Colombia

"Today, apparently four types of people can be identified in Colombia: the more or less wealthy who close their eyes in fear, including those land owners whose management methods recall the good old feudal school; those who kill, those who die; and the 'little' people, hostages of terror, who flee the countryside and shelter in slums, which produce nothing but hoards of little killers… Who kills whom, and for what reason? It’s a mess. Catholic gold has given way to Protestant dollars, and immorality no longer bothers to take on the slightest layer of ideological varnish. 'Everything is perverted in our era…'

Cartagena has, it seems, once again emerged from the scrum on top. At least as far as a happy tourist like myself could observe. In the streets of the city center and even the neighboring roads, you can amble along without risking coming head to head with a hit man on a scooter going about his business, or getting beaten up because he doesn’t take a liking to you. But I came across Mick Jagger calmly taking a stroll, the son of the Shah of Iran, and Madeleine Allbright and her full set of sidekicks, come to negotiate who knows what deal that would have been unwise to settle in Bogota."

Extract from Carnets de voyage 2, 2000, Éditions Gallimard