NYT sits down with DMG

The New York Times sits down with David Murcia Guzmán, former CEO of the now defunct Colombian pyramid operation DMG.

A bit of context: The collapse of the DMG scheme effected hundreds of thousands of Colombian families. It was a huge financial scandal. The biggest twist in the tale is that many former DMG customers resent not the bogus operation but the Colombian government for shutting it down. Protests in support of Guzmán and DMG have been a common site here in the capital and, for the first time, President Alvaro Uribe has had to pay a dear political price in the public eye.

Check it out.

Evil Bananas

Besides containing the death place of El Libertador, Simon Bolivar, Santa Marta and the department of Magdalena have played host to other, more sinister moments in history. And indeed, the big cargo ships from the Dole Food Company I saw in the Port of Santa Marta carry more than bananas, they also bear the tragic legacy of worker exploitation and an internal conflict often fueled by the narrow interests of foreign corporations.

No where is this intricate connection better exemplified than in the sad tale of the United Fruit Company and what has become known as the Banana Massacre of 1928, which took place not far from Santa Marta. While the complete truth is lost to history, it is known that in 1928 workers on United Fruit Company's banana plantations outside of Santa Marta went on strike seeking better pay and working conditions. Eventually it grew into the largest labor demonstration yet seen in Colombia.

What happened next remains hotly debated. Government troops opened fire on the demonstrators and killed an untold number of them. Estimates range from 50 to more than 2,000 dead.

Some historians maintain that the troops were dispatched at the urging of the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá in order to protect United Fruit Company interests in the area. And indeed, the Wikipedia page on the incident documents a series of chilling telegrams between Washington and diplomats in Colombia during the ordeal.

It remains a bitter memory in the collective conscious of Colombia and was immortalized by the country's own Nobel Laureate, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in his novel 100 Years of Solitude.

One would hope that 80 years later such an insidious intersection of commercial interest and political violence would be a distant memory. However, the United Fruit Company, now known by the more family friendly Chiquita brand (with that pretty lady with the fruit on her head), has been accused of, and indeed plead guilty to, funding the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary group listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government and guilty of countless atrocities in Colombia.

Now, Chiquita had to cough up $25 million USD last year to the U.S. Department of Justice due to these activities. But for a company that has an estimated annual revenue of about $4 billion USD, that's pretty small bananas.

Any hope that the executives of the company, who were fully aware of the activities, will be extradited to Colombia to face criminal charges is...uh...a long shot to say the least.

Here's a tip. If you want to avoid facing justice for the human rights violations committed by your multi-national corporation, like former Chiquita CEO and person-who-gives-white-guys-a-bad-name Carl Lindner, Jr., it helps to be a top Republican party donor. Dropping $250,000 on George W. Bush's second inaguaration ain't bad either.

Apologies to anyone not able to enjoy a banana ever again. Don't blame the fruit, its not it's fault its delicious.

Wandering Gringo: Santa Marta from Tayrona to Taganga

I wrote below that the road to Santa Marta was not without its challenges, however, eventually we reached our destination. Santa Marta rests between the mountains of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Caribbean Sea. For the last five hundred years, the city has served Colombia both as an important port and as the capital of the department of Magdalena.

Home to just over 400,000 people, Santa Marta is one of Colombia's top destinations for fun-in-the-sun thanks to its warm climate, sunny beaches, and access to the natural magnificence of Tayrona National Park.

For tourists, there are two sides of the city to be experienced. El Rodadero (pictured above) is the modern, hyper-developed tourist center full of gringos, hotels, restaurants, and a stunning beach. However, if you are in the mood for more of a Spanish colonial vibe, the historic district of Santa Marta proper is currently experiencing a surge of redevelopment.

One need look no further than the port of Santa Marta to see why. What once was serving primarily as a point of export for bananas, coal, and other goodies from the interior is now also serving as a point of disembarkation for sun-burned, gringo tourists on large, modern cruise ships. Great for the local economy, which can use all the jobs it can get to tackle its serious poverty issues, but bad for the authentic feel. But hey, small price to pay for some much needed economic development, right?

In my opinion, the five hundred year old coastal city is beaten, hands down, by the ageless natural splendor of the Tayrona National Park (above). One of the most important nature preserves in the country with the second most biodiversity in the world. Tayrona is simply awesome.

There are a number of trails that lead you through dense rain forest out to the sea. If you don't want to walk, you can ride a donkey, which coincidentally is how they get all the beer out to the several low-key seaside restaurants that occupy a few of the beaches - an acceptable intrusion on the pristine scenery.

Once there you can camp out in a tent, cabin, or just a hammock. Not bad.

After two days of checking out the beaches in Tayrona, we headed to a small fishing village just outside the city, Taganga (right). While tourism appears to be the largest business nowadays, there are still plenty of fishing boats and nets dotting the beach - proof that there's still something worth catching out there (likely to feed hungry tourists.)

From the village you can hop on a boat for a ten minute ride to one of several nearby, secluded beaches. A great place to pass the day snorkeling, swimming, sunbathing, eating fresh fish, and drinking cerveza. Since we were there just after Christmas, one of the high seasons for tourism, it was a bit crowded, but still beats the Jersey Shore boardwalks.

In addition to its coastal attributes, Santa Marta is also famous as the death-place of Simon Bolivar, the much-revered Latin American liberator. La Quinta de San Pedro, the estate where he past in the 1830s, has been well maintained and is a great destination for history buffs.

Obama Baby in Cali

In Cali, on the Colombia Pacific coast, another positive reaction to Obama's ascendency to the Casa Blanca.

Natural Gas Vehicles, Part II

So at the end of my post on natural gas vehicles I asked the question, 'if there is a cheaper, cleaner source of fuel here - why all the dirty buses?' Needless to say, I've been bugging many of my Colombian friends about it as well. Well, word got round to a chemical engineer and I got some more information to share.

One specific question I had involved why Transmilenio wasn't developed with natural gas powered buses as the foundation. Her reply was that natural gas does not work as well for large vehicles for the same reasons that they use diesel instead of gasoline (that is higher energy per unit of volume, more torque, greater efficiency.)

So natural gas powered buses are not a feasible alternative and neither are expensive and short-lived exhaust filters, then what?

Apparently the easiest and most effective reform would involve eliminating low-grade diesel from Colombia's fuel inventory. Diesel fuel in Colombia contains 10 to 100 times more sulfur than the diesel used in the U.S. and Europe, known as 'Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD).' Sulfur acts as the nucleus for particulate matter, attracting other pollutants to form big gross balls of nastiness.

Wow! That seems like a straight-forward and achievable policy goal. Undoubtedly, ULSD is likely much more expensive than the dirty stuff. However, if you frame the analysis in terms of cost-savings via chronic disease prevention I would guess that it's a pretty good deal and worthy of government subsidy. Especially here, high in the Andes, particulate matter can cause all kinds of public health problems.

I'm not sure if an analysis has been done on this or not. But I'm going to find out!

People are happy here too...

Yesterday, I was on my way to sign-up for Spanish classes at the National University here. I was stopped by security on my way through the gate because they wanted to check the serial number on my laptop and give me a pass. When they asked for my name, drawing on my experience, I decided to show my ID instead of trying to pronounce my name.

"Soy un gringo," I said with pride.

"Obama!" one of the guards responded.

"Lo maximo! Estoy muy feliz," I replied (The best! I'm very happy!).

"Yo tambien," agreed another guard.

Secretary of State Clinton on Colombia

The United States' new top-diplomat discusses U.S.-Colombian relations during her confirmation hearing with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Semana with the coverage.

Natural Gas Powered Vehicles

Why do some cabs have gas cylinders in the trunk?

Initially, I was disappointed to learn that they aren't due to some underground, Fast and Furious, nitrous-boosted taxi cab racing scene - where the stakes are high and the fares are even higher. The reality is much more pedestrian, but interesting nonetheless.

According to the numbers I've seen around the web, Colombia has between 200,000 and 250,000 vehicles that run on compressed natural gas (CNG). These vehicles are served by just over 300 CNG filling stations around the country.

Natural gas has several advantages over gasoline as a motor vehicle fuel. While still emitting the chief global warming culprit carbon dioxide, natural gas burns much cleaner than gasoline or diesel. This characteristic is particularly attractive in higher altitude cities like Bogotá where, as I've mentioned, particulate matter can be a real public health problem.

In addition to the environmental benefits, natural gas is also less expensive per unit of energy than gasoline. In Colombia, this is largely due to the four trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves the country contains - a decent domestic supply. All of these benefits can be attained by a relatively low-cost conversion of a regular gas engine. Pretty cool.

A lot of other countries also have well developed systems to take advantage of their natural gas reserves. In South America, Argentina and Brazil have a few million CNG powered vehicles in their respective fleets - as do countries in other parts of the world, like Italy.

What I would like to know is this: if there is a cheaper, cleaner alternative to gasoline and diesel fuel, why all the dirty buses?

Wandering Gringo: The Road to Santa Marta

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While I was away from Bogotá and the blog, I had the happy opportunity to hit the road and drive from Bucaramanga to Santa Marta on the Atlantic coast on Colombia's Highway 45.

Not unlike the ride from Bogotá, the going is slow, however, this time I was able to sit back and admire the scenic Colombian country side. Heading North out of Bucaramanga, I was struck at how quickly the urban landscape gave way to pure, cattle spotted countryside. The terrain immediately outside of the city is still mountainous, providing a roller-coaster like ride zipping from vista to vista of small farms nestled in the steep valleys.

After about an hour and a half, you come down out of the cordillera onto a seemingly endless plan. The altitude change is made inescapably clear by the big jump in the temperature from about 75 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

Initially, the land appeared to be mostly used for grazing cattle, however, as we proceeded further North into the department of Cesar, we entered a large oil palm plantation. I'm told there are tens of thousands of hectares of oil palm being grown in this region. Colombia is the fifth largest producer of palm oil in the world and the department of Cesar is the number two palm oil producing department in the country.

Indeed, oil palm is being touted by the government as a sustainable alternative to coca cultivation - one that could even be used to produce biofuels. However, several human rights organizations have said this economic lure has led paramilitary groups and businesses to displace and/or prevent the return of people living on potentially productive palm oil land in the Northwest section of the country (see BBC report on this issue.)

Shortly after passing through the palm plantation, I encountered another unfortunate obstacle to swift passage along the highway: el trancón or traffic jam. This particular traffic jam was caused by a group of motorcyclists who were holding up traffic as a means of protesting the recent traffic related deaths of two fellow cyclists (the police we spoke to said they were drunk at the time).

Trucks and vacationers headed to and from the coast were backed up for a dozen or more kilometers in each direction.


We were stopped for more than two hours, but luckily we had beer.


And others had hammocks.


In addition to agribusiness and moto-protests, we passed through a dozen or more small towns. Unlike the highways in the U.S. that bypass every town, Highway 45 in Colombia passes right through the middle of each town, forcing drivers to slow down with speed bumps. And at every speed bump, there is someone looking to sell you something - fried pork skin, bottled water, ice cream.

Indeed, in many of these towns the economic outlook is very bleak and the holiday traffic provides a much needed source of income. Cinder-block houses with dirt floors and thatched roofs were a common sight. A far cry from the modern shopping malls filled with luxury goods on the north side of Bogotá.

Monolingual Survival Guide

Here's the first installment of what I hope will be an ongoing collaboration with the English-speaking Colombia dweller's best friend: Colombia Reports.

Check it out.

One for the road...

Some human rights groups are not too happy about Bush awarding Colombian President Alvaro Uribe the United States highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom. Bush thinks Uribe's doin' a heckuva job fighting terrorists, that freedom hater Hugo Chavez, and those mean guys who made Bush do all that cocaine back at Yale (gratuitous Bush-bashing yes...but only eight days to go!)

Of course, to keen oberservers the integrity of the Medal of Freedom was long ago trounced upon by this administration. Look no further than fellow recipient George 'Slam Dunk' Tenet - former CIA director and key Iraq War intelligence fucker-upper.

Apologies for the slight deviation from the stated purpose of this blog...back to business.

Barriers to HIV Treatment in Colombia

Here's a good look at how Colombia's decentralized health care system impacts the provision of HIV/AIDS related care and treatment (thanks to Adriaan from Colombia Reports for sending this my way). Like many other places in the world, men who have sex with men and sex workers are among those at the highest risk for acquiring HIV in Colombia, however, the armed conflict shows its face in this arena too, with an increased prevalence among those who are displaced by violence.

Making the Case

The L.A. Times sits down with the Colombian Minister of Defense, Juan Manuel Santos, to talk about the future of Plan Colombia under an Obama administration facing a trillion dollar budget deficit.

But really, I doubt Plan Colombia is going anywhere. What's a few hundred mil awash in a trillion dollar ocean? Cynical interpretation: its a small price to pay for one of the only Latin American-related talking points the Mesopotamian-minded U.S. foreign-policy universe can churn out these days. I think a lot of U.S. pols are less worried about the dubious merits of the program than having something to talk about other than Cuba or Hugo Chavez.

Here's hoping the Obama administration will become more engaged and shake things up a bit. We'll see.

Wandering Gringo: Bucaramanga

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Like many other cities, Bogotá almost completely shuts down and empties out near the end of the calendar year. Business comes to a stand still and many people travel to spend the holidays with their families in other parts of the country. Not wanting to miss out on this experience, I was thrilled to be invited to spend a few weeks with my girlfriend's family in Bucaramanga, capital of the department of Santander, about 200 miles north of Bogotá.

Now getting from Bogotá to Bucaramanga isn't exactly like driving from Chicago to Indianapolis. Those accustomed to the high-speed effiency of the Eisnehower Interstate System of the U.S. may find the road system here a bit, shall we say, challenging. All told, it takes about 8 hours of winding your way down through the Andes to reach Bucaramanga from Bogotá. I took an overnight bus, which means trying to sleep while the hyper-aggressive operators try to take the corners like an Indycar driver. It was a surreal experience and I felt like someone who was sleep deprvied after hours of interrogation, ready to confess to anything. However, for $30 you really can't beat it.

The insanity started to melt away as the sun began to rise and I got my first look at Chicamocha Canyon, a spectacular natural wonder that must be traversed in order to reach Bucaramanga from the South. Arriving at the bottom of the canyon, you slowly start to wind your way back up towards the city - about an hour further down the road. Here is where I first noticed the big change in altitude from Bogotá as evidenced by the more lush, tropical flora. Bucaramanga is about a 1700 meter drop from the capital city - resting just below 1000 meters (about 3,100 feet in gringo reckoning).

La Ciudad Bonita (the Pretty City), Bucaramanga is home to about 600,000 people, with four adjoining municipalities bringing the total metro population to around one million residents. This makes it the seventh largest metro area in the country but about the fifth most important economically. Despite dramatic growth in the second half of the 20th century, the city maintains the laid back atmosphere of a small town with people stopping to chat with friends on the quiet streets. It was a real breath of fresh air from the chaotic Bogotáno lifestyle.

And indeed, the air is fresher. The lower alititude makes particulate matter from desiel enginges much less of an issue. What is more, the weather is simply stunning. An average temperature of 23 degrees Celsius (73 Farhenheit) with moderate humidity and plenty of sunshine in December made my visit extremely plesant. Also known as the 'City of Parks,' Bucaramanga is very walkable with a bustling commercial center full of shops and restaurants.

Just super.

Happy New Year - The Blog is Back!

A very happy new year to one and all! I apologize for the lack of notice regarding my holiday hiatus, however, its a new year and I resolve never to leave the readers of Gringo in Colombia hanging again.

Can we still be friends?

Good, because we have a lot to catch up on. During my month absence I had the opportunity to experience the holiday season Colombian-style, travel to other parts of the country, each all sorts of weird things, and survive some kind of crazy jungle virus. I'm going to try and cover all of this and more in the next few days before pressing onward into 2009.

To the future!