Holman Jiménez Ardila is one of the four children of a Colombian family who had immigrated to Spain. In his country of residence he works as responsible of special programmes and communication in the Ibero-American organization of Social Security (OISS).

“As you can deduce from my testimonies, Colombia is a very beautiful country, however, it is very difficult to live there at this time in the last decades”.When Holman was asked about his country, he described it as a wonderful place to live in. Colombia has many peculiarities, the society is divided in several races and all of that makes the country more attractive and interesting. One sister and two brothers of him still live there but he had to move because as he claimed:

Along the interview the main issues we have touched are the one of the drug trafficking and the political situation of the country (specially about the relation between the government and FARC).

In relation to the drug trafficking, he says that it is a big problem in the region because the dealers and those who grow the drugs are breaking the rules and in many cases they are involved in armed attacks and violence. In fact, Jiménez Ardila thinks that the government is the main responsible for those incidents: “ It is a very complex issue because there are farmers fully financed thanks to the cultivation of cocaine, marihuana, etc. There is not a real planning of the government that supports the change of growing and that backs-up the countrymen. A real agrarian reform is needed (…) In my opinion, the drug trafficking represents a great burden for society (it buys the conscience of politicians, the police, judges, entrepreneurs, etc.), because it is the beginning of a huge number of violent attacks, it destroys societies and it attempts on the life of the global population” One of the main case of violence in this field, known by Homan, is the case of Luis Carlos Galán, a politician murdered by the Medellín cartel. Finally, the interviewed concluded that Colombia should follow the steps of Bolivia, a country that has legalize the production of drugs and, in that way, it has reduce the drug trafficking.

Jimenez Ardila sees the last episodes occurred in Colombia in relation to the ceasefire between the government of Colombia and FARC in a sceptical way and he stated, “I think peace is too far away from Colombia”. To end this long-lived confrontation transparency is required “the government of my country in the last decades has practiced a double standard”. Holman thinks that the problem with FARC is not going to be solved until a real democracy exists in Colombia and also, until a real participation of the Colombian population on the management of the State happens”. The reintegration of the guerrilla members in the political life constitutes a delicate issue. On the one hand that might assure a balance of ideologies and balance in the approach. On the other hand there are some cases of reintegration as the one of the major of Bogotá who is an ex-combatant of FARC, but they are not working fine. “Choosing the right people of FARC that should participate in politics in Colombia is a sensitive topic –said the interviewed but the only thing that is sure is that this people can not have blood on their hands.”Another shocking point is about the protection of people threatened by the guerrilla. There are not any national policies to protect them. Instead of that, there are some NGO’s working on this issue as ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross), explained Holman.

“Evidently it is necessary the international community to get involved in this issue, but not only through announcements of the heads of state and the heads of government. What is essential is to have a real commitment leaded by the UN, the OAS (Organization of American States), etc. to create a commission that supports the peace process and that is really engaged with serious claims.” Holman Jiménez Ardila ensures that the genocides that have took place in Colombia and the violation of Human Rights that have never been judged must be judged also by the international community to have fair trials that may help in the duty of finishing with this armed conflict in Latin America.

Finally emphasizing on the area of autonomy and sovereignty of the region Holman has a clear idea “The autonomy is something fundamental at the time of preserving sovereignty, therefore, the autonomy of a region has to be its guarantee of sovereignty”. Most of the countries of Latin America still depend on the economies of the EU and the US and Holman Jimenez Ardila assures that “If the Latin-American states do not advance and do not adjust their management model for guaranteeing the optimization of their resources with efficiency and quality. In that way, the social models would be improved and the population would be able to self-manage their own resources. Only then, we are going to notice the reduction of poverty, the reduction of inequality and the social justice improvement.”