Hernando Calvo Ospina

Hernando Calvo Ospina ( born June 6, 1961 in Cali, Colombia ) is a Colombian journalist living in France and writer.

Biography

On September 24, 1985, when he studied journalism at the Universidad Central of Ecuador in Quito, he was arrested and disappeared. As he later testified before Amnesty International and other international human rights organizations, he spent the first three days of hands and feet tied up and blindfolded. During this time he was allowed not to sleep, it also gave him nothing to eat and he barely got water. Through his captors, he learned that he had been captured in a joint operation by Colombian and Ecuadorian military intelligence. A few days earlier had a command of the Colombian guerrillas of the Movimiento 19 de Abril ( April 19 Movement ) M-19 kidnapped a wealthy Ecuadorian businessman. Subsequently, the security services began a hunt against anyone living there Colombians, they considered politically left standing. And Calvo Ospina was a renowned critic of the Colombian government, which he used various means of public expression. After he was handcuffed and transported blindfolded in the trunk of a car, his captors gave him the Investigation Service of the Police SIC. For five days he was brutally tortured with beatings and electric shocks. They gave him to eat a few pieces from the officers' mess. When they could not prove his involvement in guerrilla organizations, he was transferred to prison Garcia Moreno, where he spent three months without trial. With the massive international pressure, the government of President León Febres Cordero (†) had finally released him from prison, but sent him to a direct flight to Lima. After he had spent under the protection of the High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations two months in Peru, the government of President Alan García declared him persona non grata and ordered him to leave the country. Under the protection of the French government, he arrived in Paris on 15 March 1986.

Before he took up his profession of journalism, he was cleaning, in order to survive, during the first four years of his stay in France offices. He was volleyball coach and referee and also dancers and collectors of salsa music.

He is the author of numerous books, all of which were translated into several languages ​​(see publications).

He is a regular contributor to the French monthly newspaper Le Monde Diplomatique and was involved in the implementation of documentaries for various television stations: for the British BBC, the Franco- German channel ARTE and German television ARD.

Many of his articles and interviews with him published in the government-controlled mass media in Cuba. Even his books that attack the political opponents of the Castro government and defend their allies, will be published in Cuba.

He has participated in meetings with personalities such as the Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. He's the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa and other personalities interviewed as Danielle Mitterrand, the actor Pierre Richard, the Monsignor Jacques Gaillot from France and the U.S. sociologist James Petras.

As part of his journalistic work, he also interviewed the guerrilla commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia ( FARC), Raúl Reyes ( †) and Jaime Guaracas. He also spoke to the guerrilla commander of the National Liberation Army (ELN ) Manuel Pérez Martinez ( †), Milton Hernandez (†) and Ramiro Vargas.

For the work on his book " Don Pablo Escobar " he spent a few days with members of the so-called ' Medellín cartel '. For his book "Peru: los posibles senderos " he also interviewed cadres and sympathizers of the terrorist organization Sendero Luminoso.

In Miami and New York, he spoke with Cubans whose of them mentioned organizations are made by the Cuban government responsible for crimes and terrorist attacks. These included Orlando Bosch Avila, Nazario coffins, José "Pepe" Hernández ( Alpha 66) and José Basulto ( Brothers to the Rescue). These interviews he worked in the book " Disidentes o Mercenarios ".

The bronze medal of the New York Film Festival: In January 2005, received the documentary " Bacardi rum and revolution between The Secret of the bat ." The documentary, which was also the author took part, based on the book " Bacardi, The Sign of the bat ."

In 2005, Calvo Ospina was nominated for the published in Le Monde Diplomatique article " Guerra privada en Colombia " for the Lorenzo Natali Prize of the European Commission.

It is an open supporter of the one-party rule in Cuba as well as the governments of Venezuela and Bolivia under Presidents Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales. It provides the support for the Colombian FARC by Venezuela in doubt, but shares its stated policy objectives.

As an investigative journalist who accuses both the government's role in Colombia's civil war and the U.S. foreign policy towards Latin America, he discovered on April 18, 2009 that he is the U.S. authorities on the Watch List ( no fly list). The aircraft in which he was, it was banned " for reasons of national security " to fly over the airspace of the United States. Coming from Paris flew the Air France plane without a stopover in the United States to Mexico City.

The French government refused 2011, the naturalization requested by Calvo Recalling represented by him against France and positions its close contacts with the Cuban embassy in Paris, and to left-wing organizations, in particular the terrorist FARC from.

Writings

• Salsa. Havana Heat - Bronx Beat. Butterfly, Stuttgart, 1997. ISBN 3-89657-395-0
• Original Miami. The United States of America; Cuba and Human Rights ( co-author Katlijn Declercq ) PapyRossa, Cologne, 2001. ISBN 3-89438-222-8
• Bacardi, The Sign of the Bat ( foreword by James Petras ) PapyRossa, Cologne, 2002. ISBN 3-89438-243-0