Salud Hernández-Mora: the voice of Colombia who was kidnapped, but refuses to have an escort
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The journalist Salud Hernández-Mora (Madrid, 1957) has earned the adjectives of ‘whip of the corrupt’, ‘brave’ and ‘unbribable’. She has been a columnist for 20 years. Timethe newspaper with the largest circulation in Colombia and since 2019, he has written in the magazine Weeka weekly political opinion magazine, recognized for its investigative work. His Sunday column is usually a bomb. She confesses that sometimes, the night before it is published, she is a little nervous. He tells things like they are and knows Colombia like very few others.
Hernández-Mora has dual nationality, Spanish and Colombian. He is a columnist because he “has no choice,” although there was a time when he was interested. But it is the column that opens doors: “people answer your phone through the column.” He likes the street, “getting his shoes wet, showing stories that no one cares about.” She is a “reporter at heart and soul.”
QUESTION: Why did you go to Colombia?
ANSWER: I worked in Madrid at Burson Marsteller, one of the main communication and consulting agencies in the world. I asked to be sent to Pakistan, but it was reserved for the British. They told me to look for something in Latin America. My idea was to leave the agency and become a reporter. In Spain nobody hired me. They considered that at forty years old and with a high salary I would be frustrated because they paid little.
It arrived in 1998, when Colombia was almost in Civil War.
Clear. Which country was she going to choose? The most complicated, the most similar to Pakistan. They suggested it be a trial week. It was the height of the paramilitaries, the guerrillas, the drug trafficking, and the corruption. The President of the Government, Samper, had been elected thanks to money from the Cali cartel. Since he is center-left, they still put a microphone on him.
How have you been able to maintain your independence in such a hostile environment?
Maybe because of his age. Maybe because I didn’t care if they kicked me out. I would have looked for something else.
On the one hand, I did reports for The world. Normally, there is no editorial line for international information. The media only cares about national information. Maybe they ask you for a few topics, but, in general, you can choose the ones that interest you. It is different when you are a columnist and you have to get involved with national politics. In 20 years that I was in Time, Only on two occasions did they say something to me…
And have you had pressure or threats?
Yes, yes, but I don’t pay attention.
Have you brought or are you carrying bodyguards?
There are times when you have to give up the escort in writing. I have refused three times. In Colombia I would have had two bodyguards, an armored SUV, a driver… Three people by my side all day? No.
As a woman, have you had problems?
Never. It is the number one country in the world for female heads of household. There are women in management positions, in the media. On the contrary, being forty years old has benefited me. In Colombia, the role of the mother is very important. On Mother’s Day the country comes to a standstill. They see you as their mother or her grandmother.
There are presidential elections in May. You claim that the candidates do not know the country.
Colombia is two countries. The productive country and the rest, which is the periphery. Almost 50% of the country is poor. Some seven million people live in misery. What the candidates do not know is that country on the periphery.
The left does not recognize the instability that comes with having 200,000 hectares of coca. Neither the right nor the left realize the horror of gold mining and the social consequences, public order and environmental disaster. When they propose solutions, they are not realistic. The previous government carried out a peace process absolutely detached from reality.
It cannot be promised that thanks to the peace process, less army will be needed, roads will reach everywhere and violence will disappear. That is a flagrant lie.
Why is the peace process “detached from reality”?
Because it cannot be promised that thanks to the peace process, less army will be needed, roads will reach everywhere and violence will disappear. That is a flagrant lie.
The people who have been growing coca for forty years are not going to give up coca to grow cassava… The problem with the roads is not due to the guerrillas, but rather due to corruption and the fact that there are three Andean mountain ranges and impenetrable jungles.
Who are the main candidates?
There is one from the extreme populist left who is Petro, a well-educated man. He has been a senator and this is the third time he has run. In his day he was a guerrilla, but from the M19, which is like a guerrilla Light. He is supported by very left-wing people, including the FARC party. On the other hand, Fico, center-right. An independent candidate who is being joined by people from the right and those who do not like Petro. And there is a large mass that hates the right and another that hates Petro. Who is going to hate who more? The level of hate is what can tip the balance.
The rise of the populist left in Latin America is paradoxical, seeing the ruin of Venezuela…
In Colombia we have 1,800,000 Venezuelans. And they keep coming. Nobody teaches someone else’s head a lesson. People like to be lied to. They are very poor societies that have not seen substantial changes. Populism sells illusions and does not mind lying.
Furthermore, there is a deep resentment towards everything and Petro has encouraged it. It is a very violent society, life is worthless. More than a thousand children die violently every year.
The border with Venezuela is a conflict zone.
I think there are 2,200 km of border. There are many hot zones: drug trafficking, guerrillas, mafia gangs… I interviewed a guerrilla, a commander who recently died in a bombing. It took me 30s to cross the border in a boat. Of course, I got on at a point controlled by that guerrilla, which is the other’s enemy.
There are neighborhoods dominated by the guerrilla, where the police do not even enter. As long as you don’t have a government on the other side that fights them, it is uncontrollable. THE Venezuelan government is allied with one of the new FARC guerrillas and the ELN (National Liberation Army) that has attacked the other FARC guerrilla and its National Guard is very corrupt.
Who controls the gold mines?
The guerrillas and the heirs of the paramilitaries. It is the most serious environmental problem there is, more so than coca. They are craters and craters. Entire rivers dry up. They put 70 in a river bulldozers. A bulldozer It costs 200 million pesos, but you are paying the armed group 20 million a month to let you work.
Furthermore, it has become a social problem. If before there were, to give a figure, a thousand families dedicated to gold, now there are one hundred thousand. It’s like in the gold digger movies. They live with the obsession of finding the nugget that will save them. Meanwhile, they subsist on trash.
It’s just that I’m not afraid. I don’t get anxious in advance. I didn’t see the point in them killing me after the kidnapping, or what they gained from it.
She was doing a report on the eradication of coca crops in an area near the border with Venezuela when she was kidnapped by the ELN. Were you scared? Did she think they could kill her?
It’s just that I’m not afraid. I don’t get anxious in advance. I didn’t see the point in them killing me, or what they gained from it. Furthermore, I am used to being with armed groups, with guerrillas and paramilitaries, and I know how to deal with them. I know a lot about kidnapping, because I spent 20 years in a foundation that fought against it. What I’m gonna say? I was there for a week, but there are people who have been kidnapped for 10, 11, 12… 14 years for the most part. They were later killed and returned dead.
The marches in the jungle must have been exhausting…
It was in a mountainous area, near the border with Venezuela. But he often went on a mule. I realized that they see in the dark. We went along very small trails between cliffs. I said, “I hope the mule sees something,” because it was late at night. It is a coca growing area, otherwise who would live there…
You’ve interviewed all kinds of people, who has impacted you the most?
Maybe Popeye. He boasted about the murders of him and had a way of speaking that made you laugh, knowing that he was a ruthless killer. I was impressed by his freshness, he didn’t give a damn about everything. Of course, he said: “I have never killed a priest, I can’t use priest’s blood… And neither can a girl.” He was the only murderer who spoke (he died of cancer) about his crimes with total shamelessness.
I have interviewed many murderers: guerrilla leaders, Carlos Castaño, paramilitary commander, Cano of the FARC… They did not impress me at all. On the contrary, I was surprised that such people could have so much power. The guerrilla seemed pitiful to me. Nobody has charisma or training.
He caused a national scandal with the report “Journey to the cradle of prostitutes.” He denounced the trafficking of women in the municipality of Pereira. Is the situation still the same?
No. Now the prostitutes are Venezuelan. There are many. They charge two dollars and they are very pretty girls. In Cartagena de Indias there has been an agreement among all the hoteliers to not allow the prostitution of minors, but then they go to apartments.
National child prostitution is also enormous. And that of prepaid calls, because they are contracted over the phone. They are girls who are in school and to get a good cell phone, a whim, they become prostitutes.
Since you arrived in Colombia, have you noticed changes?
When I arrived it was worse, because it was an almost failed state. Colombia has two speeds: the urban one, which has had significant development, and the other one that remains exactly the same or sometimes worse. There is a tremendous infrastructure problem. It is perhaps the biggest brake.
Is your house in Colombia or here?
Now I’m going to spend a little more time here, but when I get to Colombia it’s my home.
Are you going to vote?
Not this time. Fico is a center-right man, although now they call him extreme. He is strong in the fight against crime, but his vice president was asked if he would negotiate with the guerrillas and he said yes. I don’t vote for anyone who negotiates. To hell with the useful vote.
We are surrounded by mediocre people, but Petro is not mediocre, he is dangerous. He has been saying for some time that the usual right is going to steal the elections and they are not going to let him govern. He can win perfectly and, if he doesn’t win, they will burn Colombia. In all the elections that I have experienced, he had never seen such tension, such a degree of hatred.
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