International
Colombia’s crusade to repatriate its archeological heritage
November 5 |
Wearing latex gloves and a white coat, restorer Carla Medina holds part of Colombia’s history in her hands. A growing number of pre-Columbian pieces are returning from abroad in an unorthodox way: President Gustavo Petro himself is bringing them back.
“It’s a great responsibility and a great privilege,” he tells AFP in his laboratory at the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History (ICANH).
Medina, 41, analyzes a clay vessel repatriated from Italy, which had to be reconstructed from fragments. She is grateful “to have the opportunity to have access to an object that has so many years of history”.
At least 560 pre-Columbian pieces were returned from other countries aboard the presidential plane of leftist Gustavo Petro, in some of the more than 30 trips abroad that he has completed in just over a year in office. International tours criticized by the opposition as dispensable and costly.
Most of the pieces returned from the United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Mexico, among other countries, in a coordinated work between the Foreign Ministry and ICANH.
One of the most recent returns was in October and took place on the diplomatic vessel Gloria, where 12 archeological pieces traveled from Costa Rica to Cartagena.
The recovery is part of a strategy of “efficient use of resources”, said at the time the former vice-minister of Multilateral Affairs, Laura Gil, and is advancing at an accelerated pace compared to the previous government, in which only 18 pieces were repatriated in four years.
For Catalina Ceballos, director of cultural affairs at the Foreign Ministry, it is a way to “start talking about decolonization from another perspective.”
Most of the pieces returned to Colombia were taken out of the country when there was no legal clarity in the world on the traffic of archaeological goods.
Only since 1997 has Colombian law recognized the State as the legitimate owner of national archaeological heritage.
However, the fight against illegal trafficking of these pieces has not been a priority in a country bled by half a century of armed conflict between authorities, guerrillas, paramilitaries and criminal gangs. While the budget suggested by the Presidency for ICANH in 2024 is equivalent to some 2.3 million dollars, that proposed for the defense area and the Police is almost 600 times greater.
Juan Pablo Ospina, coordinator of the anthropology group at ICANH, nevertheless emphasizes that in the current government repatriations have been “successful” because the presidential plane has been “fully available” to bring pieces “properly packed and safeguarded on those trips”.
Recent returns have been made mostly by private collectors on a voluntary basis and require diplomatic work in each country of origin. ICANH is then in charge of the registration, cataloguing, transfer, reception and, in some cases, intervention of the pieces.
As most of the repatriated works are ceramic, the restoration processes are simpler. “Even though they are very old, they can be very well preserved with the passage of time,” says Medina.
The most vulnerable materials are those “of an organic nature,” such as textiles, paper or wood.
The composition of the materials also offers details about how Colombia’s early societies functioned in relation to their territory, says Medina.
For the most part, the Colombian territory was made up of pre-Columbian societies distributed in small chiefdoms.
Ospina assures that what today corresponds to Panama, Venezuela, Colombia and part of northern Ecuador is known as the “intermediate zone” in Latin American archeology, “because what happened there is completely different from what happened in Mesoamerica or in the central Andes,” where great empires were formed.
That is why in Colombia, unlike in Mexico or Peru, it is not common to find palaces, pyramids or large goldsmith traces, with one great exception: the treasure of the Quimbayas. A collection of gold found at the end of the 19th century in a small village in the department of Quindío (west), donated at that time to the Queen of Spain by the Colombian president Carlos Holguín and which today is in the Museum of America in Madrid.
Most of Colombia’s archaeological treasures are ceramic pieces from different periods and cultures, some 6,000 and 7,000 years old, found in the Caribbean, Ospina explains.
“They are very early evidence of ceramics,” he adds.
In other Colombian regions the use of ceramics dates back to approximately 1,000 BC, present mainly in religious and funerary rites.
International
Pope Leo XIV signals focus on social justice and AI challenges
Pope Leo XIV explained on Saturday that he chose his papal name to reflect a strong commitment to social causes in response to the challenges posed by the new industrial revolution and the rise of artificial intelligence.
The new leader of the Catholic Church, born in the United States and naturalized Peruvian, has drawn global attention since his election on Thursday. In a speech to the College of Cardinals, the 69-year-old pontiff said the choice of his name was inspired by Pope Leo XIII, known for championing workers’ rights during the 19th century.
“I considered taking the name Leo XIV. There are several reasons, but the main one is that Pope Leo XIII, through his historic encyclical Rerum Novarum, addressed the social question during the first great industrial revolution,” said the new pope.
The 1891 encyclical, which translates roughly to “new things” or “innovations,” is considered the foundation of the Catholic Church’s social doctrine, emphasizing human dignity, solidarity, and the common good.
“Today, the Church offers its body of social teaching to help respond to another industrial revolution and to developments in artificial intelligence, which bring new challenges for defending human dignity, justice, and labor,” he added.
In the first Mass of his pontificate on Friday, the former missionary from Chicago—who served as a bishop in Peru—lamented the decline of faith in favor of “money,” “power,” and “pleasure.”
Following his election as spiritual leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, Robert Francis Prevost has gradually revealed his pastoral style. On Thursday night, during his first public appearance from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, he addressed the crowd in both Italian and Spanish.
Central America
Former Panama President Ricardo Martinelli flees to Colombia after 15 months in Nicaraguan embassy
Former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli traveled to Colombia on Saturday after being granted asylum, ending a 15-month stay in the Nicaraguan embassy where he had taken refuge to avoid serving an almost 11-year prison sentence for money laundering, Panama’s Foreign Ministry announced.
The Panamanian government “granted the necessary safe conduct” for the “safe departure of the asylee, Panamanian citizen Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Berrocal,” to Colombia, whose government had approved his asylum request, the ministry said in a statement.
The 73-year-old right-wing former leader had been living in the Nicaraguan embassy since February 7, 2024, shortly after his conviction was upheld for using public funds to acquire a media group during his 2009–2014 presidency.
Martinelli, also a supermarket chain owner, left the embassy in a diplomatic vehicle and was taken to an airport from which he departed to Colombia, according to the statement, which did not provide further details.
In March, President José Raúl Mulino — a right-wing politician who won the May 5, 2024 elections largely due to Martinelli’s popularity — authorized safe conduct for Martinelli to travel to Managua. However, the Nicaraguan government, led by Daniel Ortega, refused to accept him, citing Panama’s failure to guarantee that the former leader was not subject to an Interpol red notice.
Despite his legal troubles, Martinelli remained highly popular in Panama and was the frontrunner in the 2024 presidential race until his conviction disqualified him. His close ally, Mulino, ultimately took his place as candidate and won the presidency.
International
Pope Leo XIV’s roots in Peru inspire hope for Amazon protection
The bishop sat silently near the front row, hands clasped, as Indigenous leaders and Church workers spoke about the threats facing the forests of northern Peru, deep within the Amazon. It was 2016, one year after Laudato Si, Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment.
When it was his turn to speak, the bishop didn’t preach—even though the gathering was taking place in his own city, Chiclayo, where he was hosting a regional meeting. Instead, he reflected on what he had witnessed.
“I believe it’s a very important encyclical,” he said. “It also marks a new step in the Church’s explicit expression of concern for all of creation.”
That bishop, Robert Prevost, is now Pope Leo XIV.
“He was always warm and approachable,” recalled Laura Vargas, secretary of the Interreligious Council of Peru, who helped organize the event, in a phone interview with The Associated Press.
“He had a strong interest in a socially engaged ministry, very close to the people. That’s why, when we proposed holding the event in his diocese, he welcomed it without hesitation,” she added.
Since then, Prevost has strengthened ties with environmental interfaith networks like the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative and Indigenous organizations such as AIDESEP, which place forest protection and rights at the heart of Church concerns.
These credentials have given hope to clergy and the faithful across the Amazon region—a vast area of 48 million people and 6.7 million square kilometers (2.6 million square miles) in South America. Many see Prevost, who was born in Chicago and spent nearly two decades in rural Peru, as a pope who will protect the region and stand up to climate change.
Pope Leo XIV signals focus on social justice and AI challenges
Former Panama President Ricardo Martinelli flees to Colombia after 15 months in Nicaraguan embassy
Pope Leo XIV’s roots in Peru inspire hope for Amazon protection
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