Colombia Calling - The English Voice in Colombia

Shenandoah Cornish has moved her life to Minca in Colombia's Sierra Nevada and is working to create a Centro de Memoria de la Sierra so that people from Minca can recognize and value their past. Offering guided tours of a museum in the Casa Balaguera in Minca, Shenandoah and her team can provide you with a background to the indigenous importance of the region, the roles that the paramilitary groups and guerrillas have played and even has a tale about a Nazi settler to the region post WWII.

As everyone is doing it, and so have we, and here on Episode 253 of the Colombia Calling podcast we sit down in Bogotá with Sergio Guzman, Director of the political risk consultancy, Colombia Risk Analysis (https://www.colombiariskanalysis.com/home-eng) to talk about President Ivan Duque's first 100 days in power.

For Episode 252 of the Colombia Calling podcast we were honoured to be invited to the offices of the editorial Semana in Bogotá to talk to Paola Forero, the Director of Operations for the publication "Semana Rural." We discussed the challenges facing various regions of Colombia in terms of tourism and infrastructure and how Semana is teaming up to help non-traditional areas in getting on the tourism ladder.

On Episode 251 of the Colombia Calling podcast we are able to chat to an academic from North America who has been exploring the dimensions of "demobilization" of guerrilla outfits such as the FARC and ELN in Colombia. On the condition of anonymity, we discuss some fascinating issues which are taking place in the reincorporation process of the FARC.

This week on our landmark Ep250 of the Colombia Calling podcast, we are on the line to Medellin with Australian journalist Andrew Wight

It's time to talking birding and birdwatching in Colombia and the opportunities open to enthusiasts as told by expert Chris Bell. It's a real pleasure to have Chris back on the show and talking with such knowledge about Colombia (the only gringo here I know to have visited all of Colombia's departments) and the species of birds found here.

In this hard-hitting Episode 248, we are privileged to speak to the accomplished British documentary film-maker Kate Horne (other works include: Gabo, Turtle Boy, My Kidnapper. See www.kate-horne.com) on the line from London speaking about "Testigo; Cain y Abel" her most recent work.

Back on Ep131 we were privileged to have actor and script writer of the movie Andrew Perez on the line from Los Angeles discussing his latest film, Bastards and Diablos...this time, on Ep247 of the Colombia Calling podcast, we have the honour of speaking to the other lead actor and producer of the movie, Dillon Porter.

How much do you know about the plantations and the medical cannabis industry in Colombia? If you're like me, very little at all, so it is with great pleasure that on Ep246 of the Colombia Calling podcast, we sit down with British journalist Mat Youkee, the brains behind the "Colombia Cannabis Investor,"(http://www.colcannin.com) and learn more about this unknown economic driver.

It is a great honour to have to the Assistant Professor from the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam, Abbey Steele on this week's episode 245 of Colombia Calling. Not only do we discuss some of the poignant issues raised and debated in her book: "Democracy and Displacement in Colombia's Civil War," but we also digress and discover Steele's experiences as a "helper" or "translator" in a Cali-based marriage agency.