The mission of Colombian radio stations reporting peace in conflict zones

Victor Peñalosa was a teenager in 2001 when he lost his father to paramilitaries in Fundación, a farming town in the Colombian Caribbean, and was forced to flee with his family. Today, 22 years later, he runs a radio station in his region, making it his mission to speak about the world in conflict zone.

At the age of 38, Peñalosa leads a team of five journalists from the Fundación Peace Station, bringing cultural, music and news content to this foothill city Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and has suffered violence for decades.

Like many Colombians, this man emigrated to Venezuela, where he studied and became a professional journalist, a career he pursued there until the country’s economic and social crisis forced him to return to Colombia in search of a better job.

As he prepares to start his day at the radio booth, Penalosa He tells EFE that “there are a lot of stories that he finds every day” that show “that there’s always something more than pain and sadness and it’s the resilience of those protagonists who move forward every day.”

Excited not only for his new professional milestone, but also for the fact that he will become a father for the first time in the next few days, this provincial journalist declares that he has achieved “his dream job, where in addition to returning to the country where he was born, he contributes to the process of reconciliation, which you need Colombia”.

Experience gained in various mass media region and traveling through the municipalities in the department of Magdalena, especially those near Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta, make him feel like a “fish in the water” when faced with a new challenge.

“We are here to tell, for example, the story of a victim mother who, thanks to her enterprise, has become successful, the story of a displaced farmer who today returns to his land to farm, and to such an extent we have come to build”, says Myra Taborda, a young journalist who is also part of the team.

AGAINST STIGMA

Vicente Silva, director national radiothe official organization, which is part of the RTVC Sistema de Medios Públicos and on which the stations of the world depend, explained to EFE that one of the main shortcomings of these radio stations is the stigma they carry for supposedly being “stations of military affairs”.

“Peace stations are focused on teaching the contents of the Final Agreement to End Conflict and Building a Stable and Lasting Peace, and to report on progress towards its implementation,” he adds.

For Silva, the function that peace stations serve is to be “close to the community, kind to the people in the territories, focused on the concept of a community radio station that builds, enables dialogue, encourages listening to multiple voices and sounds and serves the people without partisanship.” banners, economic or ideological interests.

The installation of these stations, created under a peace agreement signed Colombian government and FARC guerrillas in November 2016 it was a big technical and logistical challenge because the conditions were often not the best.

MAIN PROBLEM

There are known cases similar to those in Bohaya in the Choco jungle or in Puerto Legizamo in Amazonwhere access and movement of equipment must be by water.

Actually in Colombia There are 16 stations dedicated to highlighting regional culture, businesses and projects that help bring peace to regions affected by armed conflict.

These stations are scattered throughout the country, as are those in the Caribbean departments of Magdalena, La Guajira and Bolivar, as well as in four Pacific regions: Nariño, Choco, Cauca and Valle del Cauca.

There are also peace stations in the Amazon region (Caqueta, Guaviare and Putumayo); in Orinoquia (Arauca and Meta) and in the Andean zone (Huila, Tolima, Antioquia and Norte de Santander), where they arrive with messages of peace and progress.

EFE