2022-2024.
A word of advice to the reader is warranted as well. It’s a herculean task to separate Colombia and Colombians from the conflict and this makes writing a book of this nature a dangerous venture. One must remember and be very aware that the violence has spread through every level of Colombian society and in every corner of the country is of course not without its consequences.
Available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Colombia-Crossroads-Historical-Social-Biography/dp/B0D3681YKG/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2KW73AWMCF36Y&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Oqkbz2vU-PEZFkC6yphpZFgV8BTm3Sodyi2IC9jJ-RnGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.y1QoKOQKQZfeQEUEaEyZFqi2ezVjLsdwkAk31RJVCKI&dib_tag=se&keywords=colombia+at+a+crossroads&qid=1718056872&sprefix=colombia+at+a+%2Caps%2C259&sr=8-1 -
This week on the Colombia Calling podcast we enjoy a frank and flowing conversation with author Linda Moore about her latest novel, "Five Days in Bogotá."
We talk about the book, her time in Bogotá and Colombia, what inspired the book and the charming anecdote of when she met the famed Colombian writer, Gabriel García Márquez.
Hear how Linda Moore, a "recovering gallery owner" came to write this novel and her thoughts on Colombia, Bogotá and literature.
https://lindamooreauthor.com/bio/
The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart: https://substack.com/@ehart
and please support us at: www.patreon.com/colombiacalling -
On Episode 520 of the Colombia Calling podcast, we revisit episode 396 and once again get to discuss the disease of leishmaniasis in the context of the Colombian armed conflict and post conflict period with post doctoral fellow Lina Beatriz Pinto-Garcia.
Pinto Garcia's ethnographic monograph explores how the Colombian armed conflict and a vector-borne disease called cutaneous leishmaniasis are inextricably connected and mutually constitutive.
The stigmatization of the illness as “the guerrilla disease” or the "subversive disease," is reinforced by the state’s restriction on access to antileishmanial medicines, a measure that is commonly interpreted as a warfare strategy to affect insurgent groups.
Situated at the intersection between STS (Science and Technology Studies) and critical medical anthropology, her work draws on multi-sited field research conducted during the peace implementation period after the agreement reached by the Colombian government and FARC, the oldest and largest guerrilla organization in Latin America.
It engages not only with the stigmatization of leishmaniasis patients as guerrilla members and the exclusionary access to antileishmanial drugs but also with other closely related aspects that constitute the war-shaped experience of leishmaniasis in Colombia.
This work illuminates how leishmaniasis has been socially, discursively, and materially constructed as a disease of the war, and how the armed conflict is entangled with the realm of public health, medicine, and especially pharmaceutical drugs.
The problems associated with coca cultivation and leishmaniasis cannot be dissociated from cross-border events such as forced disappearance and the massive migration of Venezuelans who arrive in Colombia looking for survival alternatives, including coca production.
Tune in and hear about the Diseased Landscapes project.
https://www.insis.ox.ac.uk/diseased-landscapes
Please consider supporting us www.patreon.com/colombiacalling -
Venezuelans go to the polls to vote for a president on 28 July 2024, in what will not be free and fair elections, this much is certain.
Here on the Colombia Calling podcast, we understand the necessity and importance of informing our listeners further about what is taking place and is in the news from sister and neighbouring countries to Colombia, and Venezuela is no exception.
Ana Milagros Parra is renowned Venezuelan political scientist and also co-host of the excellent: "A Medias" podcast, a Spanish language broadcast discussing all things related to her home country.
Most importantly, Parra has remained in Venezuela to continue to educate and work towards a more just future.
But, having been described by Venezuelan strongman, Diasdado Cabello as: "more dangerous to Venezuela than a shooting in an elevator," she has to watch what she says.
However, luckily for us, she feels more empowered in English and tells us how things are currently in her country.
There is a movement towards freedom in Venezuela, the opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez will unlikely win the elections, due to a likely dirty tricks campaign by the regime of Nicolas Maduro overseeing a criminal state, but this is the first time that the opposition has been organised, properly mobilised and leading the polls. This is largely due to the former candidacy of Maria Corina Machado, disqualified from running under spurious circumstances in 2023.
As Parra says in our interview: "modern dictatorships dress in the shirt of democracy," so we will see what happens in coming days and months.
Tune in for a fascinating conversation about Venezuelan politics.
The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. Check out her Substack: https://substack.com/@ehart -
On this week's episode we speak to Mario Pinzón in the studio and discuss his views on Colombia and Colombian politics from the perspective of a citizen living overseas in Canada.
We discuss why Pinzón left Colombia (under duress), what it meant to leave his country behind and how he came to understand the value of being Colombian.
Emily Hart reports the Colombia Briefing.
www.patreon.com/colombiacalling
https://substack.com/@ehart -
This week your host, Richard McColl moves over to the role of interviewee as friend and fellow immigrant to Colombia, Eric Tabone switches up responsibilities and fires questions at your friendly Briton.
This is your chance to learn a little bit more about journalist, hotelier and writer Richard McColl. Tabone leaves no stone unturned as he delves into McColl's tall tales from the past, all of them true.
Tropical illnesses in Brazil, how he arrived in Colombia, scrapes in the Rio favela of Mangueira, writing experience, how did he become a hotelier, why and how did he come to start publishing books? It's all here and more.
Thank you to Eric Tabone for his time and line of questioning.
The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart.
Feel free to support the Colombia Calling podcast www.patreon.com/colombiacalling - Visa fler
