Colombia Calling - The English Voice in Colombia

Hello and welcome to another episode of Colombia Calling – I’m Emily Hart and this week we have something a little bit different – the radical linguistic technique which is building peace - personal and political - all over the world, and the inspiring woman bringing it to Colombia.    This week, I have with me Camila Reyes Azcuénaga – the founder of Resuena, the organisation bringing the school of thought known as ‘Nonviolent Communication’ (NVC) to Colombia, a way of structuring our thoughts and communications to prevent and heal conflict, breaching the divides of culture, politics, and identity.    Developed in the late 20th Century by psychologist Marshall Rosenberg, NVC now has trainers and centres in more than 60 countries around the world. This simple technique aims to humanise the ‘other’, and forge communication, collaboration, and trust – from our daily life, to our work, and well beyond.    Camila studied law and political science and worked with indigenous communities and landmines here in Colombia, but felt the country needed a more fundamental change than she could achieve with that work. She left Colombia in search of something which would shift the paradigm of violence and conflict entirely.    After stumbling across Nonviolent Communication training during Occupy Wall Street, she felt she’d found what she was looking for – she spent years training and finally returned to Colombia, founding Resuena in 2011, running free workshops for years.   Resuena has now trained thousands, from institutions like the United Nations, the Truth Commission, and the Search Unit for Missing Persons, to grassroots social leaders in conflict-stricken areas of Colombia’s South-west. The group helps people to navigate interpersonal relationships and conflicts, as well as maintain cohesion within movements and groups.    Through guided discussions, participants are trained to identify the patterns of behaviour that divide them and weaken their collective campaigns and processes, and then to replace them with a focus on acting from common ground. This year, Resuena also launched the ‘Sowers of Nonviolent Communication’ network – so that trainees can go into their own communities and pass on the training.    So today, Camila is going to give us a masterclass in these techniques and their underlying ideas, talking us through the four steps – observation, feeling, need, and request – along with some everyday examples. She’ll then tell us about her amazing work in some of Colombia’s most difficult contexts, and why this work is so necessary not just for the country – but for all of us.

On Episode 541 of the Colombia Calling podcast, and given the current COP16 in Cali, we revisit our conversation with special guest Ole Reidar Bergum - Counsellor for Climate and Forests/ Consejero de Clima y Bosque - Royal Norwegian Embassy in Bogotá, who joined us to speak in-depth and openly about the tragedy of the rampant deforestation taking place at the moment in Colombia. We discuss the causes and results and what the Norwegian government, along with other collaborators, are trying to do to prevent an area the size of Bogotá being deforested each year. The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. Be sure to check out her substack: https://substack.com/@ehart

Colombia stands out for its excellent healthcare and is rapidly becoming another destination for medical healthcare. Thinking of a tummy tuck, a hair implant, some dentistry or more? Take a look at the options, go through a reputable agency and take a holiday at the same time. This week, we speak to Kirby Braddell of Medical Tourism Packages, to talk about what is offered in Colombia. https://www.medicaltourismpackages.com/ The Colombia Briefing is reported by Grace Brennan.

This week we get on the line to Naresh Dahal in Kathmandu to compare and contrast the tourism practices and politics in both Nepal and Colombia. Naresh is local travel specialist in Nepal and can assist with customising and tailor-making a tour and holiday suiting your travel needs, so he’s a man in the know. Whilst the countries may seem incredibly different from one another, we discover there to be some striking similarities as well. Join us for a pleasant conversation from Bogota to Kathmandu.

"South London has a serious problem with knife crime." This week we discuss how Henry May arrived in Colombia and ended up being a mover and shaker in the education world here. After a life-changing experience involving a tragedy relating to one of his students in South London, Henry questioned his life choices in education, leading him to consider other avenues. Read on to find out more about Henry. Henry May is a Social Entrepreneur from the UK currently living in Colombia where he currently serves as the CEO of Coschool, an education business focused on Social & Emotional learning in K-12 education. Henry has been recognised as a “rising star” of Colombian business by Dinero magazine and as “The teacher closing the inequality gap” by El Tiempo newspaper. Coschool is a social enterprise in Colombia that designs and implements methodologies for developing social & emotional skills in youth & teachers in the post-conflict country Henry's Coschool seeks to generate an impact on people through its programs, strengthening socio-emotional skills, contributing to their well-being and empowering them as agents of change. Coschool was selected by HundrED as one of the top 100 innovative global organizations that are transforming education through their proposals in 2020 and 2021. Located in Finland, HundrED seeks to spread ambitious and pedagogically sound innovations. In Latin America, only 8 projects were chosen, 2 of them from Colombia. Coschool was selected for being a pioneer and for its ability to create a scalable impact.  https://coschool.co The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. 

Petro's first two years as president have been marked by tension between him and various media sectors. He has repeatedly denigrated journalism critical of his government, labelling those responsible as “liars” and “scumbags” who are just trying to undermine his administration.   Petro’s attacks began after the Bogotá-based news magazine Cambio published an article by political reporter Maria Jimena Duzán on 23 June in which she raised questions about the possibly fraudulent manner in which the brother of the president’s chief of staff had obtained public contracts.    The president responded on his X account by branding Duzán’s reporting as “Mossad journalism” and suggesting that she was involved in a disinformation campaign designed to hurt his government. Duzán said she received threats after this post by the president.   Since the start of the year, Reporters Without Borders has registered two journalists killed in Colombia in connection with out their reporting. while FLIP (Colombian Foundation for Press Freedom) has registered 330 other press freedom violations, including 133 cases of threats, 43 verbal attacks and 11 physical attacks. Of these attacks, 81 were perpetrated by government officials and 69 by armed groups, which highlights the complexity of combating this growing phenomenon in Colombia, one of the most dangerous countries in Latin America for journalists.   In Colombia, the media confront opposing realities. In the nation’s capital there is virtually no censorship or threats against the media. However, Colombia’s regional media outlets face many pressures, according to the FLIP based in Bogotá. In the last four years, FLIP has documented an annual average of 200 threats against journalists, a number that has been increasing steadily. 

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. 

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