On this week's Colombia Calling podcast we have the opportunity to converse with Alvaro Torres, CEO and co founder of Khiron Life Sciences, one of the pioneers in the medical marijuana market from Colombia. Torres tells us about his background, how he got into this business and what the business is all about.

Khiron is a vertically integrated medical and CPG cannabis company with core
operations in Latin America, and operational activity in Europe and North
America. Khiron is the leading cannabis company in Colombia and the first
company licensed in Colombia for the cultivation, production, domestic
distribution and sales, and international export of both low and high THC
medical cannabis products. The Company has filled medical cannabis
prescriptions in Peru and has a presence in Mexico, Uruguay, UK, Spain and
also in Germany, where it is positioned to begin sales of medical cannabis.

Tune in for a fascinating episode and check out http://khiron.ca/

Catalina Gil Pinzón is an international consultant in peacebuilding and drug policy with over 10 years of experience managing projects and advising programs related to the reintegration of ex-combatants, youth violence, historical memory, peaceful resolution of conflicts, and drug policy. And so, given the tunnel vision attitude of the government of President Duque regarding their drugs policy, we thought it was time to have an expert who has worked specifically in this field for many years to explain the situation a little better.

We discuss art-based approaches to peace-building, the issues of youth violence, prohibition, the current narrative and stigma surrounding drugs in Colombia, the limitations and dangers of aerial fumigations of coca crops and much more.

Tune in to hear an expert in the field and read her articles in the Silla Vacia and in El Espectador newspaper on how we need to start addressing a change in the narrative on drugs in Colombia.

Adriaan Alsema, Director of Colombia Reports is back with another viper tongued diatribe at the government of President Ivan Duque. Times are complex and complicated in Colombia with the spontaneous protests in Bogotá after the killing of Javier Ordonez by the police. But this case of police brutality is not a lone event, the outrage comes from a situation of months of accumulated resentment at a government which is unwilling or unaware of the need to make changes.

Hundreds of thousands of Colombians took to the streets in November 2019 and their protests were muted and suffocated by the pandemic. Now, months of simmering outrage have been iginited by this inicident.

Hear Alsema discussing his fears for press freedom in Colombia, the responsibility of the cadre of foreign journalists in the country reporting the news and much more.

Read www.colombiareports.com

It's a great pleasure to welcome CEO and Founder of iFinca, Alexander Barrett on the Colombia Calling podcast this week to talk about his venture that is going to revolutionize the coffee market.

iFinca has been designed to place an emphasis on better pay for farmers. Where profit margins for farmers have dwindled over the last few decades to the point where coffee farming is no longer a sustainable endeavour for many farming families, iFinca's approach is to maximize the accuracy, efficiency, and profitability at every point in the supply chain. Allowing for greater social and economic impact.

The iFinca App connects you to the farmers behind your cup of coffee. This empowers consumers to make more informed and ethical choices about their coffee purchases. It's very interesting.

And so for those of you out there thinking of making the plunge and move overseas, listen to Alexander Barrett's good news story to inspire you further.

Check our www.ifinca.co

At least 39 people have been killed in the recent spate of unrest in Colombia and the country has seen 46 massacres so far this year. So, this week we speak to Colombia analyst Kyle Johnson to help us understand a little about why these are occurring now, who are the perpetrators and why?

Observers say that president Iván Duque – a skeptic of the peace deal he inherited when he took office two years ago – has not done enough to guarantee its implementation and has left much of the rural population exposed to the violence.

Duque has blamed the recent bloodshed on drug-trafficking groups, and ordered the armed forces to be “implacable” in their response. He drew sharp criticism on Saturday, when he appeared to downplay the massacres by describing them as “collective homicides”.

While the current wave of massacres has prompted comparisons with the peak of the conflict in the late 1990s – when both massacres and murders were commonplace – analysts say that the current dynamics of the armed groups are more complicated. Johnson provides us with a coherent and clear explanation.