Away from the desk: Philip Johnston (and John Major) in Colombia
Away from the desk: Philip Johnston (and John Major) in Colombia
Yopal must be among the more unlikely destinations for the visit of a British prime minister. It was to what was then a sleepy cattle town in the province of Casanare, in Colombia, that John Major travelled 20 years ago this summer, accompanied by the usual posse of political correspondents (of whom I was one) and by enough military hardware to fight a small war. In fact, getting caught up in a small war was exactly what we feared: Colombia in the early Nineties was a pretty unstable country even by South American standards. Not only were the drug traffickers armed to the teeth but a rebel outfit called the National Liberation Army had a few days earlier fought a pitched battle with Colombian troops just 50 miles from Yopal.
More than that, we were travelling with César Gaviria, then the Colombian president, whose crackdown on both the Cali drug cartel and the guerrillas had made him a must-kill target for both, which is why a detachment of marines had come along for the ride. So, an invitation for one of the British reporters to fly from the capital, Bogotá, to Yopal in El Presidente's official plane did not exactly trigger a rush of volunteers. We drew lots – the loser went with the president; the rest of us took the bus.
Travelling with a prime minister is an experience that makes it hard ever again to fly with the hoi polloi. An official minibus and a fleet of cars transports the PM's entourage directly to the VIP suite; there is no queuing at the check-in or passport control and no security searches. Even though the press effectively paid for the whole trip, we were pretty much regarded as economy-class passengers, certainly in terms of importance. But the one compensation was that the food and service on board the prime ministerial plane were always of the highest standard. More Krug champagne with your beluga caviar, sir? Oh, if you insist.
Yopal must be among the more unlikely destinations for the visit of a British prime minister. It was to what was then a sleepy cattle town in the province of Casanare, in Colombia, that John Major travelled 20 years ago this summer, accompanied by the usual posse of political correspondents (of whom I was one) and by enough military hardware to fight a small war. In fact, getting caught up in a small war was exactly what we feared: Colombia in the early Nineties was a pretty unstable country even by South American standards. Not only were the drug traffickers armed to the teeth but a rebel outfit called the National Liberation Army had a few days earlier fought a pitched battle with Colombian troops just 50 miles from Yopal.
More than that, we were travelling with César Gaviria, then the Colombian president, whose crackdown on both the Cali drug cartel and the guerrillas had made him a must-kill target for both, which is why a detachment of marines had come along for the ride. So, an invitation for one of the British reporters to fly from the capital, Bogotá, to Yopal in El Presidente's official plane did not exactly trigger a rush of volunteers. We drew lots – the loser went with the president; the rest of us took the bus.
So what had brought us there? A few weeks earlier, Major had won a general election victory against the odds and what better way to celebrate than to play the role of statesman far from the trials and tribulations of domestic politics? Prime ministers are, by nature, a suspicious bunch and tend not to like being out of the country for long in case their colleagues start plotting. But this trip was a glorious exception: it would last seven days and take in the United States, Colombia and, finally, Brazil, where Major was to attend the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.