Colombia

Colombia's Plan Vive Digital Brings Human Development, Employment and Tertiary Sector Growth via Expanding Internet Access

By Danielle Scalise
October 13, 2016

In 2010, as part of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Law of 2009, the Colombian government announced the ambitious goal to bring internet access to half a million Colombians.1 Since the program’s implementation in 2011, the advances in internet access are astounding making Colombia the online government leader in Latin America.2 They plan to eventually provide each citizen with their own piece of “digital real estate;” including an email account, access to their digital medical records and major financial transactions.3 The overarching ob

John Jairo Velásquez, Assassin for Pablo Escobar, is Released

By Asa Equels
October 13, 2016

Twenty-two years in a maximum-security prison was deemed sufficient punishment for the favored hitman of former drug kingpin of Colombia, Pablo Escobar, on Tuesday, August 26, 2014. John Jairo Velásquez, also known by his nickname, “Popeye,” was released early from a prison located 100 miles north of Bogotá, Colombia, a place where he had confessed to atrocities far more numerous than the one murder for which he had spent his time serving.

Indigenous Rights in the Global Spotlight

By Sophia Winston
October 13, 2016

On September 22nd and 23rd, the United Nations held its first annual International Conference on Indigenous Villages. Indigenous representatives from around the world gathered in New York City to discuss indigenous rights in order to bring equality to a group of people that have been oppressed and discriminated against since colonization. The indigenous population of the world totals 370 million people, which constitutes 5% of the total world population and they represent about one third of people living in poverty.1

New Americas Barometer Insight: Colombians’ Views of the FARC as a Political Party

By LAPOP - Americas Barometer
October 13, 2016

The peace negotiations currently underway in Colombia between the Juan Manuel Santos government and the guerilla group known as theFARC are setting the conditions for the eventual electoral participation of FARC excombatants,including the opportunity for them to run for office. This Insights reportexamines the attitudes of Colombians towards the FARC’s formal participation in thecountry’s political system.

The Next Step in FARC & Colombia Relations

By Sophia Winston
October 12, 2016

After nearly two years of peace negotiations between FARC and the Colombian government, the FARC have done something they have never done before. In all the 50 years that FARC has been terrorizing Colombia, they have never once sequestered a government or military official, but on November 16th, 2014, a leading general in the Colombian military was captured while traversing a remote river in an indigenous region of the Colombian rainforest.

Al Jazeera's "Endgame": Is An End In Sight?

By Susan Wiedel
October 10, 2016

Rodrigo Vasquez–a self-described producer, film director, creative director, designer, cameraman and journalist from Buenos Aires, Argentina–has traveled to dozens of countries around the world where he has reported on issues of social, political and economic injustice. For an installment in Al Jazeera’s news program People & Power, Vasquez took his camera into the jungles of Colombia to investigate the state of the hemisphere’s longest lasting guerrilla war.

Deathscapes in Metropolitan Colombia

By Christien Klaufus
October 10, 2016

When societies urbanize and the demographic composition of the population changes, local administrations have to prepare proactively for future dead-disposal capacity and sustainable deathscapes. This situation occurs in the US and Europe, where the aging population requires more end-of-life and death services while urban space is scarce. In 2010 the New York Timesstated that “[c]emeteries are scrambling to create more space, and as lot prices have soared, the number of cremations has also risen” (Santora, 2010).

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