South America

That moment: A big job offer

I call it “That Moment”. I don’t include births or deaths. That moment something happens that changes your life for ever and ever.

I’m on a small bus taking us Deutsche Welle (German equivalent of the BBC World service) TV freelancers from one building to another for lunch. How I ended up been a TV news journalist after graduating from pop interviews is another story. A chapter in my next book. During the journey, I’m sitting next to an editor called Dr. Manstein. I happen to tell him I’m going on holiday to either Caracas or Costa Rica. If you’d shown me these places on a map I probably would not know where they are. Just a good friend suggested the idea we go on hols together. ‘Oh, if you’re going to Costa Rica you could do a short piece about a radio station, just started. I know a freelance cameraman.’ …

Then another editor at DW TV said ‘oh, and we could have a story about the coffee industry, whilst you there.’ The DW in the early nineties has a satellite programme with European South –Central American stories that went out through a satellite link. They needed stories. In those days for our younger readers there were no mobile phones, internet was just starting. Fax machines and phone calls that sounded very breezy.

So there I am in Costa Rica at the end of the holiday with my mate whose spending his time in a hotel room with a Canadian beauty and I’m hobnobbing with a load of women. Fiery feminists! Am doing a story about a women’s feminist Radio Station called the Costa Rica Feminist International Radio Endeavour (FIRE). Making a news story about a radio station is not easy, there are not that many pictures. I used the radio commentary to cut away to pictures of whatever they were talking about. Next day I was doing the coffee industry story and happened to inquire about organic coffee. I ended up with 2 coffee stories.

The camera operator had a TV camera using the U.S. NTSC tape system (Insider joke: Never The Same Colour) after conversion! I had an idea. If this goes well, I could do more stories.

It worked a dream. The three stories were taken and I was ready for take-off.

The Sewer Children

I read a story in the Times from a REUTERS correspondent called Adrian P. Croft about children in Bogota who live in sewers underneath the city. It’s called ‘Sewer diving for the urchins of Colombia.’ So impressed I was, I sent a letter to the to Mr Croft addressed to the Times news desk asking for the details about the man who helps these children. In the journo’s world I was a mere ‘nothing’, wildly enthusiastic but a nobody. Then at the DW freelance office a fellow journo told me there was a phone call for me from a Mr Croft. Next, I got a really helpful letter from the man himself. I’m going to do this.

Two stories I offered both a little longer than the news items so called ‘magazine pieces’…Jaime Jaramillo the engineer who cares for these sewer children in Colombia and their plight and…organic bananas. The German organic farmer was pestering me non stop to do a film about his wonderful product. When I write ‘pestering’ the farmer was phoning me in Germany, offering to do this and that.

The profit for just 2 short magazine length stories (6 to 8 minutes length) should just about cover the costs, it all depends if I can sell the sewer children to another network. Then I’d get a profit. But importantly I figured, it’s a great opportunity to make a ‘name’ for myself.

First the organic farmer. His ‘Finca’ was on the Panamian border and the journey was rough. I’m bouncing around in the back of a jeep excited about my first magazine story commission. I reckoned I’d make the stories longer and longer and longer. Soon at some time reaching documentary length! We crossed a few rivers. Was told there were alligators and loads of snakes. How can I make this story exciting?

Finally we arrived at his, knocked at his door with a small present from Germany. A bottle of Kölsch (Cologne beer). Imagine I’d travelled all this way with these damn bottles of beer to ‘oil the wheels’, to make everything easier. A maid answered the door and said:

‘So sorry , but Gunther had to go away on important business. He’s in San Jose. Gunther said you can film the farm, no problem. So I’m thinking this is bad, really bad. I can’t return to Germany with a load of banana tree pictures. My commission is a German organic farmer not an organic farm. I’m here on a tight budget and tight time frame and the bugger is not there. How can I do a story about a German farmer growing organic bananas for German TV without the German? Then of course an idea that would cost me but there really was no other alternative. I found a freelancer in Costa Rica to do the organic banana interview with Gunther, when he returned. I made a lot of shots of bananas and bananas on his farm.

Am in Colombia, it’s taking a long time to find the children. I soon forgot to feel sorry for myself. It was so shocking, the most horrendous location I’ve ever been in. Beneath the pavements I found them huddled together for warmth. Their brief lives are spent living in near – total darkness and biting cold. The stench of the city’s sewage was unbelievable. Most of the children are orphans and have taken to the rat infested sewers to escape death at the hands of the state police. Every so often police and vigilante groups carry out a ‘clean-up’ operation to cleanse the image of Colombia. They are bad for the good name of Colombia. Which is true but it does not necessarily mean you have to murder them…

My short story was a big hit, and another network a major one Breakfast TV bought my short film too. DW TV made a deal with me. The organic banana story had to be done by New Year. It finally arrived 2 days before New Year, just made it. But now I was well and truly ready to rock and roll.

Fujimori

I spent 2 days with the President. Peru’s Shining path a Maoist type paramilitary organisation founded by the philosophy professor Abimael Guzmán who brought the country to it’s knees. They terrorised the country in the 1980s and 1990s.Car bombings, brutal massacres, and targeted assassinations, killed tens of thousands of Peruvians.

When I met President Fujimori he had just defeated them and was resting on his laurels so to speak. And among all these stories are some delightful snippets I picked up. For a time Guzmán was in hiding, no one could find him. There was a tip off he was in a certain well off neighbourhood. A police man and woman went off undercover to spy on the building. They were ‘lovers’ who would not arouse suspicion. Having a little snog here and there, then looking up at the apartment. Is that man with a beard? They fell completely hopelessly in love and had to be taken off the assignment.

It was Guzmán by the way. The refuse collector’s bin was searched and medication to treat psoriasis was found. I heard this was enough to go on. Guzmán was arrested and sent for trial. The Court found Guzmán guilty of terrorism and sentenced him to life imprisonment. He spent his last days in captivity.

I travelled with the President together in his helicopter. In fact two copters took off heading for a mountainous area in the Andes. Two because if there was a terrorist attack there was a chance only one copter would be hit. 50-50…We flew to a place that was terrorised by the Shining Path. I learned that if offered food it is bad manners to not eat what you are given. I guess it’s the same with dancing. If told to dance, you dance? There is footage if you look at the clip of me and the President dancing a Peruvian dance. I’m not very good as you can clearly see dancing the ‘Aymara Shuffle’ being a disco boy at heart…The President had good moves.

Former President Fujimori was convicted of serious human rights abuses and also the two Presidents who preceded him. The Peruvian military and police routinely committed serious human rights abuses while under their guidance in their fight against Maoism. After 16 years of imprisonment the 85-year-old former President was released from prison on 7th December 2023. Peru’s ex-leader Alberto Fujimori died on 11^th September 1924 at the age of 86.

Bolivia

Bolivia poor cousin of the southern Latin America countries. An outpost of the Inca empire in the 16th century, only to experience a brutal Spanish conquest. The indigenous population fought against Spanish rule but were met with bloody repression. War in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with their neighbours (Chile, Brazil, Paraguay and Peru) meant that Bolivia lost access to the sea and rich mineral deposits.

Nothing much has been done to improve the lives of indigenous people. In the late 1980’s hyperinflation reached 24,000 percent. The Bolivians except for a few enormously rich families remained among the poorest people on the planet.

Another President, I met! US educated Sanchez de Lozoda. His ancestors include a former President, Minister of Foreign Affairs. In Costa Rica, José María Figueres is the son of a three-time President of Costa Rica. Keiko Fujimori was narrowly defeated and there are surely in other countries these dynasties. We have it too of course in the States. The Kennedy’s, Bush father and son Presidencies. Trump? Biden..?

A few years after meeting the President he resigned and left for Miami amid economic chaos. High powered rifles were used by government forces to slaughter protesters, men, women and children from the indigenous Aymara communities. Apparently Sanchez de Lozada from one of Bolivia’s richest families was warmly welcomed by very close allies in the Bush administration. In other words, he has friends in high places. There was an extradition request but this was refused by the Obama administration. The President a recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

VW Theft

You know those people who nick things from bikes? How did it all begin. Someone’s saddle broke so he/she/ the person nicked one then everyone’s nicking something. Same with VW cars also known in Peru as the “Vocho”, it was pure madness. I went out with a specialised Police Unit looking for thieves. They were armed like a SWAT team and was there during a raid at some poor man’s garage.

The Sacred Valley

What a beautiful place away from all the heavy filming. A valley in the Andes just north of the Inca capital Cusco. I happen to come across a fertility ritual associated with the harvest. Very important for the indigenous people is the Pachamama. A spiritual Earth Mother figure in Peruvian culture, a revered goddess.