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Los tiempos traquetos llegan a África

This article was written for Nueva Politica.

Hace apenas una década llegaron los carteles colombianos al pequeño y empobrecido país de Guinea-Bissau convirtiéndolo en cuestión de años en el primer narcoestado en África.

Pese a que el dinero caliente de los narco-negocios todavía es una novedad en esta antigua colonia portuguesa, éste ya se ha transformado en el protagonista de mayor fuerza política.

El pasado mes de Abril, militares vinculados con los carteles tomaron control del país a través de un golpe. A partir de la explotación de este vacuo de poder; el tráfico de drogas se ha incrementado a niveles que causaron alarma en el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU.

El gobierno de transición es tan débil frente al alcance de los carteles como los gobiernos anteriores, por ende la ONU ha tenido que intervenir invocando el acto ‘Drug Kingpin’ para congelar las cuentas de los militares involucrados y prohibirles viajes al exterior.

Las fronteras de la guerra contra el tráfico de drogas se están desplazando a África donde el estado no tiene con qué responder y donde el gobierno Estadounidense no quiere ir. Sin ayuda internacional es una ‘guerra asimétrica’ en la que sin duda alguna los ganaderos serán los narcos.

Mientras Washington se preocupa por las rutas de América Central, toneladas de cocaína llegan a las Costas Europeas por la vía desde Colombia hacia África Occidental. Más de la cuarta parte de la droga consumida en Europa viene de Guinea-Bissau, una pequeña nación de 1.6 millones de habitantes ubicada en el quinto lugar de la lista de los países menos desarrollados.

El efecto que tiene la droga en la sociedad y las instituciones políticas en esta región es devastador. Es por ello que la fragilidad del gobierno, las instituciones, el sistema jurídico junto a la riqueza inmediata del tráfico de drogas son factores que desintegran fácilmente el estado ya que el proceso de “traquetización” aumenta de manera acelerada llevando al país más allá de la Colombia de los 80s y 90s.

Mientras que los narco-negocios hoy en día representan el tres por ciento del PIB de Colombia, el valor de este comercio en Guinea Bissau está por encima del sumo del ingreso nacional.

Aunque es la puerta de entrada al continente, este país está lejos de ser el único afectado por la llegada de los carteles. La ONU estima que el tráfico de cocaína en África Occidental y Central genera más que $900 millones de dólares al año. La región es una colección de estados fallidos o extremadamente débiles; y los pioneros que llegaron a Guinea Bissau han venido abriendo nuevas fuentes en esas naciones, sacando provecho de la extrema pobreza y de sociedades devastadas por guerras civiles.

Las naciones más afectadas son Benín, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, y Nigeria. No faltan gobernantes ni militares dispuestas a darle la acogedora bienvenida a estos dineros calientes.

El simple hecho es que el tráfico de drogas en este territorio es un negocio de alta rentabilidad y de bajo riesgo. El consumo per cápita de drogas es hoy en día mayor en el Reino Unido y España que en los EE.UU y África es la ruta a ese atractivo mercado Europeo.

Además de ofrecerles a los carteles condiciones ideales dentro del país, a Guinea-Bissau también resulta relativamente fácil llegar. El tránsito de la carga desde América del Sur a la costa Africana se demora cuatro noches en barco o cinco horas de vuelo aproximadamente desde Venezuela o Brasil; debido a que el país africano es el más cercano a la salida de cocaína colombiana.

Durante el viaje en alta mar, carpas azules tapan los barcos durante el día (ya que éstos se mueven solamente en la noche), escondiéndose del satélite y al llegar pocas aduanas se encuentran patrullando las islas de este archipiélago.

La situación en la costa occidental de África presenta una crisis potencialmente peor que Mexico y los países centroamericanos, pero la ayuda internacional es escasa.

La ONU estableció en 2009, la Iniciativa de la Costa Occidental de África. Esto en tamaño de ayuda no se compara con el Plan Colombia o la Iniciativa Mérida.
Todo esto demuestra que la guerra contra las drogas ha venido perdiendo su rumbo frente a la creatividad de los narcotraficantes quienes con nuevas entradas al mercado occidental continuan creciendo. No obstante, si los Estados Unidos está dispuesto entrar en la batalla en su zona, la costa de África es una frontera olvidada.

El Secretario General de la ONU, Ban Ki-moon este año dijo ‘hay temor de que podamos ver una crisis de la magnitud del cuerno de África en esta región’, refiriéndose a una de la zonas más conflictivas del mundo.

Ya es hora de actuar, antes de que los ‘Kingpin’ tomen por completo las riendas de esta región. Dejarla así sería riesgoso y negligente.

Vale la pena recordar que donde haya traquetos hay dinero para financiar terrorismo. Mientras que el narcotráfico en Colombia ha financiado a las FARC a lo largo de estas cinco décadas.

La evidencia revela que el Hezbollah ya está en Guinea-Bissau y que otros grupos del medio oriente tienen vínculos con los narcos de éste y otros países.

Si la guerra contra las drogas no impulsa al mundo occidental tomar la acción necesaria, la amenaza de terroristas islámico-fundamentalistas seguramente lo va hacer.

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Changing perceptions of Colombia – a personal story

Colombia Politics´ editor on Cable Noticias

This article was originally written for See Colombia Travel.

When I finished university (over) ten years ago and I packed my bags to set off to travel the Spanish speaking world, my father told me that under no circumstances was I allowed to go to Colombia. In the mind of dad, Colombia was synonymous with the FARC, with guerrillas groups and with – the nightmare scenario for my poor old man – kidnappings.

Eight years after my first six month trip to South America I finally made it to Colombia, and you know what, I fell in love with it and I haven’t been able to leave since.

Ten years ago the risk in coming here might well have been something altogether grizzlier, but as the tourist board says; now the real risk is that you’ll want to stay.

I write on politics and I see the development of Colombia through the political decisions taken by the top brass running the country. When I first started travelling, President Uribe had not yet entered power and the infamous peace talks of the Pastrana era were about to collapse in ignominy; the FARC had a presence in around 50% of the country and there were barrios full of those sympathetic to the Marxist revolution in even the capital, Bogota.

Uribe came to power in 2002 and for eight years he used the aid money secured as part of the Plan Colombia agreement signed with the US to take the fight to the FARC. Uribe’s Democratic Security strategy pushed back the FARC, took out key leaders and turned Colombia into a destination for foreign investments and for tourists. Over the years the economy doubled in size and the visitors began to stream through the doors.

Colombia’s image abroad was changing.

This process has continued during the Santos years (the president took office in August 2010) and the country is now more popular than ever for backpackers and luxury tourists alike. This website is testament to the allure of this mystical, and magical place. The government expects 4 million yearly visitors by 2014, at which point it will become $4 billion industry.  This was unthinkable as little as a decade ago when I was fresh out of university.

President Santos is fond of saying that Colombia ‘va por un buen camino’, that it’s heading in the right direction.

With the announcement this week that the government will sit down for peace talks with the FARC in October, many of us here are beginning to dream that Colombia’s almost five decade long war could be over within the year.

We know that Colombia is a tourist paradise. But we also know that during the 90s and the early years of this century, tourists were understandably scared away by FARC, and the violence of drug cartels. If President Santos can secure peace there will be no reason for the fathers of future travellers to warn their kids against travelling to Colombia.

The peace process will be complicated, the road bumpy and arduous. On my website I’ll be covering the talks from all angles, so please visit, join in the debate, and keep up to date with Colombia’s politics.

This article was published by See Colombia Travel

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Introduction to Colombian politics

Changing of the guards, Casa de Nariño photo President´s Office

When I first came to Colombia Alvaro Uribe was president, and Juan Manuel Santos was his right-hand man and Defence Minister. By the summer of 2010 Santos had been elected to continue Uribe’s hard-line policies against the FARC. Today the two men are enemies, with Uribe the official opposition to his former protégé.

A week is always a long time in politics, but in Colombia it is an eternity. I have worked in and around the UK Parliament for close on 10 years, but in my two years in Colombia I have witnessed a whirlwind of change and covered a barrage of stories that would keep even the hardiest of political commentators on his toes.

Life is never dull in Colombia, and even if politics are not your thing, this country’s own peculiar brand of government cannot fail but to enrage, entertain, exalt, or dismay you; as it has done me.

In Colombia politics really matter. The issues are of war and peace, of mind-blowing corruption, wire-taps, and other very serious matters. It is of course also about nobler pursuits like the fight against poverty and a fairer education for all.

So how do Colombia’s politics work?

Colombia has the longest running democracy in Latin America. Unlike her neighbours, she has not had to put up with tin-pot dictators. However, the fragility of the state and her inability to govern large parts of the country, has allowed the formation both of the right-wing paramilitaries AUC and the communist-guerrillas the FARC and the ELN.

The FARC is the longest-running terrorist group in Latin America – its war against the Colombian state has lasted for over half a century. The paramilitaries grew out of the self-defence militias that formed when the government was unable to protect its citizens, or their land.

Violence and criminality have shaped not only the nation but also the political class. Pablo Escobar was famously elected to congress in the 80s, while just a few years ago dozens of leading politicians were found to have links with paramilitaries and were promptly sent to jail.

Colombia is a presidential system which places significant power in the executive (the president and his cabinet). The legislature is formed of the congress which is split into two houses, the senate and the ‘house of representatives’. The third arm of the state is the judiciary.

The president is elected every four years and, thanks to a change to the constitution made during Uribe’s period in office (2002-2010), the nation’s head of state can be re-elected (once). There is much speculation as to whether current President Juan Manuel Santos will seek a second term in 2014.

Congress is elected in the same year as the president, while city mayors and councillors as well as departmental governors are elected a year later. Bogota’s Mayor, Gustavo Petro was elected in 2011 and is considered to be the second most important politician in the country.

Santos runs the country with a coalition government that controls over 90% of the congress, allowing him to push through virtually any law he wishes. Santos is considered to be a centre-right politician, and is a former member of the Liberal Party. His government has taken the country in a different direction from the right-wing Uribe, concentrating more on social issues, and seeking a peaceful end to Colombia’s conflict.

Uribe represents the country’s right while the Polo Democratic Alternative is the official party of the left. Unfortunately for them, the left in Colombia is split from head to toe, reducing its electoral power. Unlike most other countries in Latin America, Colombia tends to the right while the left plays a largely peripheral role in the nation’s political life.

Colombia’s political parties are complicated and fractured. Although the Constitution of 1991 allowed the formation of new political parties, the Conservatives and the Liberals governed the country as a two-party state until the arrival of Uribe in 2002.

Uribe entered the presidential palace as an independent, elected on the Colombia First platform he created when he split from the Liberals. The Uribe years spawned the arrival of a series of new parties like Radical Change, the Greens, Polo, and the party of the U, President Santos’ party. The majority of these parties are now under the coalition umbrella of Santos’ government.

Colombians understandably have trouble keeping up with the changes in their political parties and it is often difficult for them to perceive a clear ideological message from those who seek their vote. This, and the outrage at the level of corruption, has meant that voter-turnout in elections has been low, and Colombia’s democracy has failed so far to develop into a fully participative system.

It’s complicated and highly personalised, but Colombian politics are entertaining and breathless. Despite the justifiable criticisms of her people, decisions taken in the Casa de Nariño (the presidential palace) have ensured that in two decades Colombia has shaken off its ‘failing state’ label and is now one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

This was a piece for See Colombia Travel.