*All the pictures featured on this post were taken by Flickr user b.wu
During Colombian president Álvaro Uribe Vélez visit to Washington on Wednesday, seeking U. S. Congress approval for the controversial Free Trade Agreement and more money for the already failed Plan Colombia, demonstrators yelled at him, accusing the leader of the death of aroung 400 unionist and only 10 convictions. The same guy who said he’d be a “guerrilla man” and a “paramilitary” with a gun, not a mediocre one, all the same week, decided to “talk” to them, as the “democrat” he says he is (what a strategy!).
No, these are not UFOs, they are helicopters flying quite low over Bogotá sky all day long… (Photo: Carlos Raúl van der Weyden Velásquez, Creative Commons BY-SA licence)
On Sunday, U. S. President George W. Bush arrived to Bogotá, for a 7-hour to Álvaro Uribe Vélez. Colombian media covered this trip, mostly relying on the SNE official photos and broadcastings. In these two videos you can see the highlights for the press conference held on Sunday afternoon, as well as all the things Bogotá people had to get through, specially the people who live downtown, because of the visit. You can see also the boring special on the Presidency website.
But what Colombian media, specially TV, hardly mentioned during the visit, and only reported during the 7 p.m. newscast, were the clashes between police and demonstrators just 30 blocks North the presidential palace (ignored by Uribe), where leftist Alternative Democratic Pole called for a meeting which turned out a huge riot. Blogger and journalist Víctor Solano was there and took some “clandestine” pictures, as a “historical record”. He also uploaded a video. (more…)
