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The FARC and Paracos Travel Adventures, Coming Soon....

The article below is not about Colombia, but it does bring up an interesting story that compliments the February article in Harpers Magazine "A Road Trip Through The "New" Colombia" were the article mentions Henan Giraldo, arguably one of the most powerful drug dealers in the world. In a 2001 article in Newsweek. it mentioned that Giraldo may rival the late Medellin cartel kingpin, Pablo Escobar, in both wealth and power.

Giraldo has been accused of everything from kidnapping to murder, all the usual rebel/paraco S.O.P. Among them, cutting up four construction workers with a chain saw after they finished constructing a secret cocaine storage facility, killing the head of the Sierra Nevada state park, massacring unionized banana workers, ordering the murder of three Colombian drug agents, as well as the attempted murders of two DEA agents working in Colombia.

That's all old news..

The latest, in what seems to be a very common trend in Colombia, is that the Giraldo and others of his ilk, are developing eco-tourisism business throughout Colombia. "We have been looking for tourism possiblities," Giraldo said. "We are working with the army because we want the tourists to be safe."

They are cleaning up pueblos, applying a fresh coat of paint all over town, rehabbing, opening up new hotels, and developing tourist-related business to cater to.... gringo tourist interested in traveling to Colombia.

Girlado describes himself as, "a defender of the people" in the article.

Yeah right!

This is the same thing the drug dealers in Chicago said about working with the community, making it safe for gringos to venture into the Westside of Chicago.

Why?

Well the drug dealers told all the locals that if anyone commits crimes against gringos in the 'hood, they are messing with their business. And as everyone knows, if you mess with their business, you're messing with their money, and if you do that, you're taken out.

This seems to be the same situation going on in Colombia today.

Welcome To The "New" Colombia!

These guys are pretty smart, I will give them that. They all seem to be very adaptable to the changes that are happening all around them in Colombia. If you want to succeed in business, you must be willing to change. The paracos will continue to succeed in Colombia; good, bad, or otherwise.

Are the FARC willing to change as well, in order to survive? I believe they want to survive.

Below is the article that made me think about Harpers Article and the smiliarites with what's happening in Colombia... let all your rebel friends know the gringos are coming......
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Aceh's former fighters guide "guerrilla tourists"
Mon Feb 18, 2008 8:24am EST

By Sara Webb

LHOONG, Indonesia (Reuters) - As a rebel fighter, Marjuni Ibrahim hid out in Aceh's jungle. These days he leads "guerrilla tours" taking visitors with a taste for extreme hiking and an interest in Aceh's turbulent past over the same terrain.

The treks in the northwestern tip of Indonesia are an attempt to lift Aceh out of poverty by developing local tourism projects and reviving the crippled economy after a 30-year conflict and a devastating tsunami in 2004.

So just as tourists in Vietnam can scramble through the Cu Chi tunnels used by the Vietcong in the Vietnam war, visitors to Aceh can see where the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) hid from or fought against the Indonesian army (TNI) until as recently as 2005 when the two sides signed a peace agreement.

Marjuni takes tourists on a scramble over sharp rocky trails, past teak trees cloaked in creepers, and alongside pristine waterfalls and sparkling rock pools.

This part of Aceh is home to the endangered Sumatran tiger, deer, and hornbills, as well as rather less appealing leeches.

"The area is very beautiful. I like trekking and I was interested to see what life was like during the conflict," said Hugo Lamers, a Dutch aid worker who went on one of the guerrilla tours last year.

"It's difficult to imagine but three or more years ago they were running around here with guns and fighting the TNI. When I went, they took us to a place where they had lost some of their friends. And then you realize that we are there for fun, but for them this was really serious."

Some of the hikes cover terrain where fighting took place or where visitors can see reminders of the conflict such as leftover army foodpacks and army graffiti. But a few of GAM's former hiding places still remain secret, perhaps for fear that they might one day be needed again.

ABUNDANT RESOURCES

Marjuni, now 28, joined GAM when he was 20, driven by "injustices, such as the murders of civilians by the TNI just because they were suspected GAM."

An estimated 15,000 people died during nearly three decades of fighting for Aceh's independence. Many others were tortured by the Indonesian military, or traumatized by the conflict.

This part of Sumatra island, once a separate kingdom, was an important centre for trade thanks in part to its strategic position at the northern end of the Malacca Strait, the sea lanes linking Asia to the Middle East and Europe.

But post-colonial Indonesia had no interest in allowing a separate Aceh. The region's abundant natural resources, including oil, gas, and timber, provided revenues for the government. The army moved in to crush opposition among the 4 million Acehnese, with as many as 50,000 troops operating in the area by 2003.

Marjuni said his group of about 20 GAM fighters used to hide in the jungle for several days at a time because they knew that if they returned home, they were likely to be picked up by the army and either tortured or, like Marjuni's brother, jailed.

But every week or so, his unit had to come out of the jungle to pick up rice and other provisions at an agreed location.

"I was most scared coming down from the jungle in case the TNI was there," he said.

They drank water from the waterfalls, and if they missed their food drop, they were forced to live off a fern-like plant or whatever else they could find to eat in the jungle.

DECOMMISSIONED

It was from high up on the jungle-clad hill that Marjuni and his unit saw the tsunami hit Aceh on December 26, 2004. The noise was so loud they thought it was an aerial bombing.

First the hill shuddered, dislodging rocks. Then in the distance they saw the sea turn black and rush inland.

"We saw it come in and we were very scared" said Marjuni, whose sister and parents were among the 170,000 who died or disappeared in the tsunami in Aceh.

While much of Aceh's coastline was destroyed, the disaster provided an impetus for both sides to pursue peace. Indonesia withdrew troops and police, while GAM fighters came out of the jungle and gave up their weapons in exchange for an amnesty.

Marjuni found work rebuilding homes and infrastructure for a couple of dollars a day. Then one day, he was approached by Mendel Pols, a Dutch citizen who had founded a small adventure tours firm called Aceh Explorer and who was looking for former GAM fighters to take groups of tourists trekking in the jungle.

"When I told GAM my idea they looked at me like I was from Mars," said Pols, who is married to an Acehnese and lives in the capital Banda Aceh.

So far, most of his customers have been foreign aid workers who are based in Aceh for the post-tsunami reconstruction. As business takes off, he plans to invest in better hiking boots for the guides, and provide first aid training.

"I want to make the Acehnese aware of the potential for community-based tourism, and put Aceh on the map as a friendly tourism destination," he said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSJAK9059220080218?sp=t...

By Medellin Traveler on Feb 18, 2008, 07:45 in Friendly Talkzone.

slguy says on Feb 18, 2008, 08:17:

MT- thanks. Astute observations.

Before you throw me out, make sure I pay my bar tab

0 funny, 0 helpful.

britabroad says on Feb 18, 2008, 09:32:

Mmmm. Money laundering has many facets.

Leave the big stick at home...carry a cannon!

0 funny, 0 helpful.

gatogris says on Feb 18, 2008, 10:02:

I found the Harper's article to be a weak collection of dinner-party anecdotes synthetically cobbled together to resemble a thesis.

In his last line, Graham writes "Alvaro Uribe has made the country safe for travel again, but Colombians have paid an intolerable toll" - his putative point being that allowing the so-called 'revolving door' phenomenon of paramilitary demobilization to continue, to tacitly allow them to reinvest and reintegrate into society with impunity, will cause untold damage to Colombia's already shredded social fabric.

Okay. This probably has some merit as a thesis.

But this is also a pretty vague point to assert, as 'social fabric' is notoriously difficult to establish, define, or measure in terms of how torn or how well-knit. But still, if this point was forcefully argued throughout the piece, it would still be alright. Instead, it is tacked on at the end, like an aphorism form Yoda.

Graham (who, by the way, wrote a very fine piece on Falluja, Iraq in Harper's June 2004) lazily chooses the travel article method of meandering up the Magdalena river valley, pasting in a few atmospheric quotes from Marquez, and musing distractedly over a bunch of Colombian cliches, such as Escobar's rise and fall, and Mompox's air of a town that time has forgot.

His anecdotes are entertaining in a desultory, National Geographic Channel sort of way, but the relevation that Don Hernan is investing his ill-gotton gains in Colombian tourism is no relevation at all. The Cocaine Cowboys of the 1980s in Medellin went to town in this respect, hotels being easy places to launder (and lose) money.

In other words, this a classic piece of parachuting journalism, where a decent, maybe even good, writer lands in a complex environment, picks up a few insights from thoughtful locals, and then spins it into an authoratative article without offering any new information, or even effectively making an argument that can be debated on points of fact.

So there.

nah na nah na na naaah

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Medellin Traveler says on Feb 18, 2008, 10:12:

Gatogris,

The biggest problem many of us have when it comes to news articles being published in the US, stating the "same old news" in Colombia, is that "we" know more about Colombia than the average person.

The fact that it was published in Harper Magazine, is a great plus, regardless of the content and the authors perspective after one trip, the good news is that overall it's a positive article that may attract newfound interest for other would-be travelers looking for new adventures.

Colombia is entering a new era, it will take time to get past the usual content found in most, if not all, articles related to Colombia.

"Huevos Rancheros en Medellin, No Quiero Taco Bell." - www.medellintraveler.com

0 funny, 0 helpful.

gatogris says on Feb 18, 2008, 10:27:

Good point, as usual, MT, and I would add that if the article explicitly took up the way in which 'dirty' money gets funneled into the tourism business, or the way ex-foot soldiers in dirty wars end up as tour guides (as you alluded to by use of your Reuters article), than again, we would have something more interesting.

However, although I realize this reflects on "us," or rather my own inflated sense of 'knowledge' about Colombia, I would still argue that good journalism is good journalism, not in the business of boosting a country's image, but rather unpacking complex and conflicting information in a way that moves overall understanding forward.

There has been some very good journalism written about Colombia, and we have the right to expect more, especially as you so rightly point out since the country is entering a 'new era,' and especially from snooty ol Harper's.

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