January 27, 2012

Is Medellin's new escalator the latest shakedown target?

In late December, Medellin made international news when it cranked up a massive public escalator that benefits tens of thousands of people who live in the cliff-hugging Comuna 13 neighborhood. The daily walk up to La 13 is the equivalent of hiking up 23 floors, according to El Espectador. 

Now, some in the community are complaining that local gangs are muscling in on the project and charging up to 5,000 pesos (about $2.50) to use the escalator. According to El Tiempo, the same gangs that shakedown bus drivers are the ones behind the escalator scam.

Authorities say they are investigating and have stepped up security along the escalator. (Pic courtesy Medellin mayor's office.)

January 23, 2012

Venezuela: Chavez says consulate closure not about hamstringing primaries

The rumble over Venezuela's consulate in Miami continues. On Sunday, President Hugo Chavez insisted that his decision to close the office had to do with the safety of the staff there, and not any desire to hamstring the Feb. 12 opposition primaries. 

If you're unfamiliar with the spat, check out this story. 

"Now that we closed the consulate because of threats to our personnel, they accuse me of trying to sabotage the primary elections and that it's an abuse of the Venezuelans that live in Miami," he said during his Sunday television show. "Now they say we're the ones being abusive."

South Florida exiles are concerned they will have nowhere to cast their ballots as the coalition of opposition groups vote for a single candidate to face-off against Chavez in October. 

Chavez has said that Venezuelan exile groups were threatening the staff - a charge those groups deny. 

But during a US Department of State briefing last week, the spokesmen did acknowledge there had been...something.

Here's the Jan 17 exchange with Deputy Department Spokesman Mark C. Toner

MR. TONER: Well, I mean, obviously we take the security of all foreign missions very, very seriously. This is something, as you’re well aware, that we talk about in terms of other governments around the world, that we ask – urge them to uphold their obligations under the Vienna Conventions. We hold ourselves, obviously, to those same standards. If a Venezuelan official in the U.S. did receive any threats, those threats should be reported to the Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, who also works with relevant law enforcement agencies to take appropriate steps to address them.

Obviously, the --

QUESTION: Have you received any reports of threats?

MR. TONER: Well, I’m – let me finish, Kirit.

QUESTION: Go ahead.

MR. TONER: The decision on how to manage its consulates and how to provide consular services to Venezuelan citizens is ultimately that of the Venezuelan Government. Now specifically to Kirit’s questions, we did previously assist the Venezuelan Consulate in Miami to address some minor security concerns in December, but since then we’ve not received any reports of any new threats against the consulate or its employees, nor any additional requests for security support.

QUESTION: Can you describe what those threats --

MR. TONER: I can’t. I can’t get into the details.

QUESTION: But you described them as minor. I mean, what is minor?

QUESTION: (Off-mike.)

MR. TONER: Not significant.

QUESTION: Thank you.

Hmmm.

December 30, 2011

Inside South America a year in pics: Obama's visit to Chile

Inside South America is on vacation. But over the holidays I'll be posting some of my favorite photos from the year.

I took these pics during Obama's visit to Chile in March. While he was generally well-received, the escalating conflict in Libya and the US's role in the rise of PInochet fueled protests. Below, members of Chile's communist party carry a banner depicting President Pinera as Obama's lapdog. 

The other two pics, were simply amusing things I saw after visiting the country's very impressive human rights museum.

December 28, 2011

Inside South America a year in pics: Colombian street performers

Inside South America is on vacation. But over the holidays I'll be posting some of my favorite photos from the year.

Colombians are renowned in the region for being go-getters, and that's definitely on display on most streets. In downtown Bogota, dozens of street performers elbow for space on busy sidewalks hoping to make a few pesos. Below are a few that caught my eye: 1) man with his head in a cage. 2) the human Transformer. 3) a traditional dancer gets patted down on his way into an event. 

December 26, 2011

Inside South America a year in pics: Venezuela street scenes

Inside South America is on vacation. But over the holidays, I'll be posting some of my favorite photos from the year.

These are some shots I took during several trips to Venezuela.

1) A pic of a Che Guevara lookalike and ardent Chavez supporter who I've spotted at several of the president's rallies.

2) Images of Chavez are everywhere, including this no-smoking sign hanging in a government office.

3) This woman was dusting off a statue of Latin American Liberator Simon Bolivar as part of a street-art festival. The broom seller stumbled across the scene and seemed pretty confused by what was going on. 

4) A kid in Maracaibo uses one of the free Canaima laptops the government is doling out. 

December 23, 2011

Inside South America a year in pics: Colombian gold mining

Inside South America is on vacation. But over the holidays, I'll be posting some of my favorite photos from the year.

Below, are pictures I took in Segovia, Colombia in February, while I was working on a story about illegal gold mining. In the first picture is Segovia Mayor Luis Alfonso Ochoa - dressed in traditional hat and poncho from Antioquia. He's a former gold miner and had on three gold rings, a gold watch and a heavy gold chain.

The next one is a gentleman working an illegal mine far off the beaten track. He was very excited about the quality of the water in the region and was encouraging us to have a drink. But the fact that his basin was a discarded cyanide barrel made me a bit uneasy. 

December 20, 2011

Has Venezuela's Chavez lost his love for Twitter?

Update: Chavez broke his Twitter silence on Dec. 25, but he still hasn't logged any 2012 Tweets. Hmmm.

Since joining Twitter less than two years ago, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has attracted more than 2.3 million followers. That's more Twitter groupies than any other sitting president except for Barack Obama (11.6 mln), and puts the Venezuelan leader at No. 139 on the global ranking, according to Twitterholic.

He got there by being a compulsive and amusing tweeter. He has posted more than 1,380 times and often breaks news on the site.

But lately, he seems to have lost his love for the format. The last time Chavez posted on his account was Nov. 22, when he announced a price-control law. Over the weekend he visited the new mausoleum of Latin American Liberator Simon Bolivar and today he traveled to the Mercosur meeting in Uruguay. Usually such events would have generated a torrent of tweets. (Chavez followers may recall his live-tweeting of the exhumation of Bolivar's remains last year.)

The only other time Chavez has lapsed into such Twitter silence was from June 4-24, when he was undergoing cancer treatment in Cuba. His current absence in the Twitterverse led to a fresh bout of speculation a few weeks ago that he had had another health scare, but he squelched those rumors with live appearances.

As Chavez heads into a tough presidential race, we'll see if Twitter remains part of his electioneering arsenal.

December 09, 2011

Bogota's car-free roads find fans abroad

On Thursday night, arepa vendors and bundled-up couples dodged skateboarders and cyclists for a massive evening ciclovia that marks the beginning of the Christmas season.

Ciclovia — “bike lane’’ in Spanish — is one of Colombia’s most successful exports. Starting in 1974, this Andean nation began closing down major streets of the capital to make way for bikers, walkers and joggers. Now, every Sunday andholiday, some 700,000 people turn those streets into a massive urban park that winds 75 miles through the city.

“Some people complain that the ciclovia paralyzes the traffic,” said Patricia Pérez, who was walking with her dog and two children Thursday night admiring Christmas lights. “But it’s worth it. It lets you get out of the house and de-stress.”

Although the name refers to bike lanes, the roads are so crowded with pedestrians, pets and joggers that biking can be a challenge.

In the past, the big event that kicks off the Christmas season has drawn an estimated 2.8 million to 3 million people — or about a third of Bogotá’s population, the city said. 

The concept has been exported as far away as Canada, Peru, Chile and Mexico. Portland and San Francisco have copied the model. Miami, briefly, rolled out a monthly bike ride on Brickell Avenue after former Mayor Manny Diaz talked to his counterparts in Bogotá.

“The ciclovia is like a positive epidemic,” said Jorge Mauricio Ramos, who coordinates the program for the city’s District Institute for Sports and Recreation. “We have people come from all over the world to look at our model — Bogotá is undoubtedly the reference point.”

Read the full story here.

And watch a doc about the ciclovia here. Thanks to reader "Vernon6" for pointing it out. 

Ciclovia: Bogotá, Colombia from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

December 06, 2011

Colombians hit the streets to protest kidnapping - but how many hostages are there?

Tens of thousands of Colombians hit the streets today to protest the recent execution of four hostages who had been held by rebels for more than a decade. 

You can read about the march here, and you can read about the executions and one man's narrow escape here. 

Today's outpouring comes as many activists complain that the plight of the country's hostages is no longer on the national radar. That's probably a testament to how much safer Colombia has become. Take a look at the chart below to see just how grim things were in the1990s and early 2000s.

Even so, the government says there have been 146 kidnappings in the first five months of this year — that’s up 40 percent versus the same period in 2010. 

To complicate matters, the number of people still in captivity is a matter of debate.

In 2009, the department within the Ministry of Defense that tracks kidnapping cases said it had combed through more than 2,000 reports and determined that were 125 people still in captivity. Human rights groups and researchers at the time balked and accused the government of playing politics with the statistics. País Libre - a foundation dedicated to the issue - said the new administration has agreed to let it look through the reports again to come up with fresh figures. We'll keep you posted.

November 28, 2011

Colombia FARC hostage: rebels unfazed by Alfonso Cano's death