Two o’clock rise to get to Heathrow in time for check-in for flight to Madrid to make connection for Bogota. Flight left on time and connection also on time so landed in Bogota at 15.30 local time some 20 hours after getting out of bed. Absolutely exhausted! Met at Bogota airport by Congressman Wilson Borja who is a member of the Democratic Pole Party, the official opposition party in Colombia, and was previously the leader of the public sector union FENALTRASE. In December 1999 he was the victim of an assassination attempt and was shot three times.
After spending eight months in hospital in Cuba which saved his leg he returned to Colombia and successfully ran for Congress in 2002 and was subsequently re-elected in 2006. As a result he is heavily guarded. He arrived at the airport with two jeep loads of bodyguards and in addition our personal protection police, who would accompany us all week were there to meet us. Despite all that protection with bodyguards and police all around us my laptop case with laptop and camera was stolen. Reporting matters to the airport police introduced me for the first time to the bureaucracy of Colombian society.
After hearing that I was part of a high profile delegation that amongst other things was due to meet with President Uribe we were pushed higher and higher up the chain of police command. Mariella, one of our interpreters who stayed at the airport with me, explained that this was typical of the deferential nature of the society and the rest of the delegation made their way to the hotel. Mariella and I were given a lift back some two and a half hours later in one of Wilson jeeps, complete with armed bodyguards. Result - missed dinner in hotel at which the delegation were joined by Dr Jose Jose Noe Rios, General Secretary of the Liberal Party and by Dr Carlos Lozano, editor of the opposition newspaper, VOZ, and also sits on the National Executive of the Democratic Pole Party.
I did arrive in time for the after dinner chat and both of our guests very eloquently painted a picture of the political, social and economic conditions facing the opposition.
Didn´t make for very good after dinner conversation but well worth hearing.
Finally got to bed at eleven o’clock in the evening after 25 waking hours and a four o’clock rise in the morning for a half four start. Who said General Secretaries have an easy life?
