On Colombia’s Independence Day over four million people marched in Colombia and around the world against violence committed by criminal groups.The rallies in cities like Bogota, Washington, Medellin, and Paris were done in solidarity with the hundreds of kidnapped people who remain trapped in the Colombian jungle. Former hostage Ingrid Betancourt led the event in the French capital and called on the FARC to free all their captives, while Colombian president Alvaro Uribe hosted his Brazilian and Peruvian counterparts in the Amazonian city of Leticia.
It was in Leticia where musicians Shakira and Carlos Vives performed as part of the rally there:
Sadly, the clamor and cries for peace have been largely ignored by Colombia’s criminal groups; “we will never be the ones…to lay down our weapons” said a communiqué issued today by a pair of FARC commanders.Meanwhile, five rural farmers were gunned down on Sunday in an area where “new paramilitary groups and narcotraffickers” battle for the control of coca growing lands.
We continue this week’s video theme of Sunday’s Paz Sin Fronteras ("Peace Without Borders") concert with Carlos Vives.The Colombian singer was the first of the seven “chancellors of peace” to take the stage at the Simon Bolívar bridge along the Venezuela/Colombia border.
Vives’ heyday was in the 1990s when he fused pop and rock sounds to traditional Colombian vallenato music in songs like “La Tierra Del Olvido” and “La Gota Fria.”In the following clip he performs “La Hamaca Grande”, a tune steeped in the accordion sounds indicative of the vallenato.
This week’s video theme will feature clips of the four hour plus concert held at the Simón Bolívar bridge.Today we’re showing Spain’s Alejandro Sanz singing Corazon Partio along with his fellow “chancellors of peace”: Juanes, Ricardo Montaner, Juan Luis Guerra, Miguel Bose, Juan Fernando Velasco, and Carlos Vives.
