Colombian President Iván Duque gave a talk on June 21 at the “Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity” on his book Orange Economy: An Infinite Opportunity. Duque wasn’t alone—Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels, singer John Legend and former NBA star Dwyane Wade also made appearances at the French Riviera event.
Claire Atkinson, the senior media editor at NBC News (6/27/19), interviewed Duque after his talk—but instead of asking hard questions and doing deep political analysis, she turned to easy questioning, opting not to follow up on his answers, while omitting the realities on the ground in Colombia. It seems as if his stance on climate change and his ideas on creativity were good enough to erase his record.
NBC News didn’t include the fact that the country’s Afro-Colombians, indigenous people and campesinos, among others, are protesting him in large numbers—with a recent poll showing that his approval rating is at 28 percent, only a year after he took office. NBC News readers were given no indication of his unpopularity or the opposition movement against him.
The Colombian people are protesting the army’s order to “double the number of criminals and militants they kill, capture or force to surrender in battle…and possibly accept higher civilian casualties in the process,” as the New York Times (5/18/19) reported. They’re protesting the mass murder of activists, a “systematic action,” and the degradation of workers rights. Public Radio International (4/26/19) documented that activists and human rights advocates are being murdered in Colombia at the rate of one every three days—and that Duque’s political allies have longstanding ties to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a notorious death squad. But we don’t see any questions from NBC News on these grim realities.
In Duque’s talk, he said he wants Colombia to be the “Silicon Valley” of Latin America. To do this, he put in place a “zero income tax for seven years for creative and tech industries in Colombia.” Colombia Reports (1/7/15) writes that “inequality is a widely cited cause of Colombia’s armed conflict.” And so in Colombia, one of the most unequal countries in the world, the consequences of yet another policy favoring the wealthy isn’t investigated by NBC News.
The sub-headline of the NBC News interview is this quote from Duque: “We only produce 0.4 percent of CO2 global emissions, but we are one of the most vulnerable countries on climate change effects.” Accepting his self-portrayal as an environmental advocate, Atkinson didn’t ask Duque about his plans to expand aerial fumigation of coca farms, a tactic cheered on by the United States. Colombia Reports (4/4/14) explains that this means
the livelihoods and health of small-scale farmers are continuously threatened by the damaging effects of chemical pesticides dropped from government-contracted planes in Colombia’s remote regions.
The neoliberal Duque brought up the relationship between the United States and Colombia (the US sends $400 million dollars a year in military and economic aid to Colombia) while answering a question on the drug war. “We have been allies of the United States, and they have been allies in this task, but as I said, it’s a matter of co-responsibility.” The US’s relationship with Colombia, “our closest ally at this moment in South America,” according to Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, isn’t explored any further by NBC News or Duque.
As NACLA (12/6/18) puts it, Duque’s
aggressive anti-drug rhetoric continues the approach of Plan Colombia, the failed counternarcotics strategy that defined US/Colombia relations between 1999 and 2015. Under Plan Colombia, US taxpayers contributed to the financing of widespread human rights violations.
NBCUniversal, a sponsor of the Cannes event, didn’t find the time to ask about this, either.
You can send messages to NBC News (or via Twitter: @NBCNews). Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.
Featured image: Colombian President Iván Duque at Cannes.
I believe in order for your reporting to be objective, you must not ommit other factors which have led Colombia to this point in time. For example, the fact that we, Colombian people voted on a referendum against the peace process and yet, this process of impunity favoring the narco cartel and terrorist group called farc was imposed on us, the majority of Colombians. 10 of these terrorists were given without a single vote, a place in congress. The current influx of venezuelans in Colombia has brought with them many communist operatives from the current dictatorships of Venezuela and Cuba under the veil of refugees and Cubans the so called “doctors, etc.” what we are seeing in Colombia on the ground is a promotion of the same corrupt narco-communism which now has lead Venezuela to a complete collapse. Shall I continue? Please report objectively! Behind the so called community leaders there is a terrorist, called Mr. Petro who was a member of the terrorist group M19, the same terrorist group which assaulted the palace of justice and executed several justices and other goverment officials. These are not innocent peasants, farmers, they are being led in a concerted effort to turn Colombia into another Venezuela or Cuba. We do not want the same destiny for Colombia!
Right on Alvaro.
Repeating the vile fantasies and fake-news manufactured by the columbian and Venezuelan traitor – bourgeois compradores their employers in the CIA and US military would not amount to “objectivity”, it would amount to “lying” , just as you are lying. To be “objective” used to mean that it is possible to know the truth..In your deeply violent, and politically reactionary post -modernist reality, “objective” means that, it is impossible to know the truth. Go die and stink
Is that you Alvaro Uribe?
The info that’s right! Every day the news in Colombia speak about fall of economy and problems about unemployment in choco. The president doesn’t feel in the country, sadly.
You are a fucking idiot. You have no idea what you are talking about.
I have no idea who you really are, Alvaro, but your writing is just so silly, and why do I think you’re not from Columbia at all? The American people are finally coming around to the idea that American foreign policy has a tendency to deal solely with those who live to take down a functioning country and just——ruin it.
I find FAIR to be OBJECTIVE in the very best journalistic sense and so , your protest against objectiveness is very unbelievable too. Alvaro, you state you are a Colombian—–that is difficult to believe—as is the rest of your writing.I am Wondering—just who are you?
Your article is significantly biased and misinformed. Starting with the fact that the definitions of Right wing and Left wing are quite different between US an Colombia. By US definition Duque is NOT right wing. He is a moderate. Also by US definition his opposition is not the democrats or the liberals, they are the EXTREME left (Castro and Chavez style). I’m a dual citizen in both countries, I am a registered Democrat leaning towards progressive in the US but I voted for Duque in Colombia, and I live with the few contradictions because politics are not black and white. The context and the history of the country matter. The opposition of Duque, is composed of people led by narco terrorists who have them believing “they are here for the people” when it is actually them who came into their lands, raped their women, had them abort their babies, killed their men, enlisted their children into their terrorist groups, and now they want people to forget all of these atrocities and treat them as a government party, thank you to the last government under Santos, they USE the vulnerable communities you mention AND IGNORANT AND BLINDSIDED “JOURNALISTS” LIKE YOU AND OTHER “HUMANITARIAN” ORGANIZATIONS, who draw conclusions on what they hear on the surface. Get your butt over to Colombia, live amongst the people who work, the people who suffer the oppression of the narco terrorism, the people who fled the country because of their reign, the poor, the vulnerable and also the elite, live in the countryside, live in the city AND then, write about it. It is appalling to see your opinion on something you barely know about be published as news.
Columbia under Duque is just another American made death squad Junta, and Duque is just another grubby little servant of US policy…If you really have “dual citizenship” its because you are his nephew, or some other toady ,who serves the US state department , or some other arm of US imperialism in Columbia, and as such you’re comments should be ignored out of hand .
Your inability to spell Colombia correctly demonstrates your ignorance on this topic and in general, therefore YOUR (not “you’re” btw) opinions don’t count. Also newsflash, the government of the US (both parties) has not yet figured out that the right in Latin America does not equal the GOP in the US and that the left is not like the Democrats either. Don’t give them so much credit, and don’t give yourself too much credit either. You are wrong about it all. PS: That’s not the proper use of the expression “out of hand”. Also, I’m a woman, not anyone’s nephew, you should work on your reading comprehension, and while you are at it your grammar and spelling skills. Good luck!
Have others noticed how blowhards like “Andrea” and “Alvaro” infest this site and post excruciatingly long diatribes of right-wing drivel? Please, move on to Breitbart, Q, or whatever purveyor of conspiratorial extremist garbage and conservative fantasies appeals to your stunted intellects.
Russ my dear, thank you for so perfectly illustrating my point on how biased and ignorant this article and opinions like yours are. I said “I am a registered Democrat leaning towards progressive in the US”. What part of that sentence do you understand as an indication of someone who would waste her time on fascist tabloid magazines like the ones you mention (otherwise known as garbage). Tsk tsk… you (just like the author) jumped to conclusions and shared your opinions without doing the most minimal due diligence, and that my friend, is actually a clear sign of the “stunted intellects” you accuse me of having. No hard feelings here, just please please pleeease, before meddling and taking sides on a topic you clearly know nothing about, become informed. That’s all.