Not too early a rise this time but we still start the day off with a breakfast meeting at 6.45am.
We spend a whole day in and around Congress, which is only five minutes from our hotel. No bus this time but we are still accompanied by our police escort.
In the morning we have meetings with Senators from the coalition of the political parties that are supportive of the Uribe government and a separate meeting with Senators from the Liberal Party. As you would expect we get a different version of perspectives on the situation from each of them.
In the afternoon we have a meeting with cross party members who sit on the Congressional Peace Commission and the Congressional Human Rights Commission. These are probably two of the most important commissions of Congress and are charged with the heavy burden of delivering a peace process that everyone can sign up to. My colleagues on the delegation do me the honour of asking me to chair the meeting on their behalf. We start late as the congressmen and women are held up by a lengthy debate in the chamber.
Quite frankly, if these are the men and women with the responsibility for moving things forward in this troubled country, we needn’t hold our breath. Their inability to answer the most straightforward of questions, either by design or default, induced the most severe feeling of frustration in me. No wonder the country is in the state it is if the population is reliant on those people for delivery from their nightmare. Such was the lack of focus from them that our time ran out before we were halfway through our agenda and whilst we willing to stay on, they were not. A very unproductive use of our all too short time.
We then had a scheduled one-hour meeting with the Vice President Francisco Santos in the Presidential Palace. Security is ultra tight. The Vice President is a very rich man in his own right. His family own and control almost the entire media in Colombia, a sort of Colombian Rupert Murdoch, as well as extensive ownership in other sectors. He speaks fluent English and is one of the most accomplished performers that I’ve ever come across. He himself is being investigated in the current para-political scandal but instead of playing that down is quite open and transparent about it. He oozes the air of a man who might or might not be clean but who knows, regardless, nothing will be done about it.
As I say he’s a very polished performer and a quite genial host. He came across as someone who might be the Vice President of Disneyland rather than of Colombia. Disney as in disnae think things are so bad. Such a generous host is he that our one-hour meeting lasts for two and a half hours. As a result we are late for dinner with Senators from the opposition Democratic Pole Party, hosted by Senator Wilson Borga (who meet us at the airport on Saturday), and whose birthday it is. A most enjoyable and convivial evening amongst like-minded people.
