Human Rights in Colombia: Rep. Jim McGovern (interview)

A few days ago, I sat down with representative Jim McGovern, a democrat from the third district of Massachusetts. This time the opportunity was an interview for the Colombian daily newspaper El Espectador. We had crossed path before to talk about the slim chances for a peace process in Colombia, but in recent times it was the Peace without Border concert promoted by the Colombian pop star Juanes that gave us more opportunities to get together.

During those months of last summer leading up to the concert in Havana, I could appreciate the resilience, the straight thinking and the deep dedication of this politician and his staff for causes he believes in. This time, I knocked on his door to talk again about Colombia, a country and a people if which he has a deep knowledge. When he travels there, in general once a year, he avoids fancy meetings in the centers of Colombian politics and privileges peripheral communities in the remote regions of Putumayo or Arauca that have been marked for decades by political violence and narco trafficking.

And even when he travels to Bogota, rather then indulging in meetings at the Presidential palace or even at the U.S. Embassy, Jim McGovern reaches the marginal barrios of the capital, such as Soacha or Ciudad Bolivar. "I go where the people live," he told me underscoring his interest is in observing and taking notes of the effects of policy and power, rather then shaking hands with the powerful, and hanging out in luxurious ranches.
 
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