Finance Colombia’s executive editor, Loren Moss, sat down for coffee with Rupert Stebbings, the CEO of Alma Air. Stebbings, a longtime contributor to Finance Colombia, brings a wealth of experience to this new venture, including a history in international investment dating back to his time with the Bolsa de Valores de Colombia (BVC) and his role as a former board member of Viva Air.

The discussion focused on this significant milestone from Colombia’s civil aviation authority, Aerocivil, the unique operational challenges of floatplanes in Colombia, and the immense market opportunity for connecting remote and developing tourist destinations.

Finance Colombia: I’m here with Rupert Stebbings, the CEO of Alma Air, a friend, a longtime contributor to Finance Colombia, former board member of Viva Air. You know, I know that you have a long history not only working with investment, international investment, going back to the BVC and before that; but then, of course, your experience with Viva Air. And now you’re heading up this venture Alma Air. And we’ve talked about that before, but you guys have just received your operating certificate from Aerocivil, I believe. Tell me about the significance of this development and give us an update as to where things stand since we last spoke, I think back in February.

Rupert Stebbings: Yeah, sure. Good to be with you, man. We’ve been together a long time, so if you know me a long time, you know my history here. So as opposed to the operating certificate, what do you have? In Aerocivil, there’s various stages, right? And the first stage is kind of a greenlight process. You have a public audience and then they look at the plan, what you’re looking to do, they look at where you want to go, and then they give you the green light, which we’ve got a couple of weeks ago. They say, “Okay, move ahead. Sit down with us, let’s go through everything in detail.”

It’s probably the most complicated stage, stage one. It takes a lot of study and it’s a new product. It’s innovative. So there’s an education process. We’ve now got that green light. So what’s happening? This coming week my team, the pilots, the maintenance guys, the guys who really know how a plane works; they’ll be in Bogotá. They’ll be sitting down with the inspectors looking to get the inspectors appointed in Medellín, Cartagena, to move forward the process. And from there, you’re moving through the stages, it’s a four-stage process, bit by bit by bit. And then by early next year, the planes will be here. Then we check the manuals and all the technical aspects that go with that to make sure it’s absolutely safe and secure.

Finance Colombia: Now, you guys are using Textron (NYSE: TXT) Cessnas for this. What are the specific challenges that come with a floatplane operation? Because not only can these planes land at regular airports, they can also land—and I think that this is what makes your business model unique here in Colombia—they can land in rivers. They can land in keys and small islands, and they can land in areas that are less developed. So what are the technical challenges, and even not just technical, but operational challenges that that brings, along with the advantages of not being tied to, “Hey, there’s no airport here, but we can still service here,” you know?

Rupert Stebbings: No, no. Obviously, there’s a lot of Cessna Grand Caravans already in Colombia doing land to land. They’re a very common plane not just here, but in the whole world. What are the challenges? Well, the challenge is it’s a completely new product. It might exist in the Bahamas, Alaska, Vancouver, Australia, wherever you want to go. Whilst they were here 100 years ago, they haven’t been here for a long time. So what do you have to do? Like you mentioned, they can land on the sea. They can land on the sea, the lakes, on rivers. But it has to be done safely.

These airlines, these planes… seaplanes have got a tremendous track record in terms of security. We want to maintain that. So we have to sit down with the local authorities. There was a test flight carried out by another party down in Ayapel a few weeks ago. And it’s precisely for that. Aerocivil was there, they were on the plane. What are you checking? You’re checking where you’re landing. Is it safe to land? Are there people in the water? Are there boats? Are there jet skis? How is the mooring? How is the pier? Is it safe? Is it big enough? Is it away from boats? So a lot of it’s to do with security.

We know that these planes are environmentally very clean, so we don’t worry about that. But we do worry. And obviously, as an innovative new product and being pioneers in this, we need to make sure we get it absolutely spot on. And that wherever we land, wherever it is in Colombia, it’s done safely, securely, and that everyone locally knows exactly what’s going on and the benefits that come with it.

Finance Colombia: What have you seen with regards to the reception? The last time that we spoke on this, it was at ANATO back in February in Bogotá, and that’s the tourism industry convention. What has been the reaction of hotels, of tour operators, of the agencies, of the package promoters and the industry in general, when it comes to this kind of, innovative for Colombia, mode of transportation?

Rupert Stebbings: Yeah, pre the 2024 public audience, I spent a lot of time on the coast: Cartagena, Barranquilla, Santa Marta, all around the coast, Mompox, Magangué. And the reception was incredible. Public sector, we sat down with the mayor’s office, tourism, secretaries. But then we sat down with the private sector, hotels, agencies. Everyone wants in, everyone wants a new product. Why? Everyone knows that Colombian tourism is booming, but now everyone’s looking at different types of tourism, a ‘better tourist’, for want of a better phrase.

We’ve seen the cruises, AmaWaterways in the Magdalena River, starting in April, 48 cruises a year. And now are going to double that this month. They’re getting a second boat because the top-end tourists, there’s so much demand to come to Colombia. We want to be part of that. And that’s why it’s been well-received. Now, since the public audience, what’s happened is we’ve been called from all over the country. We’ve had Los Llanos, I’ve been down to the Amazon, Bahia Solano. Can we go there? Here in Medellín, Guatapé, which isn’t far from here. I’ve been and sat down with Guatapé, I’ve sat down with the mayor’s office, I’ve sat down with the city, with the town council. And they, too, want to push ahead because the connectivity from Bogotá to Guatapé can be an hour. It’s about four hours now if you want to go El Dorado to Rio Negro. Or Medellín, downtown Medellín, to get there to Guatapé. There were 3.7 million tourists in Guatapé last year. It’s a huge number. When you look at Mompox, which is 84,000, there’s massive numbers, more and more foreigners want to go there, and tourists. But right now, on a ‘puente’, a long weekend, it’s three or four hours. In a nice car, but it’s three or four hours. We can get you there in 10 minutes from downtown Medellín. So the minute we went public with this, everyone’s called us and the reception has been, I can just say, unanimously positive.

Finance Colombia: That’s impressive, especially when you think about- I mean, Guatapé, for example, from here, it would be an hour drive, but it’s more like a two-hour drive because of traffic. And this is a way to avoid that by operating these Cessnas. You can operate out of Olaya Herrera instead of having to come out of here. I think about places that are under development, like Coveñas, for example. They’re expanding Tolú, but up until now, you have not been able to get in there with a traditional 737 or A320 or something like that. The other islands and the islands that are outside of Cartagena that have been becoming more and more of a tourist draw.

Tell me financially, if we talk about from the investment perspective, you know, you guys are stable, you guys have experienced investors, but I believe that there is still opportunity. Tell me about what your goals are. Obviously, operationally, you need to go through the steps to become an operating functional airline. You’re backed by experienced investors that have not failed globally but have a track record of success around the globe when it comes to airlines. This is kind of a new and viable, but very fun project, I think. But tell me about the opportunity and the gap and the need there for additional partners when it comes to looking at bringing this project to fruition and supporting it in the future.

Rupert Stebbings: Yeah, I think over the next six months, there’s three phases. One, as you mentioned, the technical aspects of Aerocivil, which is so important. Number two, commercially, continue to build contacts, look at new locations, destinations. But number three is this: as you know, our backers have been all over the world, many places. But what we’d never pretend to be… I’ve been here 20 years, but I wouldn’t pretend to know Colombia inside out. Every time I go to the coast, or I go somewhere, somebody’s got a new idea. “Have you been to this place, or this lake’s got a beautiful eco-hotel.” We can’t get there.

So every time they tell me to go somewhere, there is new know-how, and our preference would be to have a partner, for sure. We’ve got a lot of friends we’re working with overseas who are already in the seaplane business all over the world. We speak to people in every continent on this. But also locally, Colombia is a country apart. It’s a country with a huge, huge opportunity. It’s a big country. And honestly, it would be great to have somebody alongside us, sat down with us saying, “Hey, have you thought about this? Have you done this?” As I say, we don’t pretend to know Colombia inside out. It’s an amazing country. Everyone knows that every time you see an article anywhere around the world, Colombia gets a mention. The best for this, the best for this. Pension, live, digital nomads, but also for tourism. The numbers are going through the roof.

And I think everyone, whether it’s us, an agency, a hotel, everyone’s looking for more and more know-how, more knowledge. And the more people you have inside the tent, the more people you have helping you, the easier it is to move forward, to make good decisions, and make the most of the opportunities that definitely are here. And so, you know, we’re looking for a partner, whether it’s overseas, that’s fine, whether it’s local, great as well. But we’re definitely looking for people to come on board and join us in this project, which is, as we know, it’s innovative, it’s new, it’s tremendous excitement. And if somebody wants to share in that, you know, we’re open to a conversation.

Finance Colombia: You know, I think the great thing is that intellectual humility, of not coming into a place and saying “we know everything.” And if I think about the track record of some of the investments, the investors, they go into Mexico, they partner with a local company that made things a success. They go into places like Singapore. They go into places like the U.S., and they’ve done that. And even before with Viva, every place that they’ve done that has been a success, because they’ve bought in the local intellectual capital, as well as financial capital participating, so that the local economy has a stake in things. It’s not like, “Hey, we’re from the outside and we’re just going to do things.” In other sectors, in mining, I’ve seen the companies that do it right, they follow that model. They bring in people, not like the old model that we saw in Asia, where it’s like, you’ve got to bring in a local partner so that they can screw you. Like we would see, you know, 40 years ago in India, or in a lot of places like, you’ve got to have a local partner for capital controls and things like that.

No. Colombia, as you know living here, one of the great things about Colombia is that legally we’re treated on an even par as… you know, there’s no difference. And I can speak to this having been a business owner in Colombia, you’re not treated any differently. You have no disadvantage in the local system being a foreigner. And I think that that makes it, whatever the flaws are and whatever the drawbacks are, that makes it a very safe place and an advantageous place for investment.

Rupert Stebbings: Yeah, I worked in the financial sector for decades in Asia. In Asia, it was exactly that model. We’ll parachute in and it’s us. We’ll only use the local because we need their license. So they didn’t take on as much local know-how intellect as they did. Well, that’s changed over the years. And in this sector in particular, if you look at the tourism sector here, there’s tremendous influence amongst the hotels, the agencies, from overseas. But they are all using local know-how, the people on the ground in general or locals, and we want to be part of that. As you say, I wouldn’t be absolutely stupid to come into a country with a new product, a product that was here from 1919. I turn up in 2025 saying I know all about that. No, there’s people who know, there’s people have been around. This airline sector is one of the oldest in the world. So local knowledge, I think, is fundamental.

Finance Colombia: And even in 1919, the industry was started by Germans who came in here and did it and they were able to be successful. And then the airline evolved and went through iterations and became kind of the national flag carrier of Colombia. But I think that it speaks to the friendliness that Colombia has towards investment. And the thing that you mentioned is that these people are real partners. They’re not agents that, “Oh, I need to have a license, or I need to sign off this checkbox on some kind of license form.” But these are real partners who are involved and things like that.

Rupert Stebbings: Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. And you know, I’ve done a lot of research and written on Colombia, but even agent people at the World Bank, they’ll put Colombia in the top 15 countries in the world to invest for the protection of your rights when you come here, because you’re looked after when you come here, because the country wants to develop, wants to move forward, and they look after you when you get here. And I think that’s fundamental.

Finance Colombia: Absolutely. I mean, you know, I’ve been here for 11 years. I’ve never seen a form or any kind of government document that differentiates between, “Okay, check this box” or “you can’t do this because you’re a foreigner.” And Colombia is great when it comes to that. Now, let’s look at- going back to operations. What has to happen before Alma Air is flying routes, scheduled routes with passengers? Now, I know that in the U.S., you know, we had like Part 91 aviation, 132 aviation and things like that. And there’s one thing that’s a scheduled airline, there’s another thing that’s like a charter airline, and then there’s, you know, general aviation. Is the set up the same way here? And whatever the case might be, what has to happen and how far away are we from booking tickets to fly on Alma Air?

Rupert Stebbings: Okay. So, we’re going to work as an air taxi, charter, no scheduled flights. Which is similar to other countries. Most companies and seaplanes work on that basis. You call me, you tell me what you want. Obviously, we’ll have a menu: this is what you can do, call me when you want to do it, who you want to do it with, etc. So that’s how it’ll work. 100% charter air taxi, as it’s mentioned here. What do we have to do? As I mentioned, the guys are in Bogotá this coming week. They’ve got to sit down, and the aforementioned paperwork, which is the same for everybody, we need to fill in a lot of paperwork. We need to go through the manuals, which are done, but there’s something like 50+ manuals for seaplane operation. So they need to be doing a page turning, go through it. Because it’s new, right?

And also, there’s regulation. We’re also working with DIMAR, which is the coastal authority, and the internal authorities, and the environmental authorities to make sure that everyone’s on board the regulation, everyone understands the rules. So I’m going to put a plane there. What needs to be there? Who needs to be aware of it, etc.? So there’s an awful lot to be done through Aerocivil, DIMAR, and the authorities. In parallel, we’re speaking with the lessors overseas to sort out the planes, the arrival times, and then that will be going through the Christmas period into January. And then by the end of the first quarter next year, we should be seeing planes arrive here to then go through the same paperwork. You can’t just bring it here and fly it around. [Laughs.] ‘Hey, I’m here, I’m just going to fly around.’ No, not at all. We’ll bring it here, the plane has to be checked over, everyone needs to be on board. Then hopefully within around probably less than six months, you’ll be able to call me up and say, “Hey, I want to take the family and do this and this,” you know, whether it’s to go to a hotel, you want to do a sightseeing trip, you want to go to a couple of lakes in a day, you let me know and we’ll get in touch and we’ll sort you out.

Finance Colombia: Amazing. You know, I’m looking forward to it. I’m not the high roller who’s going to be like, “I want to go to a couple of lakes.” But hopefully there will be some kind of group travel opportunity and things like that over the weekend.

Rupert Stebbings: But the thing is, everyone talks about… Every time I do an interview with the press it’s, “How much, how much you’re going to cost?” “Yeah, it’s going to be really expensive.” No. Colombia is full of charter planes already. It’s already full of private planes. And I would say the price point of this is the same as you doing something special for your anniversary. You know, you want to do something special, let’s fly somewhere and go to a spa for a couple of days in a hotel, for example. We’re in that price point. We’re not in a ridiculous point. And the one thing you’ll be buying from me is time.

And that’s the key. If you’re in Bogotá, you want to go to Guatapé for a beautiful weekend and a beautiful hotel, then you don’t need to spend five hours getting there, five hours getting back. I’ll get there in one hour. So you can buy four hours for you, or three hours on the way, three hours on the way back. That’s six hours. Plus, your partner, that’s 12 hours. You get more time at your resort and not at a huge increment in price.

Finance Colombia: And, you know, the Grand Caravans have a capacity of what, like 12 or something like that?

Rupert Stebbings: It’s eight passengers plus pilot and copilot. That’s one thing we push very hard for. You’ve got to have a copilot and pilot. That’s not global, but that’s what we believe, definitely, in terms of security. Then you got the eight passengers. These planes will take up to 14 seats, but we’ve checked around the world and the most successful seaplane companies are using the eight planes. Why? Because if I’m going somewhere in a seaplane, I want to go somewhere real nice and spend a few days, I don’t want to go there with a backpack. Comfort and what I take with me.

Finance Colombia: You know, that’s a good point. My cousin, for example, runs a charter service out of Miami and he services the Caribbean. He has a Learjet and a King Air. And I remember talking to some of his passengers one time in the Bahamas and talking to him; and it’s not that the people are rich. I mean, they’re not poor, but they’re not like super rich where they’re going to fly to St. Bart’s on a private jet. But what happens is, one of the passengers explained to me, they’re mostly like avid fishermen, anglers. And they’ve got to carry all their rods and all that stuff like that. And they explain this, “Look, this is a family trip for us, and there are six of us. And by the time I pay for six airline tickets, it’s actually less expensive to fly on this charter.”

Rupert Stebbings: And the bags, and the extra bag, and the extra length luggage. When people say, “It’s going to cost me this.” I’m like, “No, it’s actually going to cost you this, because you were going to pay this. But I’m going to charge you on top for the convenience.” So it’s not an extraordinarily expensive thing to do. But that’s education, that’s the education process. And the fact that it’s so common; if you go to Vancouver, people commute to work on a seaplane. So it simply doesn’t add up that it costs you thousands of dollars just to go one way. Of course it doesn’t. But again, this is part of the education. I think in time people will come to see “this is something I can do with my family.” And hopefully we’ll fill the skies here with seaplanes, which should be great.

Finance Colombia: I would imagine that there’s also a market for things like air ambulance. Colombia has so many remote areas, there are cities in Colombia that you can only get to by river or by air. And, you know, we just published an article about the high quality of Colombian health care in places like Cali and Medellín and Bogotá. But to get people who need, you know, urgent or unusual operations or have conditions and things like that. You guys can play a vital link in that process as well.

Rupert Stebbings: Of course. It would be a second stage. But already the authorities have manifested interest in what can be done. We looked at a study in 2021, there were thousands upon thousands of air ambulance trips in one year in Colombia, from remote areas in. And they’re not using air ambulances; they’re just putting them into normal charter planes in an emergency. So that’s definitely something we looked at. The authorities are interested; the security forces are interested. You know, as you say, most bad things in Colombia take place in remote areas. Whether it’s military, whether it’s a car crash, whether it’s a heart attack on a remote island. But as we know, as you mentioned, Colombia’s got a tremendous medical system, but it’s concentrated in the main cities or even the big towns. So if you’re in a place, you don’t have to be far away to be hours and hours away. You know, if you go from Colombia to Mompox, to pick an example, you’re talking five or six hours in a car, no mainstream hospital. There’s a hospital in Magangué. But I’ve spoken to many people in Cartagena in clinics who do evacuations, and they say, “No, almost all the cases come into Cartagena or Barranquilla.” So if we can help in any way, we’re definitely there to do that.

Finance Colombia: That’s amazing. Now, is your website up and running? If interested, if people want to get in touch with you all, do they go through your website or what are the methods that you recommend?

Rupert Stebbings: Yeah, flyalma.com, up and running already. It already gives you a good indication of services, destinations, the routes we’re going to use… It’s got the history as well of seaplanes, which is very important to get into, who we are… So then go in there, look at all the information, the contact information is there, we are on LinkedIn or on Instagram. So you can find us, that’s not a problem at all. So you get in touch with us and we will definitely be there to respond ASAP.

Finance Colombia: Is there anything that you wanted to mention that I neglected to ask?

Rupert Stebbings: No, I just think that a lot of people I think have been wondering why it’s taken so long, or longer than expected. But I think you have to be respectful with the authorities. This is something new. And every time you get a new product, they’re very careful about bringing something new to Colombia. People don’t understand. When they did the seaplane test in Ayapel, the members of Aerocivil had never been on a seaplane. So the people at the very top running the airline services, they don’t know what a seaplane is, other people don’t. So it’s very important. And we’re going to isolated places, where they’re not used to these kinds of services. They’re not even used to seeing airplanes, etcetera, or even many tourists. So there’s a big education process. We’re working, obviously, with the Ministry of Commerce and Tourism, FONTUR. So we’ve got a lot of partners. It’s taken longer than desired by anybody, but we’re getting there. And now I feel there’s been a definitely a pivot of the last few months in terms of, “let’s get this done and let’s get this done as soon as possible.”

Finance Colombia: Great. And one of the things that I think I’ve seen, no matter what administration, you know, I’ve been here 11 years, I think you’ve been here longer, is that there is—and this is not a right or left thing—but there is a consensus that tourism and especially things like nature tourism and sustainable tourism are a strategic path to not only pacifying the country… and we talk about terms of peace. We talk about terms of sustainability, not places that are over-touristed, but to really develop and to bring tourism to these, maybe up until now off-the-path areas that you guys will specialize in. So I think that there is a comfort, I should say, in that no matter what happens politically, that remains a priority no matter who is controlling the reins of government.

Rupert Stebbings: No question at all. And in the webpage, we even refer to that. And we also refer back to one year ago, COP16 in Cali, where USAID, which unfortunately is no longer with us, but they mentioned “Colombiamorfosis,” which is this program of getting tourists in new areas. And we’ve been to visit new areas. In Ayapel, we met with the governor of the Zenú people in Cecilia, which is the town they have there. And we’re looking to connect these new areas, and we’re getting approached all the time. Communities are saying, “Look, we’ve got amazing wildlife, birdlife, we’ve got walks you can do in the jungle. We can take boats across lakes.”

And so what we want to do is connect them, because according to the UN, and the Petro government has backed up on this, the fastest return on investment to get people out of poverty is through tourism. It’s a UN program. The UN tourism director is actually Colombian, Natalia (Bayona), who lives in Madrid. So we’ve been in touch with her. And again, we’ve seen tourism booming. It’s been a big bet of this government, no question. It’s been successful. But I’m absolutely sure whatever government comes in now, tourism is the way to go. It’s a way to get to remote areas and connect overseas tourists or local tourists who have the money with needy communities. And between them, you can make the connection and take some of these communities out of poverty and give them a little more dignity.

Finance Colombia: I’m super excited for you all, of course, as an organization and as people. I know a lot of you are involved in this. But then also for Colombia, because of the positive benefit that it can have for Colombia. Again, I think it’s a win for you all as an organization, it’s a win for Colombia as an economy and as a people, and it’s a win for whatever financial and commercial partners that are involved in this. And so I’m super optimistic. I can’t wait for my first ever seaplane flight. I know that airlines love to have these inaugural flight things- And I’m going to be mad if I see it in the news and I didn’t hear from you [Laughs.] Yeah, you’re going to be waving down from me from up the final approach right here, right? So I’ll be calling you on WhatsApp there. But thanks a lot for your time, Rupert. Always fun to talk to you guys, again, thank you also for your contributions as an individual. And you wouldn’t say this, but as an expert. It’s more fun because I don’t always agree with you, and that makes me nuts sometimes. But it makes it fun, you know. And so can’t wait till the next time. Keep us updated and count on us to keep the public posted on what’s going on at Alma Air.

Rupert Stebbings: [Laughs.] We’ll wave. No problem, it’s alright. [Laughs.] That’s life! Great, man. Thank you for your time, and I will see you on board in some place you didn’t know you could get to. Cheers, man. Take care.

With the support of the District Development Plan ‘Bogotá Camina Segura’ and the ‘Bogotá Airport City’ program, the strategy is presented as a high-impact initiative to consolidate the Colombian capital as a mandatory transit destination in Latin America. The proposal is to allow international travelers who connect in Bogotá to stay up to 24 hours at no additional cost on their air ticket and take advantage of their stopover to get to know the best of the city with special offers on hotels, city tours, restaurants and tourist packages offered by local travel agencies through the Visitbogota.co website.

With this initiative, Bogotá is joining a global trend – known as  a “Stopover” – that has now been successfully adopted by capitals such as Lisbon, Dubai, and Istanbul, nearby Panamá City, among others. “With Stopover Bogotá, we are looking for more travelers to take advantage of their stopover to discover our city, enjoy its diversity, and take away a story that inspires them to return. We want a stopover to become a tour of Candelaria, a lunch with an ajiaco flavor, an afternoon in Monserrate, or a night enjoying the culture of Bogotá. What was once wasted time, today can be an experience that energizes the economy and strengthens the image of the city,” said the Director of the Bogotá Tourism Office, Andrés Santamaría.

Why Bogotá?

El Dorado International Airport, with more than 355,000 flights operated and 45 million passengers mobilized in 2024, is one of the main air connectivity hubs in Latin America. Flights take off and land from its runways to 57 international destinations and 45 domestic destinations, making it a strategic hub between South America, North America, and Europe. However, according to data from the 2024 Great Traveler Survey of the District Tourism Observatory, 95% of international passengers in transit do not leave the airport. With Stopover Bogotá, the city seeks to reverse this trend, encouraging express stays that boost the local economy, strengthen the image of Bogotá as a destination, and increase tourist spending per visitor.

In 2024, Bogotá received more than 14 million visitors, of whom 1,871,956 were international tourists, evidencing a growth of 8.7% compared to 2023. Tourism generated about 7 billion pesos and more than 106,000 jobs per month, consolidating itself as a key economic engine for the city. Hotel occupancy reached an average of 61.4% and the daily expenditure of an international tourist was approximately $100 USD.

Stopover Bogotá: a city experience for up to 24 hours

Through packages designed by certified local operators, travelers will be able to enjoy tours such as:

• Bogotá in 24 hours: visit to the historic center, museums, gastronomy, and shopping.
• Flavors of the capital: experience in market squares and local restaurants.
• Bogotá in nature: routes through the hills, gardens, and green spaces within the city.

Each experience seeks to show that Bogotá is not just a point of passage, but a city that you fall in love with from the first moment. Tourists will be able to find the offer of special discounts offered by the city on the official tourism portal Visitbogota.co.
With this strategy, Bogotá’s Tourism Office that at least 472,000 passengers will opt for the Bogotá Stopover between July 2025 and December 2026, generating revenues in the order of $40 million dollars in tourism spending alone. Likewise, airport tax revenues are estimated to exceed $21.2 million dollars.

Avianca, the partner airline of Stopover Bogotá

Avianca, the airline with the most complete route network in Colombia and one of the largest in the region, will be the partner of the Stopover Bogotá program. Today, the company connects the Colombian capital with more than 40 international destinations and more than 20 national destinations. Every day, it operates more than 240 flights to and from El Dorado International Airport, transporting more than 32,000 passengers, of whom approximately 18,000 travels in connection via Bogotá, which reflects a city that has become a hub par excellence.

In its initial phase, and through Avianca’s route network, the strategy will be focused on seven priority markets: Lima, Madrid, Miami, Guayaquil, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and São Paulo. The District Institute of Tourism will carry out an international promotion strategy. With this initiative, the office expects that by the second half of 202,5, the total number of travelers departing from the airport will be close to 72,000, generating an impact on the local economy of more than 6 million dollars.

“At Avianca, we have been connecting Bogotá, which is our home, with Colombia and the world for more than 105 years. For this reason, it is an honor for us to be part of projects such as Stopover Bogotá, which are essential to lay the foundations for the future of the city with tourism as the axis of development, so that those who have a stopover in the city see the immense attraction it has and want to explore it, while waiting for their next flight. For this to become a reality, it will be essential to continue working with all actors so that El Dorado International Airport has efficient processes on the air and ground side, and thus support the economic development of the capital,” said Frederico Pedreira, CEO of Avianca.

Airbus-A320. Photo credit: Avianca.

Today, good news only. Let’s chat about Colombia’s continued home run, tourism. Whilst Gustavo Petro was only picking up the baton of the upward curve that had existed since COVID-19 finished, he strongly declared that tourism would eventually replace commodities in terms of dollar revenues and was the fastest form to lift needy communities out of poverty.

Last year saw (tourism) dollar revenues hit $10 billion USD, not quite at commodity level, but closing very fast, and Colombia is only just beginning to realize it’s enormous potential as a desirable destination. The United Nations has also supported globally the concept of decreasing poverty via tourism, and there is a huge drive to push that campaign forward.

This week, ANATO Vitrina Turistica, the largest tourism fair in the region, took place in Bogotá. A total of 5,000 companies were represented across 46 countries with 50,000 attendees. I was there, and the pavilions were hopping; at times, it was like New Year’s in Times Square. Equally, at FITUR in Madrid a month ago, Colombia was in play.

2024 was a record year, and already, 2025 is set to surpass those numbers. In January, international airline arrivals increased by 13% to 2,254,000. Attendees at ANATO also reported a healthy start to the year.

But it will not be Medellín or Cartagena that will be the forward-looking driver. Instead, it will smaller towns and villages as visitors locally join the international tendency to seek more adventurous destinations. Some future hotspots haven’t been heard of by most Colombians, let alone by those arriving from overseas.

When will it match oil & coal? Judging by the vibes in the pavilions, it will possibly be sooner than expected, but in an ideal world, both will continue in rude health.

In other news. From Fedesarrollo, there was an improvement in both industrial and retail confidence, this dovetails with the recent consumer reading.

The government also announced that it had carved out 69 sectors, spread across 270 square kilometers, for future offshore eolic energy auctions—that’s wind power to us mere mortals.

Always good to end on the positives.

Have a great Friday.

Regards Roops.

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Photo credit: wjgomes from Pixabay.

In this way, the FILBo invites us to think of the body not only as biological matter but as a symbolic space where identity, memory, and resistance converge. For this reason, the Fair’s programming will explore corporeality from literature, science, art, philosophy, and politics. Thus, visitors will be able to approach this theme from various perspectives, such as the female experience, sexual diversity, disability, violence, equity, thought, time, migration, and pleasure, among others.

In this regard, Adriana Ángel Forero, director of the Fair on behalf of the CCL, says that: “the body is the first territory we inhabit, but we rarely stop to explore it in its complexity. At FILBo 2025, we want literature to help us understand it beyond the biological: as a space of memory, identity, and resistance. From science to poetry, the body is the meeting point of our emotions, experiences, and social transformations. In times when questions about our materiality are more urgent than ever, the FILBo will be the stage to reflect on what it means to exist, feel, and share from the body and the word.”

For her part, Catalina Chávez, director of the FILBo on behalf of Corferias, says: “We are proud of the theme of the FILBo this year and we are excited about the arrival of Spain as the guest of honor, as it promises a journey through centuries of literature, thought and culture, in an enriching dialogue with Colombia. This will be a unique opportunity for writers and readers to explore together the connections that unite us at Corferias, a unique place that is an icon of the movement and growth of the publishing industry every year.”

Filbo 2025

First authors announced

The FILBo 2025 will feature the participation of literary figures of national and international stature, such as the renowned writer Laura Restrepo (Colombia), who has masterfully narrated the darkest and brightest corners of the human experience; Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro (Puerto Rico), outstanding novelist and essayist for her works on migration and feminism in the Caribbean.

There will also be the Argentinean Andrés Neuman, poet, narrator and translator, winner of the Alfaguara Prize; from South Korea will come Kim Un-su, author of The Planners, a literary thriller of the Korean crime novel, translated into multiple languages and adapted to the cinema.

Also present will be Arianna de Sousa-García (Venezuela), writer of Atrás queda la tierra, her first narrative work, which is a moving non-fiction novel about the Venezuelan diaspora, the pain caused by dispossession and violence.

Fritz Breithaupt will arrive from Germany with his essay The Narrative Brain explores the impact of stories on society; María Cecilia Barbetta (German-Argentine), winner of several awards in Germany, including the Alfred Döblin scholarship, the Aspekte-Literaturpreis prize, the Chamisso/Hellerau prize; also from the Old Continent the Swiss writer and translator Dorothée Elmiger, Swiss Prize for Literature, will participate.

Connecting visitors with the Caribbean, the Fair will have Frank Báez (Dominican Republic), poet and narrator, creator of the spoken word collective “El Hombrecito”. Traveling to the south of the continent, the Uruguayan Mabel Moraña will talk about corporeality and desire, themes that she has worked on in books such as Pensar el cuerpo. Currently, she is director of the Latin American Studies Program at Washington University in Saint Louis where she teaches courses on viceregal studies to the present day, focusing on the baroque, nationalism and modernity.

And in the Children’s and Young People’s Literature slot, the Bogota International Book Fair will have authors such as: Elise Kova (USA), outstanding because its narrative escapes the usual sensuality, focusing on the emotional growth of its characters and who wrote the bestseller A Duel with the Lord of the Vampires; Susanna Mattiangeli (Italy), 2018 Andersen Award for Best Writer of the Year, the most prestigious literary award in Italy, creator of Crescendo, the story of Milo, a deaf boy, in a village without music and how he discovers it when it returns to his village; Maikel Rodríguez (Cuba), outstanding writer of children’s and young people’s literature, multi-awarded for his horror works, Romance de la Niña Mala Award for his literary career; and Luis Pescetti (Argentina) Latin Grammy for Best Children’s Music Album, ALIJA Award (IBBY Argentina) and Caniem Award for his book Cartas al Rey de la cabina. He will present at FILBo his book, Emotional First Aid Kit for Humans and Superheroes: The Right to Know That We Are Not What We Feel.

Spain, a literary bridge

This year, Spain will be the guest of honor and will arrive with the proposal ‘A culture for peace, with others and with the planet’, the slogan of the program organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Spain and Acción Cultural Española (AC/E). Thus, the Iberian nation responds to the invitation of the Fair with another invitation: to generate a meeting space that has books at its center, a place of knowledge and imagination, an agora for dialogue about the issues that concern citizens today.

In this regard, Antonio Monegal, National Essay Prize 2023, curator appointed by Spain, through its Ministry of Culture and AC/E, for participation in the FILBo 2025, comments that: “it is not a conversation only between Colombia and Spain but between all the countries that share common languages, literary traditions, cultural spaces and history. As in any conversation, each one contributes their experiences, their imaginaries, their memory, from different perspectives of each country. In this dialogue, books are our allies and friends, but they are also indispensable instruments of change. They help us to face the problems of the world, to understand what is happening, to get closer to the experience of others, to learn empathy, to imagine solutions.”

Monegal adds: “Books are also the repositories of memory: they invite us to look back to look to the future. Peace is not reduced to the absence of war, to a truce between violence. Peace is also a desire for understanding, a willingness to negotiate differences and disagreements, a horizon of aspiration to coexistence and a commitment to care for the natural environment that we share.”

Some of the writers with a great impact on narrative, poetry, and essays that Spain will bring, reflecting the diversity that characterizes its current literature, are: Marta Sanz (Madrid), Herralde Novel Prize winner and finalist for the Nadal Prize, whose work investigates memory and identity with incisive prose. Clara Usón (Barcelona), author of La hija del Este, winner of the National Critics’ Prize; her most recent novel, Las fieras, explores a generation marked by violence and political conflict. Francesc Serés (Zaidín, Huesca), Aragonese writer in Catalan, winner of the National Prize for Literature of Catalonia; Ismael Ramos (Mazaricos, La Coruña), one of the emerging voices of Spanish poetry due to the power of his reflections on identity and language; and Leire Bilbao (Ondárroa, Vizcaya), a poet in Basque, whose work rescues Basque orality with a contemporary look.

A platform to connect businesses and industry experts

The Fair reaffirms its role as the epicenter of the publishing business in Latin America during the first half of the year, with the Professional Conferences that include key spaces to strengthen the book industry. In terms of business, there is the International Business Show, the FellowShip Program, and the Librarians’ Mission, which, together with 12 specialized conferences aimed at all the actors in the book chain, make the FILBo the central stage of the industry in the first half of the year.

One of these spaces is the International Business Show, a strategic meeting where publishers, literary agents, and distributors from all over the world will meet to finalize agreements for the purchase and sale of books, as well as publishing and translation rights, promoting the circulation of content at a global level. This commitment energizes the publishing market, facilitating strategic connections and new commercial opportunities for professionals in the sector.

In addition, the Fair will offer two scenarios designed to expand access to Colombian literature, such as the Fellowship Program, which invites seven international literary agents interested in enriching their catalogs with national editorial production.

They are Rory Williamson (United Kingdom), editor at Pushkin Press, where he publishes fiction and non-fiction; Baha Sonmez (Turkey), general manager of Redhouse and board member of the Turkish Publishers Association; Majid Jafari Aghdam (Iran), CEO of Pol Yainci, combines his experience as an editor, translator, writer and poet; Niyazi Khidirov (Azerbaijan), international rights manager at Libra Kitab, a publisher specializing in children’s literature; Massimiliano Bonatto (Italy), editor of Spanish and Latin American literature at Polidoro; Corinna Santa Cruz (Germany), editor at Buechergilde Gutenberg and specialist in Latin American and Spanish literature; and Benjamin Burguete (France), art historian and philosopher in Paris.

And the Librarians’ Mission, which will allow librarians from various regions to strengthen their collections through specialized advice and purchasing spaces, ensuring that more readers have access to a diverse and up-to-date offer.

Within the specialized Conferences are the Book Forums, which allow the exchange of ideas and experiences between the actors of the publishing world. This year, the Book Forums Master Classes will also be strengthened, an initiative that was born in 2024 and has been vital in offering practical learning to professionals in the sector. And for librarians, the Fair has the International Meeting of Librarians, an event designed to discuss the challenges and opportunities in the management and promotion of reading, strengthening their role as essential mediators between books and the community.

In addition to this, the International Meeting of Booksellers will be held again so that these important actors in the book chain can share strategies and challenges of the sector. For its part, the Books for Children and Young People Meeting will bring together publishers specialized in children’s and young people’s literature to discuss trends and opportunities. Also, translation and illustration will have their space with the Forum of Literary and Editorial Translation, the Forum of Comic Professionals, FILBo Ilustra-Ilustropía and the long-awaited portfolio review, where Colombian illustrators will be able to present their work to publishers.

The FILBo will be a meeting point for industry leaders with the Book Fairs Network Meeting, the National Meeting of Proofreaders and FILBo Emprende, which will promote publishing ventures with training and commercial exhibition. The International Copyright Seminar will open a key space for debate on the protection of works, while the FILBo Ilustra Master Classes will bring the best artists closer to the community. Finally, the BAM Film Adaptations of Literary Works will bring together publishers and filmmakers to explore the potential of books on the big screen.

Catatumbo remains an open wound as the ELN and FARC guerrillas fight it out over one of the most lucrative cocaine routes close to the Venezuelan border. Bogotá has now asked Caracas to help with the situation, but as yet there has been no formal reply.

Fedesarrollo released their first analyst survey of 2025 with an expected annual inflation reading of 4.2% (still outside the 2-4% Banco de la República – Colombia target) and an overnight rate of 7% (from the current 9.5%).GDP for 2024 has edged up to 1.8% with 2.6% for 2025.

The Peso, which closed Thursday at $4278 as the dollar, which rallied before the Trump inauguration, now appears to have priced in the ‘Golden Age’ of America.

The weather remains a quandary for IDEAM. At the same time as they were putting 46 municipalities on high alert for rain-related landslides, they were warning another 358 about the risk of drought-related forest fires.

That is all, have a wonderful day.

Regards.

Roops.

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Headline Image: President Gustavo Petro. Photo credit: Archive Presidency of Colombia.

“Emirates customers flying on its network via Madrid, Barcelona, or London (Heathrow) can go directly to three points in Colombia and enjoy seamless connectivity, plus other travel benefits that offer more convenience,” said Emirates in a statement. “Codeshare flights will include Madrid to Bogotá, Medellín or Cali; Barcelona to Bogotá; and London to Bogotá.”

For its part, Avianca will place its code on routes operated by Emirates between Barcelona, Madrid or London (Heathrow) and Dubai.

“Customers of both airlines,” added Emirates, “will enjoy the convenience of smoother connectivity, a single booking on a single ticket with no hassle, while taking advantage of the advantage of securing competitive fares and a single checked baggage allowance to the final destination.”

The agreement comes just a few months after Avianca publicly opposed Emirates entry to the Colombian market.

Specifically, the Colombian carrier complained that “Emirates just wants to exploit mature markets” and threatened that hundreds of jobs would be put at risk.

Such claims did not sway the Andean nation’s regulators, which approved Emirates’ request for authorization to become a foreign operator to operate international regular public transport air services on international routes to and from Colombia, from Dubai and Bogotá, with a stopover in the city of Miami.

“The codeshare agreement will allow us to expand our reach and allow our customers to use our services and fly to additional popular points in Colombia,” said Adnan Kazim, deputy president and chief commercial officer at Emirates.

Though the Boeing aircraft had to be pulled from service due to a maintenance directive, the airline neglected to inform the plaintiff, Ms. Yesica Lizeth Casanova in a timely manner and offer her a refund and other options. Rather, it kept her first class fare and then gave her a take-it-or-leave-it flight on the much smaller and spartan A300 without even a day’s prior notice.

The 10 hour flight took place on January 15 of last year. Casanova took her case to Colombia’s Superintendence of Industry and Commerce. On April 14, according to Colombian daily El Espectador, the entity ruled in Casanova’s favor, granting her compensation of $5,973,000 Colombian pesos.

Rather than pay up, Avianca chose to fight, appealing the case to the Superior Court of Bogota, which also ruled in Casanova’s favor. Avianca could have just paid the modest amount (just over $1500 USD) and compensate Ms. Casanova, who clearly had suffered a “bait & switch,” but it actually took the case to Colombia’s Supreme Court, who again ruled that the woman indeed had paid for but not received “the pleasant experience that Avianca offered through its website and the video it shows on its YouTube portal.”

Avianca Responds

Contacted by Finance Colombia for its side of the story, Avianca responded in writing, saying “It is worth clarifying that in no way did the court’s decision impose a penalty on the airline. The company respects the decision made by the institution and calls for these cases to be analyzed in depth in order to be able to make assertive decisions for the parties. Likewise, Avianca reiterates its commitment to fulfilling its value proposition for passengers who decide to use an air service, which is adapted day by day to the needs of the market and its customers.”

Analysis

Had the airline simply made Ms. Casanova whole, this case would not exist. However, the fact that Avianca chose to battle a $1,500 USD refund all the way to Colombia’s supreme court suggests a new, more hostile attitude towards the same passengers it once coddled. Full-service airlines generally are expected to “go the extra nautical mile” for its highest value passengers, those willing to pay for 1^st or business class. While all passengers deserve to be treated with decency and respect, it is especially puzzling why Avianca would risk such ill will with its most lucrative segment of travelers.

In the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Los Angeles, California native Eduardo Delgado (above, right) has been hard at work laying the groundwork for an Ecuadorean regional turboprop carrier to service Ecuador’s many smaller cities beyond Guayaquil and Quito, including many hidden tourism destinations beyond the well-known Galapagos Archipelago.

Ecuatoreana’s Delgado recently connected with Finance Colombia’s Executive Editor Loren Moss to discuss his efforts to launch a brand new airline and a new operating model, but with the historic Ecuatoreana brand that holds a lot of nostalgia for many in the Andean country on Colombia’s Southern border.

Finance Colombia: So, you picked a fine time to start an airline!

Ed Delgado: Oh Yes, it’s funny you should say that because I was thinking about this a couple weeks ago, I started a new business, and I still have to laugh because I started a new business in the states in Los Angeles; we actually had a little party, we had champagne, we cut the ribbon on September 10^th 2001.

Finance Colombia: Your timing is perfect.

Ed Delgado: Yes, but you know what? That was a very successful business after everything that we went through. The sadness that we went through and all the tragedy, but the business was very successful in the end, and we were good. I don’t doubt for one second, one minute that Ecuatoriana Airlines will be a success just like my other business was.

Finance Colombia: Tell me why? Why now? Why Ecuador? Tame (Transportes Aéreos Militares Ecuatorianos), I think they had an airline there before that. That had state participation it didn’t end up doing really well, We’re in the middle of a pandemic. Why Ecuador? And why right now?. Why will it be a success?

Ed Delgado: It will be a success for different factors, and a lot of factors. You know that in the Chinese (Mandarin) language the word pandemic is equivalent to opportunities and I believe 100% wholeheartedly many figures in history have also said the same: that a pandemic or a crisis should never be wasted because there are opportunities within. You know JFK (John Fitzgerald Kennedy) said it, Albert Einstein said it, you know people that have proven their vision, and it hasn’t changed, I believe that even though we’re in a pandemic, even though we’re in a crisis, I believe that there is an opportunity for an airline here in Ecuador.

We have brand new airports that are sitting empty, that have never had a flight

Why Ecuador? Well, I’m not from Ecuador, I’m from the US, I was born and raised in Los Angeles, but by having parents that are from Ecuador. They’re both from here, from Ecuador, and I’ve traveled here quite a bit. Now what we’ve seen here in Ecuador is the lack of air service throughout the years, and it’s been diminished year after year, and we’ve had to put up with not only the lack of service, but diminished customer service, which is something that we absolutely demand in the US and in other countries, that we have good customer service.

Regrettably here in Ecuador, that is something that’s taken by the wayside, so with Tame exiting the market we started this project. First of all, we started this project a few years back. Unbeknownst to us we didn’t know there was a crisis coming, a pandemic, we didn’t know that; that Tame would be exiting the market. We didn’t know that Latam and Avianca would be declaring bankruptcy, yet we kept to our values, and we kept with our vision to continue forth our plan and nowadays it makes more sense than ever when 85% of the airports in Ecuador are these airports that are serving the communities that surround them and are not being serviced whatsoever.

There’s no service at all, we and we’re talking that the government 10 years ago invested millions and millions of dollars to reconstruct and build out the infrastructure of our airports. We have brand new airports that are sitting empty, that have never had a flight that—I’ll give you a perfect example: the Latacunga Airport (Cotopaxi International Airport) was redone, reconstructed, beautiful airport with all the amenities that you can possibly imagine, it’s got two jetways, they’re installed, they invested money on brand new jetways  and all the infrastructure, yet as crazy as it may sound there’s never been an aircraft that’s pulled up to one of those jetways.

Finance Colombia: Wow, now, is this some kind of government white elephant? Or why do you have an airport that doesn’t have any demand?

Ed Delgado: Well, the government set out years ago, like I said ten years ago because they wanted to stimulate the tourism, they wanted to give incentives, they wanted to make sure the airlines came to Ecuador, that the local airlines can fly. They wanted to do everything on their behalf. And for a government to step up, okay, and go ahead and redo the infrastructure at the airports, it’s because they were all in, they wanted to make this work, and so they were the first to step up to the plate and said: “OK, tell you what, we got dilapidated airports that are no condition to service the public, let’s build this now so that the airlines will feel comfortable coming,” well regrettably, it’s not like that: “if you build it they will come,” they built it and nobody came.

Tame as a national carrier at the time when all these airports were being finished and being opened up, decided, “hey you know what? I’m more interested in international destinations, in long-haul service,” and they forgot about the domestic service. They thought that it was all in the international. They put the cart before the horse because you can’t have an international operation without having your domestic operation foothold strong and operating correctly, and that’s what happened. So, today we have these airports that are standing, well maintained, ready to go, that are just sitting there empty and Ecuatoriana needs to fill that gap, there’s a niche market, and I even feel we’re calling it a niche because it’s a market that’s there, that needs to be attended to.

Finance Colombia: So, we have Guayaquil and Quito, so there’s obviously maybe a demand for a domestic link between Ecuador’s two well-known cities. So you said, you’ve got to have a domestic kind of network. I’m not an Ecuador expert, what does the network look like? Is it going to be between these two principal cities? The is potential demand obviously, between Quito and Guayaquil, but beyond that, are there other cities that are up and coming or that are important domestically, or maybe important internationally?

Is this a carrier that’s connecting Ecuador with the rest of the Americas? Or is it a focus on, like we have here in Colombia, the EasyFly, the SATENA that are really domestically focused? What’s the strategy like that way, in terms of: is it domestic first, or you’re going to run some international routes? How do you see the airline really taking off and gaining success?

Ed Delgado: That’s a brilliant question Loren. Here’s the difference. Ecuador’s has got obviously like you mentioned, Quito and Guayaquil are they are principal ports. We also have other cities that are very important in Ecuador such as Cuenca, we have got Loja, we got Manta, we got Perales, you’ve got Santa Rosa, and this is the way I described. You said you don’t know Ecuador that well, Ecuador is…I better describe this for the US population and in some countries throughout the world. If you’ve ever been to Disney World or Disneyland or any of the parks throughout the world that Disney runs, they have several little countries or seven several let’s say, worlds compacted into a small area (Disney’s EPCOT Centers). OK? That’s Ecuador.

Ecuador has a lot of demand, there’s an increase in tourism that’s coming to Ecuador and no matter what airline from the world comes to Ecuador, to Quito, regrettably their passengers are stuck.

We have jewels of tourism, that the tourist would love to see, that are incredible. Here in Ecuador not only do we have four regions, the Galapagos Islands, we have The Sierras, we have the Amazon, and we have The Coastal routes. We have some of the best beaches in the world here, OK? So, we have so much compacted into such a small little area that it’s easy to come as a tourist, to come and enjoy all the jewels that we have. Now Quito, Guayaquil, yes those are your main routes, Cuenca is very important, and like I mentioned those other cities are very important to us and the world. Now what’s been happening? Ecuador was the only country that did not shut down during the pandemic. Ecuador stayed open, OK? Peru, Colombia, Panama, Argentina closed their countries, totally closed them down to any and all visitors, and Ecuador stayed open. Many of the US carriers started to see that there was an influx of travelers coming to Ecuador and there is—I mentioned to a lot of people that in the last 10 years of me traveling to Ecuador, I have not seen more Americans, quite possibly Canadians because they’re speaking English, so I can’t determine who’s who speaking English—in and around the different cities or the different places that I go. If I go to the park, I hear people speaking, I go to the mall, I go to parks, bars, I go to restaurants, people are speaking English. It’s because people, your tourists are trying to escape from The US or Canada into these regions where it’s not as closed off to the world as it is in the states or other regions.

Now, American Airlines for example started, I think March first, three daily flights from Miami to Quito, one of them is on a Boeing 787. Even before the pandemic hit, American was only offering twice daily service. Delta Airlines is now using a 767-300 where before they used the Boeing 757. United Airlines, Yes has put a 757 daily into Quito, and they’ll have a 737-700 four times a week, so on certain days you have two flights a day on United, OK?

We’re seeing that the airports in the US are saying: hey Ecuador has a lot of demand, there’s an increase in tourism that’s coming to Ecuador and no matter what airline from the world comes to Ecuador, to Quito, regrettably their passengers are stuck. There’s no connect connectivity inside of Ecuador at all, so a passenger is coming from, let’s say, I don’t know, Amsterdam, from Madrid that needs to get to Santa Rosa, to Cuenca, to Loja, to all the cities that I mentioned previously, their option is to take a taxi to the bus station, and take a bus to your destination, and that bus is going to take you anywhere between 6-to-14-hour travel time, there are no connections inside. And that’s why it will be successful.

Finance Colombia: I’ve been on buses in Colombia back when I first started coming down here, I’ve known Colombia for almost 20 years and some of these bus trips can go beyond 18 hours. I think once I went from Barranquilla to Medellin, it was like an 18-hour bus trip.

So I’m surprised, I didn’t realize that there was no connectivity. Now, you know, you have the chicken and egg thing there because there’s bus travel, there’s bus service, but then you’ve got to operate an airline very efficiently to be able to compete price wise, and then one of the things—and I’m no airline expert—one of the things I’ve seen is that I look at the Caribbean and it has been kind of a graveyard for local airlines because…I mean my grandfather’s from the Bahamas and moved to the US like 150 years ago or whatever, but the problem is that you have destinations besides the big epicenters like Jamaica or The Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico or something like that, where the population doesn’t support bringing in…or the infrastructure doesn’t support coming in with an Airbus or a Boeing 737 or something like that.

Beyond the principal cities in Ecuador, is the route network economical? How do you plan operationally to be able to run profitably? I’m sure that there’s a lot to see there when it comes to tourism and ecotourism, obviously the Galapagos are world famous, and there’s got to be a demand there, but is the demand there? And I would imagine you’ve got to count on a certain degree of domestic traffic, you can’t really count on international traffic—or maybe you can, I’m just a journalist, I’m not an aviator.

Ed Delgado: Well, and thanks, you know what? There’s pent-up demand for air travel inside of Ecuador right now, and a study came out a few years back that the ecotourism and exotic tourism was on the rise. As a matter of fact, if I’m not misquoting, in 2016 there was a 13% increase in ecotourism and exotic tourism. It was moving upwards, that exotic tourism and ecotourism was, directly in Latin America and the African continent, OK?

They did this study specifically with Chinese travelers. Chinese love to travel, but the Chinese have started to gravitate to these other countries where their parents didn’t take them when they were younger. For example, they don’t want to go to Las Vegas, they don’t want to go New York, they don’t want to go to Paris, London, Rome, they’ve been there, done that. Now they want to go to the Patagonia down in Argentina, maybe they want to go to Easter Island, maybe they want to go to the Galapagos Islands. There’s that pent-up demand, we’re talking about pre-COVID. Now with COVID in our daily lives, what’s happening now is that since in the US and Europe and all that, everybody’s been stuck at home, and they want to get out, and they’re looking for places in the world that they can do tourism that’s outdoors,

It’s not with large amounts of crowds of people like we see in London and in Paris and Rome where there are a large amount of people trying to visit one location that’s very tourism driven. So what are they doing? They’re picking Galapagos…You know our ships in Galapagos right now, our cruise ships are only at 50% capacity, not because they want to; it’s because that’s what they they’re operating at: 50%. So everybody feels comfortable onboard and where the catamarans were used to be, you know they have a capacity of 30-32 passengers, they’re at 16 because the tour operators want to give that feeling of security to their passengers, and it’s working.

Built in Canada, the De Havilland Dash-8 is also known as the Q400. Photo courtesy De Havilland.

Now like I mentioned, there is that pent-up demand, not only on the corporate side—the business side here in Ecuador, but the tourism side and local tourism, like I mentioned previously. You know, you had Air Canada and Air France, Gol, AeroMexico, Avianca, Delta, American, United, Jet Blue, Spirit, they all come into Quito, and I’m missing a couple. Eastern is also going to be starting routes in Quito. Hey that’s fabulous, I promote that. But you know what? The thousands of passengers that are arriving on all these airlines, they don’t have that option to be able to connect to the other cities. It’s like an example: if you had all these airlines flying into New York, a massive amount of people coming into New York, and you told that passenger coming in from London: “hey guess what, you want to go to Pittsburgh? You’ve got to go down to the local bus station. You want to go to Chicago? Bus station! It’s exactly what’s happening here, there’s no connection to the outlying cities and that’s where it’s going to thrive, that’s what we’re going to do.

We’re going to do code-share agreements, alliances or direct agreements with these airlines such as KLM, a Delta, American, like the ones I just mentioned so that we can transport their passengers to their final destination. So if somebody gets ticketed in Amsterdam they’re going to be holding a ticket that’s going to allow them to get on the airplane, but their final destination on their ticket stub is going to say Esmeraldas, it’s going to say Santa Rosa because it’s a code share agreement with KLM. And that’s something that doesn’t exist.

Finance Colombia: Operationally how close are you to launch? What does your fleet look like? What does your initial route map look like?

 Ed Delgado: So we’ve chosen the De Havilland Q400 as our aircraft of choice. It’s a 78 passenger turboprop aircraft. It’s what’s needed due to cost inside of Ecuador. Our longest route point to point is 55 minutes, maybe an hour. Our average route is about 45 minutes, 40 to 45 minutes.

The Q200 which is a 37 passenger aircraft, will be used on our thinner routes, the routes that need to be matured, let’s say, that haven’t had service in years. When we introduce that air travel to the local economy and get people to fly us to Quito or Guayaquil, the Q400 will be used mainly on our routes that are already mature, such as the Quito to Guayaquil, Quito to Cuenca, the Galapagos Islands. We will be able to service the Galapagos Islands from three different cities in Ecuador, meaning from Quito non-stop to Galapagos, from Cuenca, the first time that’s ever been done to Galapagos, and Guayaquil to Galapagos, and offering fares that are within reach of everybody that wants to travel right now. You know there were fares on Avianca and Latam upwards of $600-$700 round trip from the continent to the islands and back. And we’re talking, that’s an hour and a half trip! You know in the states or other regions in the world, if you say for an hour and a half trip, round trip, I’m going to pay $700, that’s a little outrageous! But that’s what the airlines were charging here. With us, you’ll be able to fly there at more economical rates and we’ll be able to offer our flights to everybody, it’s within reach of everybody.

Finance Colombia: When are you going to be flying, when will tickets go on sale? When is your fleet going to be delivered? How far along are you in the process? I mean, if you look at the point of where one person has an idea and they go, “I’m going to launch an airline” to, “I’m flying routes,” where are you in that continuum?

Ed Delgado: Well, you know what we started this two and a half years ago with some very keen advisors in Europe and in the UK, some really good advisors, and also down in Santa Monica, California, aviation advisors that have thousands of years of experience. Right now Ecuatoriana is in the AOC (Operating Certificate) process, we are in the certification phase. You know due to Covid, we had to delay it a little bit, we had to make sure our timing was just right. We have this new variant of the disease that’s coming out at the same time we do have the vaccine that’s coming up.

We start operations hopefully sometime in July or very early August.

It helps us, we anticipate having our AOC sometime in June, and we start operations hopefully sometime in July or very early August. Our ticket sales should start live sometime in May once we know within reach of that AOC because obviously we don’t want to do something that we we’re not prepared for. We want to be cognizant of that so we’re going to start our sales in probably May.

The law in Ecuador states that you cannot start sales within 30 days of receiving your AOC, which is something that we have to be aware of, so we can’t do like other airlines do. You’re starting to sell tickets six months out, three months out, we’re restricted to 30 days, but by the same token what we’re doing as a team in Ecuatoriana is we’re visiting all of our local municipalities, our local governments throughout Ecuador, we’re visiting every two weeks, we’re in a new city letting them know: “Hey we’re coming be prepared, we’re going to service your city!”

Finance Colombia: Great, so the planes are ordered, are they being manufactured? You’re going to get them used? You’re going to lease them? What can you tell me about that? We’ve got to talk a little bit about the financial side of things because airlines are a fascinating business to me, because they are financial companies that tend to operate aircraft.

Ed Delgado: And lose money!  Of course, the old adage: “how do you become a millionaire in the airline business? You start off as a billionaire! “No our aircraft are being leased. We have a great relationship with De Havilland in Toronto. They’re advising us on the different aircraft models and types and what not; we’re working with our lessor. We don’t want to make the mistake that many airlines made. I was told this today because, we’re starting our certification, yet we don’t have an aircraft on the ground and in our on property let’s say. Why? I don’t want to have an aircraft, when I’m still five months from getting my certification because I’m paying lease rates every single month which is draining our bank accounts. So we have to be very careful on when we actually take delivery, yesterday I spoke with the (authorities) and I said: “when do I need to actually have the aircraft on property before our phase four of our AOC process?” And what they told me goes: “Ed, if you’re here three days maybe a week before fantastic! It’s what you need, don’t bring in any time sooner, you don’t need it.”

Great, so I can tell the lessor “hey you know lessor, I want my lease to start on such and such date because I know that I’m going to enter the final phase of our certification, our performance, our flights,” and then we can start operating two weeks later or what not, three weeks later. We’ve chosen like I said, the Q200 which is available. We’re going to have to modify it somewhat. The Q400 doesn’t come with the oxygen system from the factory, we’re going to have that installed and that will also be coming forth. We’re looking for the new gen Q400s with a fantastic interior that, when you climb onboard you really don’t know whether you’re in a turboprop or you’re in a Boeing or an Airbus.

Finance Colombia: So, right now the focus then it sounds like, is a purely domestic operation and maybe you’ll do codeshares and different partnerships with international carriers, but you’re really focused on a short haul except for the Galapagos, of course. But you’re really focused on a short haul domestic network and that seems to be your business strategy, right?

Ed Delgado: Yes, that’s right. Remember this airline structure is coming in five different phases, so our first phase is the domestic. We have to make sure that our hub and spoke system inside of a country such as Ecuador is functioning well, a well-oiled machine. We’ll introduce Galapagos in our phase 1.2. Let’s say we’ll start our Galapagos operations and at the same time we’re going to  introduce our trans-border flights. Very unique to this region is the trans-border flights, meaning I can fly as a domestic airline and almost like a domestic destination into certain cities that are considered trans-border cities. from within Ecuador to these trans-border cities in Colombia and in Ecuador. We’re talking cities that have a population of 600.000 and about a million surrounding this particular city that doesn’t have air service, and we’re going to jump in there, and we’re going to offer these trans-border flights.

I’ll give you an example: Tame was very successful on a trans-border flight that went from Quito to Esmeraldas inside of Ecuador, and Esmeraldas to Cali, Colombia. Incredibly lucrative, well done city pairs that were they were fantastic not only for time or for the end user, the customer. And Cali no longer had a transition through Bogota because just like in the states, everything goes through major hubs. They can go directly into Esmeraldas, which is a beautiful coastal city here in Ecuador; beaches and resorts, or they can continue on to Quito and then connect to other parts of the region…or the world. They don’t have to particularly go through Bogota.

Finance Colombia: That’s interesting because I was talking recently with people in the government, in Nariño, which is there on the border with Ecuador: Ipiales and Pastó and Tumaco and they have the San Luis airport there in Ipiales and Nariño, and they were very keen on promoting their cross-border trade with Ecuador.

I think one of the good things about Ecuador…but then sometimes it hurts Ecuador, is Ecuador has a dollarized economy and while that helps as it kind of takes away some of the chicanery that the government can do, central bankers can do there, but it also puts Ecuador to a slight disadvantage with Colombia as far as cost. But then, you know they’re trying to promote free zones and cross-border trade and things like that, and that’s one of the strategic objectives of the Nariño government, to really boost Ipiales and Pasto as destinations for cross-border business with Ecuador.

What can you tell me about yourself and your own background? Do you come from the aviation business? If I’m not mistaken, you’re from the US, but you’ve got an Ecuadorian heritage. Tell me about a little bit about yourself, and what you can tell me about the investors or the backers? Who is the team behind this new airline?

Ed Delgado: I was born in Los Angeles, grew up, and did all my everything in Los Angeles. Got married there and I’m divorced, but was married to a beautiful Ecuadorian woman who, we’re still very good friends. My family is from Ecuador. My background is in aviation. I started in Delta Airlines in 1990, and so that you that—Jesus! 31 years ago—I’ve been in aviation, jumped from Delta Airlines, I went to Continental airlines, I went into their in-flight department, and I was a flight attendant…and I’m very proud to say that I was a flight attendant. I flew transatlantic routes, I dabbled a little bit trying to become a pilot and got my private pilot’s license, but I really didn’t think that was a place for me, being in the cockpit.

I respect our pilots very much, they have hard work to do, and I respect them very much, but I decided not to go into that region. I went into inflight. From inflight, I went into corporate security. I had a law enforcement background at the beginning, so I went into corporate security, I went into management…went into management of Inflight, returned to inflight, but I was in management and have been involved in the airline business ever since.

The Ecuatoriana Airlines name is very potent, it’s got a lot of goodwill behind it, and a lot of interest. And people all over the world are excited to see Ecuatoriana Airlines come back. The Ecuadorian population is excited to see their flag carrier once and for all a privately held airline come.

I left Continental in 2005. I’ve advised as a consultant, airlines here in the Latin America region, and then worked in the transportation sector. Ground transportation sector, logistics with a company that I created. A company that owned buses and the vans, and we did a lot of ground transportation which, you know, maybe there are many similarities between the ground transportation such as a limousine company and an airline: you’re transporting passengers from point a to point b, and there’s lots to do on the back end of that.

So, I’ve got a lot of experience there, and from there, two years ago, like I said, I went into Ecuatoriana Airlines. I had purchased the name several years back, and since our launch, our beginnings back on August 31^st, the airline has had a tremendous amount of interest, not here locally in Ecuador, but throughout the world.

The Ecuatoriana Airlines name is very potent, it’s got a lot of goodwill behind it, and a lot of interest. And people all over the world are excited to see Ecuatoriana Airlines come back. The Ecuadorian population is excited to see their flag carrier once and for all a privately held airline come.

About our investors, right now I’m the only one that’s currently behind the project, I’ve used my capital to get us to where we’re at. We are very close to launching several different products to get investors, we will be holding road trips here pretty soon, we wanted to hold off to get investors in the airline because we wanted to make it tangible, more tangible than it was back in September when it was just an idea and something on paper.

Now we’re in the. certification phase, now we have a lot of attention and now it’s more viable. It’s a more viable project that can be seen. We’ve signed on with KPMG, a worldwide company. They’re actually redoing our business plan and finalizing it, they’re redoing our financials, and they’re doing all the projections necessary for that investor. So with KPMG and with what we have, we’re going to go out and seek investors for our long-term commitment.

Short term, we’ve had a lot of interest from the local Ecuadorian citizens saying “hey I’m in love with the Ecuatoriana, I remember Ecuatoriana when my parents took me to Miami for the first time, we flew in Ecuatoriana, and I’m excited to see you guys coming back!” I see the airline coming back even though we’re not the same they’re excited, so they’ve asked us: “How can I partake? How can I be a part of Ecuatoriana? How can I be part of the history that’s being reborn?

So we’re going to be launching our Club de Fundadores, which is the Founders Club to everybody in the region, anybody who wants to join. There are four different levels to join Ecuatoriana and with that you get a tremendous number of benefits, so you become a founding member of Ecuatoriana.

You put a certain amount in and with that it’s almost like a, it’s a crowdfunding event. There are only going to be 10.000 memberships that are going to be given out, you get your personal card with your name on it. It’ll say the number of a membership that you’re in, you know you can be number one like you can be number 999, or 9,999, so we’re only going to allow 10.000 members and with each membership with each new level you’re going to have a tremendous amount of benefits that are going to be afforded to you: free flights, free VIP passes, you’re going to be the first to board on the aircraft even before our elite members on our frequent flyer program, and you’ll become part of it. Your name will forever be part as the founding members of the Ecuatoriana as long as the airline is in existence, for hundreds of years let’s say. Hopefully, you’ll be part of it, your name will always be there to say you were a founding member of Ecuatoriana airlines.

Finance Colombia: Yes, I was reading about that on your website. Now speaking about that passenger experience, a couple questions: One I neglected to ask you earlier, your operating model is it going to be like a low low-cost carrier? Is it going to be like a full-service carrier? And all that kind of feeds back into the reason that you and I made acquaintance was because you had very shabby treatment by Avianca. In airlines, Delta, Continental at one point tried to be both a traditional carrier and a low-cost carrier but you can’t do both. You can be Emirates, you can be Spirit, but you can’t be both. So is your operating model, the low-cost model is it a traditional model?

Ed Delgado: You’re absolutely correct. These legacy carriers in the US, each one of them believe it or not, each one of them, I think with the exception of American Airlines if I’m not mistaken, tried to do that model where they were trying to do two things at the same time. You had United that created Ted—remember Ted, that Airline within the Airline? Each one of those models failed because the user has a certain experience that they want to have when they board. At United, at Delta or at Continental, back in the day they have a certain expectation, and when you give them this lite or this watered-down version, they’re like “whoa I don’t like that!”

In Ecuatoriana we’re going to be, we’re going to be this, I’m going to be very upfront Loren, we have to be a hybrid of an airline. We’re the flag carrier of a very proud country, and we have to stay within those parameters of being a flag carrier of a country and act accordingly. However, hybrid internally, we will be a low-cost carrier. Why? Because we have to really make sure that we adjust our cost to reality and not charge our customers for something that isn’t really necessary, but at the same time we have to be a hybrid between a legacy carrier and a (low cost) carrier internally.

We are going to offer onboard service, there’s no reason why on a 45-minute flight there’s no service onboard. Currently here in Ecuador the airlines, the two that are functioning: Latam and Avianca will go from Quito to Guayaquil, which is a 35-minute wheels up to wheels down, and you will not see the flight attendants in the aisle whatsoever. In years past, they used to give you a sandwich and a drink then, they then it went down to a drink, then it went down to just candy, then it went down to: “we’re gonna offer you water” down to nothing. And you know what? Regrettably the Ecuadorian citizen has got to put up with that because they’re saying: “there’s no other way I can travel, I got to put up with this there’s no service on board, and now my expectations is I’m not going to get anything!”

But Ecuatoriana is going to be very different, we’re going to offer services onboard, on our 6 am flights at a different destination, we’re going to offer you coffee which is the minimal. I would say this Loren, if I invite you to my house, I say “Loren come over to my house, we sit down in my living room,” the very minimum is I’m going to say: “hey Loren can I get you a cup of coffee? can I get you some water? can I get you a soft drink? can I get you something that maybe we could pick at while we’re having a meeting,” and that’s what I want the Ecuadorian citizens or the passengers that fly aboard Ecuatoriana, I want them to feel the warmth of you being in my house sitting down.

I’m going to offer you at the minimum a cup of coffee and something to eat, especially on a 6am flight because we’re rushing to have meetings, and you rush out of the house and you’re trying to get to the airport on time, you’re going to be boarding, I’m going to offer you a cup of coffee, something to eat; the minimum, I can do. And that’s my promise to the passengers on my aircraft and that’s going to cost me on average 27 cents, maybe 35 cents per passenger over 76 passengers. I’m OK with that. It’s that feeling that you’re going to take away, that you’re going to come back time and time again.

Finance Colombia: You’ve got a tremendous task ahead of you. You’ve been very generous with your time, launching an airline is, I think probably one of the hardest businesses to do. It’s a highly regulated business, it’s a capital-intensive business, it is a business where you have to manage safety and operational issues, but at the same time it has a very—it’s like banking in a way. It’s financial, you’ve got to deal with investors, you’ve got to raise money, you’ve got to manage money, you’ve got to look at things like interest rates, fuel prices and futures, hedging and things like that. I can’t think of a harder business to go into, so my respects to you. You’ve been very generous with your time I appreciate it.

Ed Delgado: Thank you.

Avianca indicated that the restrictions were necessitated by “the constant restrictions in different countries in terms of limitation of the entry of tourists, operational reductions, as well as mobility within cities, and the high uncertainty that passengers still have.”

Passengers are advised to visit the Avianca website and contact the air carrier to confirm individual details.

Suspended flights include those from Bogotá, Colombia to and from:

• Washington, DC
• Los Angeles
• Orlando
• Fort Lauderdale
• London
• Barcelona
• Curaçao
• San Juan, Puerto Rico
• Asunción
• La Paz, Bolivia
• Santa Crúz, Bolivia
• Guatemala City
• Panamá City

Also suspended are the following flights:

• Cali – Medellín – Madríd
• Guatemala City – Tegucigalpa
• Guatemala City – Los Angeles
• Panamá City – San José, Costa Rica
• San Salvador – Dallas
• San Salvador – Houston
• San Salvador – Miami
• San Salvador – Toronto
• San Salvador – México City
• Quito – Galapagos Islands
• Quito – El Coca
• San Pedro Sula – Miami

Avianca says it hopes to resume flights in April to Curaçao, Orlando, Guatemala City, and Los Angeles from Bogotá, and San Salvador to Houston, Toronto and México City.

The airline is currently undergoing Chapter 11 Bankruptcy reorganization in US Federal Court.

Meanwhile, the nonprofit journal Insight Crime, which reports on and analyzes organized crime and corruption throughout Latin America and the Caribbean had been investigating Guillermo León Acevedo Giraldo: A low-profile businessman based in Madrid, Spain, also known as “Memo Fantasma” (Will The Ghost) who according to Insight Crime is “a former drug trafficker and leader of the brutal paramilitary army known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia — AUC).”

During this investigation into Memo Fantasma, Insight Crime discovered that he participated in the construction project Torre 85, a luxury building in Bogotá’s exclusive El Retiro neighborhood developed by Ramirez’ husband Alvaro Rincón by providing a portion of the land and investing in the project, built by Rincón’s construction company Hitos Urbanos Limitada. Vice President Ramirez remains a shareholder in this company, according to Insight Crime. Rincón admitted to Insight Crime his dealings with Memo Fantasma but insisted that he was unaware of his history.

“I know what story you are working on”—Marta Lucia Ramirez in a message to McDermott just hours after he confronted Memo Fantasma in Spain

After Insight Crime revealed the connections, Vice President Ramirez did an interview in April with W Radio where she insisted:

“I must tell you that if all this information is correct, as it apparently is, what I most desire is for this investigation to advance.”

Insight Crime published a full transcript of her interview, presenting her side of the story, where she contradicted her own husband by saying they had no dealings with Memo Fantasma, who two weeks ago (Memo Fantasma) had eight properties valued at over $2 million USD seized by Colombian prosecutors (Torre 85 was not one of them).

The Criminal Charges

On July 24, Colombia’s Attorney General notified Insight Crime’s co-director and leader of the Memo Fantasma investigation Jeremy McDermott that Vice President Marta Lucia Ramirez filed criminal charges on June 2 against him for “affecting her right to moral integrity, good name, dignity and honor.” The attorney general’s office “invited” McDermott to meet with Ramirez via videoconference to reconcile their differences before the legal proceedings went any further: This an apparent attempt to pressure McDermott to issue statements in defense of the Vice President (even though McDermott never accused Ramirez or her husband Rincón of any wrongdoing) and contradicting his reporting of her links to Memo Fantasma, whether she knew who he was or not.

In April, McDermott received a demand to remove mentions of any connections between Ramirez and Memo Fantasma from the law firm of Abelardo De la Espriella, the same attorneys so far unsuccessfully fighting to quash Matarife, a YouTube show that is vexing another of their powerful clients, former President and current Senator Alvaro Uribe; political patron of current Colombian President Ivan Duque. Vice President Ramirez served as then President Uribe’s defense minister from 2002 to 2003. Espriella has a history of attacking journalists and NGOs on behalf of Uribe, though US based media mammoth Univision has directly accused de la Espriella’s firm of corruption in the case of Nicolas Maduro ally Alex Saab, a Colombian fugitive and former de la Espriella client currently detained in Cape Verde and fighting extradition to the United States. According to the Univision report, de la Espriella’s firm bribed a police officer to provide information on Saab’s pending 2018 arrest by Colombian police so that he could escape—then turned the police officer in for bribery!

Rather than bowing to Ramirez’s tactics, McDermott went public with the Vice President’s charges against him, immediately publishing an article announcing the criminal complaint against him. A conviction would result in 16 to 54 months in prison and a fine of up to $375,000 USD under Colombian law.

The reaction from press freedom advocates was swift. The actions taken by Colombia’s Vice President were condemned by groups like Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Colombia’s Foundation for Press Freedom. Insight Crime, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) and non-profit foundation also has diplomatic support, receiving funding from the governments of countries including the UK, Germany, Canada & Sweden, and academic institutions such as American University’s Center for Latin American & Latino Studies.

Ramirez quickly felt the pressure, as evidenced by her direct response on Twitter to José Miguel Vivanco, the Executive Director, Americas Division of Human Rights Watch, who reminded her that her actions violate standards of freedom of expression; penal codes against defamation (though she was never defamed by McDermott) violate human rights norms, and the honor of public officials should never be protected with prison.

Shortly after the scolding by Vivanco, the Vice President announced on Twitter that she was withdrawing the charges against McDermott.

El caso de @jerrymcdermott me puso en una encrucijada y la defensa a mi buen nombre prevaleció. Hoy considero el caso superado y retiraré la denuncia penal. La libertad de prensa y la defensa del honor son derechos inalienables y baluarte de la democracia.

— Marta Lucía Ramírez (@mluciaramirez) July 29, 2020

“The case of @jeremymcdermott put me at a crossroad and the defense of my good name prevailed,” she announced, though Insight Crime has stood by its story in every detail, and further revelations show even closer family ties—convictions even for importing heroin into the United States by her own brother, which she bailed out during his proceedings.

“Today I consider the case overcome, and I will withdraw my penal charges. Liberty of press and the defense of honor are inalienable rights and bulwark of democracy,” she continued in her tweet.

McDermott stressed that while he is thankful, the dropping of the lawsuit does not change the fact that journalists in Colombia can still be threatened with legal action using the same law that was used against him. He questioned whether a Colombian journalist would have seen the same outcome if faced with a similar situation.

“We did not change a single word in the investigation, and this validates our work,” McDermott said from Medellín.

Headline photo: Felipe Castaño, Vicepresidency of The Republic

Lèse-majesté is a French term meaning “to do wrong to majesty” and defines an offense against the dignity of a reigning sovereign. In medieval countries and some dictatorships such as Iran & North Korea it is against the law to offend the ruler. If Colombia is to be considered a modern republic, it cannot be acceptable for anyone occupying Casa de Nariño (the presidential palace) to use their prosecutors or prisons to intimidate, menace & bully journalists simply for reporting verified & true but embarrassing facts. As the Washington Post reminds us: “Democracy dies in darkness.”