Image by Patton

Barranquilla in Colombia is the most important coastal city with a distinct characteristic: no rainwater drainage systems, so whenever it rains, the whole city floods with dangerous fast running rivers (called arroyos) replacing roads. On the following videos, taxis, cars and even buses float by on the streets as other citizens try to lend a helping hand to keep them from getting away.

The dangerous situations arising from the “arroyos”, are a result of bad city planning, no drainage systems, not enough clearance on the sides of creeks before building and the risky behaviour of those who try to brave the current.  Following, some videos of these impressive forces of nature that take control over the most important city of the Caribbean coast.

Blogger Patton, who visited Barranquilla recently, did live streaming of the water covering the streets after a light rain. It was Maaria, travelling with him who narrates on the video and notified us about it on twitter. Patton also uploaded other videos of the flooding streets as well as pictures, such as the one used on this post, on his flickr account, pointing out on the accompanying notes how people have adapted to the situation.

Barranquilla native @allyfar also posted on twitter several pictures of the same storm right outside her house:

Although the flooding looks manageable from the previous videos, keep in mind it was a light rain which caused these arroyos. The following video, made by Telekinesishd, a production company based in Barranquilla, shows the water  dragging away a full size pickup truck.

This next documentary, made by the regional government of Barranquilla and uploaded on YouTube by shchalel, explains why the city lacks rainwater drainage systems: it was thought they wouldn´t work since the city lies below the level of the Magdalena River, the largest river in Colombia and also Barranquilla's neighbor. The arroyos have claimed human lives in the past, and the damage to property and to the environment is quite extensive, particularly in the poorer communities, usually built too close to the margins of creeks and small tributaries.

The quantity of citizen videos reporting on the arroyos in Barranquilla is quite high. Almost all include a driver struggling to get their vehicle out of the arroyo's path. Some are lucky, others are dragged by the water and into the rivers. Some drivers are lucky and leave their car before its too late. The situation is made worse because it is just so common: drivers don't treat is a dangerous situation every time, they decide to risk it and hope for the best.

Sometimes the drivers ignore the danger and wait until it is too late to take their car into safety. This video by cafustar shows a taxi driver trying to pull into a parking garage, and as the water pulls the car away from the entrance, people start arriving to help pull it inside by brute force: at a time there are up to seven men, including the driver, fighting against the water. Finally, the arroyo is too strong and takes the taxi away.

Trightxu gives additional information about the following video featuring yet another taxi driver attempting to drive through an arroyo with his wife and a baby in the car when they get swept away by the water and struck by another car also floating along. Luckily they survived:

Here are even more videos of the arroyos, taken by ordinary citizens:

Reinaldo Pinilla (ReyPini):

LouisJuniorista:

PruebasyoPublico:

Some government officials, such as Agriculture Minister Andrés Felipe Árias and Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, have resigned to posts in order to campaign, which they must do so before May 30, one year before the election. They are stating they will seek to continue Uribe's policies if elected. However, Santos is not officially running, claiming he will only run if president Uribe decides not to. Despite Uribe's indecision and the opposition to the second re-election voiced by politicians, social sectors and the media, domestically and abroad, it is clear the campaign for 2010 has started and campaign staffers have looked at internet as a new media to promote their candidates.

In a two-post series, journalist and blogger Camilo García has summarized the presence of Colombian politicians on the internet, not only through their official websites or Twitter, but also through Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube. In the first part [es], García writes about several politicians who use social networks in order to promote their names for the next elections. It's unavoidable to mention US President Barack Obama's success back in 2008. Here we quote some highlights:

Fajardo, como prometió en Caracol Radio, utiliza las herramientas digitales. Tiene un portal muy bonito donde olvida que lo importante en Internet son los contenidos, no la forma y la cantidad de herramientas digitales que usa. El ahora candidato tiene cuenta en Flickr, tiene 121 videos en YouTube y 5.940 partidarios en Facebook. La figura se observa pero las ideas no las veo. Lastima que este señor no tenga aún una cuenta en Twitter.

García quotes one of the tweets [es] from former Congressman Germán Vargas Lleras, leader of the centre-right Radical Change party:

“La situación en el Caribe colombiano es peor que en el resto del país, ando por Villanueva, Bolivar. (…) No puede ser que las personas que trabajan allí y los compradores desarrollen sus actividades en condiciones tan deplorables.”

García thinks that these tweets reveal something troubling:

Trinos (…) como estos denotan el desconocimiento tan profundo que tienen los políticos del país . Hasta yo sé que en la Costa se observa una pobreza de grande dimensiones y eso que sólo soy un ciudadano cualquiera. Si un político o senador se asombra con esas circunstancias y considera digna su publicación en Internet creo que estamos perdidos.

And he praises former Defense Minister and Liberal Party pre-candidate Rafael Pardo:

Lo interesante de este perfil en Twitter es que el político está detrás de la cuenta. Reconoce que no sabe utilizar las herramientas tecnológicas y lo más sensato es que pide ayuda de los usuarios para lograr los objetivos. Esto marca una diferencia con los otros políticos que tienen sus estrategias en Internet pero se limitan a enviar mensajes al pueblo. La diferencia está en la interacción.

Otro de los aspectos que lo diferencian de los otros personajes es el contenido. Artículos breves, con temas de coyuntura. Es decir, tiene claridad en sus ideas políticas y es capaz de expresarlas para internet, es decir, crea contenido valioso para Internet.

García mentions former Mayor of Bogotá Antanas Mockus, who had opened an account with just two tweets, and the unpopularity of current Mayor of Bogotá, left-wing Alternative Democratic Pole's Samuel Moreno Rojas, who is mocked on Twitter with nicknames such as #bobolitro (”dumb”) and #torombolo (which makes reference to Mr Moreno's physical resemblance to Jughead, the Archie character, known in Latin America as “Torombolo”).

On the second part [es], García compares the Obama strategy with those things the Colombian politicians are doing to campaign on the net. He writes that the Obama's strategy is well out of reach for any Colombian politician, especially because of the high cost of employing such a varied team of “designers, programmers, communication experts, library scientists, and advertisers” that is needed.

Much of the consensus to date is that Rafael Pardo is the only presidential pre-candidate who has some kind of clue about using internet as a campaign medium. Probably this is why political website La Silla Vacía [es] dubbed him as the “cyber-candidate” in an article about his registration to the Liberal Party internal elections last April 28, an event which was followed live on his website. As the event progressed, La Silla Vacía [es] asked other Colombian twitterers about their thoughts about Pardo and his use of his own Twitter account @rafaelpardo [es]. Pardo states that “these new media are necessary to reach certain audiences” and that “it's very useful because, given so much scarcity and hardness of access to traditional media, new media become a necessary alternative. But it's important not to use them as a billboard, but seeking to inform and discuss with the audience and their worryings.” Those twitterers who answered were quoted in the article [es] written by editor-in-chief Juanita León.

Some users also reacted to the article by La Silla Vacía [es]. Juan F Botero writes [es] about the limited reach of this strategy:

Además, la población colombiana apenas esta empezando a tener acceso en su casa a internet. Es por esta razón que estas estrategias mediaticas, si funcionan, solo lo hacen en países en donde la población tiene acceso las 24 horas del día. Yo me pregunto, que colombiano promedio puede enviar y recibir mensajes de twitter por su celular? o puede consultar su perfil de facebook en el bus o en transmilenio?

En fin, bien por Pardo y todos aquellos precandidatos que utilizan nuevas tecnologias, pero antes de ponerse a perder el tiempo, deberían buscar estrategias que no solo le lleguen a unos pocos.

Despite the lack of access for some, cam2574 is more optimistic [es] and thinks that it is good that these candidates are looking for alternate ways to reach potential voters, but understanding that “it is a learning process.”

Even though many twitterers have mostly praise for Pardo's understanding of Twitter as a tool and internet as a medium for campaigning, the Liberal pre-candidate is not that successful in polls.

Things being so, Pardo and another presidential candidates have a lot to do in order to take advantage of the web as a campaigning tool. In the last few weeks, candidates such as conservative Andrés Felipe Árias (@andresarias2010) or former Defense Minister and ruling camp dissident Marta Lucía Ramírez (@mluciaramirez; @MLRPresidenta for her campaign) have joined Pardo, Vargas Lleras, Fajardo, and Mockus on Twitter. In the case of Ramírez, its initial campaign logo has attracted the attention of some people [es] because of its resemblance with the one used by the Obama campaign. Last week, Ms Ramírez campaign issued a new logo, still similar to the Obama one.

As internet access in Colombia is still growing (mobile broadband access grew 349% and fixed broadband 51.3% in 2008 [es], the former mostly in rural areas, according to a report) and prospects are optimistic, especially when it comes to mobile access [es], candidates for Presidency and Congress (parliamentary elections are scheduled for March 14, 2010) are expected to join the cyberpolitics wave. It remains a ‘virgin' territory, with everything to do. Still, as the “early adopters” jumped to the web in order to emulate Obama, the possible impact of the web in the elections will only be seen in the next few months. Will the candidates —and the citizens— finally understand and use the web to its full potential for campaigning, debating, and proposing solutions to solve the many problems Colombia is facing?

The United States and Mexico still have the most cases of the virus, though it has now been found on most continents. This map shows all confirmed cases and deaths globally from the H1N1 virus. Images from around the world are capturing the disease's impact and people's reactions.

This photo was taken in Mexico, where the virus has been the most deadly. The WHO says that Mexico has reported 1,626 confirmed cases of the infection, including 45 deaths.

Photo by Guerry on Flickr

Photo by Chupacabra on Flickr

Photo by 19melissa68 on Flickr

When H1N1 was initially detected and started spreading in Mexico City it caused panic, said the photographer of this image. This photo shows empty shelves in a supermarket in the east part of Mexico City. The photographer added that authorities have stressed that there will be no shortage of food and medicine, which has slowed down hoarding.

Photo by Enea on Flickr

From Mexico City to New York City, people in closed places such as the subway have been using face masks to try and avoid getting swine flu, since the virus is mainly spread between people through coughing and sneezing. But there's been much debate over whether these masks are actually effective.

Photo of New York City by Swerz on Flickr

Photo of Mexico City by Enea on Flickr

Still, many people have used face masks to protect themselves, particularly when traveling, be it airline crew members or passengers. In this image, members of a flight crew wear masks as they wait for their luggage in an airport in Bogota.

Photo by laimagendelmundo on Flickr

This image shows the panic that also hit the U.K., which has 39 confirmed cases of swine flu. In response to the outbreak, Britain's Health Protection Agency announced last week that they have sequenced the full genetic code of the H1N1 virus, the first step in producing a European prototype of a swine flu vaccine.

Photo by donebythehandsofabroken artist on Flickr

This image shows an elevator in Hong Kong that is sterilized regularly to prevent swine flu. Though there's only one confirmed case in China so far, the country has taken strong measures to prevent the spread of the virus. For example, on May 8 Hong Kong lifted a weeklong quarantine on a hotel where a Mexican swine flu patient stayed, releasing around 280 people who had been isolated in the building.

Photo by David Bailey MBE on Flickr

Finally, in this image people gather at the Metropolitan Cathedral Mexico City. The photographer said that they were praying for the sick, the government and the rest of the society, hoping “they make ‘good decisions' against the swine flu epidemic in our country.”

Photo by Sarihuella on Flickr

As a result of the outbreak, many events and planned activities expected to draw large crowds were canceled and postponed, such as the New Winds Festival scheduled for April 23 - May 3 in the Mexican city of Ecatepec. Guatemalan blogger Alan Mills of Revólver [es] suddenly needed to find alternate plans, since he had been planning to attend the festival.

Photo of the Mexico Metro by Eneas and used under a Creative Commons license http://www.flickr.com/photos/eneas/3471986083/

Many citizens are looking at the actions being taken by their governments amidst the heightened public awareness of the possibility of the virus arriving to their countries. In Costa Rica, which was the second country to report a case in the region, Hazel Feigenblatt of Quien Paga Manda [es] writes that the Ministry of Health is cracking down on pharmacies trying to capitalize by selling false medicines or fake vaccines. The Ecuadorian blogger at Dejálo Ser [es] questions the purchase of 150,000 doses of Tamiflu by a country that has yet to see the virus and whether the money might be wasted if they are not used and allowed to expire.

Luis Aguirre of Bloodyhell [es] criticizes the actions of the Peruvian Ministry of Health that announced that an Argentine citizen had entered the country with the H1N1 virus, but it was proved to be incorrect after testing [es]. However, the damage was already done because the government entity had also released the name of the person suspected of having the virus [es], which is something not done in other countries.

Photo of Tourists in Cancún by El Enigma and used under a Creative Commons http://www.flickr.com/photos/marca-pasos/3494017972/

The behavior of others around them is a subject often written about in blogs. In Bolivia, Azael of Abre Los Ojos [es] recently came across a car with four passengers wearing face masks in the city of La Paz. The virus is not known to have reached the country of Bolivia, but he notes that the same people are not doing other simple things to prevent other mishaps, “What is difficult to find is people wearing their seat belts inside their cars.”

Velvet of Piso Tres [es] in Medellín, Colombia notes a particularly frustrating day riding public transportation due to the reactions of people around him.

Resulta que soy alérgico a los olores fuertes. Percibo un aroma de prefume muy concentrado e inmediatamente suelto el estornudo. Un estornudo de los clásicos, de los que no matan sino que te dejan aliviado y con sensación de placer. No tiene nada que ver con la gripa de los marranos. Claro, eso no lo saben los que viajan conmigo en el metro.

Hoy estornudé por culpa de un perfume malísimo que olí en el metro. Un señor del frente me miró con rabia asesina. Un niño miro a su mamá con mirada de mártir y abrazó su pierna. La señora me miró como diciéndome “¡homicida”! y se fue. La joven a mi lado -entre otras cosas la culplable de mi delicioso estornudo- se paró y se cambió de vagón. Otro señor cerquita sacó un pañuelo del bolsillo trasero y se tapó la nariz y la boca. En unos treinta segundos se formo un círculo imaginario a mi alrededor y sentí lo que debe sentir un leproso o un paria hindú.

Others try to use humor to put a lighter touch on the worry. Gandica of Venezuela writes about the “new image of death” and imagines what it might be like to be questioned in heaven about the cause of death [es]:

- ¿Y usted de qué murió?
Entonces la respuesta correcta debe ser:
- De la gripe AH1N1.

No vaya pues a cometer el garrafal error de mencionar que murió de influenza o gripe porcina -ya sabe AH1N1-nueva-gripe / H1N1- porque la industria-de-alimentos-carne-de-cerdo está muy sensible y pidió el cambio de nombre.

Joder. Como si el nombre gripal tuviera mucha importancia en estos momentos sobre lo que se nos viene encima.
¡Son pues vainas de nosotros los humanos, siempre tan cuidadosos con la imagen-relaciones-públicas!

Julio Córdoba of Ciencia Ficción [es] in Costa Rica publishes a fictitious advice column responding to readers concerned about the virus.

“¿Usted cree que me muera?” Anónimo, San José.
R/: De la gripe no, en un asalto en San José sí.

Image by *spud* on http://www.flickr.com/photos/shaun/3284113715/

Latin American bloggers have been writing about the YouTube Symphony Orchestra's debut at the Carnegie Hall, where the winners of a world-wide online contest where were flown into New York to participate in this collaborative orchestra. Following, some of the winners selected to play at Carnegie Hall, and how some of them weren't able to make their dream come true.

The YouTube Symphony Orchestra was a contest organized by YouTube in which musicians from all over the world submitted videos of themselves playing an instrument to a set piece of music, and were then selected by other YouTube members and musician Michael Tilson Thomas to appear in a mashup video of all the audition videos with the winners playing together as well as a trip to New York for a musical summit where they had the opportunity to share with all the other winners as well as important musicians. Here is the video from Carnegie Hall:

Peruvian blogger kinua writes:

El peruano Marco Antonio Mazzini tocará en el Carnegie Hall de Nueva York este 15 de abril. El portal de videos Youtube lo seleccionó después de participar en el concurso que lanzó vía Internet y al que se presentaron 3 mil músicos aficionados y profesionales de 70 naciones.

Although Mazzini lives in Belgium, he has stated that he is also representing Peru with his participation. Also an import is Irina Simeonova Kodin, who hails from Bulgaria, but lives and represents Brazil for this contest. This next video was uploaded by Irina to show-off the city that has adopted her:

The story of the different musicians is being documented by GramaFilm for Harmony, a film that will show the paths of several different musicians on their road to Carnegie Hall. The following video is a teaser- trailer about Manuel Ramos Reynoso from Mexico, and how his childhood dream of playing in the Carnegie Hall became true:

However, Yurii Inti Bullon Bobadilla wasn't able to travel to Carnegie Hall although he was selected as a winner, because his visa was denied. He did post a video explaining why he wouldn't be able to travel:

Also from Latin America is Larissa Natalia Ferreira De Mattos from Brazil and Jhon Wilson Gonzalez C. from Colombia. You can view the winning entries by these and other winners divided by country on this page. We wish them all the very best.

The previous video shows the opinions of the people who were part of the workshop in Ecuador, and how it will change the way they work. They point out that Mi* provides an excellent platform for them to post relevant content that gets swept to the sidelines on more popular social networking sites.

You can sign up for the virtual or in person workshops on the sidebar of their site.  According to Jacinto Lajas on the blog Citizen Journalism [es]:

Para ello organizan Talleres de Periodismo Ciudadano, ya celebrados en diferentes países, abiertos a todo público y destinados a generar espacios de participación directa de la ciudadanía en los medios de comunicación. Se trata de dotar a los jóvenes de las herramientas disponibles en la comunidad de Mi Asterisco para que puedan dar a conocer sus ideas, plantear problemas y compartir contenidos.

In the following video, participants in the Ecuador workshop are asked what they think the future of newspapers is: they mentioned that going online was a definite step, that online content has made local newspapers reach international audiences and thus has a wider client base. Also that newspapers should try to compete by being more transparent about their biases and making sure information is accurately displayed.

On the Mi* site you can create a profile, upload images, videos, write posts, post events, join groups, open discussions. Some of the most popular groups are the one of “Future Journalists“, “History of the Coup d'etat“, “Colombia, Beloved Homeland” and “No to Police Force's Abuses“.

One of the videos posted on the site by a participant is this one added by Andrea Hernández on an ongoing series on the economy of people who sell stuff informally on the street. On this documentary video, created by cdimarcoa, we see the daily routine of people who make a living selling packaged food and cell phone minutes in the city of Bogotá:

The journey

The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC for its Spanish initials), which organized the minga with the Indigenous Unity of Awá People (UNIPA, for its Spanish initials), had been posting daily updates on the minga on their blog. On March 25 they published [es] a report about the Extra-Ordinary Assembly of Indigenous Authorities, held the weekend before the minga, where they discussed how they became caught in the middle of the Colombian internal armed conflict:

En esta región del país donde habitan cerca de 15.000 indígenas Awá la disputa por el control territorial por parte de los actores armados legales e ilegales y algunas estructuras del narcotráfico en medio de las comunidades indígenas ha puesto en riesgo la integridad física, cultural y territorial de los indígena[s]. Para la Asamblea [Extraordinaria de Autoridades Indígenas] esta disputa: “ha vulnerado nuestros derechos y nuestra autonomía, desconociéndonos como sujetos políticos y de derechos y nos consideran como estorbos tanto para el régimen de derecha como de izquierda por el hecho de defender nuestra madre tierra, nuestra autonomía y cosmovisión propia, por nuestra posición integral, amplia, clara, transparente en la insistencia por defender la vida”.

Also on March 25, the minga found [es] a common grave with the bodies of Orlando Taicús (father), James Taicús, and Hugo Taicús (sons), who, according to the indigenous authorities and based on information provided by the community, were murdered by FARC in September 2008. The report from an investigative commission of the minga [es], issued on April 2nd, states that an underage girl from the same family had her leg amputated after being shot with a rifle. The rest of the family (”three widows and four orphan children”) were displaced from the territory. On the March 27 post, the indigenous claimed that they found members of the public security forces inside the Awá indigenous territory, and demanded all armed groups to refrain from any action against the minga.

On March 29, the minga arrived to the place where the February massacre may likely have occurred, the remote Tortugaña Telembí resguardo (reservation), and found [es] four corpses, two males (one was 15 years old) and two pregnant women, both less than 25 years-old. The post also states that a forensic commission from the Inspector General's Office arrived to the jungle area, guided and protected by the indigenous guard. The children who died inside their mothers' wombs were posthumously named Ñambí and Telembí and honoured [es] by the minga after their return.

The next day, a fifth body had been found nearby, as well as proof of the presence of armed groups, as Sergio Vargas from El Macarenazoo alternative newspaper writes [es]:

En el octavo día de Minga, lunes 30 de marzo, se desplazó la última comisión a una vereda cercana de El Volteadero, loma arriba. Allí, se encontró la octava tumba, se hizo el registro pertinente, pero, además, se hallaron pruebas de la presencia guerrillera: Trincheras construidas en el subsuelo y galones con estopines, aparentemente utilizados como bombas que funcionan con el mismo mecanismo de las minas quiebra patas, incluso se hallaban banderas blancas justo encima de donde estaban construidas las trincheras.

En el paso que utilizamos cerca de cuatro veces para desplazarnos de El Volteadero a El Bravo encontramos una mina que estaba desactivada, pero que fue acordonada por la seguridad de los mingueros. Estaba tapada con tierra, pero la salida de dos cables dio cuenta de que estuvimos al borde de una tragedia, no queríamos venir con más muertos. En ese mismo paso, se encontraba, al lado de la trocha, un laboratorio de procesamiento de cocaína. Desde la primera hasta la última vez que lo vimos hubo cambios sustanciales; al principio un plástico transparente lo recubría, pero ya al final éste se había caído, y varias canecas en su interior habían sido movidas. La Minga tenía prohibido pisar este tipo de terrenos, por lo cual es ilógico pensar que un miembro de la comisión humanitaria pudiera haber generado estos cambios, además integrantes de la guardia indígena aseguraron haber visto en sus inmediaciones dos guerrilleros armados ingresando al laboratorio.

Vargas also slams the mainstream media (by calling them “propaganda mass media”) for having “slandered the minga” by claiming the indigenous “were starving” and that senator Piñacué was one of people most affected. This was because two helicopters (one of the Colombian Red Cross and other from the Acción Social government cooperation agency) had reached the area carrying food. According to Vargas, the food was delivered to the displaced indigenous people at El Diviso.

The report of the investigative commission

Finally, the minga came back to El Diviso and presented the report issued by an investigative commission. Despite not having found all the bodies (besides the 8 deaths admitted by FARC, there were other 3 murders and another 6 indigenous are reportedly missing), the minga claimed they had fulfilled [es] their initial objective, condemning FARC's “cruelty by beheading, torturing, and murdering our brothers Awá,” including the two pregnant women with their children, adding that FARC are perpetrating war crimes and crimes against humanity. The minga also condemned another armed actors, such as the ELN guerrillas, the paramilitary squads, and Los Rastrojos —a drug-trafficking band—, “who abuse the human rights of our communities and hurt our people's autonomy.” They went on by saying that “any act of violence committed by armed actors wherever it comes from will be condemned and denounced by our organizations and [other] human rights organizations,” demanding the material and intelectual authors of the massacre to be convicted. They also clarified that, unlike what some media published based on Army reports, “there were no bodies” with land mines on them.

The report of the investigative commission [es] provides details of what the minga found during their 10-day journey:

En desarrollo del recorrido se logró llegar a la quebrada el Ojal, perteneciente a la comunidad el Bravo, encontrando allí, a las 12: 45 PM, el cuerpo sin vida de Omaira Arias Nastacuás, quien fuera brutalmente asesinada contando al momento de los hechos con 3 mese[s] de embarazo. Según los testimonios, este cuerpo padecía muestras de torturas practicadas por arma blanca.

(…)

En la misma avanzada en predios de la desembocadura de la quebrada el Ojal al rio Bravo se logró encontrar los cuerpos (sic) de Blanca Patricia Guanga Nastacuas con aproximadamente 18 años de edad, quien en el momento de los hechos contara con 7 meses de embarazo. Se evidenció que su vientre fue abierto con arma blanca, extrayéndole el bebe. No logrando encontrar el cuerpo del bebe.

Al lado se encontró el cadáver de Robinson Cuasalusan, quien padeciera las mismas formas de torturas. Dedos amputados y degollado su cuello.

La comisión denuncia la orden que dio la FARC a los pobladores de no tocar ni dar información sobre los cuerpos ni sobre lo sucedido so pena de muerte.

Para esta comisión es de claro conocimiento que los argumentos que las FARC, presenten como actos justificatorios, es una farsa, pues las comunidades indígenas de Tortugaña, no son colaboradores ni sapos del Ejercito, por el contrario son comunidades que se encuentra aterrorizadas por los constantes combates que se han venido desarrollando en esa parte del territorio indígena Awá.

Por último esta comisión concluye, que antes de ocurrir los hechos el Ejercito Nacional si estuvo, en las viviendas de las víctimas instando a los comuneros participar en su lucha contra la insurgencia.

Expuestas las anteriores consideraciones, queda claro que por un lado el territorio Awá de Tortugaña es un cementerio colectivo y que es la Minga Humanitaria la que logra destapar ese escenario de impunidad que se venía gestando en este territorio por causa del temor de sus pobladores.

The minga states that they managed to do what some State institutions couldn't, making evident that “many of the official government arguments are false and that it lacked a true political and moral will to rescue the bodies and intervening in the Awá people social issues.”

According to an Ombudsman's Office press release [es], three of the bodies found were moved by the Inspector General's Office forensic commission to the port of Tumaco, whereas the coordinates of the remaining five were recorded by the Ombudsman Office's officials in order to the Attorney General's Office technical forensics team to disinter and remove the dead bodies.

Caruri agrees [es] with the minga's conclusions about the government:

En dos meses las autoridades colombianas no fueron capaces —ni tuveron siquiera la intención— de buscar esos muertos. Porque no eran suyos, no eran “de los suyos”, no eran importantes, no generaban retribuciones políticas, no daban votos.
Qué lástima. Qué vergüenza!

On Sunday, the ONIC reported and denounced [es] the death of Hermes Nastacuás, another Awá indigenous who stepped on a land mine put by FARC. His three little children, who were walking with him, were wounded. The land mines were located in the same area the humanitarian minga had been days before. This crime's news was echoed by EFE news agency [es] and other local media.