Although the spark that ignited Colombiaâs protests on April 28 was ostensibly tax reform, many are on the streets for reasons that stretch much further back in the countryâs history. As the protests continue for a third week, many are asking not âwhy now?â but âhow did it take this long?â according to Ãscar Almario GarcÃa, a historian who teaches at the National University of Colombia.
Classism and racism against indigenous groups are âan open and bleeding wound,â he said in a telephone interview with EL PAÃS. âWhat we are hearing now are demands that come from centuries of denial and exclusion. The call to recognize distinct forms of racism has been repressed in this country.â
Reckoning with the lethal violence in Colombia s prolonged wave of protests CNN 1 hr ago
How much pain can one bear in the fight for a worthy cause?
That question burned in the eyes of Luis Fernando Barbosa, the father of Dylan B Lion , a 27-year-old hip hop artist who died in Bogota in the early hours of May 8, after a collision with an armored vehicle of the Colombian anti-riot police unit, ESMAD.
Preliminary reports from the investigative police suggest Barbosa had lost control of his motorcycle as he was overtaking the police vehicle, and eventually found himself in its path. His friends, along with human rights organizations seeking a role in post-conflict Colombia reconstruction, don t believe this version of events and accuse the police of murder. The Ombudsman s office told CNN that authorities are investigating the man s death.
Botanist Risking his life to preserve nature’s memory
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David SALAZAR -
For the last three decades, botanist Julio Betancur has braved minefields and penetrated deep into jungle territory infested with drug traffickers and armed gangs in a bid to document Colombia’s rich biodiversity.
Colombia is second only to Brazil for its incredible range of fauna and flora. Armed only with a notebook and gardening shears, Betancur has taken considerable risks to collect plant cuttings.
He’s contributed four per cent of the 600,000 samples in the University of Colombia’s herbarium.
There have been close calls including “a slightly violent” encounter with a group of drug runners Betancur and his colleagues came across in the jungle.
Colombia s best-known drug trafficker, Pablo Escobar, may have been killed in 1993 but his influence continues to be felt in the country, sometimes in unexpected ways. Hippopotamuses brought to Colombia as part of Escobar s private zoo at his ranch, Hacienda Napoles, have bred so successfully that there is serious concern over their environmental impact and human safety, according to a new study by researchers at Mexican and Colombian universities. The hippos have spread out from their original home, some 100 miles east of the city of Medellin, in the Antioquia department, dispersing around the Magdalena river basin as their population continues to grow steadily.