Afro-Colombians Demand to be Heard

Afro-Colombian march down Ave. Septima.

'We support the strike in the El Chocó' region.

 Afro-Colombians, often said to be forgotten Colombians, are demanding attention and resources from the national government. Recently, Afro-Colombian communities on the Pacific coast region have held protests and work stoppages demanding government investment in infrastructure and that the government fulfill commitments made in previous agreements.

The Pacific coast, distant from Colombia's major cities, is an impoverished region wracked by violence from guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and narcotrafficking groups which fight over valuable drug trafficking routes and illegal mines. This weekend, riots and looting took place in the port city of Buenaventura.

Such hair!

Afro heroes.

'The Afro-Colombian people demand that the government fulfill its promises.'

'We demand the law of equal opportunities and no racial discrimination.'

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Police State?

Police watch a demonstration by displaced people on Plaza Bolivar.

One of the first things which foreigners remark about when visiting Bogotá is how many police and soldiers they see on the streets. There is a reason for this, of course - Colombia's terribly
 high rates of street crimes such as muggings, even murder.

Police detain a man on Carrera Septima.

However, the ever-present police could become scarier. Even tho they are frequently accused of abuses against the public, a new Police Code now in Congress would enable police to enter private homes without a judge's order when the officer feels it's case of 'hot pursuit'; the code would also enable police to detain someone 'for their own protection' or that of the public. And the code authorizes police to use polemical electric stun guns, known as tasers. Public protests would be illegal without previous authorization.

Altho some say that the police already have some of these powers, the code has generated protests from opposition politicians and civil rights groups, who say that it opens the door to more police abuses.

The reform bill is still under consideration in Congress. Expect protests if it advances.

Posters protest police abuse.

Anti-riot police along Carrera Septima.

Police at night in La Candelaria.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Fired for Truth-Telling?

Yohir Akerman, ex-columnist. 

For years, Yohir Akerman wrote often polemical columns for Medellin's El Colombiano newspaper - columns often critical of religion and even of the newspaper's other columnists.

But when Akerman dared to suggest that the Good Lord could be - horrors of horrors - mistaken, he got ousted from the paper.

Akerman's latest and last column arose from the recent flap over the Universidad de la Sabana's opinion on the issue of adoption by same-sex couples. Sabana University, an elite private school located in north Bogotá, was founded by Opus Dei, the extremely conservative Catholic group. Predictably, the university's medical school recommended against permitting gay adoption. However, it went on to opine that homosexuals could be considered mentally ill, a position long since rejected by the medical establishment. The retrograde view on gay people brought the university so much criticism
that it issued a retraction.

In his newspaper columns, Akerman quoted Old Testament verses prescribing the

El Colombiano
newspaper.

death penalty - often by stoning - for adulterers, rebellious children, women who are not virgins at marriage and other 'wrongdoers.' He also also cited Bible verses endorsing slavery.

"All of these concepts are in the Bible," Akerman concluded, "and as history has demonstrated on these subjects, god was mistaken."

The newspaper appended this convoluted message to the column: 'Note from the directors: This newspaper promotes debate from respect and good arguments. We consider that this column strays from those principles. For the author, not publishing the column would mean his resignation. We publish it and accept his resignation.'

The directors did not explain why quoting the Bible constituted a lack or respect or good argument.

The Bible: Infallible?

Semana magazine quotes Akerman as saying that the paper's director criticized him particularly for not capitalizing the word 'god' and for asserting that God was mistaken.

In Sabana University's defense, it's not explicitly clear that its criticism of same-sex adoption was based on religious ideas. In fact, it doesn't seem unreasonable that growing up in a heterosexual family, which has been the norm for much of human and pre-human evolution, would be better for kids. But it also seems obvious that a loving, supportive family of any type is much better than an abusive one or being warehoused in an orphanage.

And the studies I've seen show that children of same-sex couples tend to out-perform those of heterosexual couples for a simple reason having little to do with the parents' gender or sexual orientation: they have highly-motivated parents who had to make lots of effort to have kids. In contrast, we all know that many heterosexual couples become parents by mistake.

For its part, Akerman's column seems to fall well within the spectrum of reasonable commentary. After all, he primarily quoted the Bible rather than attacking it.

Rather than summarily ousting Akerman, El Colombiano's editors might explain why the Bible is unerring, and therefore that death by stoning is a reasonable punishment for a range of moral 'lapses.'

But while they're at it, El Colombiano might also find itself endorsing a Christian version of the barbaric Islamic State.

As for the court, it ruled that, for now, same-sex couples could adopt only when the child was the biological offspring of one member of the couple, but that the legislature should regulate the issue.

Perhaps such an incremental decision is best in a highly-Catholic nation. In the U.S., when courts made rulings on controversial issues such as racial segregation and abortion it's led to years of conflict. Some things are best decided by the more democratic legislature.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Bogotá's Gay Pride Parade 2014

'Click!'

Bogotá's 2014 Gay Pride Parade was the usual spectacle - and drew multitudes of spectators, despite competition from a World Cup elimination match.

Whether or not spectacles like this one contribute to the acceptance of sexual minorities, I'll let others decide.

Notably, the World Cup eight years from now is scheduled to be held in Qatar, a Muslim principality which imposes harsh penalties on homosexuals. If Qatar's discriminatory laws were instead directed against a racial or religious minority, then the FIFA would likely never tolerate them.

'For love, there are no barriers.'

'My best friend is gay.'

'Without political liberty, there is no sexual liberty.'

'A secular state now!'

The 'Bear club.'

When a city has a store catering specifically to closeted transvestites, it's means something, but I'm not sure exactly what.

'Our bodies are not puppets of the conflict.' - Stonewall Javeriana. The Javeriana, a Catholic university, recently cancelled an event about sexual minorities.

 


By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Colombia's NSA

The military had set up a secret office in west Bogotá disguised as a video game retailer and hackers' hang-out, apparently to eavesdrop on Colombia's guerrillas. But the listeners allegedly went beyond their mandate and also listened in on the government's negotiators in Havana, Cuba.

Pres. Santos seemed to suggest that behind these actions was someone who wanted to sabotage the negotiations with the FARC guerrillas. That would make sense, since a peace treaty would reduce the military's influence and importance in Colombian society - as well as its budget.

But the broader danger which this episode, first reported by Semana magazine, illustrates is the way that surveillance programs, without proper oversight, tend to expand beyond with little control.

This isn't the first time this has happened in Colombia. The most notorious previous case was the DAS scandal of Alvaro Uribe's administration, when the government intelligence agency spied on all manner of people suspected of hostility to Uribe, including journalists, Supreme Court judges. The episode led to the DAS's liquidation.

Last year El Tiempo reported that the police planned to spy on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook and to do so were considering hiring an Israeli-American espionage company with a dubious background.

The United States' National Security Agency has, controversialy, monitored phone calls, e-mails and all sorts of other communications. That seems to have gone far beyond a reasonable, focused kind of surveilliance.

Lots more will come out about the military's eavesdropping program, which has already gotten four officers suspended. But, if they were spying on government negotiators, it's a fair bet that the espionage didn't stop there.

Espionage is a legitimate tool for governments - and its use is inevitable, in any case. But, particularly in a nation like Colombia, surveilllance requires a effective and transparent oversight. Otherwise, here comes 1984.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Not Quite Marriage Equality

These folks were demonstrating in favor of 'marriage equality' today in front of Bogotá's Parque Nacional.

Legislation to legalize gay marriage failed in Congress recently. But a Supreme Court ruling requires notaries to provide same-sex couples with an option similar to marriage. So, last week the organization of notaries, who register relationships, issued a document titled 'Formalization and solemnization of the contractual relationship,' to formally unite same-sex couples.

The document does not use the term 'matrimony,' but such couples are to have nearly all the same rights as married heterosexual couples, except for adoption. Also, significantly, notaries are not permitted to refuse to perform same-sex unions by pleading conscientous objection, even tho the Catholic Church has said that performing such a union is a sin. (Doctors are allowed to refuse to perrform an abortion by pleading concientous objection.)

In any case, this is a step forward for gay couples, and I expect that Colombia will legalize gay marriage within a few years.

The demonstrators in the National Park said they're not satisfied with the notaries' policy. But, I suspect that if you'd asked them a decade ago, they wouldn't have hoped to have gotten this far by now.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Gays: Suddenly They See Them

Am I imagining it, or are Colombians discovering that gays are everywhere, and feeling suddenly uncomfortable about it?

First, there was the bizarre polemic about gay referees working for Colombia's professional football league. The episode began after one referee accused another of making sexual advances toward him while spending a night at his colleague's home. Some other referees then claimed that their profession was dominated by gays.

Whether that's true or not, it's not necessarily any worse than other professions which are dominated by heterosexuals. And, while I heard some unsubstantiated accusations about sexual favors being required for advancement in the profession, I've heard no claims that gay refs are worse than straight ones, or that heterosexuals are excluded from the profession. That seems very unlikely in any case in such a macho environment.

Then there was the tragic story of the two Catholic priests who allegedly hired a killer to shoot them after one of them was diagnosed with AIDS. The two priests were evidently a couple and frequented gay bars in Bogotá's Chapinero neighborhood. While one of them had been accused of sexual molestation, many of their parishioners praised the men's work. It's difficult to imagine that this tragedy was rooted in anything but the Catholic Church's generally homophobic philosophy - despite the high proportion of gays in the priesthood. After all, in a Catholic society the priesthood has traditionally provided a ready-made excuse for not marrying.

Nevertheless, Father Alfonso Llano Escobar, who works for the Jesuit-run La Javeriana University and also writes a Sunday opinion column in El Tiempo newspaper, compared the two priests to "guerrillas and murderers," and suggested they committed "the same sin as did Eve."

Then came the polemic about Bogotá's proposed sex ed. curriculum, which says 'it's okay to be gay' or belong to other sexual minorities. Catholic Church officials and some parents criticized the plan as promoting homosexuality, despite lots of evidence that sexual orientation is deeply wired into us, as well as the common sense fact that in a culture with a strong homophobic current it seems unlikely that any youth would choose to be gay if he or she could help it.

Finally come the recent comments by a high Navy commander that if he discovered a gay person in the Navy he would remove him "by legal means." His comment conflicted with high court rulings that the military could not discriminate based on sexual orientation. The Colombian Armed Forces soon retracted the comments.

These polemics - or most of them - might actually be healthful symptoms of an overdue recognition that gay people exist throughout Colombian society, and the inevitable discussions that result in a still conservative, overwhelmingly Catholic society.

See also:

Colombian soccer president receives top prize despite calling homosexuality a 'disease'

Related posts:

Two Orphans in Search of a Father

Scenes from the 2011 Gay Pride Parade

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Imprisoned on San Victorino Plaza!

Imprisoned on Plaza San Victorino. 

During a bike tour today we passed by these young men in a juryrigged jail beside the Butterfly sculpture.

What's strange about this scene?

The scene is disturbing for several reasons: the informal holding pen suggests vigilantiism and lack of rule of law, suggesting other times in other nations where people were detained arbitrarily because of the way they looked or who they were, and subjected to public humiliation. The guys I saw inside the pen certainly did not look like people I'd invite over for dinner.

Other people on the plaza suggested that these youths had been detained because they weren't carrying identification or were thieves. But they didn't seem to know, or particularly care. If the youths had committed crimes, why weren't they under arrest, instead of enclosed here like stray dogs?

Bogotá certainly has a crime problem. But one would hope that, especially with a new leftist mayor in charge, it'd find less repressive and more constructive ways to address the problem, such as trying to get these kids into school or work.

Until a recent court decision, the military would stop young men in public places and ask for proof that they'd done the obligatory military service. If they didn't have it, it was off to the army.

Related blogppost: Civil Rights for Suspects?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Gay Marriage in Colombia?

Marchers during this year's gay pride parade wave signs demanding equal rights from the court. 

Colombia's Constitutional Court is to rule by July 22 on whether or not same-sex couples should be able to marry in Colombia.

According to El Tiempo's analysis, the justices are about equally split on the matter. Advocates argue that gay marriage is a matter of equal rights, opponents that it violates religious principles and would deprive children of the right to be raised by a father and a mother.

Signs during Bogotá's 2011 gay pride parade demand equal rights for sexual minorities. 

The court already considered the issue once, last November, and ruled that the proponents should rewrite and resubmit their case. In the past, after asking rights advocates to resubmit their cases, the justices have ruled in the advocates' favor.

But is conservative, highly-Catholic Colombia ready to see two men or two women walking down the aisle? Actually, it's sort of already happened, since same-sex civil unions have existed here for several years. Of course, the Catholic Church and other religious groups will complain. But they've complained about the legalization of abortion, euthanasia and other issues, with little effect. In any case, the Catholic Church's moral standing on some of these issues is less than immaculate.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

(Almost) equal rights for gay couples

Today, the Supreme Court moved same-sex couples another step closer to legal equality with heterosexuals, and perhaps even marriage, by granting them inheritance rights.

Sebastian Romero and Arturo Sanjuan near their apartment
in the Chapinero Alto neighborhood of Bogotá. 

Thanks to another court decision three years ago, Colombia recognized same-sex unions, giving such couples most of the same rights as straight common-law couples. Surprisingly for a conservative, very Catholic nation Colombia is one of the most progressive nations in the region in terms of gay rights. (Gay marriage is legal in Argentina and Mexico City.)

The court is also expected to consider adoption by same-sex couples, at least in cases when the child is the biological offspring of one of the partners. A few years ago, when I interviewed gay activists, several told me that Colombians weren't ready to accept gay marriage. I wonder whether they think that's since changed. Back then, Catholic Church leaders accepted same-sex unions, 'as long as it's not called marriage.'

Colombia still has a conservative culture, altho one poll last year found that six of ten bogotanos favored legalizing gay marriage. The courts appear to be ahead of public sentiment, in great degree due to Colombia's progressive 1991 Constitution.

In contrast to the U.S., issues such as gay rights and abortion haven't produced social and political schisms in Colombia. Gay rights organizations here do report attacks against sexual minorities. However, there is also lots of tolerance. I often see same-sex couples holding hands, even in areas outside of Chapinero, known as the city's gay neighborhood.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Civil Rights for Suspects?

Don't mouth off kid!

During a bike tour the other day, we encountered this scene near Jorge Tadeo University in the Las Nieves neighborhood. Two kids had just committed a mugging - or, at least, the security guards and bystanders were convinced they'd done it.

The security guards grabbed the kids, one of whom looked to be about 15 years old, and the other one perhaps 12, and proceeded to hit them and sic dogs on them while they hustled them to the nearby police station.

Hey, that hurts!

The kids apparently got caught red-handed, but they certainly hadn't been tried or convicted of anything. And they were kids. But passerbys displayed no sympathy at all, instead yelling "Ratas! Ratas!", slang for thieves. The kids looked back angrily.

One can certainly empathise with the bystanders, many of whom most likely have been mugged themselves and seen the kids run off scot-free. It's happened to me twice, and I've witnessed several other muggings.

In this case, the guards weren't shy about continuing their violence amidst onlookers and with me and others snapping photos.

And these kids aren't usually mugging to buy food for their families. They steal to buy drugs, party, impress girls with their fancy cellphones. So, the public naturally has built up resentment. And, police complain that in the rare cases that juveniles get arrested, they often go free the next day.  So, I've seen occasions when neighbors caught a thief, beat him up and then let him go, feeling certain that vigilante law was much more effective than anything the courts would do.

Take that, kid!

Incidentally, all of the muggings I've either seen or been the victim of in Colombia have been committed by 'white' people, which has given me the reverse of the usual stereotype. If I'm walking at night and notice a group of young men behind me, I might get nervous. But if I notice that they're Afro-Colombians, I relax. 


For their part, the police here routinely stop young men on the street and pat them down, with no need for probable cause. Women are almost never suspected.

What have you kids got in your pockets?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogota Bike Tours