Colombia rebels trade guns for cameras with new TV network
BOGOTA: In a tiny bathroom, Marilu Ramirez prepares for her segment in a production studio by brushing her hair and covering her lashes in another coat of mascara, luxuries in a life no longer being spent behind bars.
Sentenced to 27 years in jail for her role in a car bombing at a military school, Ramirez was released as part of Colombia’s peace agreement with leftist rebels and is now the host of an online debate show.
The live program is produced by Nueva Colombia Noticias, a new network started by former guerrillas with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that aims to offer an alternative to what some see as a media landscape crowded with traditional outlets.
One year after the signing of the accord, the ex-combatants are living in a hotel paid for by the government, teaching themselves how to operate cameras and gearing up to launch a daily newscast.
Their audience is still minuscule, but they hope to attract a large, loyal following by focusing on stories from the places they know best: remote parts of Colombia long neglected by state and establishment media.
“We want to give a voice to those who have been living for decades in silence, but experiencing firsthand the state’s neglect,” Ramirez said after a taping of her show La Mesa Caliente (The Hot Table).
In the urban jungle of Bogota, the budding journalists are putting into practice many of the same techniques they learned while dodging bullets in the countryside: trying to keep calm even when interview subjects begin lambasting former rebels as monsters and terrorists.
The channel currently has 25 reporters in Colombia’s capital, nearly all former rebels living off monthly payments that the Colombian government agreed to pay as part of the peace accord. Those payments are equivalent to 90% of the nation’s current minimum wage, or about $225. The network also relies on journalists stationed at some of the 26 zones where former guerrillas are transitioning to civilian life. AP