Hernando Calvo Ospina

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Hernando Calvo Ospina, 2018

Hernando Calvo Ospina (born June 6, 1961 in Santiago de Cali ) is a Colombian investigative journalist and writer . He is the author of numerous books, all of which have been translated into several languages. He is a permanent contributor to the French monthly newspaper Le Monde Diplomatique and has participated in documentaries for the BBC , ARTE and ARD . He has lived in France as a political refugee since 1986 .

Life

Study and prison

On September 24, 1985, while he was studying journalism at the Universidad Central del Ecuador in Quito , he was arrested by three men and disappeared. He later told Amnesty International that he was blindfolded and hand and foot cuffed for the first three days. Through his kidnappers he learned of a joint operation by the Colombian and Ecuadorian secret services against him, which resulted in his arrest. A few days earlier, a commando from the Colombian Movimiento 19 de Abril had kidnapped a wealthy Ecuadorian businessman. The security services then began a hunt against Colombians living there, whom they viewed as politically left-wing. And Calvo Ospina was a recognized critic of the Colombian government at the time , who also spoke out publicly. After he was abducted and taken away in the trunk of a car, he was handed over to a paramilitary group called SIC-10, who tortured him with beatings and electric shocks.

When there was no proof of his involvement in guerrilla organizations, he was taken to the Garcia Moreno prison, where he had to spend three months without trial. In the face of massive international pressure, the government of President León Febres Cordero Calvo Opsina was finally released from prison and then sent to Lima , Peru . After being under the protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had spent two months in Peru, he said the government of President Alan García to persona non grata and asked him to leave the country. With the help of the French government , he arrived in Paris on March 15, 1986 .

Exile in France

With political refugee status in hand, he earned his living with a French cleaning company; later he worked as a volleyball trainer, as a referee, as well as as a dancer and collector of salsa music. The French government refused a naturalization request by Calvo Ospina in 2011, referring to the positions he represented against France and his close contacts with the Cuban embassy and organizations such as the guerrilla organization FARC at the time.

Journalistic activity

He began working as a journalist and numerous articles and interviews with him have been published in Cuba . He has participated in roundtables with the Presidents of Cuba and Venezuela , Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez . He interviewed the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa and other personalities such as Danielle Mitterrand , the actor Pierre Richard , Jacques Gaillot from France and the US sociologist James Petras . As part of his journalistic work, he also interviewed the guerrilla commanders of the FARC , Raúl Reyes and Jaime Guaracas. He also spoke to the guerrilla commanders of the ELN , Manuel Pérez Martinez, Milton Hernández and Ramiro Vargas. To work on his book Don Pablo Escobar , he spent a few days among members of the Medellín cartel . For his book Peru: Los Senderos posibles , he also interviewed cadres and sympathizers of the terrorist organization Sendero Luminoso .

In Miami and New York he spoke to politicians connected to the Cuban government and also hostile to them . These included Orlando Bosch Avila , Nazario Sargén, José "Pepe" Hernández ( Alpha 66 ) and José Basulto ( Brothers to the Rescue ). He processed these interviews in the book Disidentes o Mercenarios ("Dissidents and Mercenaries").

In January 2005, the documentary film “The Bat's Secret: Bacardi Between Rum and Revolution” received the bronze medal of the New York Film Festival . The film, in which the author himself participated, is based on his book “Bacardí, Under the Sign of the Bat”.

In Germany, Calvo Ospina writes regularly for left-wing newspapers such as Junge Welt and taz ; In May 2019 he took part in the solidarity event "Hands off Venezuela".

Positions

He supports the socialist governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia . He contradicts the assumption that Venezuela would support the Colombian FARC, but shares its stated political goals. As an investigative journalist, he deplores both the role of the Colombian government in the civil war and the US foreign policy towards Latin America . On April 18, 2009, he discovered that he was on the watch list of the US authorities. The plane he was on was banned from flying over United States "for reasons of national security." Coming from Paris, the Air France plane flew with him on board directly to Mexico City without stopping .

Fonts

  • "Salsa". "Havana Heat - Bronx Beat". Butterfly, Stuttgart, 1997. ISBN 3-89657-395-0
  • "Original sound Miami. The USA; Cuba and Human Rights ”. (Co-author Katlijn Declercq) PapyRossa, Cologne, 2001. ISBN 3-89438-222-8
  • “Bacardí, Under the Sign of the Bat”. (Foreword by James Petras) PapyRossa, Cologne, 2002. ISBN 3-89438-243-0

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hernando Calvo Ospina - Journaliste colombien bibliomonde.com, accessed on May 30, 2019 (French)
  2. ↑ Hernando Calvo Ospina: Pude ver los rostros de mis torturadores, aún impunes questiondigital.com, from March 16, 2013 (Spanish)
  3. ↑ "El paramilitarismo es el alma del Estado en Colombia" actualidad.rt.com, from November 20, 2018 (Spanish)
  4. ↑ "El paramilitarismo es el alma del Estado en Colombia" actualidad.rt.com, from November 20, 2018 (Spanish)
  5. ↑ Monsieur le Ministre de l'intérieur: l'écrivain et journaliste Hernando Calvo Ospina mérite la nationalité française legrandsoir.info, of December 12, 2013 (French)
  6. ↑ H. Calvo Ospina se voit refuser la nationalité française lecanardrepublicain.net, accessed on May 30, 2019 (French)
  7. ↑ Hernando Calvo Ospina: Pierre Richard: El presidente Fidel Castro es uno de los más grandes personajes del siglo XXI cubadebate.cu, from January 15, 2007 (Spanish)
  8. ↑ Hernando Calvo Ospina: La pobreza tiene alma de Guasinton , November 7, 2012 (Spanish)
  9. ↑ Rum und Ehre der Fledermaus sueddeutsche.de, May 17, 2010
  10. ↑ Conference in Berlin: "Hands off Venezuela" amerika21.de, accessed on May 30, 2019
  11. ↑ Hernando Calvo Ospina, Français non grata blogs.mediapart.fr, accessed on May 30, 2019 (French)
  12. ↑ Stopover with consequences heise.de, May 3, 2009

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Ospina, Hernando Calvo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Colombian journalist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 6, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Cali , Colombia