Archive for 2006
Waging War in Colombia’s National Parks
Cecilia walked around her small wooden house pointing to the banana trees and yucca plants that were killed by the aerial fumigation that had occurred eight days earlier. She described how the chemicals blanketed not only the coca crops she and her husband cultivate in order to survive, but also their food crops and two young children. As a result, the family is now struggling to survive in a part of Colombia that has been Cecilia’s home for her entire life: the Macarena National Park. Based on the results of the initial fumigations, it appears that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s decision to begin spraying coca crops in the country’s national parks will only intensify the conflict, escalate the humanitarian crisis and increase ecological damage in some of Colombia’s most pristine environments. Read more»
Uribe’s New Economic Reforms Benefit Corporations, Not Colombians
The Uribe administration recently announced its intention to implement three reforms that will lead to millions of dollars in additional profits for multinational corporations while promising increased economic hardships for Colombia’s poor majority. In a devastating one-two-three punch, the Uribe government first announced that it intends to partially-privatize the state-owned oil company Ecopetrol and then declared its intentions to slash corporate income taxes while simultaneously increasing the Value Added Tax (VAT) on food basics such as rice, potatoes and chicken. Read more»
The Role of Young IDPs as Child Soldiers
The collateral damage of war falls disproportionately on civilians, including children and adolescents. Such damage occurs with high levels of impunity and is quickly forgotten. In countries like Colombia, warfare and its displacing effects have continued for three generations. The children of displaced families are not only the victims of crime and violence, but large numbers are regularly recruited by warring factions as child combatants, thus reproducing and prolonging hostilities. Those committed to peace accords in Colombia face a grim reality: abundant supplies of adolescent soldiers may postpone peace negotiations indefinitely. Read more»
Colombia Could Learn from Venezuela’s Social Policies
After more than five years of the U.S.-backed Plan Colombia and four years of President Alvaro Uribe’s Democratic Security Strategy, the majority of Colombians remain mired in poverty. Both of these grandiose schemes are primarily military in nature with a small degree of social investment that amounts to little more than window dressing. The principal economic component of both policies consists of neoliberal structural adjustment programs that have led to impressive economic growth that has benefited a minority of the population while 64 percent of Colombians—85 percent in rural regions—remain impoverished. In sharp contrast, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez has emphasized social investment that has not only improved the standard of living for poor Venezuelans, but also for Colombian immigrants now living in the country. Read more»
Deception at the Heart of Uribe’s Re-Election
A Colombian friend of mine told me that trying to make peace in his country is like trying to make a feast in a dirty kitchen—it’s simply not feasible. Consequently, the current president, Alvaro Uribe, has been winning the hearts and minds of the Colombian nation by neglecting peace accords and pursuing a pervasive military strategy instead. On the surface at least, the outcomes have been positive. And behind the right mix of impassioned rhetoric and increasing repression, Uribe has disguised the many dangerous concessions that are being pursued simultaneously. “Uribe presents results even with the lies or partial threats that are involved in creating those numbers,” explains Enrique Serrano, a professor of international relations at the Universidad de Rosario. Read more»
Putting Uribe’s “Mandate” into Perspective
Following President Alvaro Uribe’s election victory last week with 62 percent of the vote, his supporters and many analysts began throwing around terms like “mandate” and “vote of confidence.” While Uribe clearly won the election, what has gotten lost in all of the hullabaloo, including claims that he has single-handedly stopped Latin America’s shift to the left, is the fact that he actually received the weakest electoral mandate of any South American leader in recent years. Only 45 percent of Colombia’s eligible voters bothered to vote, therefore, the 62 percent who cast their ballot for Uribe translates into only 27 percent of eligible voters choosing to re-elect the country’s president. This figure pales in comparison to the percentage of eligible voters that cast ballots for the winning candidates in other recent presidential elections in South America. Read more»
Uribe Victory Likely to Lead to Increased Repression
Congratulations to President Alvaro Uribe, the clear victor in Colombia’s election after garnering an impressive 62 percent of the vote. The election left no doubt that the majority of voting Colombians support Uribe and his Democratic Security Strategy, a fact that the Left both inside and outside of Colombia are going to have to accept. However, 62 percent of the vote does not constitute a mandate to violate the human rights of the political opposition and others critical of the government’s security and economic policies. For those Colombians on the Left, the struggle over the next four years will consist of consolidating recent electoral gains while defending themselves against a likely-intensification of government repression. Read more»