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