Andes

Prison warden Chance Andes told AFP that cathartic activities like filmmaking and events like the festival help "reduce the violence and the tension within the walls."

If the U.S. ends its military and other aid to Colombia, the effect could be disastrous, said Elizabeth Dickinson, a senior analyst for the Andes region at the International Crisis Group, a think tank.

The foundation, created in 2021 by French, Italian and Swiss universities and research centres, has already collected several cores in the Alps, Greenland, the Andes and elsewhere.

The Atacama desert in Chile sits long and lean, sandwiched between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

Earlier this year, an armed gang killed 13 security workers near a mine in the Andes.