Showing posts with label Jaime Garzon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jaime Garzon. Show all posts
Friday, September 16, 2016
Daily Headlines: September 16, 2016
* Colombia: A Colombian court found the state responsible for the murder in 1999 of Jaime Garzón, one of the country’s most acclaimed satirists in the 1990s, who was killed purportedly at the behest of paramilitary commanders.
* Peru: Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski deemed his visit to China as “a success” but his government doesn’t seem to be too pleased over the $60 billion price tag placed by Chinese officials on a proposed railway crossing South America.
* Brazil: Television actor Domingos Montagner will be buried in his native city of Sao Paulo on Saturday after he drowned while filming a scene for Brazil’s most popular telenovela.
* Mexico: “We don't have a reason to shout 'viva Mexico' ... There are thousands of injustices,” said one of the many hundreds of protestors in Mexico City who called on President Enrique Peña Nieto to resign from office.
YouTube Source – Señal Colombia
Online Sources – Reuters, Colombia Reports, Forbes, BBC News, Peru this Week
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Remembering Jaime Garzon
The following post reflecting on the assassination of Colombian comedian and satirist Jaime Garzon was first published on August 15, 2011.
We are reprinting it today since it's the fourteenth anniversary of Garzon's untimely death.
Imagine the public reaction in the U.S. if Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert were to be gunned down in cold blood. Now picture that in the subsequent years impunity surrounds the murder and investigations into the crime have yielded few results. Such is the case of Jaime Garzon, Colombia’s top political humorist who was assassinated just over twelve years ago.
Garzon was best known for his sharp satire against the Colombian political establishment in TV programs such as “Zoociedad” and "Quac, El Noticiero". (In this clip, for instance, Garzon pokes fun at then-Governor and eventual president Alvaro Uribe as “the dictator Colombia needs!”) His most famous character was Heriberto de la Calle (roughly translated as “Heriberto of the streets”), a shoeshine man who grilled celebrities and political leaders. (In this clip, Heriberto asks ex-U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Myles Frechette if it’s true that the U.S. “doesn’t pursue guerillas since the rebels send cocaine to the U.S. and they receive arms in return?”)
Aside from his humor, Garzon was also a lawyer and peace activist who involved himself in the liberating of hostages from the FARC as well as the failed peace negotiations with the rebels. Paramilitary leaders allegedly viewed him not as an intermediary but instead as a guerilla collaborator and he reportedly received death threats from them. It’s believed that paramilitary chief Carlos Castaño ordered Garzon to be killed, a tragedy that would occur in Bogota on August 13, 1999.
In 2000, Castaño was convicted in absentia of the murder of Garzon and sentenced to 38 years in prison. The purported mastermind behind the assassination never spent a day behind bars for his crime and he himself would be killed under mysterious circumstances in 2004.
We are reprinting it today since it's the fourteenth anniversary of Garzon's untimely death.
Imagine the public reaction in the U.S. if Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert were to be gunned down in cold blood. Now picture that in the subsequent years impunity surrounds the murder and investigations into the crime have yielded few results. Such is the case of Jaime Garzon, Colombia’s top political humorist who was assassinated just over twelve years ago.
Garzon was best known for his sharp satire against the Colombian political establishment in TV programs such as “Zoociedad” and "Quac, El Noticiero". (In this clip, for instance, Garzon pokes fun at then-Governor and eventual president Alvaro Uribe as “the dictator Colombia needs!”) His most famous character was Heriberto de la Calle (roughly translated as “Heriberto of the streets”), a shoeshine man who grilled celebrities and political leaders. (In this clip, Heriberto asks ex-U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Myles Frechette if it’s true that the U.S. “doesn’t pursue guerillas since the rebels send cocaine to the U.S. and they receive arms in return?”)
Aside from his humor, Garzon was also a lawyer and peace activist who involved himself in the liberating of hostages from the FARC as well as the failed peace negotiations with the rebels. Paramilitary leaders allegedly viewed him not as an intermediary but instead as a guerilla collaborator and he reportedly received death threats from them. It’s believed that paramilitary chief Carlos Castaño ordered Garzon to be killed, a tragedy that would occur in Bogota on August 13, 1999.
In 2000, Castaño was convicted in absentia of the murder of Garzon and sentenced to 38 years in prison. The purported mastermind behind the assassination never spent a day behind bars for his crime and he himself would be killed under mysterious circumstances in 2004.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Today’s Video: Jaime Garzon – humor and impunity
Imagine the public reaction in the U.S. if Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert were to be gunned down in cold blood. Now picture that in the subsequent years impunity surrounds the murder and investigations into the crime have yielded few results. Such is the case of Jaime Garzon, Colombia’s top political humorist who was assassinated just over twelve years ago.
Garzon was best known for his sharp satire against the Colombian political establishment in TV programs such as “Zoociedad” and "Quac, El Noticiero". (In this clip, for instance, Garzon pokes fun at then-Governor and eventual president Alvaro Uribe as “the dictator Colombia needs!”) His most famous character was Heriberto de la Calle (roughly translated as “Heriberto of the streets”), a shoeshine man who grilled celebrities and political leaders. (In this clip, Heriberto asks ex-U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Myles Frechette if it’s true that the U.S. “doesn’t pursue guerillas since the rebels send cocaine to the U.S. and they receive arms in return?”)
Aside from his humor, Garzon was also a lawyer and peace activist who involved himself in the liberating of hostages from the FARC as well as the failed peace negotiations with the rebels. Paramilitary leaders allegedly viewed him not as an intermediary but instead as a guerilla collaborator and he reportedly received death threats from them. It’s believed that paramilitary chief Carlos Castaño ordered Garzon to be killed, a tragedy that would occur in Bogota on August 13, 1999.
In 2000, Castaño was convicted in absentia of the murder of Garzon and sentenced to 38 years in prison. The purported mastermind behind the assassination never spent a day behind bars for his crime and he himself would be killed under mysterious circumstances in 2004.
After years of weak investigations in Colombia, Garzon’s family last week sought the intervention of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. In the meantime, one cannot help but wonder how Garzon would’ve skewered the Colombian political landscape of the past few years and if the country is still without a “national identity” as he jokingly refers to in this 1993 interview:
(Hat tip for the video: Colombia Reports).
Online Sources- El Heraldo, Colombia Reports
Video Source - YouTube
Garzon was best known for his sharp satire against the Colombian political establishment in TV programs such as “Zoociedad” and "Quac, El Noticiero". (In this clip, for instance, Garzon pokes fun at then-Governor and eventual president Alvaro Uribe as “the dictator Colombia needs!”) His most famous character was Heriberto de la Calle (roughly translated as “Heriberto of the streets”), a shoeshine man who grilled celebrities and political leaders. (In this clip, Heriberto asks ex-U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Myles Frechette if it’s true that the U.S. “doesn’t pursue guerillas since the rebels send cocaine to the U.S. and they receive arms in return?”)
Aside from his humor, Garzon was also a lawyer and peace activist who involved himself in the liberating of hostages from the FARC as well as the failed peace negotiations with the rebels. Paramilitary leaders allegedly viewed him not as an intermediary but instead as a guerilla collaborator and he reportedly received death threats from them. It’s believed that paramilitary chief Carlos Castaño ordered Garzon to be killed, a tragedy that would occur in Bogota on August 13, 1999.
In 2000, Castaño was convicted in absentia of the murder of Garzon and sentenced to 38 years in prison. The purported mastermind behind the assassination never spent a day behind bars for his crime and he himself would be killed under mysterious circumstances in 2004.
After years of weak investigations in Colombia, Garzon’s family last week sought the intervention of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. In the meantime, one cannot help but wonder how Garzon would’ve skewered the Colombian political landscape of the past few years and if the country is still without a “national identity” as he jokingly refers to in this 1993 interview:
(Hat tip for the video: Colombia Reports).
Online Sources- El Heraldo, Colombia Reports
Video Source - YouTube
Friday, July 2, 2010
Colombia: Ex-intel superior accused in Garzon murder
Imagine what would happen if Jon Stewart were to be shot and killed by armed gunmen. Such was the fate of Colombian comedian and political satirist Jaime Garzon who was assonated nearly eleven years ago. Since then, the murder remains unsolved though it has been alleged that the late right-wing paramilitary leader Carlos Castaño ordered his death.Earlier this week a breakthrough in Garzon’s case emerged when the Attorney General’s office accused a former senior intelligence official with masterminding the killing. An indictment against ex- deputy director of the DAS Jose Miguel Narvaez was handed down late last year, though that information wasn’t publicly revealed until last Tuesday. According to officials, a former paramilitary member testified that Narvaez “instigated” Castaño to kill Garzon.
Colombia’s DAS intelligence agency has come under fire for illegally wiretapping opposition figures, journalists and judges. Narvaez himself has been imprisoned since August 2009 for his supposed role in the chuzadas scandal.
Speaking of the Colombian paramilitaries, one of their leaders was sued in a U.S. federal court by families of two of his victims:
The lawsuit against Carlos Mario Jimenez was filed in federal court June 14 and publicized by the plaintiffs' attorneys Thursday.Image- EPA
The plaintiffs are seeking damages from Jimenez's assets that were seized in 2008. Their attorney acknowledges the funds may be tough to secure, but that they simply want to describe what they've been through and confront the man they consider responsible.
Online Sources- Plan Colombia and Beyond, LAHT, ABC.es, Miami Herald, Colombia Reports
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