Oblivion: A memoir by Hector Abad Faciolince – review

Hector Abad's tribute to his father, 'the communist doctor' murdered by Colombian paramilitaries in 1987, is warm, witty and moving.

In 1987 the Colombian novelist Hector Abad was phoned by a journalist with some startling news: "They're saying you've just been killed." He knew instantly that the rumours must refer to his father, whose name he shared and whose body was lying at that very moment in a pool of blood a few blocks away. Doctor, teacher and public health activist, Hector Abad senior was 65 years old when rightwing paramilitaries caught up with him on a Medellín street. The doctor had been on his way to pay his respects to a colleague murdered two days earlier, and was accompanied by an ex-student whom the killers finished off minutes later. Three speakers who paid tribute to the murdered doctor were themselves later killed. The son went into exile and survived.

"For almost 20 years I have tried to be him there, facing death, at that moment," Abad writes in a memoir that is partly a portrait of a singular father and partly a wider landscape of a beautiful country, full of potential, tearing itself to pieces. The title is from a line of poetry by Borges: "Already we are the oblivion we shall be" – words scribbled down by Abad's father on the morning of his murder. In writing the book, Abad explains, he hoped this oblivion might be "deferred", if only for a moment.

There is nothing here of the muted awkwardness described in so many writerly accounts of the father-son relationship. "I loved my father with an animal love," Abad writes. "I liked his smell and also the memory of his smell on the bed when he was away on a trip. I liked his voice, I liked his hands, his immaculate clothes and the meticulous cleanliness of his body."

The fathers of Blake Morrison and Michael Bywater, to take two other "father memoirs", were also doctors. Their sons record their sly manoeuvring in the social pecking order, men secure in the respectability conferred on public health in Britain since the 19th century. A continent away, the likes of Abad's father, while comfortably off, had no such tradition to fall back on. For Colombian conservatives in the 1960s and 1970s, demands for universal access to food, clean water and sanitation looked like subversion.

Abad recalls his father's tour of the children's hospital in Medellín when he was a child. At each bed he would ask, "'What's wrong with this child?' Then he would answer his own question: 'He's hungry.' And a bit further on: 'What's wrong with this child?' 'She's hungry … the same thing, nothing but hunger. Yet an egg and a glass of milk a day would be enough to keep these children from being here.'"

The writing is as warm, generous and witty as the man it portrays, and in his survey of Colombia's past ills Abad manages to write with the mellow thoroughness of an anger digested over many years. "Christian in religion, Marxist in economics and a liberal in politics," was Abad senior's creed, winning him contempt from the extreme left, hatred from the country's selfish, myopic conservatives and the spittle-flecked ire of the church hierarchy. A religious radio programme lambasted "the communist doctor" for his belief that the poor might also be allowed to have life before death.

Religion is an integral part of the story. As a young child, Abad spent the day in the company of a nun listening to the gory martyrdom of the saints; when his father returned in the evening, the two would pore over encyclopaedias. Abad's household was Colombia's ideological struggle in miniature, a playing-out of the Old World clash between Torquemada and Diderot that continued up to Dr Abad's violent death, and beyond. The then archbishop of Medellín, Alfonso López Trujillo (who a few years ago told the BBC that condoms let through the HIV virus), tried to prevent mass being said at the funeral, to the anguish of Abad's deeply pious mother and sisters.

Abad's fellow countryman Gabriel García Márquez famously began his novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold with the words "On the day they were going to kill him..." In Oblivion Abad employs a similar effect, only revealing the details of the murder towards the end of the book, its inevitability making the almost artless outpouring of filial love all the more unbearable.

OFAC Sanctions Colombian Public Official For Ties To Drug Trafficker

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets control designated Guillermo Leon Valencia Cossio, the former regional director of the Colombian Prosectutor’s Office in Medellin, as a narcotics trafficker for his ties to druglord Daniel Rendon Herrera.

OFAC sanctions freeze all assets under U.S. jurisdiction. Herrera was designated in May 2009, and he faces federal narcotics importation and narco-terrorism conspiracy charges in the U.S. for allegedly having drug transportation networks throughout Colombia that facilitate the shipment of cocaine to the U.S. and Europe, the department said in a statement. Cossio, however, was arrested in August 2008 by Colombian authorities and is on trial for corruption and conspiracy to provide material support to drug traffickers, including Herrera.

“Today’s designation targets Guillermo Leon Valencia Cossio for his abuse of power as a public official in Colombia on behalf of Daniel Rendon Herrera’s drug trafficking organization,” said OFAC Director Adam J. Szubin in the statement.

The designation announcement came the same day as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime urged greater cooperation on stopping drug traffickers. “Drug trafficking continues to be the most lucrative line of business for criminals,” said Yuri Fedotov, a Russian diplomat who took serves as executive director of the UNODC. “Cocaine and heroin traffickers are earning almost $280 million every day, almost $12 million every hour, and almost $200,000 every minute.”

Separately, OFAC also announced the designation of Running Brook LLC and La Hacienda, two U.S.-based companies owned or controlled by Fernando Melciades Zevallos Gonzales, a Peruvian national himself designated by the agency as a drug trafficker.

The private companies helping conservation in Colombia

"If there was an Olympic Games for biodiversity, Colombia would be up there on the winner's podium."

Jose Yunis, the director of the Nature Conservancy in Colombia, is understandably proud of his country's abundant array of flora and fauna.

"We have the greatest variety of birds anywhere in the world, we rank third in reptiles, we have fish that you won't find in any other place. We have 10% of all the world's species here, in our jungle, mountain and water ecosystems."

In the Andes, 3,700 metres above sea level and only 30 miles (48km) from the capital Bogota, is the wild paramo or mountain plain.

It is a bleak, silent landscape and home to some rare species.

Signs along the road warn of spectacled bears, the only bear indigenous to South America, and andean condors soar on warm air currents high above the plain.

Mr Yunis is particularly fond of the pale green, pineapple-shaped "frailejones" which grow from the mossy ground.

"This is a very special species indeed. It has furry leaves that trap water from the fog and rain. The paramo is like a sponge soaking up water, it's where the lakes that supply our towns and cities form."

But this delicate ecosystem is under threat.

Just a little further down the valley the paramo stops abruptly, and a pastoral idyll begins.

Small fincas, or farmhouses, dot the hillside. Farmers wearing the traditional poncho and sombrero drive cattle along the road. And from the river's edge right up to the valley's dizzying summit there are neat rows of crops, clinging tightly to the steep mountainside.

Although picturesque, the farms are starting to encroach on the paramo. The andean forest, which should form a transition between low and highland, has all but disappeared, chopped down by the farmers to make way for their crops of potatoes, corn and carrots.

Mr Yunis said this would have disastrous consequences.

"When the rain comes the land will be washed away into the river, there are no trees left with deep roots to keep the soil in place. In 20 or 30 years, if we keep treating the land like this, it will be a desert; no plants, no animals, nothing at all," he said.

Deforestation is a major problem in Colombia, especially in its rainforests.

Every year around 400,000 hectares are cut down by settlers to make way for fields.

The war which has raged for years between left-wing guerrilla and right-wing paramilitary groups is now calming down, meaning that rural areas which were very dangerous are habitable once more.

The valley above Bogota was once the main route from the city to guerrilla hot spots in the south of the country. But a concerted campaign by the government against guerrilla groups such as the FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) has made it safer.

The soil erosion in the valley is leading to increased sedimentation of the river, and chemicals used in the crops are polluting it.

This threat to Bogota's water supply has prompted interest from some private companies, which are working with the Nature Conservancy on a project to protect the area.

It is being largely funded by Bavaria, Colombia's largest drinks company and a subsidiary of the multinational SABMiller, which uses water from the river to make its beer.

The project sees ecologists work with farmers to improve their production methods. In exchange, the farmers give up some of their land to create a protected zone around the river, so native species of plants and animals can thrive again.

But critics might argue that local people's ability to eke out a living on the land is more important than conserving the river basin and its biodiversity.

According to government statistics almost half of Colombia's population of 44m live in poverty, which means they survive on less than 280,000 pesos (£100) per month.

But the Nature Conservancy said the project would help these people too.

It is vital to preserve indigenous species, Mr Yunis said

"Take cattle farmers for example," he said.

"At the moment they've just got a couple of cows which have terrible pasture and don't produce much milk. We want to teach them to use better seeds, have better pasture so that they are better off, and can produce more from less land. It's a win-win situation."

In a greenhouse by the river, local farmer Vicente Vega is potting row upon row of tiny seedlings.

They are native species of trees and plants which are being reintroduced to the valley as part of the project, replacing non-indigenous ones like the pine tree.

"Insects and birds like the flowers on the native plants, they're much better than the pine, which no living thing would go near. And the pine trees were drying out the land," said Mr Vega. "The plants we're replacing them with don't."

Although the Nature Conservancy's prime aim is conservation, Bavaria would not have got involved in the project if it was just about biodiversity.

The company's sustainable development director, Juliana Ocampo, said: "Ninety per cent of our beer is water,"

"We agree with all the project's objectives but one of our strategic business priorities is improving water quality. Private companies can really help the environment, but you have to choose where you make an impact."

As the Nature Conservancy has found, the issue of biodiversity alone might not be enough to attract the funds needed to save habitats, unless perhaps an iconic species is at risk.

But if private companies can be persuaded that their interests are also at stake, there is some hope for native flora and fauna.

And considering the rate of deforestation in Colombia, projects like this will need to be implemented on a much greater scale if the country's natural riches are to be preserved.

Appointment of Colombian Ex-President Sparks Controversy at Georgetown

Former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe (left) was the object of protests last month at Georgetown University, where some demonstrators held up a sign saying, in Spanish, “Goodbye Uribe!”

Last month, Álvaro Uribe, newly minted as a visiting scholar at Georgetown, gave a guest lecture in a political-science class that ended with an embarrassing confrontation. From the stage of a small auditorium, the former Colombian president discussed free markets and security, two hallmarks of the strategy that by the time his eight-year tenure ended in August had transformed Colombia from borderline failed state to international success story and the U.S. government’s staunchest South American ally. Then he fielded questions from students. Nicholas Udu-gama rose from his seat in back, began to clap and, as he made his way down an aisle and onto the stage, accused Uribe of a wide range of human- and civil-rights crimes.

Udu-gama, 29, was pulled through a back exit and arrested, but this was no simple case of isolated campus activism. Uribe’s post at Georgetown has sparked a controversy at one of the country’s most esteemed international universities and across academia. On Sept. 29, more than 150 scholars, including 10 Georgetown professors and leading experts on Latin America and Colombia, signed a letter calling for Uribe to be fired. The letter, authored by a Jesuit priest, Father Javier Giraldo Moreno, one of Colombia’s foremost human-rights proponents, argued that Uribe’s appointment “is not only deeply offensive to those Colombians who still maintain moral principles, but also places at high risk the ethical development of the young people who attend our university.”

In a phone interview with NEWSWEEK, Udu-gama, part of a student-led coalition opposing Uribe’s appointment, spoke directly to the point: “This was Uribe trying to clean his image, basically, in front of our future leaders. He needs to be put in front of a criminal court.”

Such sentiments fly in the face of the usual narrative about Uribe as a man who beat back a guerilla insurgency, significantly reduced coca production, and jump-started his country's economy—and as someone who certainly would appear fit for an honorary university post. Georgetown had no comment, but in a statement said the university “is not endorsing the political views or government policies enacted by an individual,” and that “having such a prominent world leader at Georgetown will further the important work of students and faculty.”

It’s not uncommon or particularly controversial for a former high-ranking government official to settle into a teaching job—Madeleine Albright, ex-president of Spain José María Aznar, and former Bush defense official Douglas Feith, among others, have held professorships at Georgetown. But the commotion over Uribe’s appointment is part of a long-simmering struggle over his legacy that may be boiling over now that he’s out of power.

Human-rights accusations have dogged Uribe since he was governor of Antioquia in the 1990s, when allegations first surfaced about connections to the paramilitary groups that have been responsible for some of Colombia’s bloodiest violence. Uribe has not been formally charged with wrongdoing, but more than 100 of his political allies, including relatives, are under investigation for paramilitary ties. With the so-called false-positives scandal, meanwhile, Uribe’s administration received a considerable black eye after it was discovered that members of the Army had been killing civilians and dressing them as guerillas to inflate body counts. Last week, an investigation into the illegal wiretapping of human-rights workers, court justices, and Uribe’s political opponents implicated his chief of staff.

All this has made members of the faculty such as Marc Chernick, a professor at Georgetown’s Center for Latin American Studies who has worked in Colombia since 1980, unhappy to have Uribe as a colleague. “We’re quite dismayed that a man that has this level of allegations against him has been invited to teach and be affiliated with Georgetown,” Chernick says. “We don’t think we should lend the legitimacy of the university to him.” Adds Vanderbilt anthropology chair Lesley Gill, a Latin America specialist: “Uribe does not stand for any of the values that the United States claims to stand for.”

Yet the U.S. has done more to bolster Uribe’s international standing than a teaching position possibly could. On his watch, Colombia was the top recipient of U.S. aid outside the Middle East, and America trained Colombia’s military and began operating from bases inside the country. George W. Bush awarded Uribe the Presidential Medal of Freedom. At an appearance in Bogotá in June, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed him with the following remarks:

“I speak for President Obama and myself when I say that you, personally, have been an essential partner to the United States. And because of your commitment to building strong democratic institutions here in Colombia and to nurturing the bonds of friendship between our two countries, you leave a legacy of great progress that will be viewed in historic terms.”

To observers such as Peter DeShazo, the director of the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Uribe took charge of a perilous situation and brought improvements that have created a net gain in terms of human rights. “He could have done things better on the human-rights side. There’s no doubt about that,” DeShazo says. “But that said, the policies that his government carried out in exerting more state control over larger amounts of territory certainly, in the end, helped lessen the number of human-rights abuses.”

For all Uribe’s success, however, a more nuanced view of his presidency may be taking shape abroad—one that recognizes the security gains as well as the human-rights concerns that have bubbled up in their wake. Protests flared up over Uribe’s appointment as vice chairman of the U.N. commission investigating Israel’s Gaza flotilla raid this summer, and last week a number of human-rights groups joined the call for Uribe’s ouster at Georgetown.

A free-trade agreement with Colombia has been held up by the U.S. Congress since 2008 due to human-rights concerns—in particular, Colombia’s continued status as the world’s deadliest country for labor leaders. At the first meeting between the two leaders last year, Barack Obama advised Uribe not to seek a third term in office, which would have required altering Colombia’s Constitution.

Aldo Civico, a conflict-resolution expert at Rutgers University who has done extensive field work in Colombia, declined to put his name to the Georgetown letter. There’s a danger, he says, in taking a black-and-white view of Colombia’s problems, which have long been cast in shades of gray. “He achieved extraordinary results in terms of security. Results that no president before him was able to achieve,” Civico says. “But there was a dark side to those results. And we see them out there now.”

Uribe will deliver a fresh round of lectures at Georgetown early next month. His opponents have promised to keep pressing their case. And the university, willingly or not, will continue playing host to a worthwhile debate.

Colombian police find massive drug money stash hidden in houses

(CNN) -- Colombian authorities have found more than $29 million and 17 million euros in cash in two hiding places belonging to one of the country's most wanted drug lords, officials said.

Investigators acting on a tip uncovered a massive stash Monday in the nation's capital, Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera told reporters.

The bricks of cash were found in homes belonging to Daniel "El Loco" Barrera, the national police said in a statement. Raids over the past month have netted a total of more than $140 million, police said.

Monday's find was part of the "biggest drug-money seizure operation in the country's history," Rivera said.

"With this operation we have broken the financial system of one of the drug trafficking groups that particularly monopolized the transport of cocaine hydrocholoride from Colombia to Mexico and Europe," said Maj. Gen. Oscar Adolfo Naranjo Trujillo, director of Colombia's national police.

In March, the U.S. Department of the Treasury said Barrera played a "significant role in international narcotics trafficking," noting in a statement that the Colombian government was offering a $2.5 million reward for his capture.

The statement said Barrera and partner Pedro Oliverio Guerrero Castillo operate primarily in the eastern plains of Colombia, between the capital of Bogota and the Venezuelan border.

U.S. officials allege Barrera has a partnership with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the Marxist guerrilla organization also known as the FARC.

A prize scalp

FRESH off a bruising strike on a camp belonging to the FARC guerrillas earlier this week, Colombia’s army announced an even bigger success today: the killing in a bombing raid of Víctor Julio Suárez Rojas, nicknamed “Mono Jojoy”. Mr Suárez was the group’s military-operations chief, a member of its seven-man ruling secretariat, and the commander of its Eastern Bloc, the strongest unit, with an estimated 4,000-5,000 fighters. Also known as Jorge Briceño, he is believed to have been behind the FARC’s direct offensives against army posts in the early 1990s, a wave of kidnappings of politicians and many of the organisation’s cocaine-trafficking operations.

Since Juan Manuel Santos was sworn in as Colombia’s president last month, the FARC had stepped up attacks on the military as a show of strength to the new government. After Mr Suárez was confirmed killed, Mr Santos, in New York for the UN General Assembly, said the death of a “symbol of terror” was “our welcome to the FARC” and “the most resounding blow against the FARC in its entire history.”

The government’s sustained campaign against the group has pushed them back to remote jungles and mountains, and claimed the lives of several top commanders, including Raúl Reyes, its “foreign minister”, who was killed by a bomb on a camp in Ecuador in 2008. Another leader, Iván Ríos, was murdered by his own bodyguard. And the FARC’s founder, Manuel “Sureshot” Marulanda, died of natural causes in 2008. Mr Suárez was perhaps the most valuable remaining target. “Jojoy was a living legend in the FARC”, says Ariel Ávila, a political analyst. “They respected him highly. This is a blow to the structure and culture of the guerrillas.” The government may reap additional benefits from the strike if it demoralises some of Mr Suárez’s followers and encourages them to demobilise. Mr Suárez has no clear successor.

UPDATE: Colombian officials have revealed how they located Mr Suárez. He suffered from diabetes, and had ordered a new set of boots to reduce his foot pain. The government intercepted that communication, and managed to insert a GPS tracking device in one of the boots before Mr Suárez received them. From that point on, his days were numbered.

China donates USD 1 million to Colombian Defense Ministry

An agreement was signed by Colombian defense minister, Rodrigo Rivera ,and China’s Colonel General Liang Guanglie, who arrived on Sunday to Bogotá on an official visit. The money will be spent to acquire defense equipment. "We have signed the Agreement on Free Help from China to Colombia for the sum of eight million yuan (about one million dollars) for the purchase of logistics’ material" said Rivera in an appearance before the press with Liang.