Jaime -- who will not reveal his last name because he feels ashamed of his great naivety -- is furious that he queued up for ages in Bogota to have a policeman "steal" the money he had saved for years with great effort.
Carlos -- whose feeling of guilt show in his comments -- admits that greed led him to lose all the money he had gathered to launch a business.
The two men, who do not know one another, are among hundreds of people who in recent days have queued up in Bogota and other Colombian cities to demand the return of the money they gave to illegal financial agents who promise fabulous interest rates, far above those of formal banking.
The problem came to light in recent days, but it is growing fast and the authorities are worried: behind every single victim of the scam there is a human tragedy that leaves a family bankrupt.
The "pyramid" system has been known for years in Colombia, although it commands particular attention now given the high number of people who have been duped.
Jaime explained that he turned to one of the agents following a recommendation from a friend. He admitted he did not hesitate for a second before handing over 3.3 million pesos (US$1,700), because the person he dealt with promised to return the cash, with earnings of up to 400 per cent, within "three to 10 days."
The man, aged around 40, almost fainted when he returned for his money and found many people who were denouncing the breach of the commitment by a "ghost" firm that set up shop at a home in Bogota.
The generous earnings vanished, and worst of all, so did the original amount.
The story is identical for hundreds of people who were complaining before houses in Bogota, Bucaramanga, Neiva, Villavicencio and smaller towns.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
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