How many armed guards greet you in foreign lands?

The opening line up here in the community is usually “Está amañada?” According to Larousse and his dictionary “amañada” means: clever, skillful. However, this is not what folks are implying. What they mean is, “Are you settled in, are you satisfied with life here? Are you, in fact, happy?”. The first time I heard this, many months ago when I first arrived, I had no idea that it could mean so many things as I had never before heard it. My razor sharp instinct led me to believe that the person posing the question had simply misunderstood my name as I had just presented it. So my original reply was, “No, no, soy Amanda”. This, or course, was ridiculous and is most likely the reason people speak slowly and clearly with me. I don’t have a hearing problem, its just that I’m not amañada in the official sense of the word; clever or skillful. [this picture should serve to prove my amañada-ness, those kiddies are cute]

Now when new team members arrive to the community and first flash a look of confusion at the common question, I warmly smile and nod in my most sagacious manner as I fill them in on the regional vocabulary twist. And I have a better response these days, too. I am settled in, I am satisfied with the rural lifestyle, I am happy. I do of course live a daily life built on the faith that peanut butter will continue to arrive from friends and family back home. And a recent loosing bout with the bed bugs that continue their nightly biting offensive quickens thoughts of fluffy mattresses and washing machines with hot water cycles.

But, these bourgeois concerns with daily living seem to always evolve into general feelings of searing guilt as I grapple with wrapping my head around the lives of Colombians living with this protracted violence. Helicopters, now frequently flying overhead, are a noisy reminder that something is indeed rotten in this State. We pass heavily armed military and police any time we leave La Unión. The news is perpetually full of the latest on the armed conflict or the para-political scandal or, lately, the announcement that the Colombian equivalent of the Attorney General’s office (the Fiscala) has determined that the military was indeed responsible for the brutal 2005 massacre of eight community members. This news is surprising and seemingly positive and is met with incredulity in the community. The lack of confidence in the Colombian justice system runs deep and is proved by the complete impunity in which all cases have been left unresolved. In fact, we have just recently seen news that the attorneys responsible for filing this report of military culpability have now resigned from the Fiscalía (in a way discrediting their findings holding the 17th Brigade responsible).

It remains unclear exactly why the attorneys stepped down, but it seems a safe bet to surmise that they might be threatened or even just plain frightened at what might happen to them now that they have implicated the Colombian military in the 2005 massacre, which is being called here the “worst human rights violation” in recent Colombian history. In what sources we have been able to read, the information is sketchy at best and seems to imply that these two attorneys were discredited based on their information sources in other cases. The Attorney General himself is standing by the massacre findings of the former attorneys, as news circulates that another attorney from a different department inside the Fiscalia had been going over his head to convince State defense lawyers that the findings against the military are illegitimate and the FARC was responsible for the brutal massacre. News reports say that her fate will be decided in the upcoming days, but her firing seems imminent. [my young friend jimar thinks this whole "justice" thing is a bit suspicious] This is combined with the resignation of the head attorney for the narco-trafficking unit, due to reports linking him to attempted bribing of six narco-traffickers set for extradition to the US. And news outlets say that more exits might be forthcoming as the Fiscalía tries to avoid the same flavor of scandal that has rocked the DAS (Colombian equivalent of CIA and FBI) and the halls of Congress. All of this shake up in the Fiscalía means that a larger dose than usual of healthy skepticism towards governmental processes is absolutely necessary. It seems that lady Justice is not just blind here, she’s sorta like Helen Keller before her miracle worker whats-her-name.

Earlier today the radio announced the impending arrival of the one and only President George W. Bush. He landed in Bogotá early this afternoon and the radio said over 200 journalists were eagerly awaiting him on the tarmac, microphones poised, to welcome “the most powerful man in the world”. Ugh. There have been student-organized protests for the last few days leading up to a huge protest today sponsored by the leading opposition party, the Polo Democratico. They are calling the protest the “Toma Pacificista de Bogotá” – or the Peaceful Takeover of Bogotá. It should be an awesome sight as organizers set out to boldly state their collective opposition to the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement (FTAA) and Plan Colombia, both represented by Mr. Bush’s visit. They are also not too psyched about Bush, and I’m guessing there were some rather strong demonstrations focused solely on expressing that ire. My teammate Janice has been taking photos and interviewing protestors and then posting it to her blog, slow internet has kept me from checking it out, but you can by going to her blog at: http://pedalingforpeace.blogspot.com

According to news reports Colombia really rolled out the red carpet for Bush. 21,000 military troops plus 7000 extra police officers have been stationed in Bogotá and near the Presidential Palace to ensure the safety of the conniving, er… convening heads of state. According to the General of the 17th Brigade who we met with a couple of weeks ago, there are a total of 236,000 troops in all of Colombia. That means that over 11% of these troops were concentrated in Bogotá for Bush’s four hour visit today, and lets not forget that is in addition to this whopping figure are the 7000 extra police officers.

[jeffrey says "Bush and Uribe: stop the lies!] We just ran next door to catch the Bush/Uribe press conference. Nothing luminous was revealed as much of the same rhetoric was repeated and both politicians not-so-deftly sidestepped any hard hitting questions. Bush praised Uribe and Colombia for ardently pursuing justice in cases of human rights abuses and lauded the provisions of the FTAA and the beauteous aid package that is Plan Colombia II ($3.9 billion over the next seven years). And Uribe responded in kind by calling Colombia the true ally of the US from South America, declaring that his government was committed to routing out terrorism, paramilitarism and narco trafficking. He added that, anyway, most of the serious crimes had been committed prior to his administration’s rise to power over five years ago. The folks we sat with grunted and laughed at these out-right fabrications as they sifted through de-shelled rice while kids ran around outside and horses wandered past. Politicians really do come up with the most boring and predictable horseshit.

Bush took off soon after and headed to Guatemala. Apparently his visits in Brasil and Uruguay had also been met by sometimes violent protests. Bush’s visit to Bogotá marks the first time in years that the US Head of State has ventured to the landlocked capital city. Usually visits to Colombia are held in Cartegena, the storied colonial Caribbean port city, making for easier escape should escape prove prudent. And danger is lurking nearby. Apparently Mr. Bush’s nemesis, my favorite sulfur-smelling President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, is touring Latin America at the same time. It seems that crowds gathering for Mr. Chavez are of a much different attitude. I wonder if Mr. Bush can’t help but feel quite the opposite of amañada in Latin America…and I mean that in every defined and colloquial sense of the word.