SOUR EMERALDS

SOUR EMERALDS

ESMERALDAS AMARGAS

The Novel by Rodrigo Villamizar AlvargonzalezNovela de Rodrigo Villamizar Alvargonzalez

“I was just trying to zoom-in to a moment of justice miscarriage in Colombia that reflects some of its deepest problems. Emeralds are like Marx’s super-structure, the above-ground element in the novel, the ‘sex-appeal factor’. But in reality, the ‘infrastructure’ or undercurrent of the narration is how travesty* justice really works and how it radiates through all strata of society.” (R Villamizar, Author of Sour Emeralds).

(*) ‘travesty’ for Villamizar has a double meaning: for one, it is a false, absurd, or distorted representation of something. But it also entails the ‘tragedy,’ of what causes great suffering, destruction, and social distress.

The Josephine emerald (and Crianza’s watch; the novel’s main antagonist).

The Colombian energy expert, former minister, ambassador, and professor (IEB-Complutense; University of San Diego; Externado de Colombia; Florida Atlantic University) is not a novelist. Looking at a copy of his newly published novel (Sour Emeralds) Rodrigo Villamizar smiles at my comment and says his novel is not the next Netflix NARCOS by any measure. “It’s only a humble essay about how justice is at the epicenter of faulty democracies, like Colombia’s.” He concludes his remark picking up his ice coffee mug saying: “Colombians have been cheated over the last 100 years of about $1 billion dollars every year by a mafia cartel that has imposed its rule through unprecedented violence and corruption at the root of the base of justice’s pyramid (The Attorney General’s Office, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Comptroller’s Office). That has been accomplished courtesy of their association with the Chinese Triads, The Japanese Yakuza and New York and Israeli criminal gangs.”

Rodrigo Villamizar, the author. Rodrigo Villamizar, autor de la novela ESMERALDAS AMARGAS.

Two decades ago, when he resigned to the ministry amid a bogus political scandal (“lots of smoke and no fire” as he describes it) he decided he was an awkward fish for that pond. So, he voted with his feet and decided to set foot for two places he loves and admires: the U S and Europe. Advising, consulting, and guiding private companies while teaching at universities took most of his time. But it didn’t prevent him from writing: op-ed scientifically motivated articles and books.

“I consider my responsibility to comment about the dangers facing liberal democracies.” In fact, a very recent tweet of his reads:

His take in the novel is to show, at a microlevel, what’s at the roots of justice collapse: the commoditization of the judiciary driven by individual power and corrupt politics. Refusing to talk about partisan politics in Colombia, the U S or even Spain, Villamizar, who lives in the Sierra outside Madrid, has accepted to comment on why he feels cautiously optimistic about the future of the U S and Colombia following more peaceful and inclusive times for everyone. “All of a sudden, the urgent need to tackle wealth redistribution inequality, overcome pandemics and mitigate climate change is starting to do the miracle.”

“The inflammatory populist climate brought by Trump in the U S and Uribe+Santos in Colombia are gone,” he says. “The next governments in Colombia will have to reclaim the wealth created by social assets like emeralds, gold and critical minerals (lithium, cobalt, copper, nickel, rare earths) and focused on restating the equilibrium of highly lopsided society. I believe both presidents, Biden and Duque, have put on the table very practical ideas on how to solve the most critical problems we are facing.”

Villamizar spent the pandemic traveling ‘the pond’ between Europe and the U S when narrow windows opened to see his family members, having received early jabs of Moderna in Washington DC. He is now ad portas to get his third vaccination booster. The rest of the time he spent at home with his wife Camilla, a marketing consultant, writing and riding his peloton bicycle.

“The sudden silence” of lockdown life was a godsent time conducive to writing. 2020 and 2021 saw the publishing of his energy book (Energy Power and Futures) and Sour Emeralds, the novel (also re-written in ‘Southern American drawl’ English by himself).

“There was a moment when I thought I wasn’t able to write fiction decently. My early teachers used to tell me I was better with numbers than words if I ever wanted to get royalties.”

Although he finished his first novel “isolated from covidiots breaking social distance and mandatory facemask rules,” the note taking had started while serving as Minister of Mines and Energy in Colombia in 1995. The confrontation with the emerald kingpins, also drug traffickers and paramilitary bosses started from day one as Minister when he revoked all emerald export licenses under strong evidence of money- laundering.

He remembers reading the final resolution in his office that night -by then reluctantly approved by the President- overlooking the Avenida El Dorado, in Bogota. “I sat there thinking ‘Neither me nor my family can be protected if they retaliate. But If I said so, people would react saying it is crazy to shake that vipers’ nest.’” Then, Juan Carlos Mondragon (R.I.P.), a very close associate while at the Japan Embassy and the Ministry, said to him: ‘Not the time to start the fight no one has ever been willing to be part of... Dear Minister, a book one day will save you’

His fictional story however transcends real events that have been taken place in blood emeralds region over the years. “It’s about the justice system.” And repeats that the collapse of that system has been sparked and supported and fed by the illegal emeralds dealings first followed by illegal drugs, smuggling and paramilitary activities. In this fictional story he explores the impact of commercial enterprises (emeralds, horses, cocaine, guns-for-hire, kidnappings) on political events and individuals.

Villamizar’s passion for statistics flowers up again. “Botswana makes about $3 billion from blood diamonds. Colombia about $2 billion from emeralds. The illegal networks of Asia and America get about a total 30% cut. The Colombian groups at all levels keep about 50%. Transaction and intermediary costs: 10%. The great loser: the Colombian Government and population; with 10% tops.”

At the time he started writing the novel in Boca Raton, Florida, in the year 2000, a Victor Carranza messenger offered him a very attractive sum of money to write the script for a movie to ‘set the record straight’ in favor of ‘the honest men that have created wealth to Colombia and millions of people’. He responded that he would have to think hard about it. Then he cut all contact with them knowing quite well that with Carranza everyone knew it took two to make bad news: “one to deliver them and one to react to it.” Then Villamizar confides biting his lower lip, “Emerald capos are more afraid of written words than bullets”.

Sour Emeralds examines the way violence can, as Pierre, its history professor protagonist says, “lethally poison government institution, families and individuals for no less than 3 generations”. The inspiration for the story was given to him more than 30 years ago by his late friends, Raul Jaramillo and Antonio Cancino, whose life provide character snippets along the narration and by Luis Fernando Arango, his personal lawyer.

The emerald world, for which Muzo (Moralia in the novel) is a microcosm, is full of mercenaries, legionnaires, heroes, and naïve folks, explains Villamizar. Then he emphasizes that his characters should not be seen as symbolic. He stresses that when a writer makes individuals as symbols, it denies their humanity. Unlike a politician, the writer must look at the individuals affected; if s/he is genuinely committed to solve real-life problems.

Inevitably, the conversation circles back to where we started. Villamizar, who advocates a re-engineering of the entire justice system of Colombia, says: “After long decades of bloodshed in the emerald territories, we need a new social contract including guerrillas, drug- traffickers, smugglers, paramilitary, and precious stones traders committed to respect order, the law and each other. Some people will think I am delirious. Maybe. I don’t see it happening soon but to survive as a country it will have to happen in the distant future.

Colombia cannot continue to be a Deadwood scenario (the HBO tv series). Colombians have the right to a Spring. Otherwise, the country will continue to be a rogue fortress.