Prepared by:
The Office for Coordination of
Internal and External Communications
Ministry of Foreign Affairs

THE FRONT PAGE

· A VERY SINGULAR FAIR: With an investment of almost 2 million U.S. dollars, and participation on the part of 350 exhibitors and 200 international buyers, the Seventeenth Annual Book Fair opened its doors in Bogotá. Peru has been invited as this year's honored guest and some 350,000 Colombians of all ages are expected to attend. The Ministries of Foreign Relations, Culture and Education are playing an active role at this Fair. At the stands sponsored by these ministries, visitors have the opportunity of sending messages to their compatriots residing abroad, can find out about Colombian migration, the National Plan for Reading and Libraries, standards for linguistic competence, mathematics and citizenship and can also obtain information on higher education and student loans. The Fair is being held at Corferias and will continue until May 3rd.

· EXCELLENT TALENT: The Symphonic Band of Guatavita, Cundinamarca, was awarded First Prize at the 16th International Music Festival of Festa, Spain. This band, which has a 177 year history and is composed of 39 Colombian musicians, interpreted La pollera colorá, Colombia tierra querida, Borrachera and Cali pachanguero, obtaining a score of 93 points out of 100. Its participation in this event was made possible thanks to support on the part of the Ministry of Culture, which provided the ensemble with 15 million pesos through the Program for Coordination and Stimulus. The band also received funding provided by the community and the municipal government of Guatavita.

SOCIAL JUSTICE

· JOINING TOGETHER IN THE PACIFIC: Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Panama will join forces in order to preserve the biodiversity and the marine and fishing resources of the Pacific Ocean shared by these four countries. Working through their respective Ministries of the Environment, they signed the Declaration of San Jose, which establishes a "marine conservation corridor for the eastern tropical Pacific," in which a program is to be carried out for sustainable and ecosystemic management of marine, coastal and terrestrial resources. This corridor includes the islands of Coco, Galápagos, Malpelo, Coiba and Gorgona.

· HEALTHY INITIATIVE: This country will take part in Vaccination Week which, starting on Saturday April 24th, will be carried out by 35 nations in the Americas in order to immunize 15.5 million children under the age of five years, along with approximately 1.5 million women of child-bearing age. In Colombia, 81,000 newborns will be vaccinated, along with 121,000 babies under one year of age. The effort will concentrate on boys and girls living in urban zones with difficult access, frontier regions, indigenous communities, the displaced population, isolated municipalities and areas having low immunization coverage. This first effort, one of three programmed for 2004, will be carried out between the 24th and 30th of April.

SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND JOB CREATION

· CRUISESHIPS TO CARTAGENA: With the arrival of the cruise ship Veendam from the Holland America Line, 1,116 tourists from Florida, USA visited Cartagena. This is the second time this year that a ship from that company has arrived at the Heroic City. For the crew, Colombia offers the best choice for vacations and provides total safety, which generates trust on the part of those who visit this country. In the season which runs through August, Colombia will receive 45 cruise ships coming from Jamaica, Cuba, Germany, Italy and the United States.

· THE FLIGHTS OF THE PHOENIX: Aerocivil, Colombia’s civil aviation authority, awarded routes to Europe and South America to the recently created Fénix Airline, while rejecting their application to fly to the United States as well as within Colombia. According to Aerocivil, the existing offering of domestic flights is considered sufficient in order to cover the need for such services on the proposed routes. A similar situation applies to routes to the USA. The new airline, however, was awarded routes to San Juan, Quito, Lima, Caracas and Santiago.

DEMOCRATIC SECURITY

· HOMICIDES AND KIDNAPPINGS IN FREEFALL: The number of homicides in Colombia fell by 17% during the first months of this year, as compared to a reduction of 22% last year. In Medellín, the number of murders fell from 4,706 in 2002 to 2,677 in 2003. There have been 484 homicides this year to date, as compared to 983 during the same period of 2003. At the same time, the number of kidnappings fell by 50% in the period from January 1st through late April, after having decreased by 27% during the corresponding period of 2003.

· MORE PEOPLE GIVE UP THEIR ARMS: During the first three weeks of the month of April, 91 members of illegal armed groups have individually demobilized, bringing the number of persons who have turned themselves in to 699 since January 1st. The number of people who were demobilized this month included 47 from the FARC, 30 from the AUC, 12 from the ELN and one from the dissident groups. The process is broken down as follows: 84 turned themselves in to units from the security forces, 3 to the municipal representatives, one to the DAS, one to the ICBF and one to the Office of the Ombudsman.

EFFICIENCY AND TRANSPARENCY OF THE STATE

· LOWER EXPENDITURE: Expenditures for the operating budget of the executive branch, along with those of the State industrial and trading firms, were 7.7% less in 2003 as compared to 2002. In the executive branch, expenditures for personnel, as well as general expenses, were reduced by 6%, while those for the industrial companies were 8.3% lower. In the Office of the President, there was a 14.3% reduction.

· CLEAR ACCOUNTS: Each year, the active members of the National Police will have the obligation to submit a report for their permanent files with respect to their assets, proven and provable, in order to be clear about the transparency of their actions and incomes. This recommendation was made by the Special Commission for the Police, created with the aim of seeking alternatives in order to deal with existing structural weaknesses, among others.