This week we get on the line to Naresh Dahal in Kathmandu to compare and contrast the tourism practices and politics in both Nepal and Colombia.

Naresh is local travel specialist in Nepal and can assist with customising and tailor-making a tour and holiday suiting your travel needs, so he’s a man in the know.

Whilst the countries may seem incredibly different from one another, we discover there to be some striking similarities as well.

Join us for a pleasant conversation from Bogota to Kathmandu.

"South London has a serious problem with knife crime."

This week we discuss how Henry May arrived in Colombia and ended up being a mover and shaker in the education world here. After a life-changing experience involving a tragedy relating to one of his students in South London, Henry questioned his life choices in education, leading him to consider other avenues.

Read on to find out more about Henry.

Henry May is a Social Entrepreneur from the UK currently living in Colombia where he currently serves as the CEO of Coschool, an education business focused on Social & Emotional learning in K-12 education. Henry has been recognised as a “rising star” of Colombian business by Dinero magazine and as “The teacher closing the inequality gap” by El Tiempo newspaper.

Coschool is a social enterprise in Colombia that designs and implements methodologies for developing social & emotional skills in youth & teachers in the post-conflict country Henry's Coschool seeks to generate an impact on people through its programs, strengthening socio-emotional skills, contributing to their well-being and empowering them as agents of change.

Coschool was selected by HundrED as one of the top 100 innovative global organizations that are transforming education through their proposals in 2020 and 2021. Located in Finland, HundrED seeks to spread ambitious and pedagogically sound innovations. In Latin America, only 8 projects were chosen, 2 of them from Colombia. Coschool was selected for being a pioneer and for its ability to create a scalable impact.

 https://coschool.co

The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. 

Petro's first two years as president have been marked by tension between him and various media sectors. He has repeatedly denigrated journalism critical of his government, labelling those responsible as “liars” and “scumbags” who are just trying to undermine his administration.

Petro’s attacks began after the Bogotá-based news magazine Cambio published an article by political reporter Maria Jimena Duzán on 23 June in which she raised questions about the possibly fraudulent manner in which the brother of the president’s chief of staff had obtained public contracts. 

The president responded on his X account by branding Duzán’s reporting as “Mossad journalism” and suggesting that she was involved in a disinformation campaign designed to hurt his government. Duzán said she received threats after this post by the president.

Since the start of the year, Reporters Without Borders has registered two journalists killed in Colombia in connection with out their reporting. while FLIP (Colombian Foundation for Press Freedom) has registered 330 other press freedom violations, including 133 cases of threats, 43 verbal attacks and 11 physical attacks. Of these attacks, 81 were perpetrated by government officials and 69 by armed groups, which highlights the complexity of combating this growing phenomenon in Colombia, one of the most dangerous countries in Latin America for journalists.

In Colombia, the media confront opposing realities. In the nation’s capital there is virtually no censorship or threats against the media. However, Colombia’s regional media outlets face many pressures, according to the FLIP based in Bogotá. In the last four years, FLIP has documented an annual average of 200 threats against journalists, a number that has been increasing steadily. 

Angela Alvarez is a natural-born storyteller, her latest venture of the podcast: "When Home is a Foreign Word" is testament to this. In fact, there's no way we can keep on topic - is there ever one? - and we enjoy a far-reaching conversation, a great deal of laughs about life and death in Colombia (the funny side), the origins of the word syphilis, identity and witchcraft.

Angela states, when we discuss what it means to be an immigrant, "humans are reliable narrators of their own existence," and then we plunge into a conversation which I count as one of my favourite in over 500 episodes broadcast on the Colombia Calling podcast.

The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. Her Substack can be found: https://harte.substack.com/

Please consider supporting our podcast: www.patreon.com/colombiacalling 

 Tune in, you'll not regret it.

As the United States prepares for its pivotal presidential election on November 5, 2024, we join our friends at Colombia Risk Analysis to discuss their new report: "The Future of U.S.-Colombia Partnership: Impact of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election" which delves into how the election results—whether a second term for former President Donald Trump or a first term for current Vice President Kamala Harris—will reshape U.S.-Colombia relations and influence Colombia's political and economic landscape.

We discuss the potential scenarios and outcomes with Sergio Guzman and Amelia Thoreson of Colombia Risk Analysis. 

The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. 

With a hypnotising mix of charming coastal cities, world-class cuisine, and lush landscapes hiding immense biodiversity have made the bicoastal country of Colombia one of the most sought-after destinations in the Americas. We speak to Simon Faulkner, Lecturer in International Tourism Management at University College Birmingham about regenerative tourism, how it differs to sustainable tourism and where Colombia fits into this.

Regenerative Travel is a relatively new term in travel circles that aims to go beyond sustainable travel practices. While sustainable travel focuses on minimising negative impacts and returning a net neutrality on the environment and local communities, Regenerative Travel aims to have a positive and transformative effect on those environments and communities.

Put simply, the core principle of Regenerative Travel urges travellers to have a positive impact by giving back more than they take from the destinations they visit.

The term was born during the Covid pandemic, when locations typically overtouristed began to see improvements in key indicators like air quality, and less pollution.

The question was soon posed - how can these improvements continue when travellers return? How can a destination benefit yet still incentivise the protection of natural and cultural assets AND still provide an enriching experience for the traveller?

Enter, Regenerative Travel.

The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. Please check out her Substack: https://harte.substack.com

Tune in!

Nadya Ortiz is Colombia's first woman chess grandmaster. Hailing from humble origins in Ibague, chess became a conduit for her success. By succeeding in the chess world, she won a scholarship to study at university in Texas, later another one to go to Purdue and then by virtue of her excellence in computer science now works for Apple in San Francisco.

We hear Nadya's story on episode 533 of the Colombia Calling podcast. As a woman from the provinces, playing an unpopular sport, she made it all happen for her. We discuss her life, politics in Colombia and much more in what is an inspirational story.

The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. Please support her Substack: https://substack.com/@ehart

and the Colombia Calling podcast: https://patreon.com/colombiacalling 

Hallo and welcome to another episode of Colombia Calling - I’m Emily Hart and this week I’ll be chatting to Nubia Rojas about journalism at war – how journalists fell victim to, but also took part in, Colombia’s civil conflict.

Nubia is a journalist and researcher who has worked on conflicts across the world both as a correspondent and an analyst, working for the United Nations, Doctors without Borders, and Oxfam, as well as numerous Colombian outlets.

Most recently, Nubia authored a chapter of the final report of Colombia’s Truth Commission – a historic publication which was the outcome of an unprecedented investigation into the causes and consequences of Colombia's internal armed conflict – the final report was the result of nearly four years’ work and tens of thousands of interviews.

Today we’ll be chatting about Nubia’s chapter – digging in to the historical and present relationship between journalism and Colombia’s political elites, paramilitary PR, rebel elites, corporate takeovers and more.

Please sign up for my substack: https://substack.com/@ehart and support the podcast: https://www.patreon.com/colombiacalling

"From Ambition to Stagnation: the road ahead for Petro's administration," is the title of a new report by Eitan Casaverde and Sergio Guzman of Colombia Risk Analysis and this is what we are discussing this week on the podcast.

There are questions that abound:

Is the Colombian system structured for radical change?
What have been the success stories of the Petro presidency so far?
What is this strategic ambiguity towards the situation in Venezuela?
Who will be Petro's successor?
How is the list of potential candidates for the elections in 2026 shaping up?

And, hear the Colombia Briefing by Emily Hart and subscribe to her Substack: https://harte.substack.com

Support us: https://www.patreon.com/colombiacalling

The Latin American Review of Books – LatAmRoB – has been publishing online continuously since 2005 as a small, independent website based in the UK that reviews books and films. And we are very fortunate to have founder Gavin O'Toole here on the Colombia Calling podcast this week.

The Latin American Review of Books is commercially and politically independent and value, above all sharp writing and commentary that brings to a wider audience knowledge, understanding and insight about all things Latin American.

So, this week we chat about literary offerings from the region, goings on in Venezuela and Colombia, Boris Johnson's bizarre trip to Venezuela and much much more.

Check out the website: https://www.latamrob.com

Support the Colombia Briefing and Emily Hart on Substack: https://substack.com/@ehart

and

support us: www.patreon.com/colombiacalling

I’m Emily Hart and today, I’ll be speaking to two experts and campaigners on Colombia’s San Agustín Statues – getting into what they might mean and why they matter, as well as how so many of them ended up not in Colombia, and how important it is to get them back here.

In San Agustín, Huila, hundreds of ancient megalithic statues have been found, the region’s largest collection of pre-Hispanic sculptures, dating back to the 9th century BC. Some are human-ish figures, but with fangs and wings, others are simian, some combination of animal and man - some are carved in situ, others onto single rock slabs 15 feet tall – the statues both invite and totally defy interpretation and theories about them abound, from burial rights, shamans, and psychedelic drugs to aliens.

These statues were made by the Sculptor People, the Pueblo Escultor, an enigmatic community we are still trying to decipher. Surprisingly little is known about the people who created the mounds in which most of the statues were found – what they represent is much-debated, as is their purpose – the community also disappeared, moved away, or simply stopped sculpting well before the Spanish arrived – there are competing explanations as to why.

Though there are hundreds of statues at archaeological sites around San Agustín, there are statues missing – in the 20th Century, European institutions and individuals removed statues from sites – many ended up in museums in cities like London and Berlin, others in private collections. But the movement to get this cultural patrimony back is gaining momentum – the current president has taken up the fight and hundreds of artefacts have been returned to Colombia over the last two years.

It’s a conversation which has been growing across the world – and the clamour from Colombia is being heard.

The Colombian government has now officially requested the return of a number of these statues held in Germany, a big step for the campaign group to achieve the return the statues to their place of origin.

There is, of course, also a San Agustin statue in the possession of the British Museum, which has not responded to attempts at communication.

So, today on the show I have David Dellenback and Martha Gil, who are key to this campaign and will be telling us about the academic and ethical issues around repatriation, as well as digging into the history and lore of the statues themselves.

David is originally from the US but has lived in San Agustín since the 1970s, author of the book ‘The Statues of the Pueblo Escultor’, along with the most complete set of diagrams and studies of the statuary, their measurements, locations, and features.

Martha Gil is a guide and cultural activist, as well as translator of David’s book into Spanish.

The two, who are married, have presented the study, as well as an illustrated campaign book about the repatriation of these spiritual and cultural artefacts at Bogota’s international bookfair, the FilBo.

We are going to be talking about the ancient mysteries of the Pueblo Escultor and their megalithic language – as well as about the modern history of plunder and theft – and whether these perplexing statues might one day soon, be coming home.

“Petro.” Watch the documentary by Sean Mattison and Trevor Martin following Gustavo Petro during his run for the presidency of Colombia in 2022.

"Petro" begins in September 2021 at the launch event of Gustavo Petro's campaign. The documentary makers enjoy unprecedented access to Colombia's most charismatic and polarizing politician, the film follows the highs and lows of the Colombian progressive movement and Petro's historic campaign for president through Election Day.

On the Colombia Calling podcast this week, we speak to Sean Mattison about the documentary, how it came to be, what Petro is like behind the scenes and with his family, why the president is so polarizing and accusations of propaganda.

Check out: https://seanmattison.com

From the author of El Narco, Ioan Grillo presents us with a searing investigation into the enormous black market for firearms, essential to cartels and gangs in the drug trade and contributing to the epidemic of mass shootings.

The gun control debate is revived with every mass shooting. But far more people die from gun deaths on the street corners of inner city America and across the border as Mexico’s powerful cartels battle to control the drug trade. Guns and drugs aren’t often connected in our heated discussions of gun control-but they should be.

In Ioan Grillo’s groundbreaking new work of investigative journalism, he shows us this connection by following the market for guns in the Americas and how it has made the continent the most murderous on earth.

On the Colombia Calling podcast, we discuss the arms trade, the drugs trade, the so-called war on drugs and how this all affects Colombia. Grillo is one of the foremost experts on these topics as he is based in Mexico and appears in the world's press reporting on said issues. Check out his website: https://www.ioangrillo.com

The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. Sign up for her Substack: https://substack.com/@ehart

On the Colombia Calling podcast this week, we welcome back both Ervin Liz and Simon Winograd and discuss Native Root, their coffee-growing company based in rural Colombia.

Check out the page: www.nativerootcoffee.com

Colombia, the land of coffee...but which coffee should you choose? My advice - completely uncalled for and unwarranted - is to do a little bit of research and source a coffee where the money returns to the growers, with no middle-men and enables social change.

This is where Native Root comes in. I have had the pleasure of hosting both Ervin Liz and Simon Winograd of Native Root on the Colombia Calling podcast on various previous occasions. What I love about Native Root is that it is a family-run outfit, based in Tierradentro, Cauca and between 12 and 30 per cent of all proceeds return to the community.

This is an important detail, as Cauca is one of the most complex and conflicted departments in Colombia at the moment. There are warring criminal groups, splinter guerrilla groups, dissident groups and others, all vying for control of this strategic region for the transhipment and production of illicit drugs, people trafficking, arms trafficking, extortion and more. Who suffers, the regular people on the ground, the indigenous communities, the farmers, the smallholders and people just trying to make ends meet.

We discuss this and more as we enjoy an engaging conversation about the world of coffee, the coffee market and Colombian politics and conflict.

Check out: NATIVE ROOT

Online purchases can be made WITHIN COLOMBIA directly on their website, for orders overseas, contact them via Email or WhatsApp as they ship everywhere.

The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart.
https://substack.com/@ehart

On the Colombia Calling podcast this week we discuss Pablo Escobar's influence on Colombian football in the early 1990's with David Arrowamith, author of a new book:

"Narcoball: Love, Death and Football in Escobar's Colombia."

In a far-reaching conversation David and I discuss Pablo Escobar, his role in politics, the reality of Colombia in the 1990's, Colombian football in general and much more.

If you like the true crime genre and have a smattering of interest in football, then this one's for you!


Buy the book: https://a.co/d/0hZPJRF0

Support the podcast: www.patreon.com/colombiacalling

Sign up to Emily Hart's Substack: https://substack.com/@ehart

Where is Matavén, you may well ask? So, this week on the Colombia Calling podcast, we discuss an award-winning community tourism project with people of the Piaroa indigenous community and the Colombian Project. Joining us on the podcast is Camilo Ortega, product manager of the Colombian Project.

The Matavén Jungle is the fourth largest Indigenous Reservation in Colombia, with an extension of 1,849,613 hectares and located in the north-eastern area of the department of Vichada, between the Vichada rivers to the north, Orinoco to the east, Guaviare to the south and the Chupave canal to the west.

Today it constitutes one of the last refuges of the transition forest between the Colombian Amazon and Orinoquía region. This territory has a great diversity of landscapes and different habitats such as floodplains, large stone hills of the Guyanese shield, or open savannah areas in the middle of its jungles. Its name is due to the Matavén river, which crosses this extensive region in a west-east direction.

Approximately 10,500 indigenous people live in the Matavén Jungle, distributed among the Sikuani, Piapoco, Piaroa, Pinave, Curripaco, and Cubeo tribes. This characteristic of multiculturalism that exists in the reservation makes this region a space of great importance for the conservation of the existing natural and cultural heritage.

https://www.colombianproject.com

www.patreon.com/colombiacalling

We are incredibly fortunate to speak to Jenny Pearce, Research Professor at the Latin America and Caribbean Centre (LACC) at LSE about her current research which focuses particularly on the role of Elites and Violence in Latin America.

She worked with young researchers in Colombia, led by Juan David Velasco (Lecturer, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana), on elites and the Peace Accord.

Together they designed a database to better define and differentiate elites in Colombia and the families behind them. Learn about the power wielded by a few families and how their far-reaching influence defines Colombia's wealth and politics.

The research is funded by the Instituto Colombo-Alemán para la Paz (CAPAZ). Read the original report here:

https://www.lse.ac.uk/lacc/assets/documents/PEARCE-VELASCO-ELITES-Y-PODER-EN-COLOMBIA-1991-2022.pdf

The Colombia Briefing is reported by journalist Emily Hart: https://harte.substack.com

and please consider supporting the Colombia Calling podcast: https://www.patreon.com/colombiacalling

The aim of "Colombia at a Crossroads" is designed not only to focus on Colombia’s politics and history, but also to celebrate her culture and society and this is the reason it’s divided into several parts and includes contributed essays by experts in their fields.

This is not a guide book, nor a travelogue and nor is it a list of dry facts, but it has a heartbeat as the author has been located in Colombia for almost two decades.

Writing this has been a multi-year challenge and the hope is to create something which is more of a summary of Colombia, something with a pulse.

In keeping with the idea that this book has a “heartbeat”, there are chapters and essays contributed by: Adriaan Alsema, Nicolas Forsans, Andrei Gomez Suarez and Peter Watson amongst others. There are also collections including forgotten histories in Colombia, curiosities, further anecdotes and some articles which have been published in the mainstream press as well, all of which add to the colour and depth of the book.

The publication of this book has been delayed due to the election of Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president and "the Last South American Guerrilla", it makes sense to begin with an overview of his first year and a half in power 2022-2024.

A word of advice to the reader is warranted as well. It’s a herculean task to separate Colombia and Colombians from the conflict and this makes writing a book of this nature a dangerous venture. One must remember and be very aware that the violence has spread through every level of Colombian society and in every corner of the country is of course not without its consequences.


Available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Colombia-Crossroads-Historical-Social-Biography/dp/B0D3681YKG/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2KW73AWMCF36Y&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Oqkbz2vU-PEZFkC6yphpZFgV8BTm3Sodyi2IC9jJ-RnGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.y1QoKOQKQZfeQEUEaEyZFqi2ezVjLsdwkAk31RJVCKI&dib_tag=se&keywords=colombia+at+a+crossroads&qid=1718056872&sprefix=colombia+at+a+%2Caps%2C259&sr=8-1

This week on the Colombia Calling podcast we enjoy a frank and flowing conversation with author Linda Moore about her latest novel, "Five Days in Bogotá."

We talk about the book, her time in Bogotá and Colombia, what inspired the book and the charming anecdote of when she met the famed Colombian writer, Gabriel García Márquez.

Hear how Linda Moore, a "recovering gallery owner" came to write this novel and her thoughts on Colombia, Bogotá and literature.

https://lindamooreauthor.com/bio/

The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart: https://substack.com/@ehart

and please support us at: www.patreon.com/colombiacalling

On Episode 520 of the Colombia Calling podcast, we revisit episode 396 and once again get to discuss the disease of leishmaniasis in the context of the Colombian armed conflict and post conflict period with post doctoral fellow Lina Beatriz Pinto-Garcia.

Pinto Garcia's ethnographic monograph explores how the Colombian armed conflict and a vector-borne disease called cutaneous leishmaniasis are inextricably connected and mutually constitutive.

The stigmatization of the illness as “the guerrilla disease” or the "subversive disease," is reinforced by the state’s restriction on access to antileishmanial medicines, a measure that is commonly interpreted as a warfare strategy to affect insurgent groups.

Situated at the intersection between STS (Science and Technology Studies) and critical medical anthropology, her work draws on multi-sited field research conducted during the peace implementation period after the agreement reached by the Colombian government and FARC, the oldest and largest guerrilla organization in Latin America.

It engages not only with the stigmatization of leishmaniasis patients as guerrilla members and the exclusionary access to antileishmanial drugs but also with other closely related aspects that constitute the war-shaped experience of leishmaniasis in Colombia.

This work illuminates how leishmaniasis has been socially, discursively, and materially constructed as a disease of the war, and how the armed conflict is entangled with the realm of public health, medicine, and especially pharmaceutical drugs.

The problems associated with coca cultivation and leishmaniasis cannot be dissociated from cross-border events such as forced disappearance and the massive migration of Venezuelans who arrive in Colombia looking for survival alternatives, including coca production.

Tune in and hear about the Diseased Landscapes project.
https://www.insis.ox.ac.uk/diseased-landscapes

Please consider supporting us www.patreon.com/colombiacalling

Venezuelans go to the polls to vote for a president on 28 July 2024, in what will not be free and fair elections, this much is certain.

Here on the Colombia Calling podcast, we understand the necessity and importance of informing our listeners further about what is taking place and is in the news from sister and neighbouring countries to Colombia, and Venezuela is no exception.

Ana Milagros Parra is renowned Venezuelan political scientist and also co-host of the excellent: "A Medias" podcast, a Spanish language broadcast discussing all things related to her home country.

Most importantly, Parra has remained in Venezuela to continue to educate and work towards a more just future.

But, having been described by Venezuelan strongman, Diasdado Cabello as: "more dangerous to Venezuela than a shooting in an elevator," she has to watch what she says.

However, luckily for us, she feels more empowered in English and tells us how things are currently in her country.

There is a movement towards freedom in Venezuela, the opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez will unlikely win the elections, due to a likely dirty tricks campaign by the regime of Nicolas Maduro overseeing a criminal state, but this is the first time that the opposition has been organised, properly mobilised and leading the polls. This is largely due to the former candidacy of Maria Corina Machado, disqualified from running under spurious circumstances in 2023.

As Parra says in our interview: "modern dictatorships dress in the shirt of democracy," so we will see what happens in coming days and months.

Tune in for a fascinating conversation about Venezuelan politics.

The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. Check out her Substack: https://substack.com/@ehart

On this week's episode we speak to Mario Pinzón in the studio and discuss his views on Colombia and Colombian politics from the perspective of a citizen living overseas in Canada.

We discuss why Pinzón left Colombia (under duress), what it meant to leave his country behind and how he came to understand the value of being Colombian.

Emily Hart reports the Colombia Briefing.

www.patreon.com/colombiacalling
https://substack.com/@ehart

This week your host, Richard McColl moves over to the role of interviewee as friend and fellow immigrant to Colombia, Eric Tabone switches up responsibilities and fires questions at your friendly Briton.

This is your chance to learn a little bit more about journalist, hotelier and writer Richard McColl. Tabone leaves no stone unturned as he delves into McColl's tall tales from the past, all of them true.

Tropical illnesses in Brazil, how he arrived in Colombia, scrapes in the Rio favela of Mangueira, writing experience, how did he become a hotelier, why and how did he come to start publishing books? It's all here and more.

Thank you to Eric Tabone for his time and line of questioning.

The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart.

Feel free to support the Colombia Calling podcast www.patreon.com/colombiacalling

It has become clear that the kind of coverage we can now expect from the mainstream media regarding protests is one which serves to highlight protestors' violence, weaken support for the strike and delegitimise grassroots perspectives because, even when ordinary citizens are given a voice, they will unlikely openly criticise their government.

This is the "protest paradigm."

It is all too common to find an overwhelming number of quotes in a report or article from government officials and the like, and a lack of perspectives explaining the root cause of the protests.

So, this week, Richard McColl of Colombia Calling teams up with Adriaan Alsema of Colombia Reports in Medellin and Joshua Collins of Pirate Wire Services to discuss this phenomenon in the press and media world, citing concrete examples from the 2019 and 2021 Paro Nacional in Colombia and making comparisons with what is being seen during the protests at US universities such as Columbia in NY at this present moment.

The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart.

Medellin and Colombia are hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons, due to sexual exploitation of children by foreign visitors.

In April, a US citizen was caught bringing two girls, ages 12 and 13, into the Hotel Gotham, in the exclusive sector of El Poblado in Medellin. There was all sorts of paraphernalia in this individual's room, to suggest his guilt but since he wasn't "caught in the act," he was held by the police for 12 hours and later fled the country.

The Hotel Gotham has since closed its doors for good.

So, on this week's Colombia Calling podcast, we talk to Tyler Schwab of the NGO, Libertas International, which is involved in care for the victims of these sexual predators. They have more than 100 people in their care and are on the front lines in the battle against this scourge.

We talk about the measures being taken in Medellin by the politicians, who are these people that come down to exploit children, how can this be stopped and more? Schwab has even been present at the raid on a pedophile's house in Medellin.

Tune in and check out: https://libertasinternational.org

and

Support us www.patreon.com/colombiacalling

On this week's Colombia Calling podcast, we sit down and chat with Gary Murray, a former hotelier in Colombia and compare notes on the business.

Murray's experiences, on the whole, have been incredibly negative, mine on the other hand have been positive and so we look at some of the socio cultural nuances to running a business in Colombia, hear some outrageous and horrendous stories which occurred in Murray's hotel in an exclusive part of Bogota and reflect on what may have been.

We cover stories and anecdotes on unfaithfulness in a relationship, petty theft in the business, dodgy dealings, money laundering and so much more.

The Colombia Briefing is reported by Mathew Di Salvo.

If you would like to support the podcast: www.patreon.com/colombiacalling

"Get the most from your time in Colombia by adjusting your expectations with regard to what you probably take for granted: Punctuality [never], Predictability [rarely], Promiscuity [frequently], and Passion [always]."

And so it goes as we explore Colombia by way of Barry Max Wills' writing in his debut novel, a memoir entitled: "Better than Cocaine: Learning to Grow Coffee, and Live, in Colombia," published by Fuller Vigil.

Enjoy a far-reaching conversation with a master story-teller.

It's competition time too! Tune in and hear how you can win a copy of Barry's book.

The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart.

Buy the book here: https://a.co/d/21RZAQn

Journalist Emily Hart sat with Frank Wynne, tracing his incredible career from the start of his linguistic journey (a breakup and a bookshop in Paris) to his award-winning translation of writers across Latin America and the francophone world – particularly his work on cult Colombian author and ‘Enemy Number 1 of Macondo’ - Andrés Caicedo and his novel “Liveforever!”.

Tune in for a literary episode exploring one of Colombia's least known and cult authors recounted in such an erudite fashion.

Support the Colombia Calling podcast: www.patreon.com/colombiacalling

Imagine starting your first business venture from a huge wooden treehouse, nestled on a wild island off the coast of the Colombian Pacific.

Linsey Rankin left Australia to travel, arrived in Colombia in 2013. After working in tourism, education, and health, she set about creating a business model that would allow her to be creatively independent, establish a tribe and give back positively…Prana Pacifico was born.

In April 2017 Prana Pacifico offered its first yoga retreat, and since then, the operation has continued to grow and evolve. In this interview, Linsey shares with us her journey to becoming a yogipreneur and building a supportive community of like-minded people.

But, Rankin’s adventures are far from over.

Based on her time on Colombia’s pacific coast, she has published a recipe book entitled simply: “A Taste of Paradise.” And if this wasn’t enough, she’s moving to Chile, to the town of Pichilimeu, to open a restaurant.

Follow her blog: https://linseyrankin.com/home

This week, Emily Hart is setting out into the Wild West of cryptocurrencies here in Colombia and beyond.

Is cryptocurrency the future of finance in Latin America? Is it safe? Is it just another way for rich people to hide their wealth from the tax man? Or for criminals to launder income? Or could it be a way for people to take banking into their own hands, a way for all of us to take control from a global system of banking we have so little say in?

To explain all of that, we have on the show today Mat Di Salvo, Colombia-based correspondent covering crypto since 2019 for Decrypt, and two experts from Global Financial Integrity, a Washington DC-based think tank focused on illicit financial flows, corruption, and money laundering. Claudia Helms is the Director of the Latin America and Caribbean Program at GFI, having worked at the Organization of American States; And formerly at the UN, Claudia Marcela Hernández works as Policy Analyst for Central America in Global Financial Integrity.

By early 2020, the region had 15.8% of the total volume of bitcoins worldwide, and it has grown exponentially since then. Last year, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina were in the top 20 for global adoption – Colombia was 32nd in the world. Venezuela was 40th.

Looking at crypto in any country requires a close look at the context, unique in every case: this region is turning to digital and virtual currencies for many different reasons, using it to send remittances, invest, and save – especially important in countries that have unstable governments, high inflation, or low levels of trust in institutions.

Here in Latin America, levels of poverty and informal employment might create barriers to usage, while technological and educational gaps create unique challenges for users, especially when a new digital revolution of cryptocurrencies and virtual assets arrives without adequate regulation, government oversight, or consumer awareness – particularly around scams and security. This is why GFI started https://criptoabierto.com/ - a set of resources around crypto in Latin America designed for users and policy-makers alike.

Basically, regulation of cryptocurrencies in the region does not adequately match its current usage and adoption. Colombia has yet to adopt legal framework, despite a growing number of users, but there is movement around this issue and various institutions have released commentary on it, and President Gustavo Petro has expressed interest in encouraging crypto usage - and mining - in the country.

Thanks to the anonymous nature of this universe, it’s difficult to get accurate data on exactly who is using crypto and what for, and though it’s certainly not only criminals using these currencies and assets, they have high potential for money laundering and channelling illicit flows of money, from stolen funds and fraud to payments for illegal goods and funding of terrorist groups.

We’ll be talking about the opportunities and risks associated with cryptocurrencies, how their form and use are evolving, plus how (and why) cryptocurrencies can and should be regulated.

The Colombia Briefing is also reported by Emily Hart – to get it direct to your inbox or email, you can subscribe to the Colombia Briefing via her Substack substack.com/@ehart or subscribe to the podcast’s Patreon.

On this week's Colombia Calling podcast we speak to Sara Tufano, the author of "Colombia: unaherida que no cierra," (Planeta, 2023) and a former member of the Clandestine Colombian Communist Party. After surviving some periods in conflict in Colombia as a member of the FARC guerrillas, she now dedicates her life to academia.

Sara Tufano is a sociologist specializing in the Colombian conflict and the history of peace processes. She holds a B.A. in Human and Social Sciences from the University of Paris VII and a M.Sc. in Sociology from the University of São Paulo. She is currently an opinion columnist for the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.

The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart.

This week, Emily Hart speaks to Andrea González Duarte about Mi Barrio, Mi Sueño - the women’s empowerment project she founded in La Honda, a neighbourhood in the hills of Medellín.

Andrea was born here in Colombia, then was adopted and grew up in the Netherlands, moving back here with a degree in social work many years later. The project began with barrio boxing – boxing classes for girls and women in the neighbourhood. With a background in sports education, Andrea knows well how sports - and particularly boxing - can serve as a means of teaching self-defence, of connecting with one’s own body after trauma.

Through social and emotional skills training, the group nurtures a safe space for girls and women to freely express their thoughts and emotions – with participants of all ages, from small children up to grandmothers. Over the last four years, the project has expanded to educational and economic empowerment, with their own community centre, regular extracurricular lessons and an artisanal social enterprise run by single mothers, along with workshops about adolescence, gender, rights, and other skills like entrepreneurship.

The safe space of the community centre is just a physical manifestation of that idea – the afternoon classes provide somewhere for young people to spend the afternoon after school, and the social links and the skills they gain and share build resilience and self-esteem.

Emily and Andrea discuss the project, its evolution, and its philosophy, following Emily's visit to La Honda this week - she was really struck by the brilliant simplicity of what has been created, as well as the intricate social fabrics which these projects work to weave and strengthen within the community – we're really excited to share Andrea's ideas and experiences - especially with International Women's Day being this week.

To find out more about Mi Barrio, Mi Sueño, check out https://www.mibarrio-misueno.com/ and on instagram https://www.instagram.com/mibarrio.misueno/.

Your headlines reported this week by Grace Brennan.

Support the podcast www.patreon.com/colombiacalling

On this week's Colombia Calling podcast, Ohio native and now resident of Medellin, Zach Meese, joins us to discuss Nearshoring in his adopted homeland.

Now, I am pretty unfamiliar with Nearshoring, so Meese walks me through it and why the city of Medellin, Colombia is the ideal place for a business of this type.

Nearshoring is defined as a close relocation and refers to the practice of relocating business operations to a nearby country. And so, we ask why this happens and is it sustainable?

Certainly, for businesses in the USA, there's no significant time-zone difference, not too great a culture clash and in Colombia, there's a highly educated workforce...is the practice solely for economic purposes?

Tune in for this and the Colombia Briefing reported by Emily Hart.

Adventurer Daniel Eggington is back! After completing the crossing of the Darien jungle along the Pacific side from Colombia to Panama in 2022, Eggington has decided to return to Colombia to embark on a three-month expedition along the Rio Negro all the way to Manaus in Brazil.

The Rio Negro is over 1400 miles long with its widest point in Brazil at around 18 miles wide that is based around the Anavilhanas National Park. Eggington will face dangers from gold miners, illegal logging groups and perhaps come across unknown communities. Much of this expedition is uncharted territory.

Hear us discuss his planned trip, his fears and hopes and why he wants to do this. Foolhardy, very possibly...adventurous, almost certainly. Watch this space as we will be detailing Eggington's progress via GPS reports.

The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart.

Support us at www.patreon.com/colombiacalling

On this week's Colombia Calling podcast we hear about British photographer Natasha Johl's work in photographing the Arahuacas in Colombia's Sierra Nevada.

Descendents of the Tairona, an ancient South American civilization, indigenous group, the Arhuacos, reside in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. The Arhuaco have developed an understanding of the earth which gives equal measure to the human mind and spirit and the forces of nature. The Sierra Nevada is a microcosm of earth: A seamless gradient of life that changes with each upward step.

Because of this unique feature, it is known as the ‘Heart of the World’ to the indigenous communities who inhabit the mountains and valleys. The Arhuaco say that when the world was created, they emerged from this very spot. They call it the Mother.

Johl uses the quiet and quotidian nuances in life to present an intimate picture. Looking at the smaller, seemingly insignificant or unnoticed things, makes us appreciate the complex and delicate moments of everyday life.

Tune in for a wonderful narrative from the foothills of Minca where Johl now lives and hear how she has succeeded in earning the confidence of the Arahuacas, to be able to spend significant time with them.

Check out her website: https://sanctuaryartstudios.com/

Paula Delgado-Kling takes us to her homeland, Colombia, where she finds answers to the country’s drug wars by examining the life of Leonor, a former child soldier in the FARC, a rural guerrilla group.

But, this story doesn't begin with Leonor, it commences during Delgado-Kling's childhood, when Colombia’s violence also touched her family and her brother was kidnapped and held in captivity for six months. It becomes intensely personal.

Our conversation spans decades of the author's life as she follows the life and hardships of Leonor, but also, becomes aware of her upbringing in the context of Colombia's conflict, what is means for her identity, her family and how she sees her home nation today.

Buy the book: Leonor: The Story of a Lost Childhood
https://a.co/d/ikaDRuX

The Colombia News Brief is reported by Emily Hart.

This week on the Colombia Calling podcast, we discuss Colombian food and observe it through the philosophically tilted lens of expert Juliana Duque.

Halfway between the abstract and the tangible, Colombian cuisine is the taste and the colour of abundance. The fertile soils of the American continent shaped pre-Colombian food cultures. Changes over the centuries have shown the influence of the Andes, running the length of South America, the Pacific coast extending for thousands of kilometres, and the glorious Caribbean, universally loved for its sunshine and warmth.

We discuss elements of place and time in addition to the importance of food in its context as well as some of the consequences of colonialism on a culinary landscape.

Juliana Duque is a writer, editor, and critic of contents about food and culture. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology from Cornell University with emphasis on Latin America. Duque has collaborated with platforms such as Netflix, Condé Nast, Eater, KCET, Life & Thyme, New Worlder and Fine Dining Lovers and is the author of the book "Sabor de Casa (Intermedio Editores, 2017)," which tells the stories and visions of fourteen Colombian chefs who have led the revitalization of Colombian cuisine in the last thirty years, and former editor of Cocina Semana Magazine.

Check her out at: https://newworlder.substack.com

And support us at: www.patreon.com/colombiacalling

This week, we are exploring the underground and invisible networks of Colombia – along with some of its strangest and least-understood creatures: fungi.

We’ll be talking about zombie fungi, shamanic fungi and magic mushrooms, the Wood Wide Web, sunscreen spores, makeup fungi, and eco-warrior fungi – plus why this fascinating mega-science has been so neglected, and why it’s more urgent than ever that mycology gets the awareness, resources, and respect that it deserves.

Emily Hart interviews two of Colombia’s top scientists and leaders in their fields: mycologist Aida Vasco is Assistant professor at the School of Microbiology at the University of Antioquia and Co-Chair of the Colombian Association of Mycology; botanist Mauricio Diazgranados is Chief Science Officer and Dean of the International Plant Science Center at the New York Botanical Garden. Mauricio led the Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia project, including the development of the Colfungi portal and the Catalogue of Fungi of Colombia, on which Aida also worked.

There are an estimated 300,000 species of fungi in Colombia, the huge majority of which are unstudied. In fact, fungi in general remains one of science’s great mysteries: it is known as a ‘neglected mega-science’. They change animal behaviour, connect the forests, feed humans and animals, and may even be a key weapon in the fight against climate change.

Battling this vast gap in knowledge is the Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia project - an initiative led by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in collaboration with the Humboldt Institute. The projects aim to increase, consolidate, and make accessible the knowledge of the country’s useful plants and fungi for the benefit of local communities.

Fungi have played a vital role in shaping the Earth’s biosphere, and have directly impacted human society and its cultural evolution for the past 300,000 years - used as food, for ritualistic purposes, or as medicinal products.

In Colombia, fungi - in the form of wild edible mushrooms - are primarily used as a nutritional source, having long played a role in the food security of indigenous people and local communities: representations are found in the iconography of several pre-Hispanic cultures throughout the country, showing knowledge and a close cultural relationship with fungi. Shamanic and spiritual uses are also common in the country.

Habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, overuse of pesticides and fungicides, and of course climate change affect fungi as well as fauna and flora, but fungi are not explicitly included in biodiversity legislation, biodiversity action plans, and conservation policies in Colombia. The Colombian government only recognises three components of biological diversity: Fauna, Flora, and microorganisms.

But there is cause for hope – we are only just starting to understand fungi but the field is gaining momentum, and experiments show their potential is even grander than we have imagined – they are not only a sustainable food source to fight hunger and the industrial food which accelerates climate change: mushrooms can also decompose waste – including nappies and cigarette butts, and can be used in ‘myco-fabrication’ - manufacture of e.g. architecture and furniture. They are incredibly adaptive, and provide ways for plants and animals to survive even in extreme and degraded environments.

This week, Emily Hart speaks to Cristina Fuentes La Roche, International Director of the Hay Festival, about arts curation and festival-making in the era of Artificial Intelligence and social media - and bringing one of the world's most successful literary festivals to Colombia for the last two decades.

The Hay Festival is known as 'the Woodstock of the Mind': Nobel Prizewinners and novelists, scientists and politicians, historians, environmentalists and musicians take part in the Festival’s global conversation, sharing the latest thinking in the arts and sciences with curious audiences. The festival kicks off in Colombia this month, with chapters this and next week in Medellín and Jericó, Antioquia, then in Cartagena at the end of the month. At this year's festival are Juan Manuel Santos, Wade Davis, Brigitte Baptiste, Rebecca Solnit, André Aciman, Héctor Abad Faciolince, Amalia Andrade, Margarita Rosa de Francisco, Humberto de la Calle, Juan Gabriel Vásquez, Los Danieles and more!

Emily and Cristina chat all things Hay, Colombia, and the arts - delving into the importance of spontaneity, connection, and conversation - and how the upcoming global challenges we face will prove to be, above all, challenges of the imagination...

Tune in and support the podcast: www.patreon.com/colombiacalling

It's Episode 500 of the Colombia Calling podcast!

Celebrate with us as we chat to Colombia's most famous dancer, Fernando Montaño.

Fernando Montaño was born in Buenaventura on the Pacific coast of Colombia and at the age of 14 won a scholarship to the National Ballet School of Cuba where he won several prizes at the International Ballet Contest in Havana, Cuba, and then joined the Cuban National Ballet. He also trained at La Scala and Teatro Nuovo di Torino, Italy where he was spotted by the Director of the English Ballet School and invited to the UK to audition, following which he joined the Royal Ballet in 2006 where he was mentored by Carlos Acosta.

We discuss his life as an artist - dancing, painting, designing - and his work supporting the charity, Children Change Colombia, the question of identity and being from Colombia's pacific coast.

Join us to hear and experience Fernando's unique energy, his reflections on life and opportunities and how he wishes to be remembered.

The Colombia News Brief is reported by journalist Emily Hart.

Support the Colombia Calling podcast: https://www.patreon.com/colombiacalling