Un año de Santos y su cruzada anti-corrupción

Por Lorenzo Morales

Uno de los hechos más notables del primer año del gobierno del presidente colombiano Juan Manuel Santos ha sido su impetuoso interés por destapar escándalos de corrupción en las oficinas del Estado. En poco tiempo, Santos—quien fue inaugurado el 7 de agosto del 2010—ha desenmascarado multi-millonarios desfalcos a las arcas públicas y ha puesto en evidencia sofisticadas redes de fraude que involucran a empresas privadas con altos funcionarios del gobierno, ex-funcionarios y mandatarios locales.

Para demostrar que esta batalla está muy arriba en la lista de sus prioridades, Santos ha salido a los medios en tono solemne a anunciar operaciones anti-corrupción de gran calado. Los anuncios se han vuelto tan frecuentes que a la prensa le queda poco tiempo para asimilar un caso cuando ya sus titulares apuntan hacia otro nuevo.

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Colombia’s Massive Floods and the Reasons Behind Them

by Lorenzo Morales

Colombia is going through one of the most severe rainy seasons in decades. In twelve months of downpours, more than one million hectares (2.47 million acres) of productive land have been flooded, roads have been erased by mudslides, and big and small cities have been isolated and heavily damaged. So far, 428 people have died and 77 are reported missing, according to official figures. About 2.9 million people (6.4 percent of the total population) have been directly affected in 28 of the country’s 32 departments, according to the National Statistics Department.

“This is the worst natural tragedy in the history of the country, considering the number of people affected and the extension of the catastrophe,” said President Juan Manuel Santos. “It’s something like when Katrina hit New Orleans a few years ago, but this time we are talking about a whole country.”

The government estimates that this unprecedented rainy season, caused by the La Niña/El Niño weather phenomenon, could cost some 2.5 percent of the GDP. This is comparable to the destructive power of the country’s three most damaging natural disasters of the last 30 years: the earthquake in Armenia in 2001 (1.86 percent of GDP), the volcano eruption in Armero in 1985 (0.29 percent) and the earthquake in Popayan in 1983 (0.45 percent). But this time it’s all happening in one year.

Unpredictable forces of nature are in play in Colombia’s current disaster. No one can be blamed for that. But as national and local authorities wash their hands of responsibility, they persist in sponsoring policies and projects that alter (and sometimes destroy) the mechanisms that can both trigger or turn off such forces.

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Chasing Illegal Miners in Colombia

by Lorenzo Morales

An unfortunate series of events last week turned my last blog post -Colombia’s Readiness for the Mining Industry- into a warning that has now become reality.

On February 1, five miners were killed in an explosion at La Escondida coalmine, near Sutatausa, a small town north of Bogotá. According to official reports, the explosion was caused by the accumulation of gases—mainly methane—in the tunnels. Floresmiro Olaya, the only survivor of the explosion, said to a local newspaper that the mine lacked proper ventilation, the tunnels didn’t have shelters in case of a collapse (like the one that saved the 33 Chilean miners) and no inspection was conducted by authorities. The families of the killed miners announced they will sue the government for poorly enforcing safety measures in the mine.

This tragedy came only a week after another explosion killed 21 miners in a coalmine in Sardinata, Santander, in the northeast of Colombia. It, too, was apparently caused by a buildup of methane gas.

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Colombia’s Readiness for the Mining Industry

by Lorenzo Morales

Political institutions tend to respond slowly in adapting to challenges. Longstanding problems typically arise and evolve long before policymakers and government officials are able to identify them. And when they do, they are generally ill-equipped to devise proposals to solving these problems. One of the more telling examples is happening in Colombia—where not only the mining industry is impacted but strategic assets like water are being put at risk.

Colombia is the largest coal producer in Latin America, and after Venezuela and Brazil, the third-largest for crude oil. The exploitation of gold, silver and rare earth minerals such as coltan (a combination of columbite and tantalite) is growing exponentially. Must of this activity is driven by foreign direct investment (FDI); between 2008 and 2009 alone, the percentage of investments in mining projects out of all FDI skyrocketed from 17 percent to 43 percent—from $1.8 billion to $3.1 billion. The figure is expected to further increase in 2010.

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