We got back from Colombia on Saturday. Between meetings and a bursting e-mail inbox, it may be a few more days before I post any substantial entries to this blog.
In the meantime, here is another video from last week in Colombia. 1:20 of footage of some of the houses abandoned in 2000 after the paramilitaries swept through the town of Chinulito, Sucre, which sits right on the main highway between the cities of Cartagena and Sincelejo.
Now that security conditions have improved, about one-quarter of the families who displaced from the area have returned. But most of the homes are still empty shells, a very stark image of what forced displacement looks like.
I apologize for the clumsy improvised narration, which ends up adding little. Also, the road goes east from Chinulito, not south as I say here. No chance for a second take, obviously.
July 14th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
There was a documentary on tv last Sunday… random cable channel. The documentary was on the scicarios and the paramilitaries. This stocky brit was running around Medellin trying to meet a paramilitary boss. He also went up to Cartagena. Bottom line, he talks about how the paramilitaries still run the show.
July 15th, 2009 at 11:43 am
These images are almost haunting.