The Search for El Dorado : Maduro y Pablo.

Feed the World II Back in the days when I studied English literature, as opposed to today when I have to double check the spelling, I spent a couple of months looking at Howard’s End by E.M. Forster’s an excellent study of the chattering class. It addresses the issue of the S class, those who think they can change the world by helping out an individual case but instead end up causing even more damage. This crossed my mind during Friday’s Frontier concert laid on by Richard Branson as some sort of Latino latter day Live Aid, another event that served to boost a lot of egos and images however which in the end did little more than raise the public profile of the Ethiopian famine, of course necessary, and maybe clear a couple of conscience's. Branson parachuted in and has gone again and quite by coincidence his Virgin Galactic was in the news on the same day taking its first passenger to the edge of space, perhaps my cynicism has bubbled over but this is businessman who has always been long on publicity and who knows perhaps Venezuela being next to French Guinea might be a good launch site going further. I have met the man in Colombia and in his defence he is an enormous supporter of the peace process - I mean who wouldn't be except for the extreme right which unfortunately is the party of the current President. It also wasn’t a Berlin Wall event as President Duque claimed, channeling his inner JFK and Glasnost at the same time, the convoy also failed to pass the border and predictably led to the loss of human life - there is even chatter, in the world of social network claim and counter claim, that the trucks were burn't out paramilitaries from Colombia looking to inflame the situation. It will hopefully have at least meant a little more pressure against the dam wall but it is hard to see Maduro or his military leaders just walking away from the billions they have at stake. We may have seen desertions over the weekend and hopefully there will be 1000’s more but these are junior soldiers and until senior officers stand up and demand change this trickle will not become a flood. Today the Lima Group will meet in Venezuela complete with Juan Guaido, he is traveling despite a ban on his movement but one also wonders if Maduro might just close the door behind him, thus far the Lima Group have been an absolute chocolate teapot in terms of effectiveness, let’s see what they can come up with this time, another threat of ‘tough’ action simply isn’t good enough, I have said it 100 times and respectively repeat it is not in the DNA of Latin America to see conflict or remove regimes - if so Chavez would have gone with via the OAS or direct Colombian military action when caught red handed over a decade ago shipping $100 millions of arms across the border to the FARC. The end game is coming but it won’t be due to a concert or charity convoy, it will only be at the will of the masses in Venezuela, the door is surely far enough ajar this time for them to push it fully open and that is going cause an absolute sea change in the Colombian economy, refugees will depart and exports will at some point get underway although a period of chaos can also be expected. Whilst Guaidó is seen as a saviour, it is easy to forget he is also a soft socialist and that may bring him into conflict with others such as Capriles and Lopez who will also have claim in any new Venezuela.

MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN Earlier in the day President Duque also popped by for a 7am photo shoot ahead of the midday demolition of Pablo Escobar's Monaco residence in Medellin - for the 1000's of us sat there for three hours in the scorching El Niño sun there was plenty of time to discuss the situation. The building had to come down as ever since it was bombed (and Escobar's precious vintage car collection destroyed) it has been unsafe for development, quite why it has taken decades is a different matter. What it didn't needs was $50,000 spent on a ceremony for 1000's of people and a philharmonic orchestra - there were though beautiful symbolic moments such as when the sons of assassinated Presidential Carlos Galan an were brought up to commemorate the loss of their father who perished in 1989 for speaking our against Escobar. There were also messages, oft repeated here, about trying to move Medellin on from its violent past - things are better but far from great, the statistics after years of getting better have got worse once again under current Mayor Guttierez who has failed in his key proposal to improve security - as if to emphasis that the night before there were 5 'reported' violent murders in the valley amid a 2019 that has started badly. TV was blamed and this is no Deja Vu - I have many times repeated the view that no-one can complain about Narcos until such time as RCN and Caracol shut down their constant soap operas regarding the mafia, it is literally the actions of an ignorant, flat earth media - does the German media run series on the holocaust, do the the southern states of the US glamorize the KKK ?. No they provide documentaries and series regarding the victims, it is literally pathetic to watch and then the wonder why the marco-culture persists. Finally in terms of cleaning the stain of Pablo off the streets of Medellin, it has takes 26 years already, the authorities literally need to ban all publicity with regards to Escobar Tours - it is everywhere and those with a sharp eye may have spotted a Netflix series Dark Tourist where the journalist actually hooks up with Popeye who did 20 years for mass murder on behalf of Escobar who uses an imitation gun to reenact an assassination. Only under Colombian justice would he ever have been allowed out and only under Medellin culture is he treated as a celebrity. Finally I would literally exhume Escober and give him the Bin Laden burial at sea treatment to send a clear message to all of those locals who still consider him a post modern Robin Hood. An important event and there were nice message but next time donate the $50,000 to charity and when speeches by Duque and the Mayor last a combined 45 minutes they turn into campaigning as opposed to compassion.