A day in the Colombian news winds

Medellín, COLOMBIA -- It started out as a normal day. I knocked out a poll story, then our fourth piece with a headline starting "ICC Prosecutor..." -- although my now old friend Luis Moreno Ocampo had long since finished his three-day Colombian tour. Then suddenly the president was going to prison.

"Uribe's arrest ordered," one bold copywriter put it. I figured it was the latest volley in the battle of words between the country's Supreme Court and Colombian president Alvaro Uribe's administration. But surprisingly, the culprit was a court in the tiny department of Sucre. Apparently a bunch of judges, clerks and other court employees weren't happy their wages had not been equalized as promised.

A few other articles came and went, I spent a long lunch making beans, but when I sat down to eat, there was Uribe. He said he was going to appeal. I finished my lunch at the computer, banging out the new development.

But the story hadn't even been moved from ready to published before the final news of the day hit: the Supreme Court had overturned the prison sentence. The Colombian soap opera of the day was over.

In the course of reviewing the various media reports for each article, there was only a single piece that spoke with a legal expert. Seeing as the Supreme Court's position was, simply, this isn't allowed by the Constitution, that would have seemed an obvious reference point. But it didn't break with custom. In Colombia, you don't call to get the other side's story; you write another story. I'm still getting used to that one.