75.8K
Downloads
600
Episodes
A daily brief about the world's most dangerous places from international war correspondent Chuck Holton
Episodes
Monday Jan 21, 2019
Monday Jan 21, 2019
Terror in Bogota and Mexico burning. We’ll talk about both of them and more on this explosive episode of the Hot Zone.
Hi there folks. It's Monday, January 21st. Lots to get to today. There were two terrible tragedies over the weekend. First, 21 people were murdered in Bogota Colombia after a giant car bomb was detonated at a graduation ceremony in that city Friday. It happened at the national police academy during an advancement event for new cadets. A terrorist drove an SUV through the security gate at the academy and smashed into a building before detonating an estimated 88 pounds of explosives. The effects were devastating. While no one has claimed responsibility, the bombing is being attributed to the National Liberation Front, or ELN, which is one of the few remaining rebel groups that is still fighting the Colombian government. The other main rebel group is the FARC, which was itself responsible for many similar bombings in the past, but they came to an agreement with the Colombian government last year and agreed to lay down their arms and become a political party rather than a militia. But the ELN is really more of a criminal gang or cartel that has taken on a political ideology. They have very leftist leanings and have always been in opposition to the more right-wing Colombian government that is currently in power.
On Friday morning a man was arrested in Bogota in connection with the bombing after he made a phone call which was intercepted by the Colombian authorities. During the call, the accused terrorist admitted to helping prepare and detonate the bomb.
Over the weekend, Colombians came out across the country for marches and candlelight vigils to denounce terrorism and honor their police. Many Colombians remember the dark days of the eighties when bombings were more commonplace and never want to see that kind of violence again.
In reality, Columbia is actually much safer than most people think. Years ago, drug Cartels in the country were so powerful, most especially Pablo Escobar, and the Medellin cartel, of which he was the leader. Back then bombs like this were a fairly regular occurrence. It got so bad that at one point US government personnel were prohibited from traveling around the country by vehicle and could only use helicopters. But this explosion is the first major terror attack in Colombia in almost a decade. These days terror attacks in Latin America are very, very rare because frankly, there aren't a lot of Muslims in Latin America. And like it or not, the vast majority, like over 80% of terrorist attacks across the globe are perpetrated by radical Islamic Jihadists. But in Colombia, while the ELN and to some extent the FARC are essentially espousing a Marxist philosophy, the fight isn’t actually over ideology so much as it is over the tremendous amount of natural resources Colombia sits on as well as a lucrative and growing cocaine trade. And those two things mean 10s of billions of dollars a year that can be gleaned by criminal organizations. In an earlier episode of this show, I talked about the illegal gold mining operations that are rampant across Colombia and told the story of a family that has been in boutique gold mining for generations. The owner of that mine told me the gangs basically come in and make slaves out of this little mom and pop gold miners who then have to work five or six days a week just to pay the "war tax" being imposed by the criminal gangs, and then try to live on the leftovers. Most people are not aware that there is an ongoing, enormous refugee crisis inside Columbia, nearly as bad as that in Syria, with millions of people internally displaced because of the brutal criminal gangs which rule remote parts of the country. The numbers are actually pretty staggering. It is said that the cartels are now making five times as much money from illegal gold extraction than they are from the trafficking of cocaine, which is pretty significant. Columbia as some of the largest gold reserves in the world, and mom and pop or “artisanal" gold mining has been a thing for literally hundreds of years. The miner we spoke to said that the government operates almost like another criminal gang when it comes to their approach to miners because they levy a 70% tax on the gold being taken out of the ground and require the miners to spend far more money obtaining permits and certifications for their mines. And also, they require them to adhere to very strict environmental regulations, which end up being quite costly. Columbia's overall violent crime rate is actually lower than that of Panama where I live. But of course, it really depends on where you go, and what you do. As I like to tell people - as long as you don't go stupid places at stupid times and do stupid things with stupid people, you can probably travel safely to just about anywhere. Medellin today is a really beautiful and fairly safe city where my wife and I have gone for weekend getaways. It's cheap, and there's a lot to do, and the food is terrific. So I don’t know if I’d be too worried about traveling there…this bombing is pretty out of the ordinary, and especially because one of the bombers was killed in the attack as well…though I don't know if that was intentional or not. Suicide bombings are almost unheard of in Latin America. The bottom line is that as long as you are smart and careful, you could go to Colombia, and really have an enjoyable and cheap vacation as long as you stay out of the more remote areas near the Venezuelan border or in the south.
The other refugee problem that Colombia is facing is a huge wave of people fleeing Venezuela and living in refugee camps in Bogota and elsewhere. This has led to an increase in petty theft as a desperate migrants resort to stealing in order to survive. And there have been reports of violence between Colombian and Venezuelan prostitutes. Because the Colombian women are angry that the Venezuelans will work much cheaper. I hope to go to Venezuela later... actually my wife will not let me go to Venezuela. I hope to go to the Colombian border with Venezuela next month. After I get back from Syria. In order to take a closer look at these stories and report, especially on the migrant situation. It could affect the United States because there is now a push to grant Venezuelans temporary protected status, which would mean that Venezuelan refugees who come to the United States would be immediately admitted for asylum. This obviously would cause a large increase in the number of Venezuelans heading to our borders. In years past, there have only been a few thousand each year.
I have to say, though, if any country in Latin America ought to have TPS, it's probably Venezuela. I have spoken with Venezuelan migrants who have come to the United States and to Panama, and they all say that the trip is very dangerous and especially in Colombia, you are virtually guaranteed to get robbed and or raped as you cross that country apparently even government forces are getting in on the act since there are so many migrants coming through there and have elevated the pillaging of these helpless and needy travelers to an almost institutional level. Which is really unfortunate, but doesn’t actually seem to function as much of a deterrent for some reason.
Okay, our next story also has to do with a huge explosion in Latin America, this time in Mexico.
So back on episode 21, the seventh of January, I talked about the huge problem Mexico is having with oil theft or fuel theft as cartels and criminal gangs are digging up Mexican fuel pipelines and tapping into them to steal the gasoline inside and then sell it on the black market.
On Friday, a huge explosion happened on one of those pipelines about 60 miles north of Mexico City where a bunch of fuel thieves and locals were tapping a giant pipeline and accidentally set off the gasoline they were stealing. Here's footage of what it looked like before the explosion - people gathering around a geyser of gasoline shooting high into the air. Now I just have to say, if you walked up on this scene and there was gasoline spewing out of the ground like this...imagine the smell. Would you really want to be anywhere near this? But these people are lining up to collect their free gas in buckets and garbage cans. That's just a really, really bad idea. I mean come on, it's GASOLINE people. Ay yay yay. Now more than 70 people are dead, and dozens more were badly burned. The footage afterward looks like the end of a movie starring the Rock. According to the local news, the new president Andreas Manuel Lopez Obrador has been taking a hard stand against fuel theft because he says it costs the state of Mexico over $3 billion a year. And much of that money is going to the cartels to diversify their cash flow away from their other useful humanitarian pursuits such as human trafficking and drug smuggling.
This is not the first time they've had a big pipeline explosion. As you can imagine, bad things are likely to happen when people are literally drilling into a metal pipeline full of gasoline. Back in 2010, there was another big explosion that killed 28 people, including 13 children, and burned down a couple thousand homes across a 10-kilometer area in a place called San Martin Tex Milliken. According to local news in Mexico, fuel thieves have drilled into fuel pipelines almost 13,000 times in the last year…I mean… those things must look like Swiss cheese at this point. The government has deployed more than 3000 Mexican Marines to guard their pipelines, but it doesn’t sound like they are making a whole lot of difference. Not only that, the cartels have been buying off the employees who work at the refineries, they just pay them to look the other way when they literally just drive trucks full of gas out of the refineries' front gates. This is leading to a big fuel shortage in the country. And that is starting to have effects beyond Mexico. As a matter of fact, they're saying that we may not be able to make guacamole much longer until the Mexican government gets a handle on this. And that, my friends, is a real crisis. I mean, code red, hold everything, and forget about the government shut down...Because the hothouses that grow our avocados in Mexico are not going to be able to get their product to market. And missing out on my guacamole is very, very bad.
I hope the Mexican government can get a handle on this quickly. And if you're planning a road trip into Mexico, you might want to bring a couple extra cans of fuel and/or a fire extinguisher.
Well, that’s all we have for today folks. Thanks for watching. If you’d like to support the podcast, go to Patreon.com/hotzone and subscribe. It’s only three dollars a month. Think about that. You can spare three bucks a month, can’t you? Especially if it means you get free books and lots of other cool extras, and I give you my solemn promise that every dime will go to people in need. Well, eventually I’m hoping to donate some of that to the starving Holton children fund, but for now, we’re just going to see if we can help lots of people with it.
So we’ll see you back here tomorrow. I’m Chuck Holton, and this has been the Hot Zone.
END NOTES:
Comments (0)
To leave or reply to comments, please download free Podbean or
No Comments
To leave or reply to comments,
please download free Podbean App.