Skeletons Chase Uribe

Soon to Testify.

The other day as he was leaving an event at Georgetown University, where he teaches a course, someone threw something at Colombian ex-Pres. Alvaro Uribe.

Doubtlessly to the relief of Uribe and his bodyguards, the object wasn't a bomb or a rock, but rather a piece of paper. Still, the document means trouble, because Uribe was being subpoenaed for a trial in which coal mining giant Drummond is accused of collaborating with paramilitary groups, which are notorious for murdering unionists and leftists across Colombia.

Uribe isn't accused of anything himself. But he's got to be looking over his shoulder these days, and this subpoena will make him more cautious about future travel plans, just as many ex-officials of the last Bush administration must be. Throughout his political career, after all, Uribe was dogged by suggestions that he and his family were linked to the far-right paramilitaries, who committed some of the most horrific human rights violations in Colombia's history.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Colombian-American Hero

The Barranquilla Kid

As a California native, it's nice to see a Colombian doing good there, as Édgar Rentería has by leading the San Francisco Giants to victory in the 2010 World Series.

The Giants have been a long-suffering, hard-working team, and they deserved to finally be champs. As for Rentería, he stayed in the game and hit the series-winning home run despite a snapped tendon in his left arm.

It's interesting to see a Colombian sports hero who doesn't play futbol , is the national passion. But perhaps not so surprising, considering Colombia's disappointing performance in international soccer. While baseball is big in Venezuela, in Colombia it's a regional sport played on the Caribbean coast - where Baranquilla-native Renteria come from.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogota Bike Tours

A Taita in Trouble

Taitas are indigneous medicine men (or women) who often use Ayahuasca, a psychedelic vine better known as yagé, in their religious rites.

In October Colombian taita Juan Bautista Agreda Chindoy was invited to the United States to hold a traditional yagé ceremony. But, upon arrival he was arrested and charged with drug smuggling because of the ceremonial plants he carried.

In Colombia, yagé has been used increasingly as a recreational drug by tourists and young Colombians. However, it's not likely to become an epidemic - after all, it's not addictive and causes vomiting and diarrhea.

Yagé is even less likely to become a scourge in the United States, where they've got lots of other mind-altering substances to worry about.

So, why is this taita in prison? Blind obedience of a pointless law. There's a campaign on to free this innocent taita. Contact: contact(at)freetaita (dot) org

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Coal is Clean?

Clean?

This outfit's  name (Colombian Clean Power) and goal (to sell coal) speaks for themselves. Their goal appears to be to mine coal, which is about the dirtiest, most CO2-intensive fossil fuel known. And they've got the nerve to call themselves 'clean coal.'

Coal - unfortunately - is very abundant and cheap. Tragically, nobody, no place on Earth exploits it in a clean way. Why do these people imagine that they'll be any different?

The best thing one can say for them, as you can see on their website, is that they're not at all ambitious environmentally-speaking.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Todos los Santos/ All Saints Day

In Colombia, as in many Catholic nations, Todos los Santos or All Saints Day is the time to visit cemeteries and pay homage to the dead. Naturally, Bogotá's Central Cemetery was crowded and colorful.

Saint Peter overlooks the cemetery's main entrance. 

 Visitors light candles for the dead.

 Many bogotanos believe that this elaborate tomb near the cemetery's entrance holds spirits with magical powers. 

 Distributing flowers on tombs. 

 One of the most famous tombs is that of Luis Carlos Galan , a presidential candidate assassinated in 1989 by cocaine king Pablo Escobar.

Leo Siegfried Kopp, founder of the Bavaria beer brewery, was good to his workers, and many Colombians consider him a saint (even though he was Jewish). On All Saints Day, dozens lined up to whisper in his ear and ask Sr. Kopp for favors. 

Many of the tombs in niches on the cemetery's wall are actually rented, and only for four or five years!

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Is This Justice?

Paras arrested and perhaps on their way to the States for trial for drug trafficking. But doesn't anybody remember their murders back home?

Colombia has extradited more of its citizens to face trial in the United States for drug trafficking than has just about any other country. Those extraditees have included leaders of the FARC guerrillas and paramilitary groups, as well as straight-out narcotraffickers.

Few of those people have returned to walk Colombian soil again. An exception is Julio César Parga Rivas, a military official arrested in 2008 for allegedly working with paramilitary organizations, who, among other things, exported cocaine.

But U.S. prosecutors didn't succeed in convicting Rivas for drug trafficking, which could have meant a 30-year term in a U.S. prison. That makes sense for those who believe that buying and selling certain hallucinogenic substances should be a crime.

Except for this detail....

Rivas is also wanted in Colombia for some 70 murders, including the recruitment of young men who were then murdered and presented as guerrillas killed in battle. That was part of the notorious 'False positives' scandal, in which more than a thousand people were murdered by the military and then reported as guerrillas killed in battle.

The failure in logic and justice here is glaring: a man who allegedly has has the blood of dozens on his hands is to be tried first for trafficking substances that people want to buy? How about all of those guys doing time for drug trafficking in U.S. prisons, whose murders remain unpunished?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogota Bike Tours

Bogotá's Children's Day Parade

A few scenes from today's children's parade.

However, along the way, thes indigenous woman and infant were sitting on the sidewalk, begging. In Colombia, 5,000 children die each year from problems caused by malnutrition. 12 percent of Colombian children suffer from chronic malnutrition. And many of those children will suffer reduced lifetime mental development, all according to a recent UNICEF report.

Written by Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours