Colombia Calling - The English Voice in Colombia

Hailing originally from Brighton in the UK, Vincent Pollard's journey has brought him to Colombia. After more than a decade as a mixologist in Toronto in some of the city's most exclusive haunts, Pollard finds himself now in Bogotá, but moving on to Cartagena, we catch up with him on Ep345 of the Colombia Calling podcast to hear a little more about his life here.

First and foremost, Pollard has been busy and has put together a very slick book of tantalizingly interesting cocktails entitled: Behind Bars: High Class Cocktails Inspired by Low Life Gangsters. You can find this in UK bookstores and on Amazon. Each cocktail is inspired by a character in a gangster flick. And if the cockail doesn't take your fancy, you can enjoy an education in gangster movies as there are some obscure examples cited.

Then, we talk to Pollard about his forthcoming project of creating a gin here in Colombia. It's called Selva Gin and will be on the market very soon, take a look at www.selvagin.co for more information.

Tune in to an enjoyable conversation with someone doing interesting things here in Colombia.

On this week's Colombia Calling podcast we have the opportunity to converse with Alvaro Torres, CEO and co founder of Khiron Life Sciences, one of the pioneers in the medical marijuana market from Colombia. Torres tells us about his background, how he got into this business and what the business is all about.

Khiron is a vertically integrated medical and CPG cannabis company with core
operations in Latin America, and operational activity in Europe and North
America. Khiron is the leading cannabis company in Colombia and the first
company licensed in Colombia for the cultivation, production, domestic
distribution and sales, and international export of both low and high THC
medical cannabis products. The Company has filled medical cannabis
prescriptions in Peru and has a presence in Mexico, Uruguay, UK, Spain and
also in Germany, where it is positioned to begin sales of medical cannabis.

Tune in for a fascinating episode and check out http://khiron.ca/

Catalina Gil Pinzón is an international consultant in peacebuilding and drug policy with over 10 years of experience managing projects and advising programs related to the reintegration of ex-combatants, youth violence, historical memory, peaceful resolution of conflicts, and drug policy. And so, given the tunnel vision attitude of the government of President Duque regarding their drugs policy, we thought it was time to have an expert who has worked specifically in this field for many years to explain the situation a little better.

We discuss art-based approaches to peace-building, the issues of youth violence, prohibition, the current narrative and stigma surrounding drugs in Colombia, the limitations and dangers of aerial fumigations of coca crops and much more.

Tune in to hear an expert in the field and read her articles in the Silla Vacia and in El Espectador newspaper on how we need to start addressing a change in the narrative on drugs in Colombia.

Adriaan Alsema, Director of Colombia Reports is back with another viper tongued diatribe at the government of President Ivan Duque. Times are complex and complicated in Colombia with the spontaneous protests in Bogotá after the killing of Javier Ordonez by the police. But this case of police brutality is not a lone event, the outrage comes from a situation of months of accumulated resentment at a government which is unwilling or unaware of the need to make changes.

Hundreds of thousands of Colombians took to the streets in November 2019 and their protests were muted and suffocated by the pandemic. Now, months of simmering outrage have been iginited by this inicident.

Hear Alsema discussing his fears for press freedom in Colombia, the responsibility of the cadre of foreign journalists in the country reporting the news and much more.

Read www.colombiareports.com

It's a great pleasure to welcome CEO and Founder of iFinca, Alexander Barrett on the Colombia Calling podcast this week to talk about his venture that is going to revolutionize the coffee market.

iFinca has been designed to place an emphasis on better pay for farmers. Where profit margins for farmers have dwindled over the last few decades to the point where coffee farming is no longer a sustainable endeavour for many farming families, iFinca's approach is to maximize the accuracy, efficiency, and profitability at every point in the supply chain. Allowing for greater social and economic impact.

The iFinca App connects you to the farmers behind your cup of coffee. This empowers consumers to make more informed and ethical choices about their coffee purchases. It's very interesting.

And so for those of you out there thinking of making the plunge and move overseas, listen to Alexander Barrett's good news story to inspire you further.

Check our www.ifinca.co

At least 39 people have been killed in the recent spate of unrest in Colombia and the country has seen 46 massacres so far this year. So, this week we speak to Colombia analyst Kyle Johnson to help us understand a little about why these are occurring now, who are the perpetrators and why?

Observers say that president Iván Duque – a skeptic of the peace deal he inherited when he took office two years ago – has not done enough to guarantee its implementation and has left much of the rural population exposed to the violence.

Duque has blamed the recent bloodshed on drug-trafficking groups, and ordered the armed forces to be “implacable” in their response. He drew sharp criticism on Saturday, when he appeared to downplay the massacres by describing them as “collective homicides”.

While the current wave of massacres has prompted comparisons with the peak of the conflict in the late 1990s – when both massacres and murders were commonplace – analysts say that the current dynamics of the armed groups are more complicated. Johnson provides us with a coherent and clear explanation.

One of the most popular guests on the Colombia Calling podcast, Emma Louise Jay, returns to the airwaves from rural Antioquia to interview me in rural Bolívar. Think of this episode as a conversation of catharsis for us both as we weigh up living under the world's longest Covid-19 quarantine in the world in Colombia.

The truth is that we are both feeling the mental strains and pressure - as most are in Colombia - under this interminable lockdown and the worrying increase in cases and deaths from the virus in our adopted home country.

I use the term, "the veil is slipping," to describe what is happening in Colombia and hopefully, we go some way towards verbalizing our concerns at the moment.

Read Emma's blog: https://www.emmalouisejay.com

Based at the Instituto de Biología, University of Antioquia. Blanco Libreros studies mangroves and coasts from landscape ecology and ecosystem ecology perspectives and it is an honour to have him on the podcast to speak about one of the lesser known regions of Colombia, Uraba.

His trips to the area of Atrato River Delta are frequent. In 2009, he started mapping these mangroves using high-resolution aerial photographs as part of a multi-disciplinary biogeographic expedition along the Urabá Gulf. Afterwards, he collaborated with the environmental authority for zoning mangroves according to their conservation status.

These mangroves in Urabá Gulf, and particularly those settled on the Atrato River Delta, are unique, fragile and vital and they are disappearing at a fast rate in some areas, the coastal climate is warming as they are converted to pastures and urban settlements. Coastal erosion, deforestation, forest-agriculture transition, mangroves, sedimentation are all challenges facing the area.

Tune in to hear an expert in the region speak to us about his passion.

August 7, 2020 marked the second anniversary of the inauguration of Iván Duque as President of Colombia and the midpoint of his administration so on this Episode 337 of the Colombia Calling, we welcome back the director of Colombia Risk Analysis, Sergio Guzman and Cameron Wilson, author of the new report: Defining his Legacy, Challenges and Opportunities for Duque in his Final Two Years.

Of course, since the report came out, there have been serious new developments regarding the house arrest of former president Alvaro Uribe for alleged witness tampering. President Duque has come out in vocal support of Uribe and we discuss the impacts of this and the decision made by the Supreme Court regarding the case.

Tune in for an in-depth look at Colombia's political landscape in 2020 and with an eye on the 2022 presidential elections.

www.colombiariskanalysis.com

Born in Toronto, Canada, Brian Johnston decided to retire from corporate work at the age of 25 and to dedicate his life to the exploration of his passion...and this, over the course of many years on the road working for NGOs and volunteering, has brought him to Medellin, Colombia.

The Via Cocina – Food Train is a social transformation project in Medellin aimed at impacting communities by educating them in healthy food training and teaching them recipes from around the world. Johnston and his team train low income Colombians and Venezuelans how to convert local produce into distinct yet affordable dishes for their home and new businesses. The culinary techniques and recipes were researched personally by Johnston in more than 25 countries.

But, the work doesn't end here, Johnston also provides exercises in where to source the foods, how to manage a budget and finances so that the participants' money is able to go further.

Should you find yourself in Medellin, check out Johnston's project and perhaps contribute some money towards ensuring its sustainability. The website can be found - https://viacocina.wordpress.com. Also, go with a group and have the Via Cocina - Food Train students prepare you a meal.

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