Protest in southern Cali due to security and justice situation - Cali - Colombia

Through a symbolic burial, residents of Ciudad Jardín staged a protest to draw attention to insecurity in the city.

For this they created a small cemetery in which they lamented the ‘burial’ of tranquility, security and justice, which according to the protesters must be recovered.
Everything was accompanied with candles and white flowers.

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“We want to tell the Mayor that Cali needs security. We want to tell the judicial system that Cali needs the rules to be followed and to do their job because we cannot continue as we are”, expressed Martha Atehortúa, spokeswoman for the demonstration.

He also lamented the situation that the city is experiencing, which he considers a “go back in time”, which is why he asks the authorities to act more firmly.
Atehortúa stressed that the demonstration not only included residents of Ciudad Jardín, but also of Pance and surrounding areas.

Symbolically, residents of southern Cali protested the insecurity situation in the city.

Symbolically, residents of southern Cali protested the insecurity situation in the city.

Symbolically, residents of southern Cali protested the insecurity situation in the city.

“We want Cali to get ahead but putting order, prevailing the values ​​and rights of the community so that we can continue to get the best out of Cali and ourselves,” he added.

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Also present at the demonstration was the candidate for Congress, Gustavo Orozco, who called on the mayor of Cali, Jorge Iván Ospina, to “support the right of citizens to be calm and to have security.”

He demanded of the judicial system “that there be no impunity, specifically for people who destroy, frighten and commit crimes… that they pay. We need, among other things, that the people who participated in the destruction of Cali from the front line be condemned.”

CALI

Coffee is the driver of change in southern Tolima - Other Cities - Colombia

In 2006 Planadas, and the south of Tolima in general, went through the bloodiest of an era that whipped the tranquility of the entire country. That same year, then-president Álvaro Uribe declared the municipality a “strategic recovery zone” due to the total power that the insurgency wielded.

The influence of the FARC’s 21st Front in the area was absolute and, at the same time, the anxiety increased, as members of the Dipol, the Sijin and the Army began to carry out covert operations, one of the basic strategies of the counterinsurgency fight. .

Coffee landscape in San Miguel de Planadas.

Photo:

Camilo Jiménez / Supplied Astrid Medina / THE NEW DAY.

In the midst of this turbulent environment there was good news that, for many, opened a path of change: Edith Enciso, from the La Isla farm in the district of Gaitania de Planadas, won the ‘Cup of Excellence’ and the recognition of producing one of the best specialty coffees in Colombia.

Tolima coffee is today known throughout the world for its quality in the cup, which is due to the attributes of its volcanic soils, with characteristics that are highly valued among experts: fruity notes, apricot, peach, among others, which make it much more aromatic.

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The great advantage of the department is that organic coffee is produced throughout the year, a feature that differentiates it from competitors such as the Sierra Nevada, which harvests only between October and March. Grown mostly on small plots, 96.7% of coffee growers in Tolima are small producers of less than five hectares.

Social change

The department is the third largest producer nationwide, with a market share of 12.8% in 108,141 hectares of different varieties in 38 of the 47 municipalities, according to the National Federation of Coffee Growers. However, coffee in the south has not only been aid and a driver of development, it has also become a symbol of change: “A few years ago, when coffee came in, the poppy came out,” says Ana Jesús Valderrama, a coffee grower from the Vereda Canoas Copete de Ataco and producer of Cafimujer.

There are hundreds of examples of associations, cooperatives, groups, neighbors and friends who see coffee as an opportunity for improvement in this region. “In the south of Tolima, coffee has been a symbol. It occurs among coffee growers, but also among victims, indigenous communities, and ex-combatants. With coffee, the community was integrated, and that is an immense contribution to the construction of peace,” said Carlos Guillermo Ospina, Truth Commissioner who has worked for years in this area of ​​Tolima.

Foreign coffee marketers visit Gaitania.

Photo:

Camilo Jiménez / Supplied Astrid Medina / THE NEW DAY.

ASOPEP is one of the most important associations of coffee producers in southern Tolima. It currently has 349 members, of which 100 are dedicated to cocoa and 249 to coffee production in Planadas, Ataco and Huila. Among the activities they carry out, the headquarters of the association works as a collection center for coffee and cocoa. 1,200,000 kilos of coffee circulate every year. They also act as a bridge to allow the product to be exported: ASOPEP negotiates with the client abroad, sends the coffee to the exporting company and thus closes the deal.

The brand of coffee ‘Third Agreement’, produced by former FARC members of the El Oso Territorial Space for Training and Reincorporation (ETCR), in Planadas, is accompanied by ASOPEP. The association sells them organic coffee and the reincorporated roast it and market it. The first peace agreement was reached in 1996 between the Nasa indigenous people and the FARC, the second was between the National Government and the FARC in 2016. Now, the “third agreement” seeks to be a symbol of the total overcoming of violence.

Reincorporated are part of several production units in the old ETCR of El Oso, in Planadas.

Photo:

Camilo Jiménez / Supplied Astrid Medina / THE NEW DAY.

“Work is now easier. Before, people were afraid to come to this region because of the violence. The foreigners were afraid to come, but now they do it even by land to get to know. There is more trade and things are looking better: you know that coffee makes friends and brings progress”, said Jorge Rojas, physical analyst at ASOPEP. Created 8 years ago, today the association has an 8-hectare farm where they offer coffee growers drying services, a cocoa storage center and a coffee school for children is being built.

Coffee associations have become an option for community cooperation to consolidate the growth of this important economic subsector. It has given many of the small producers the possibility of technifying production and marketing at high levels. Groups of coffee growers such as Acedga or ASOTBILBAO in Gaitania, Asocalarama or the Corporación Agropecuaria Café Hermosas, in Chaparral, Ascafur Coffee Association in Rioblanco, are models of success and overcoming complex stages.

CAMILO JIMENEZ*
The new day
United Colombia

Traditional dancers come out on the streets of southern in Mexico | outstanding | Spanish edition

Hundreds of Parachico dancers came out on the streets of Chiapa de Corzo in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, amid an atmosphere of hope after a difficult year because of the Covid-19 pandemic and a road accident in which 56 migrants died.

The parachicos are traditional dancers of the grand festival of Chiapa de Corzo, which takes place from Jan. 4 to 23. Its origins are pre-Hispanic but eventually merged with Catholicism.

Dancers wear a wooden mask and a colored poncho-style clothing called “sarape”. On the head they wear a “montera”, which is a kind of helmet decorated in a way that resembles the blond hair of the Spanish people during colonization.

Wearing this outfit they dance on the streets to the sound of the drum and a flute called “pito”. EFE

Southern Chile, a natural laboratory to combat climate change | outstanding | Spanish edition

Punta Arenas, Chile, Jan 24 (EFE).- Punta Arenas, a city on the Strait of Magellan in the far south of Chile, used to be a contributor to rising global temperatures due to its coal mining fields.

But today, thanks to the development of green hydrogen plants and sensors to detect global warming, it has become a natural laboratory to combat climate change as part of a project by the International Antarctic Center.

“Magellan is a place where the past, present and future of scientific research on issues such as climate change, biodiversity and sustainable economy meet,” Chile’s minister of science, technology and innovation, Andrés Couve, tells Efe.

As well as being a gateway to Antarctica, Magellan’s rich biodiversity makes it the ideal place for scientists.

Cetaceans, penguins, pumas and a myriad of microscopic life make up its landscape, attracting experts from all over the world.

“It is a pristine ecosystem, the only place in the world without stressors for fauna and flora such as pollution, over-exploitation of soil or the massive use of pesticides,” says Elie Poulin, a French researcher at the Millennium Institute for Biodiversity of Antarctic Ecosystems.

The area’s biodiversity is being used to anticipate global warming in a pioneering research on the only colony of King penguins on the American continent, in Tierra del Fuego, south of Punta Arenas.

“Magellan is an extraordinary geographical experiment where the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and the Antarctic Ocean meet, but at the same time it is a very fragile place that is susceptible to climate change,” Valeria Souza, a biologist from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and leader of the study, tells Efe.

Souza analyzes the microbes that live on the feathers of the King penguins.

“The microbes react to changes in the temperature and salinity before the animals themselves. In this way, they warn us of signs of climate change before the rest of us can feel them,” she says.

The strong winds of Chilean Patagonia are another ingredient that is guiding the region to become a forerunner in the fight against climate change.

With wind speeds of over 90 kilometers per hour, the currents are an ideal source of clean green hydrogen and wind power.

Latin America’s largest green hydrogen fuel plant is currently being built near Punta Arenas, aiming to produce 130,000 liters of green fuel per year.

“We have all the ingredients to make this country a leading producer of green hydrogen worldwide and an engine to curb climate change,” Chile’s minister of energy and mining, Juan Carlos Jobet, said. EFE

Eight Killed in Southern Iran Floods

At least eight people have been killed in flash flooding in Iran’s south due to heavy rains expected to last until later this week, state media reported on Tuesday.

“Following the floods and rains of the past few days in the southern regions of the country, we have seen an increase in casualties and deaths,” spokesman for the national rescue service Mojtaba Khaledi said, quoted by state news agency IRNA.

“So far eight people have died and two are still missing,” Khaledi said, adding that 14 others had been injured.

Five of the deaths occurred in Fars province, local crisis management official Rahim Azadi told the state news agency.

A local official had said Monday that at least two people were killed in flash flooding in the province.

Heavy rain damaged “agriculture, infrastructure, urban and rural housing”, Azadi said.

Iran’s Red Crescent has provided “emergency accommodation for more than 3,000 people, and over 20,000 have received relief assistance”, its head of rescue and emergency operations Mehdi Valipour told state television.

“Houses have been flooded and infrastructure such as roads and communication systems have been damaged,” he said, adding that more than 500 teams were providing assistance in parts of the country’s south and east.

Pictures published by the Red Crescent on Tuesday showed its personnel setting up tents in sports halls and assisting cars trapped on flooded roads or stuck in snow-covered mountain areas.

Relief operations were underway in 87 cities across more than half of Iran’s 31 provinces, it added.

The weather system is expected to last until Friday, an official from Iran’s meteorological agency told state television.

Bad weather has been affecting not only southern Iran but also Arab countries in the Gulf in recent days, with several issuing weather warnings.

Torrential rainfall has hit the United Arab Emirates, including Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and caused widespread flooding in the region.

Largely arid, Iran has endured repeated droughts over the past decade, but also regular floods.

In 2019, heavy flooding in the country’s south left at least 76 people dead and caused damage estimated at more than $2 billion.

Scientists say climate change amplifies droughts and that their intensity and frequency in turn threaten food security.