Colombia

Carlos Avila Gonzalez and Phillip Robertson, for the Pulitzer Center
Pasto, Colombia

A tour through Colombia's restless south

Charles Lane, for the Pulitzer Center
Bogota, Colombia

Sin ti se apagó
El mundo,
Dios cerró
Todas las ventanas
Y extraviaron
Su azucar
Los ángeles del sueño.

…

Cuestión de Fe

Dios, que tú estés en todas partes
No lo sé;
No te encuentro.
Soy la falla en tu plan.
Pero si doy fe
Que te encuentras entre los muslos
De todas las muchachas
Y cuando tienes ojos
Son ojos de mujer enamorada

Carlos Avila Gonzalez and Phillip Robertson, for the Pulitzer Center
Bogota, Colombia

After decades of civil war, there are few in Colombia untouched by violence. Looking at civilians, army and paramilitary troops, Carlos Villalon presents original and file photos of the impact of war on a population.

Carlos Villalon chronicles life along the river Tapaje and the impact of the drug conflict between the U.S. backed-Colombian military, FARC guerrillas and paramilitary forces.

Combining the themes of paramilitary violence, drugs, and politics, these photos offer a glimpse into contemporary life in Colombia.

"The students are throwing rocks at the police," the taxi driver said on the way in from the airport. "It's dangerous, the government has called out the army." I felt like my luck was holding and slammed the video camera together but by the time we made it through the traffic, the students had already swept through the neighborhood. They left in their wake revolutionary slogans on every public building for several square miles. One read, "URIBE 100% PARACO" and accuses the president of being a member of a paramilitary organization, a death squad leader.

13 June, 2007

Four hours after leaving New York on the Avianca flight for Bogota, the Caribbean coast of Colombia appeared, a electric green arc of banana plantations and thick jungle. It was strange to fly south instead toward the blood-charged cauldron of the Middle East where I have spent the last four years covering the conflict in Iraq. Colombia is a different story, one that is much closer to home.