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.

Today’s Video: Seeking Justice for the ABC Victims

This week the Mexican legislature passed a landmark bill aimed at compensating the victims of drug crimes. Yet it’s another group of victims who continue to seek justice nearly three years after the tragic and sadly preventable ABC Nursery fire.

A citizens group known as the Movement for Justice on June 5 (El Movimiento por la Justicia 5 de Junio) has called on Mexican president Felipe Calderón to push for the implementation of the regulations in the Nursery Law.

"We call all the parents of affected families, to join forces with us and force President Calderon, that he enact regulations that should have been done April, "said Jose Francisco Garcia Quintana, spokesman for the the Movement for Justice on June 5. Quintana added that the lack of implrmentation of the Nursery Law, which was passed last year, has put into danger children that rely on the services of daycare centers throughout Mexico.

The following 2010 video via Al Jazeera English looks at the June 2009 blaze that killed forty-nine children in the state-run nursery:

Daily Headlines: April 22, 2010

* Puerto Rico: The University of Puerto Rico will close for at least 48 hours after thousands of students went on strike to protest against academic changes and major budget cuts.

* U.S.: While one hate crime murder trial of an Ecuadorian immigrant ended on Long Island another one started in nearby Brooklyn.

* Brazil: The government awarded building rights to the construction of the controversial Belo Monte dam, which has been vehemently opposed by environmentalists and indigenous groups.

* Guatemala: The head of a U.N. commission on Guatemala has called on authorities to do more to combat widespread impunity.

Image – Claridad
Sources- BusinessWeek, New York Times, The Latin Americanist, United Nations, BBC News

Daily Headlines: September 10, 2009

* Guatemala: President Alvaro Colom declared Guatemala in a “state of calamity” as the country faces a serious food shortage that has killed 25 children this year.

* Mexico: Several mothers in Ciudad Juarez protested attorney general-designee Arturo Chavez and claimed that he did little to investigate the unsolved murders of dozens of women.

* Cuba: Western Union reached a deal with the Treasury Department that will reflect the changes in remittance rules to Cuba.

* U.S.: Sonia Sotomayor listened to a case involving campaign finance during her first day on the Supreme Court bench yesterday.

Image- BBC News (“Almost half of Guatemala's children suffer chronic malnutrition.”)
Online Sources- AHN, The Latin Americanist, bizjournals.com, New York Daily News, New York Times