CARE Colombia February October 1973

Transcription

1 CARE Colombia February October 1973 No amarre el burro a la pata de la mesa ( Don t tie your donkey to the table s leg sign posted in many small restaurants in rural Colombia All who served the Revolution have plowed the sea" - Simón Bolívar On transfer from Gaza/Sinai/West Bank, I passed through CARE Headquarters and met with Executive Director Frank Goffio, and then on to my new posting in Colombia dealing with food aid programming activities in Colombia. Dr. Lawrence M. (Larry) Delliquadri was the CARE Director and he dispatched me straight away to Medellín, the capital of the Department of Antioquia and the second largest city in Colombia, and the heartland of Colombia s coffee region ( zona cafetera ), where I was to remain for sixmonths. After the Gaza/Sinai desert, the posting in Medellin was a delightful contrast, as Medellín is rightly called the City of Eternal Spring - Ciudad de la Eterna Primavera and its climate is generally superb. Note. The city is also known as the Capital of the Tango, as the legendary Argentine singer Carlos Guardel died in a plane crash there (on a mountain called El Tablazo) in The people of the region, known as paisas, are both extraordinarily industrious and friendly. Geographically, Antioquia is nestled in the Aburrá Valley, in the central cordillera (highlands). At the beginning of the twentieth century, Medellín was the first Colombian city to take part in the Industrial Revolution with the opening of textile companies, and transport projects like railways that allowed its export business to develop, and the founding of a number of universities and vocational training institutions. Additional note. My posting there preceded the rise of the notorious Pablo Escobar and his criminal network known as the Medellín Cartel. CARE had a small office located quite near the city s central square (Parque Berrio). The office had outreach throughout the paisa region to the states (departamentos) of Caldas, Risaralda, Quindio and some towns of El Choco, Valle del Cauca and Tolima. One of our principal partners was the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia (La Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia), a nonprofit and nonpolitical cooperative. Over the years, CARE assisted this group with the building of miles of access roads, safe and adequate water supply systems, primary schools, rural electrification, health centers/posts and more. Note. There are some 96,000 coffee farms in Antioquia, 47,000 in Caldas, 25,000 in Risaralda and 7,600 in Quindio. Most of these are small holdings. My Medellín posting gave me an opportunity to work with a uniquely superbly organized and managed national organization and to come to know what the French would call la Colombie profonde - the real ( profound ) Colombia. Note. The National Federation s symbol (logo) at this time became Juan Valdez, who was dispatched to New York City for promotional purposes and unfortunately became a heroin addict. He was fired, but immediately sued them for identity theft as the Federation had found a new Juan Valdez. A sizable out-of-court financial settlement was negotiated. Viva Juan Valdez! Viva Café de Colombia!

2 Transfer to CARE Headquarters in Bogotá In the summer of 1971, I was reassigned to Bogotá (formerly called Santa Fe de Bogotá) as the Food Program Officer, which included inter alia responsibility for national foodfor-work activities and strategies. Bogotá is the third-highest capital city in the world (2,640 meters), after La Paz (Bolivia) and Quito (Ecuador). The CARE offices were at the corner of 14 th Avenue (Avenida Caracas) and 26 th Street, near the Hotel Tequendama and the city s Central cemetery. Behind a Wackenhut-guarded huge metal door, you ascended 39 steps into a veritable beehive of activity. Ray (spouse Monda) Rignall was the CARE Deputy Director and Jay (spouse Marsha) Jackson was the Assistant Director. Jim Coberly and George (spouse Jana) Kraus also came on board as capital-based international staffers at some point around this time. Carlos Bermudez was our most able comptroller and Francisco Pancho Rujeles the CARE office manager. Note. Given security concerns, we had around-the-clock Wackenhut employees ( celadores ) guarding the main door from the inside. One chap I vividly recall who had a gold front tooth told me that any undesirable would have to kill him in order to gain entry. I arrived one Monday at 6:00 am. I found him dead in a pool of blood in the entrance way. The office had been vandalized just hours before. The population of Colombia at this time was around 22 million, and had a GDP of some $330 per year. The national government, starting in , had instituted a number of measures to tackle the country s malnutrition problem. They developed a National Plan for Food Development (PLANALDE) and set up a Directorate of Nutrition within the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF). A Program of Applied Nutrition (PINA) was developed as was a National Program of Nutritional Education and Supplementary Feeding (PRONENCA). CARE was intimately linked to this effort through USAIDprovided PL 480 Title II commodities, as was the Catholic Relief Services (CARITAS). PL 480 Title II commodity allocation at this time was around 48,000 metric tons/annum. The total number of CARE recipients (1972) were 910,972, with the following breakdown: MCH pre-school (nutrition centers, bread and milk), 182,310; school feeding (school restaurants, school bread and milk, school milk), 548,782; other child feeding (hospitals, orphanages, day-care centers), 11,335; adult institutional feeding, 8,545; and food-for-work (workers and dependents), 150,000. CRS/CARITAS reached another 622,000 beneficiaries. The United Nations World Food Program, which had a multi-year agreement with the Government of Colombia (GOC), was also supplying about $8 million/annum in food assistance. The food aid programming jewel-in-the-crown were the CARE-managed pre-school feeding nutrition centers ( comedores ), which often served for primary school feeding operations as well. Menus included fruit, a salad or vegetable, and a main dish based on bulgur, or corn-soy-milk, with added meat or chicken. In 1972, there were more than 600 of these centers operational throughout the country. They were placed both in urban slums ( tugurios ) and rural communities, and benefited from considerable GOC budgetary support. Each center had an administrator and two cook/helpers, who were

3 supported by rotating funds administered by CARE at the departmental level, with additional funding provided by associated bread and milk early morning distribution programs. Often municipalities budgeted funds for augmenting the salaries of these comedores, as the program was stunningly popular. Jay Jackson handled with CARE s PINA counterparts all the construction aspects of the nutrition centers program, with an uncompromising attention to every facet of construction. In one of Jay s centers, you would never see even a single roof tile out of kilter. CARE had two GOC extraordinary officers as our counterparts: Jaime Paez, the Director of the Directorate of Nutrition at ICBF, and Alvaro Leon, Director of PRONENCA. On school feeding, between CARE and CRS, Title II food assistance was providing hot meals and snacks to over 900,000 primary school children, or about 30 percent of the enrolled students. CARE was conducting school feeding activities in 19 of the country s 32 geographic departments. In addition to feeding activities through the nutrition centers, CARE serviced over 1,200 on-site school kitchens viz., provision of hot meals. CARE also managed a large bread and milk snack program, and successfully experimented with special nutritious drinks consisting of milk, high-protein finely ground corn, and brown sugar ( colada ). In a number of cases, local milk plants were contracted to supply reconstituted milk with two percent vegetable oil, and a number of bakeries were also contracted by CARE which enhanced overall quality control. I also focused on food-for-work in both rural, urban and peri-urban marginal areas. The local counterparts were the respective Juntas de Accion Comunal Community Action Councils. Program requests were received through department-level administrative offices or national entities such as the Agrarian Reform Institute (INCORA). One of my tasks was the establishment in Cali of a facility to produce 27.7 pound food-for-work CARE Packages consisting of ten pounds of wheat flour, five pounds of bulgur, five pounds of corn-soy-milk (CSM), and a one gallon tin of vegetable oil. One CARE package was awarded for a standard unit of work (20 hours per month). Note. As with the CARE package of old, we required a signature or fingerprint from the recipient. In the Caqueta region, which harbored a large number of newcomers (including some fleeing law-enforcement officials from across Colombia), our local CARE rep (Alfredo Cañon) informed that when he demanded either signatures or fingerprints from food-for-work participants, weapons were invariably placed at his head. They would perform any public works task without a murmur, but they were not going to sign any documents, he related. Note. Cañon was one of CARE s more colorful departmental reps. I was once conducting an audit of his accounts in Riohacha (Guajira) (on the northern coast bordering the Gulf of Maracaibo), when I pointed out a discrepancy between his signed monthly financial balance and the attached bank statement. Yes I can see that there is an error he said, got out his pen and proceeded to correct the Bank of Colombia statement CARE Colombia personnel, USAID, CRS

4 The feisty Dr. Larry Delliquadri (spouse Sophie) led a super-active CARE office. Once posted in Bogotá, I traveled to a number of places with him. One such trip was to the Guajira where Larry insisted on ordering lobster at every meal, even breakfast, commenting that the low price made this delicacy too good to pass up, even at six o clock in the morning. In Bogotá, Larry would take us over for lunch occasionally to nearby Werner s which had a delicious daily-fixed menu, and where Larry had developed a marvelous rapport with the owner, who was also the chef. Larry would kiddingly lament that Werner never prepared his favorite dish hairy pig s ear. My favorite Larry trip story, however, was one that I did not accompany him on. It involved a trip to the remote region of Uraba in Antioquia. Larry went to get on his return flight on a small plane at the Turbo airfield but the plane, which only held six passengers, was overbooked. Larry was bumped off the flight and he proceeded to vent his anger in what may be described as inherit the whirlwind at the hapless local airline representative, who could only promise him a seat the following day. The flight took off and crashed killing all on board. The next day (sheepishly) Larry showed up at the airport in mufti, wearing a large pair of sunglasses and a sombrero. The agent of course immediately recognized him and gently ask And how are you on this fine morning, Señor Delliquadri? Note. The irrepressible, charismatic Larry was eventually replaced by Jerry (spouse Eva) Lewis. Ray Rignall was our most able Deputy Director. I was also once traveling with Ray (also in Riohacha) when he stood up in a small outdoor restaurant and began to stretch, and nearly lost his hand to an overhead fan. Jay and Marsha Jackson were close friends and wonderful hosts. They also had a nervous large dog who (in a canine panic attack ) once managed to smash out a huge plate-glass window in their living room. George Kraus and I played a lot of chess on weekends. George had spent a year or so in San Miguel de Allende (Mexico) undergoing (i.e. writing) a novel while Jana perfected her painting skills. In Bogotá, she studied for some time with the noted Colombian artist David Manzur Londoño. In the provinces, CARE had regional directors including Stanley (spouse Rosalia) Dunn posted in Barranquilla, Lou Ziskind (and later George Weismiller) in Cartagena, and Matt Diamond in Bucaramanga. CARE s most notable Colombian regional director was Jorge Anibal Naranjo, based in Pereira in the zona cafetera. Several other Colombians who stand out in my mind s eye to this day include Guillermo Navia who worked with me in Bogotá; Miguel Carranza, Administrator in Risaralda; Alirio Cristancho, CARE Administrator in Boyacá; Francisco Arango, CARE director in Quindio; Gonzalo Dominguez, Administrator in Atlantico; Querubin Prieto in Tolima; Rueben Mejia in Bogotá and many more. CARE maintained a superb relationship with USAID Colombia. Some names that come to mind: Marvin Weissman, USAID Director; Jimmy O. Philpott, program director; William Bair, Dave Denman, Edison Daza and Pedro Chacón in the Special Activities Division (that managed the USAID PL 480 Title II food assistance program). Henry Amiel was the Catholic Relief Services Director and Karel Hallebeek managed the World Food Program.

5 Maria Cristina Cuervo Reinales The most fortuitous moment of my life was meeting my future spouse at an event connected to the building of a nutrition center in Sasaima (Cundinamarca), which was being funded in large part by one of Cristina s relatives. Several days later we met again at a CARE-organized reception at the elegant Jockey Club in Bogotá. We were married about a year later on December 1, 1972, at the church of Santa Bibiana, with the ceremony performed by Monsignor Rueda Williamson whose brother Roberto was a key CARE counterpart at the National Institute of Nutrition. Now fellow Reston neighbor Jerry Lewis served as our best man at the wedding. Note. In December 2002, Cristina and I were able to renew our wedding vows thirty-years along at the beautiful Santuario Cor Ecclesiae chapel of the Schönstatt North Rhine-Westphalia Sisters of Mary, located in Rome s Belmonte/Monti Tiburtini region. Cristina s maternal grandfather, General Buenaventura Reinales, was one of the principals of the Thousand Days War ( ), who spent some time in the notorious Panóptico prison for his Liberal Party views, and later served as Colombian Ambassador to Venezuela and Guyana. Cristina s father Miguel Cuervo Araoz was an explorer, pioneer, entrepreneur who (among his accomplishments) founded the city of Mitú (Vaupes) and served as Minister of Colonization in the dictatorship of General Rojas Pinilla ( ). Miguel had illustrious siblings his brother Daniel was a highlydecorated Colonel who during the height of La Violencia served as the Military Governor of the entire zona cafetera region; brother Luis Enrique was a superb jurist who became President of the Colombian Supreme Court; another brother (Gabriel) was the petroleum engineer who brought Gulf Oil/Texaco/Shell into Colombia; and Miguel s sister Paulina served for decades with the Little Sisters of the Poor both in Europe and in Manizales (Caldas) aiding directly the destitute and dying. Her letters (dutifully preserved in the family library) shine with a saintly glow Memorable places and people From my treasure-trove box of memories, let me retrieve for you dear readers a few items: - Bogotá s Museo de Oro (Gold Museum) houses more than 34,000 pre-hispanic gold pieces from all over Colombia. It is probably the most important gold museum in the world. Most of the treasures are stored in a massive vault, where small groups are admitted in darkness, and when the lights are turned on, the entire room is awash in gold. My favorite piece remains the Balsa Muisca (the golden raft of the Muisca tribe);

6 - La Quinta de Boliver, a stately small mansion built in 1800 at the foot of the Cerro de Monserrate and donated to Simon Bolivar in 1820 in gratitude for his services to the nation; - La Laguna de Guatavita (Guatavita Lagoon) The stunning Laguna de Guatavita was reputedly one of the sacred lakes of the Muisca, and a ritual conducted there is widely thought to be the basis for the legend of El Dorado. The legend says the lake is where the Muisca celebrated a ritual in which the Zipa (named "El Dorado" by the Conquistadores) was covered in gold dust, then venturing out into the water on a ceremonial raft made of rushes, he dived into the waters washing off the gold. Afterward, precious offerings were thrown into the waters by worshipers; - traveling to the small town of Aracataca (Magdalena Department northern Coast) which is the birthplace of Nobel Prize Winning author Gabriel García Márquez and is widely recognized as the model for the mythical "Macondo", the central village in his masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude - Cien años de soledad. READ THIS BOOK! - visiting San Agustín (Huila Department) before the FARC rebels started raising havoc in the region. This is one of the most important archaeological sites in all of the Americas, with over five hundred stone statues (some as tall as seven meters) of both anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures; - visiting the city of Popayan during Easter Week (Semana Santa) and staying at the Hotel Monasterio. Visiting Cartagena de Indias at anytime and staying anywhere; - descending into the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá ( Catedral de Sal de Zipaquirá ), an underground Roman Catholic church built within the tunnels of a salt mine 200 meters underground inside a salt mountain in Cundinamarca Department. Before the underground church was built (1932), the miners themselves had carved a sanctuary, as a place of prayer, asking daily for the protection of the Most High before starting work; - Airline travel in Colombia at this time was always an adventure. There were no radar installations anywhere and Colombia is plumb in the middle of three Andean mountain ranges which in places jut up to 5,000 meters. (One of Cristina s brothers (Guillermo), who recently passed away, was a legendary jet pilot who could literally land a Boeing 727 on a dime.) One local airline was called Urraca Raven and started with eleven planes which eventually were reduced to one. I boarded the sole remaining Raven in Pasto (Nariño Department) on a flight to Bogotá via Cali. All during the flight you could hear the plane s engines moaning and growling. We landed safely and the Raven immediately took off for Bucaramanga (Santander Department) where it crashed and again all were killed; - being blocked by a roadside avalanche near Manizales (Caldas Department) and spending the entire night in a CARE jeep parked next to six lorries of the Colombian Army loaded with explosives;

7 - traveling toward the Pacific Coast from Putumayo Department along a one-lane mountain road so narrow that you had to call ahead on a manual-crank telephone at the checkpoint to ensure that no vehicle was coming in the opposite direction - and to encounter that the phone was not that day operational; - Finally, to inaugurate a CARE school in the Pacific-coast port of Tumaco (Nariño Department) with the head of co-sponsors Gulf Oil and Sears Colombia and then to be invited on a high-seas fishing yacht with these executives and the editor-in-chief of one of Colombia s leading newspapers, Guillermo Cano of Bogotá s El Espectador, and then to be jolted some months later by the kidnapping and irrational murder of Señor Cano by leftist rebels Afterword In the late fall of 1973, Cristina and I left this magical land named after the most famous of European Admirals, who never once landed on its shores, and moved on to another El Dorado called India. Cristina left behind (in the care of her sister Helena) a 104 year-old maternal grandmother named Maria Luisa Lara de Reinales ( Pia ), who was the spouse of General Buenaventura Reinales mentioned above), and who as a young woman in the Magdalena river town of Honda had survived the scourge of yellow fever that killed 1,497 of the town s 1,500 then-inhabitants. In family lore, Pia survived by consuming a sack full of bitter lemons. And Pia had lost all seven of her brothers in the Thousand Days War. Yes, Colombia has produced many an Ingrid Betancourt. In February 2009, we made yet another pilgrimage to Bogotá to celebrate two seminal events: the one-hundredth anniversary of Don Miguel Cuervo Araoz s birth (Cristina s father had passed away in 1968) and the baptism of the infant Martín Urreta Bahamon (Cristina s first grand-nephew). What unfolded was a marvelous tapestry of past, present and future. The Catholic (Jesuit) priest who presided at the baptismal ceremony and the joyous reception afterward asked Cristina s cousin Luis Enrique (a noted lawyer and the family s historian) to recount the many accomplishments and courageous exploits of Don Miguel, which left us all, old and young alike, spellbound. Then Padre Salazar challenged all, and especially the young, to carry on with undaunted determination this noble family legacy of highest integrity, courage, sacrifice and trust. Viva la familia! Viva Colombia!