In Colombia, an estimated 83,000 people have been forcibly disappeared since 1958. But peace accords between the government and the FARC, the country’s largest guerrilla group, in 2016 mandated that finding the missing was a necessary step toward reconciliation. Special correspondent Nadja Drost reports from Colombia on how loved ones suffering a “never-ending grief” are searching for closure.
Tag: peace
PBS Newshour. FARC drops its weapons, but Colombia’s deadly conflict goes on
Despite the peace deal, new waves of deadly violence are hitting many areas of Colombia, especially those once under FARC-rebel control. And it’s targeting the very people — activists and social leaders — for whom the peace deal was supposed to make life safer. Special correspondent Nadja Drost and videographer Bruno Federico report in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
Can Colombia rework its FARC deal without jeopardizing peace? PBS NewsHour
Colombia was on the verge of ending one of the most violent civil wars in Latin America just slightly more than a month ago, when the deal was narrowly rejected by a voter referendum. President Juan Manuel Santos now faces the challenge of re-writing the deal to make it favorable to those who voted against it while still keeping it agreeable to FARC. Special correspondent Nadja Drost reports.
What peace in Colombia would mean for the drug trade and those who depend on it. PBS NewsHour
As Colombian officials negotiate with FARC rebels to end the country’s 50-year civil war, the illegal drug trade — used by the rebels to help finance their insurgency — has become a major point of debate. Special correspondents Bruno Federico and Nadja Drost travel to the heart of coca production in Colombia to examine how the drug market works and the impact of a potential peace deal.
Inside Colombia’s jungles, how FARC rebels are preparing for peace. PBS NewsHour
After decades of evading the Colombian military, FARC rebels are emerging from the jungle. Special correspondents Nadja Drost and Bruno Federico offer an exclusive look at the FARC perspective amid peace talks to end the world’s longest-running conflict.
CGTN: Colombia’s Buenaventura creates strategy to fight crime
The people of Colombia thought they had left their tumultuous past behind, but in the port town of Buenaventura, violence, poverty and drugs are all too present in people’s minds. In the city of nearly 400,000 people, 40 percent are unemployed and 80 percent are impoverished. To make matters worse, the people say that the government has abandoned them, leaving a power vacuum.
Aiming at the heart – Apuntando al Corazón. English version
Heroes Do Exist in Colombia was the name of the first major military propaganda campaign rolled out during ex-president Alvaro Uribe’s (2002-2010) Democratic Security Policy.
The government’s publicists reached for the hearts and minds of Colombians using emotional narratives of war and by constructing an image of the military based on the figure of hero and protector of a population vulnerable in the face of a guerrilla insurgency.
Aimed at convincing Colombians of the need for a security policy at any cost, the propaganda strategy also served as a way to conceal the reproachable role of the government during one of the cruelest periods of the armed conflict marked by paramilitary violence, political corruption and the military practice of inflating body counts by killing innocent civilians.
Aiming for the Heart shows how publicity campaigns become yet another battle ground in the armed conflict, trying to legitimize a war through propaganda and win the support of a divided society.
Direction: Claudia Gordillo and Bruno Federico
Original Idea: Claudia Gordillo
Research Assistant: Camilo Medina
Photography and editing: Bruno Federico
Production: Dance Stationary
Music: Music Multimedia
Illustrations: Snif
Duration: 52 minutes
Country: Colombia
Year: 2013
Bruno Federico 