Toby has left 7 comments

Toby comments on Question about Kidnapping.

The FARC hold two types of kidnap victims - potentially hundreds who are kidnapped in order to raise money. Typically these are businessmen, wealthy farmers, but not nationally important people.

The second group of people are those you refer to, the 60 or so. These people are not being held for money, but only to force the government to release FARC rebels in prison. These are nationally (and internationally) important people, such as Ingrid Betancourt, former ministers and the three American defence contractors.

In negotiations, the FARC have always kept the two groups separate, while the government when it has offered its plans for an exchange has always tried to get the FARC to release all of those kidnapped.

The problems we had here was that before the government cracked down on kidnapping, common criminals learnt from the guerrillas and started kidnapping anyone they could (I remember one case of an unemployed Cali woman who had her baby abducted, i think the baby was finally returned after a ransom of 500,000 pesos was paid).

Toby comments on Journalists in Colombia

Robotina,
Yes I know many people in AP and AFP. Let me know how I can help.

Toby comments on Legalization Now! article by Toby Muse

Thanks for all the comments. I didn't want to appear rude and not respond, but on deadline for a piece for the Guardian tomorrow on Cartucho and its residents so really have got to keep working all night. Apologies for not being able to reply.

Toby comments on immigration question...

To add further information - as a tourist you are allowed a maximum stay in Colombia of 6 months each calendar year - but that six months must be broken up i.e. leaving and re-entering the country.

Toby comments on Legalization Now! article by Toby Muse

Platano,
Are you a member of Oxigeno Verde? I guess the recent comments by Reyes must have been what Ingrid's family was fearing. This whole canje is heart-breaking for everyone involved.

Toby comments on Legalization Now! article by Toby Muse

To be honest, I don't know as not my decision given the magazine is the owner now. You're fine with posting snippets that I can guarantee, but posting the whole article might be different. But again, I'm not a lawyer.
Buy the magazine it's a good one.


Juancegomez,
I will find my sourcing for the presidents, something that was initially told to me by someone in the conservative party.
The fact is that Gomez Hurtado is trying to make the conservative party to adopt decriminalization as policy. Whether successful or not, that is surprising for people outside of Colombia and judging by the reaction here to some in Colombia. Gomez Hurtado has in fact produced a pamphelt that I'm sure you could get by phoning his office in the congress.
Even Legalization Now (who work with those who you would expect to support legalization) says this won't be overnight and I say that in the article. But an interesting aspect of researching this article (something else I comment on) is that many politicians are extremely scared to discuss this openly because the slander has been used so frequently that to support legalization means you're being paid by the cartels. High-profile advocates of legalization would not speak on the record for fear that they would suffer the same slander.
It's a question of logic for many supporters of decriminalization/legalization - drugs are illegal so provide billions of dollars to illegal groups across the world. The fact that drugs remain illegal means they are controlled by the illegal groups fighting the civil war. Hence they're legalization would deprive the illegal groups of milllions and millions of dollars.

Toby comments on Legalization Now! article by Toby Muse

I assure you I did not get the Liberals and conservatives confused. What interested me living here was how prevalent the idea was that it was the illegalization of drugs that was causing the problems the country suffers. Every time I've had conversations on this topic, everyone seemed to be united (although polls shows growing support for legalization, it is far from the majority viewpoint across the country).
So doing the story I interviewed the usual supporters of legalization, but then discovered that even some of Colombia's conservatives are supporting the move. So was born the story. It's not the case that I wrote the entire conservative party is supporting decriminalization, but that many are profoundly uneasy about a war on drugs that causes nearly all the deaths here and really has no end in sight.