Traveling in Colombia leaves very little time to sit at the keyboard and write. Instead, here is a quick video update that I shot today during a free moment in downtown Bogotá. Yes, a large American spent two minutes walking down a busy sidewalk talking to a little camera in his right hand. Surprisingly few people seemed to take any notice.
Note: I’ve been reminded that I make a misstatement in this video. While I believe that we’ll be producing the first full independent investigation of the “Integrated Action” model, I am not the first independent observer to visit the zone. That title goes to investigator and author Garry Leech, who filed an excellent report to his Colombia Journal website back in February. Apologies to Garry – it turns out it’s hard to ad lib when you’re walking down the peatonal by Avenida Jiménez.
Hello from Bogotá from Adam Isacson on Vimeo.
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Adam thanks a lot for running the risk of being bereft from your camera in downtown Bogota. Well in fact to say “nobody knows if uribe is running or not” is just a standard news headline, as he’s working real hard to botch in the constitution once more, to perpetuate his mandate what’s plain to see. Thanks again for showing us downtown Bogota.
April 23rd, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Yes, very gringo, but surprisingly engaging. Does that make this a vlog?
April 23rd, 2009 at 8:59 pm
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=e0506f6baedf0f1e8edabf853b8b12d6&tab=core&_cview=1
links on the right side lead to USAID strategy for Colombia.
April 24th, 2009 at 1:07 am
Hi Adam. I agree completely with Steve. You should think about being the gringo walking down the street more often, it could really compliment all your written stuff nicely..
April 24th, 2009 at 2:07 am
# The undead FTAA
Some observers believe, however, that multilateral negotiations may not be so bad for Latin American interests as long as they proceed along the lines that now appear to be acceptable to the United States under FTAA lite. These include a willingness by the United States to drop services and other features. Bilateral free-trade agreements pit weaker economies against the United States, which is still in a position to offer inducements to sign up for dubious one-sided deals.
Jurgen Kurtz, director of the International Investment Law Program at the Melbourne Law School, said, “In bilateral negotiations, individual developing countries have significantly less leeway to negotiate concessions in areas of interest to them.” Besides, the United States has a way of introducing some of the more objectionable proposals such as services and foreign investment into bilateral draft treaties, says Kurtz.[13]
The United States has lately been following multiple paths to achieve what FTAA failed to achieve. The official line at the State Department under late Bush was that a string of bilateral treaties adds up to a stealth FTAA. Under Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon claimed that once Congress approved the pending Panama and Colombia treaties, the United States “will effectively have an unbroken line of Free Trade Agreements stretching from Canada to the tip of Chile.”[14]
escalofriante
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# 4/24/2009 Nicolas wrote:
A Not-Plan Colombia for Mexico
An example of how military and security issues merge with free trade is the US-Mexico Merida Initiative (also called Plan Merida). Officially, we are not supposed to compare it to the infamous Plan Colombia, which, since 1996, has tied the United States to the permanent train wreck that is Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
Already connected to the United States and Canada through NAFTA, Mexico is now enlisted in the wars on terror, drugs, gangs and the other US fears regularly investigated in congressional hearings.
Bush signed the multiyear $1.4 billion program into law in June 2008. It combines economic assistance with a lot of weapons, technology and training for Mexican military and police forces. It is essentially the security arm of NAFTA.
The plan also includes provisions that sound like FTAA “disciplines” to bring other countries into line with US “practices and interests.” It requires Mexico to reform its legal and judicial systems to harmonize them with those of the United States.
por Dios…..la maldad innata,,,increible
evil incarnate
April 24th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Dozens of states have reformed their drug sentencing laws recently; it’s time for Congress to reform federal drug laws. A good start would be eliminating the 100-to-1 crack/powder cocaine disparity. Although the crack cocaine mandatory minimums were enacted to punish major traffickers, the vast majority of people subjected to them are low-level offenders. The U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC) determined in 2006 that two-thirds of crack cocaine defendants had low-level involvement and only 1.8 percent were a high-level suppliers. In 2006, African-Americans constituted 82 percent of those sentenced under federal crack cocaine laws while whites constituted only 8.8 percent, despite the fact that the majority of people who use crack cocaine are white. Please support legislation to reform federal sentencing laws, including legislation to eliminate the crack/powder disparity.
sounds like ethnic cleansing to me
April 29th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Adam,
Long time reader, first time poster. You have been doing some great work on covering the developments of Colombia’s struggle with narco-terrorism. However, even though you have mentioned a few of the important non-state players in your posts, wouldn’t it be a good idea for you to do a post with profiles on some of the most prominent bacrims such as Los Machos, Los Rastrojos, Los Paisas, Las Aguilas Negras, Organización Nueva etc.?