Mábel Lara: "What is the point of doing journalism, with so many injustices?"

Three moments in the professional life of the journalist and news presenter from Cauca. Conversation from Washington, where he attends master’s classes in Georgetown.

Cali, one day in 1999. There was a rumor that Jairo Varela and his people had stopped at the Santiago de Cali campus in search of actors for the new video of his production A blow of folklore . It was not long before they found who was to embody Sinforosa, the protagonist of Han caught the thing, song, between the happy and humorous, rebellious; coincidentally, closely related to a flag of Mábel Lara: the fight against discrimination.

Her pretensions at that time were to finish her undergraduate degree and advance towards the goal of being one of the best journalists and news anchors, but “how does one say no to Grupo Niche!” Few noticed it, few knew about that kind of debut in the big leagues. It is an anecdote, a pleasant memory.

Cartagena, September 26, 2016. It has met the objective. By antonomasia, the best presenter of the news of Colombia. Lara in a white city, not the Popayán of her ancestral Cauca, but in La Heroica de ramlas that once endured corsair attacks.

All in white. In white, former presidents and ambassadors. In white, Pepe Mujica; in white, the president and the ex-combatants. In white the dove dawns, elusive in so many years. In white the sky that rained rain on boiling land. In white the Alabaoras of Bojayá, although with choking pain, singers of hope. In white she, contemplating them, upright and serene like a mixed-race Indian Catalina, the Indian companion Catalina who repeats herself in an intimate tribe. This time, it was the whole world pending on Colombia, from Mábel Lara.

Everyone attended the signing. All, except those who, spreading fears and lies, regarding peace, had decided to look like the guayaberas that the signers wore: on the outside. However, everything was ready for a hopeful outcome. She had been the one chosen to describe it: the day that Juan Manuel Santos signed with the left and Rodrigo Londoño with the right. A matter of hands and ideals that finally, after many deaths and suffering, converged.

It always bothered me to inquire into Mábel Lara’s feelings. The first person to reveal the dream of millions; I even had a dream of the remembered dean of presenters, Pacheco. He longed for it in his programs: “Peace… when will we Colombians achieve peace? When will we count it? Dream metamorphosed to nightmare.

Washington, May 2021. Look back at those moments. He remembers that he was back in Cali, with a job in the media and with more time for his family. They called her to lead the event, just like the teacher’s proposal, she couldn’t say no. She knew the drama of the women of Bojayá, of the people of the Pacific, communities that “are not carried away by flattery” and needed history to change. That is why the result of the plebiscite was so painful. “I cried myself… I’m from Cauca. It was the illusion that the violent would come out and the institutionality would arrive. I thought that was possible.

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Nobody believed what happened in Colombia. And despite the fact that later came the announcement of the Nobel Prize – a sharp word, but serious for some – and the signing of a new agreement, there were the troubles in a society, today facing each other. As a journalist, she has recounted the consequences of those events. It is exhausted by daily events.

The country hurts. The reasons for the national strike hurt him, the days and nights of horror in Cali, Jamundí, Yumbo, Popayán, Buenaventura, Bogotá … Lucas Villa and the people who, in the midst of a pandemic, risk their lives in the streets to assert their right to protest. “It is a more than powerful statement of the boredom of a nation.”

She says it as a citizen, and from journalism, which today considers a boring job: “The lack of credibility overwhelms you. What is the point of doing journalism, with so many injustices, with so many news items that are repeated? ”, He questions the overwhelming cyclical reality. The same tragedies, the same corruption, the same death toll … “How, without funding, to investigate and practice independently?”

The public recognizes that he is one of the most beloved people in the traditional media, one of the few reliable journalists. He does not speak for his colleagues, but insists on the “mea culpa” that must be done. “More humility is lacking, more self-reflection. We are paying for it with the space lost to alternative media ”.

Despite being admired, Mábel Lara is also treated harshly; For example, when he revealed the desire to interview Lina Moreno, or when he spoke of citizens who faced the indigenous minga. But what did he call the others? Those people?”. Sure, for her the language matters, and maybe they misunderstood the message. She apologized for this, but felt angry because her critics forgot that she is black, that she was born in Puerto Tejada, that she has spoken out against racism, that while at Telepacífico she went into the communities to investigate how native languages are lost.

They forget that it advocates for black people, women, victims, children … It is troubled by inequity, poverty figures, youth without opportunities … As low leaderships and little political force to confront it confuse it complex challenges.

He persists in wanting to listen to the thought of Lina Moreno, a woman considered a humanist in Antioquia. She seeks to know what she thinks about the accusations of human rights violations during her husband’s tenures. She is sure that she will accomplish that and other interviews with former first ladies. Great interviews, in the best style of Christiane Amanpour, a senior journalist whom she admires and inspires.

From Washington he intervenes two hours a day on the radio. It is little for what you have to say and ask. She maintains her composure in front of the microphones, but feels indigestible with what she has had to keep quiet. Then he goes to the classrooms in Georgetown. He is pursuing another master’s degree. His luggage is light, he wants to be part of the change. Maybe tomorrow I will get to a position in an international organization, in an NGO. How about Uganda. Always, from journalism.

Notice how the international community looks at Colombia, and the look is not good. If I were to write a story today about this painful place, I would speak of a biodiverse place that has not been found in that biodiversity. A country that said no to peace and is paying for it. Mábel Lara, peaceful by blood and conviction, said yes to Niche, and always convinced of the causes that overwhelm her, she will say yes to her ‘native peoples’.