Colombia Calling - The English Voice in Colombia

Hasta Siempre Colombia, Dr Paola Cubillos speaks to Colombia Calling.

Was Dr Paola Cubillos naive when she and her husband decided to gamble everything and return with their three children from Canada to Colombia? It was 2016 and the peace accord with the FARC guerrillas was all but signed, things appeared to be changing for Colombia and they wanted to be part of it.

The peace accord was signed not long after they arrived to live and work in Cali in southwestern Colombia. Then, the "No vote" was victorious in the referendum on the accords, there were the demonstrations in October 2019, Covid-19 in 2020 and then the strikes, protests and violence in the country in April and May 2021, and Cali, where they were living, was a particular flashpoint.

That was it. The family departed almost five years to the day that they arrived. On this, the fifth anniversary of the signing of the peace accords, we sit down with Dr Cubillos to discuss, from a Colombian's perspective, how the experiment of returning home was unsuccessful.

Tune in to Episode 395 of the Colombia Calling podcast for this and news from journalist Emily Hart.

Direct download: RCC_395.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:30am EDT