Colombia with Simon Reeve

This is one of the most spectacular

and beautiful countries in the world.

I'm on a journey around Colombia.

Just look down there, it's so remote and so rugged.

For more than 50 years it's been gripped by brutal conflict.

Incoming, incoming. A war often fuelled by the global drugs trade.

This is coca, the base for cocaine.

But now, there's a chance for peace in Colombia.

We'll be the example for the whole planet.

So I'm going deep into the jungle...

Goodness me.

..to meet the guerrilla army promising to lay down its weapons

and show remorse for atrocities.

There must be moments in the conflict

that keep you awake at night now, surely?

No. No.

I'll meet the narco farmers who say they know how to save the country.

This is one of the largest ever gatherings of coca growers.

As I try to find out if, finally, peace really can come to Colombia.

I got off to a good start in the Rosario Islands,

a stunning archipelago of tropical islands in the north of Colombia.

Isn't this glorious?

People don't generally think of Colombia

as having a Caribbean coastline,

but it does and it's spectacular.

Hard to believe that for years, decades,

Colombia had a reputation as a violent, no-go area.

This is a country people generally associate with cocaine and conflict,

but there is so much more to Colombia than that.

Most of the tourists who come to places like this are Colombian,

but the rest of the world is starting to wake up

to the charms of this country.

Things are changing here.

The islands are dotted with private holiday homes

and some exclusive boutique hotels.

They're a destination of choice for Colombia's elite.

But they do also offer a glimpse into the country's murky history.

Many of the houses were owned by drug barons,

people like Pablo Escobar,

who was the head of the Medellin cartel.

This is what drug money can buy you.

An enormous mansion, a mansion for entertaining, actually.

That's the thought that strikes me.

For decades, powerful drug cartels dominated much of this country.

Fighting the state, the people and each other.

They killed thousands.

The drugs trade also helped fuel Colombia's brutal civil conflict,

a war lasting more than five decades between the government

and a powerful guerrilla army called the Farc.

It's all very nice here,

but for generations much of this country was out of control.

At one point,

it looked like Colombia might even become a failed state.

This is the Colombian mainland.

We're about to land in the city of Cartagena.

I'm arriving at a really critical moment

in the history of this country, a really exciting time.

There has been conflict in this country for decades,

terrible conflict, almost a civil war,

and now, hopefully, finally, that could be coming to an end.

Could be, but it's not certain.

If peace comes, it could transform the country.

Take the travel industry.

Most people here are local.

Colombia can make billions more from international tourism.

I met up with a local tour guide called Lina

on one of Cartagena's many beaches.

It's rather lovely here, Lina. This is rather...

It's rather fun.

Cartagena played its own role in the peace process.

Just a few months ago, something monumental happened right here.

A stage was set up for the president of Colombia

and the leader of the Farc guerrilla group,

terrorist organisation as many Colombians would see it,

for them to sign a peace deal, ending decades of war in Colombia.

It's been a terrible conflict.

More than 200,000 people have been killed.

Millions of Colombians have been displaced from their homes,

turned into refugees in their own country,

and it was supposed to end here with a peace deal

signed by the president and the leader of Farc

with a pen fashioned from an old bullet.

It was a historic event and the rest of the world was delighted.

It seemed the longest-running conflict in the Western hemisphere

was finally over.

But in Colombia, the deal was hugely controversial.

Many thought it was too soft on the Marxist revolutionary group Farc.

The deal was put to a referendum and the public narrowly voted no.

After political wrangling, an amended deal was put in place,

but the vote showed that peace can't be guaranteed,

even, perhaps especially,

when so many Colombians have been victims of the war.

Is it fair to say that almost everybody in this country

has been touched by the conflict

that has affected Colombia for decades?

How are you involved with or affected by the conflict?

Lina got involved with Farc

after following in love with a guerrilla fighter.

But their relationship lasted just two years.

Do you know what happened to him?

Lina and her boyfriend had tried to leave the Farc.

The group's punishment for desertion was often death.

Lina's partner was one of an estimated 100,000 Colombians

who have vanished without a trace during the conflict,

at the hands of the guerrillas, the government, gangs, soldiers,

the police. The violence here has been extraordinary.

I travelled to the capital city Bogota.

Conflict has driven more than seven million Colombians from their homes.

They've been forced to become refugees within their own country.

Colombia has more internally displaced people

than anywhere else in the world.

Hundreds of thousands have fled from remote rural areas

to the big cities.

THEY SPEAK SPANISH

Simon.

Luz was forced off her land at the height of the conflict.

She and her friends are all victims of the war

and life as a refugee here is a real struggle.

What are you doing here, ladies?

SHE SINGS

You're warming it up there. She's warming it up, I can tell.

Oh, it's getting louder.

THEY SING

They've good lungs on them, I'll tell you.

Success.

A lot of people have come to the windows actually and smiled

and said, "Sorry, we haven't got any at the moment," but...

you can see this is a community that feels a connection with them

and they have a connection with the community.

Baby clothes.

There's always need for those.

Look at that.

Whoa!

Tiny! Are you happy with that, Luz?

Luz and her friends use these donations to clothe their families.

What they don't need they sell to help other victims of the conflict

who are still arriving in the capital.

Can you actually make a living from selling on the clothes?

Luz originally comes from one of the poorest

and most remote regions of the country.

Luz, how do you come to be in Bogota?

Who did this?

Thank you so much for meeting with us

and for sharing such a very difficult story with us.

What you've been through is utterly horrific.

You've suffered so much.

Are you for or against the peace deal?

Are you hopeful for the future?

It was humbling meeting Luz.

Like so many of those who have suffered the most here,

she supports reconciliation,

even with the group said to be responsible for her suffering.

It was time for me to meet the Farc.

I travelled south.

Colombia is a vast country, the size of Spain and France combined.

Huge areas are covered by mountains, forest and jungle.

We really are in the middle of nowhere out here.

For decades there has been very little Colombian government involvement

or even interest in areas like this,

and that's created a vacuum which the Farc has filled.

Farc was formed in the 1960s to battle for the rural poor.

At the time, life here was medieval,

with poor farmers treated as little more than serfs

by a small number of brutal, wealthy landowners.

Farc captured huge swathes of Colombia

and became the effective government,

building basic roads, schools and hospitals.

I was heading to one of the last Farc jungle camps.

I think we're just approaching the small village now

where we're going to meet up with some people from the Farc

and they're going to take us from here to the camp.

Over decades,

Farc mutated from freedom fighters into an often criminal army

funded by cocaine, extortion and hundreds of kidnappings.

Hundreds of thousands of Colombians were caught up in fighting between

Farc and the Colombian Army, which also committed appalling atrocities,

including the mass killing of innocent civilians.

There's a motorcyclist up ahead of us

and we're following him to the Farc camp.

The camp? Here we are, this is it. Look.

This is it.

Bloody hell.

This is it. The Farc camp.

As part of the peace process,

Farc has agreed to demobilise and give up its weapons,

but these guerrillas were still well armed.

We have to remember that thousands of people were taken captive

and held hostage by the Farc, many of them in places like this.

One of the most famous, or infamous,

captives describes how she was held for six years in this area

and she spent much of that time chained...

to a tree with a metal ring around her neck.

So, perhaps, that helps explain why I, for one,

feel a little bit funny and apprehensive about being here.

During the worst period of conflict in Colombia,

someone was being kidnapped on average every eight hours.

At times, more than a thousand people were being held

by different armed groups.

Thankfully, Farc's now halted ransom kidnappings.

I'd been promised a chance to meet a Farc commander...

but after a 12-hour journey, it was time to bed down for the night.

It turned out I was meeting one of the most senior leaders of Farc.

A man involved with peace negotiations at the highest level.

Mauricio Jaramillo is known as El Medico, or The Doctor.

The peace agreement between the state and Farc

is complicated and controversial.

In return for laying down weapons,

Farc commanders like The Doctor could be allowed to enter politics,

but first, commanders thought to have been responsible for atrocities

will need to testify before a special court.

If they confess their crimes

they won't have to serve prison sentences.

As part of the peace process, as an organisation and as individuals,

you're going to have to atone for crimes.

What did Farc get wrong, what's the worst things that you've done?

That's very open of you.

And what about you personally?

What will you need to atone for?

What are the worst things that you've done

or ordered to be done during this struggle?

There must be moments in the conflict

where you've ordered something to happen

that keeps you awake at night now, surely?

No. No.

You're taking off in a helicopter?

Where are you going?

Commander, gracias.

I'd been warned he might need to leave.

The peace process was fragile,

and it turned out The Doctor was being taken for more secret talks

with other Farc commanders and the government.

Commander, can we just...? Sorry.

What would you say, what happens...?

What happens if the peace process fails?

Will Farc go back to war?

Ending a conflict can require tricky compromises.

This man was seen as the leader of a terrorist group.

Now, as part of the peace deal,

Farc will be given ten seats in the Colombian Congress.

The Doctor could one day be in government.

It's less clear what will happen to the thousands of Farc guerrillas.

Many grew up in the group

and have known nothing but jungle warfare their entire adult lives.

They'll need jobs,

and the government has promised land reforms,

in which many displaced Colombians and the rural poor

will be given land they can farm.

These guerrillas hope they'll also benefit.

What's going on here?

Farc has done terrible things.

But many of these guerrillas originally joined to battle

for land rights for poor rural farmers.

Land and the ownership of it is central to the conflict in Colombia.

This is a country where a few ludicrously wealthy families

have always owned most of the best farmland.

For all their sins,

Farc has insisted the situation has to change.

We want peace.

Let us hope they find it, eh?

At the height of the conflict,

Farc was one of the richest guerrilla armies in the world,

for one very key reason.

Look at this. We just stopped at the side of the road,

I really wanted to show you this.

If there's anything that's at the root

of most of Colombia's problems, it's this.

This harmless looking plant.

This is coca, the base for cocaine.

For years now,

Farc has controlled most of the best land in this country

for growing coca.

It has helped to finance the conflict.

As part of the peace process,

Farc have promised they are going to completely withdraw from the drugs trade.

But the risk, of course, is that as they withdraw,

that creates a vacuum,

and incredibly violent drugs gangs will then seek to try

and take over and control the land,

the areas of this country that were previously controlled by the Farc.

Colombia is the biggest producer of cocaine in the world.

It is a trade worth billions every year.

I drove west to Buenaventura, on Colombia's Pacific coast.

It's a major port, and a hub for drug smuggling to the US.

It's not just the left-wing Farc that's made money from drugs

or kidnapped and killed.

Other armed groups are also to blame for the state of Colombia.

Here in Buenaventura,

it has been right-wing paramilitary groups and criminal gangs.

The paramilitaries have been central to Colombia's Civil War.

So, there are areas of this city that it's not advised to visit

without some serious armed support.

This city used to be a battleground between the left-wing Farc guerrilla

or terrorist group, and right-wing paramilitary groups.

The paramilitary groups now seem to have driven the guerrillas

out of the town. In the process,

they have committed some of the most extraordinary acts of violence

this country's seen.

Colombia's right-wing paramilitary groups emerged as an opposition to

the left-wing Farc.

They were funded by wealthy businessmen, landowners,

even international corporations, and had close ties to the army,

politicians and the drug cartels.

The paramilitaries killed anyone fighting for the rights of rural peasants,

including trade unionists and human rights workers.

Just to be absolutely clear,

studies have shown the right-wing paramilitary groups

killed many more people than Farc.

20-year-old Christian grew up in Buenaventura

and witnessed the violence.

What is a chop house?

Can you describe to us what was here?

Who was doing this?

Cristian, what on earth was it like to hear those sounds at night?

Cristian, this looks like a very poor area.

Do people here feel forgotten? Do they feel ignored?

Cristian now helps young people at risk of recruitment by gangs

through a charity called Foundation Pro-Peace.

Cristian, thank you so very much.

Good luck, all right? We wish you all the very best for the future.

Many of the right-wing paramilitary groups have mutated into criminal gangs.

They are now a major source of human rights abuses

and violence across Colombia.

Fighting over drugs, land,

and another massive source of illegal revenue - gold.

Gracias.

I was off on a mission with the Colombian Army.

Just look down there. It's so remote and so rugged.

It's incredibly hard for the authorities to control these areas

of the country and operate in.

I want to know, how serious a problem is illegal gold mining?

The army formed this anti-illegal gold mining brigade

to tackle what's been called a national emergency.

There are an estimated 17,000 illegal gold mines across Colombia,

controlled by armed groups that are believed to earn nearly

£2 billion a year from the trade.

Colonel Luque's squad was on a mission

to destroy an illegal mining complex

in a remote region near the Caribbean coast.

They've come in with their weapons ready cos they're not sure what

sort of reaction they're going to get from the people who are mining

or the gangs controlling them. I'm going to go with them now.

There was no sign of the armed gangs that run the mine,

but the soldiers had nabbed some local men working at the site.

Colonel, who are these people?

The miners pollute rivers

with mercury they used to extract the gold

and clear huge areas of forest.

Illegal gold mining is actually one of

the main drivers of deforestation in Colombia.

Colonel Luque and his men move fast

before there's any chance of a counterattack.

Gracias.

They're asking us to clear the area

because they're going to blow up the equipment.

Apparently the reason they need to blow them up is because

if they try to take these diggers out the armed gangs who have

owned them up to now could fight them to take them back.

HE SPEAKS SPANISH

Bloody hell!

Incoming, incoming.

Bloody hell!

A huge bit of the digger flew into the air

and landed just 20 feet from us, I would say.

Around 80% of gold production in Colombia is illegal.

It's a growing problem across South America.

There are thought to be perhaps 50,000 people working

on illegal mines in Colombia

and more than 70,000 in the Brazilian Amazon.

The gangs behind this are fantastically rich

and fantastically dangerous.

They have enormous resources.

They can move an expensive pump, very expensive diggers,

into the middle of nowhere and strip it bare,

and they will battle and fight to protect that.

The problems facing Colombia can sometimes feel overwhelming.

Drugs, conflict, guerrillas, gangs, even illegal gold mining.

But there are not just hopeful signs here,

there's proof that change is possible.

I was heading to the city of Medellin.

It was once one of the most notorious cities in the world.

But it's gone through a miraculous transformation.

Two decades ago, drugs, violence and crime were out of control here.

There were more than 6,000 murders a year

as Pablo Escobar and his Medellin Cartel

waged war against the government.

Medellin used to be one of the most dangerous cities in the world,

but it's since been completely transformed.

I'm off to meet the man who saved the city.

You cannot imagine how this was

before we came in to do all these things.

What was this like before you transformed it?

From there up all the way north, basically,

it was a city where people would never come.

HE SPEAKS SPANISH

Sergio Fajardo was the mayor of Medellin who transformed this place.

He's now a bit of a celebrity.

He was taking me to see one of his proudest achievements.

We're entering a huge queue and we're entering a queue

for one of their former mayor's signature projects,

which has changed the lives of an extraordinary number of people here,

and it is cable cars!

When Medellin's cable car system opened,

it connected the most violent hilltop slums to the city centre,

giving the poorest access to jobs, health care, education, opportunity.

People from the south part would never dare to come here,

would never worry about what is happening in here.

People, saw many killings around here,

so we build the new spaces where people could get together without fear,

so we were connected in the city.

This is still informal housing, I think.

You can see here bits of housing stuck on top of bits of housing.

This was a very violent and impoverished

and unemployed area of the city.

Right. We approached things in a completely different way.

The cable cars were just the most visible part of his plan.

We have social interventions on the ground.

Internship centre, the park,

the school, another school that we build new.

The health centre, the housing offices.

All the programmes that we have, social programmes, cultural.

That's what we did and we put them simultaneously.

You took the state to the people.

Definitely, but that's very difficult to do.

Medellin's transformation seems nothing short of miraculous.

In the past 20 years, murders are down more than 90%,

poverty by more than 60%.

Buenas tardes. Como estan?

And that's mainly from investing in poor areas,

rather than heavy-handed security.

What can the rest of the country learn from what you did here?

People are not asking for favours, they are asking for opportunities.

They don't want to receive, but to be developed themselves.

That's what it means to be empowered.

Empowering the community is the challenge.

When that happens, extraordinary things can happen.

There's a lot of challenges facing the country.

But at the same time, if we remove these things,

can you imagine what can happen in this country?

We will be the example for the whole planet.

What's particularly impressive about the transformation here

is that it started from the idea of giving the best

and the most beautiful buildings and facilities to the poorest.

It's completely counterintuitive compared to what most cities do.

MUSIC: Crioula by Daude

Not long ago, night-time in Medellin often meant sirens and gunfire.

Now it's one of the most exciting cities in South America.

I headed for a place that shows it's not just peace that's possible,

but reconciliation.

It's one of the swankiest restaurants in town.

El Cielo is run by Juan Manuel Barrientos.

Congratulations. You have one of the best restaurants in Latin America.

-Thank you very much.

-And you've been rather successful.

Thank God, yeah. Yeah.

So, you have got people from basically all sides of the conflict

working here together in harmony, creating beautiful food.

-Can we meet some of them?

-Yeah, of course.

Flipping heck! There's some serious cheffing going on here.

This is beautiful work you're doing here,

how did you come to be here?

Romero works alongside Nora,

a former Farc guerrilla,

and Edison, who used to belong to a right-wing paramilitary group.

Edison? Mucho gusto. Simon. Nora?

Mucho gusto.

Simon.

It's wonderful to see the three of you working together.

Has it been difficult for the three of you to bond together as a team?

What can Colombia learn from the fact that three of you are able to

not just work together, but clearly have a bond together?

We have a former soldier, a former paramilitary,

a former member of Farc.

Is this the future of Colombia?

Can there be peace in Colombia?

Will there be peace in Colombia?

Thank you very much indeed, mate.

It's lovely to hear. Gracias, Nora.

Gracias. Gracias, Edison.

Thank you very much indeed.

It's nine o'clock on a Saturday evening.

We're in one of the finest restaurants in Latin America.

Do you think there's any chance I can have a little bit of the food?

OK, where to start?

I'm going to go straight into the meat.

It just falls apart. This is fantastic.

This isn't good, this is incredible.

Which wine should I drink first?

I think I'll go for the red.

Thank you so much.

-You're welcome.

-This is very good.

I'm sorry that you're not able to share this with me, Jonathan,

but we'll get out for a pizza later.

It's one thing to transform a city,

but most of Colombia's problems are in the countryside.

And fixing things in rural areas is much harder than fixing a city.

This is pretty bumpy.

Just 15% of the country's roads are tarmacked,

leaving rural Columbians isolated

and often at the mercy of armed groups.

OK, I think we're finally here.

I was travelling with Laura Gomez from Oxfam

who's an expert on life in rural Colombia.

Laura was taking me to meet a farmer who's experienced many of

the challenges of country life at first-hand.

THEY SPEAK SPANISH

Thank you very much indeed for having us.

Denio has a small farm in the mountains of Cauca.

Oh, wow, it's here.

So, these are little coca plants here.

Why do you grow coca?

What would you say to people who say this plant brings nothing but misery

to Colombia and to countries between here

and the users in America and Europe?

Are you saying then that because of the lack of infrastructure here

means that people grow coca?

Coca flourishes in this climate.

It's one of the easiest crops to grow here.

But Denio got tired of the violence associated with cocaine

and his wife persuaded him to switch to an alternative crop.

Wow! This deliciousness is what we call cocoa.

This is the base for chocolate.

And flippin' heck, even like this it's amazing.

The bounty of Colombia, eh?

Weaning the country off coca and cocaine is vital

if peace is to come to Colombia.

The government has pledged £270 million

to help farmers like Denio switch to legal crops.

But it's not just about money,

the huge problems in the countryside go back decades.

What are the challenges that people face living out here?

What happens here if the government doesn't help the rural poor?

So, it's in places like this that

the future of this stunning country will be decided.

Rural poverty and inequality was the cause of conflict in Colombia.

For decades, people in the countryside have said

they needed medical centres, schools, roads

and the government has ignored them.

Now, this has to be addressed.

We just jumped out of the vehicles

because there's a demonstration up ahead that I think we should see.

Looks like things might get a little bit ugly.

So, this is a quite extraordinary event.

This is one of the largest ever gatherings of coca growers.

The base for cocaine.

And they are demonstrating and protesting, from what I can tell,

about the need for them to be given alternatives to coca growing.

Until recently, the government here dealt with

the problem of coca growing by forcibly eradicating crops

with chemicals sprayed from the air.

In the peace deal,

the state promised to help farmers transition to legal crops

like coffee or bananas, but all's not going to plan.

Why are you here? What do you want?

For lasting peace, poor farmers will need decent land,

advice and infrastructure like roads,

so that they can grow and sell legal crops.

Look at this. Look back.

We're not even at the front of it.

There are thousands and thousands of people here.

I'm amazed by the size of this march, this demo.

And it's actually one of the most hopeful things I've seen

during my entire time in this country.

These are people who are doing something really illegal,

who are saying,

"If we can have alternatives and opportunities,

"then we could see an end to the cocaine trade."

Colombia is now at a critical point.

A third of all peace agreements breakdown in less than five years.

Those that succeed address the root causes of conflict,

and that is what Colombia must surely do now.

Colombia has a really positive, hopeful future.

But it will take the government tackling the elites here,

the wealthiest in the country, who own the best agricultural land,

and have kept the campesinos and the peasants down for so long.

That has to change.

If it doesn't, there will never be peace in this country.

If it does change, I think peace will come to Colombia.