304: How can Colombia overcome the narco-legacy hangover?

Adriaan Alsema of Colombia Reports says it was satire and the injured party from RCN Colombia claims that it was slander. You can decide for yourselves over the duration of this podcast which takes in the subject of Adriaan Alsema's legal difficulties in recent weeks and an overall look at the increase in harassment of journalists in Colombia.

On Episode 391 of the Colombia Calling podcast, we sit down and chat with the documentary's director Oscar Molina and producer Brenda Steinecke to explore the themes of identity, belonging and returning home from Philadephia to Mompox after 33 years away.

Austrian urbanist, Manuel Oberlader, resident in Medellin, put together a team to address this contextual issue which may define the city and started exploring outer-lying and lesser know districts of Medellin and nearby Bello, Antioquia. What resulted has been an empowerment of said districts and their populations, such as those of La Cruz, Santo Domingo and Granizal.

On this week's Colombia Calling podcast, we have the honour of talking to Raul Lopez, project coordinator and Doctor Fabiola Pintado, both of Doctors Without Borders (Medicos sin Fronteras, Medecins sans Frontieres) at their location on the frontline in the town of Bajo Chiquito in Panama.

With Galindo's set up, you can launch your Colombia Experience by immersing yourself within the public school system as an assistant teacher where you can brush-up your Spanish and gain insight on what's it like to work as a teacher in Colombia; In the meantime, our team finds you long-term teaching contracts for your consideration.

On episode 387, we pick up where we left off in Episode 386 and continue to talk to our anonymous sources from La Primera Linea (front line) of protests in Colombia. Speaking to us from Cali and Popayan, these youths speak about the importance of education and voting, how police reform should occur and how the Colombian government could better spend aid money from international governments which all too often goes towards the purchase of lethal weaponry for the Colombian police.

Tune in to an important episode and a continuation of our series on the Paro Nacional protests in Colombia and thank you to Michael and MCI in the US for translating the interventions of the three individuals that share their stories with us.

It's a great pleasure to have a true expert in their field on the Colombia Calling podcast and discussing one of the lesser known cultures in Colombia, that of the Raizal people of San Andres and Providencia. To most Colombians these Caribbean islands represent only a vacation escape but the truth is that there is so much more.

On Episode 384 of the Colombia Calling podcast, we have the opportunity to get to know Hart better, talk about her life as a journalist, the writing process, the hunt for articles and how she reported on the demolition of Pablo Escobar's building in Medellin, the ancient rock art in Chiribiquete, illegal armed groups enforcing a Covid-19 lockdown in Colombia and the "rainforest electro" music which is sweeping this region of the Americas.

Will Freeman, Ph.D. candidate in Politics at Princeton University shares his knowledge on the subject of corruption in Colombia and the region. Freeman's research focuses on understanding how developing democracies strengthen the rule of law and fight corruption. His forthcoming dissertation is a study of the development of anti-corruption efforts in Colombia, Guatemala, and Peru and he spent much of his time doing fieldwork and investigations on the subject in Barranquilla, Colombia.