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Related: About this forumExtinction Forecast for Indigenous Colombians:Plan Colombia’s Genocidal Legacy
May 27, 2014
Extinction Forecast for Indigenous Colombians
Plan Colombias Genocidal Legacy
by NICK ALEXANDROV
Extinction may well be the shared fate awaiting some 40 Colombian indigenous groups, UN official Todd Howland announced last month. Howlands assessment underlined the risks mining operations pose to these communities, and echoes the National Indigenous Organization of Colombias finding, presented last year, that 66 of the countrys 102 indigenous communities could soon vanishvictims of a genocide that is forcing cultural and physical extermination. The government, for its part, considers mining one of five engines of the Colombian economy, the U.S. Office on Colombia notes, adding that, in the last twelve years, over 1.5 million hectares of Colombian land have been sold off to large-scale mining corporations for exploration and exploitation of Colombias extensive mineral deposits [.]
These land sales mark one success of former President Álvaro Uribes (2002-2010) Democratic Security and Defense Policy, rolled out in 2003, and geared towards defending Colombias sovereignty, the integrity of the territory and the constitutional order, the government claimed. The states expanded presence, consolidation of territorial control, and subsequent auctioning of acquired regions seem to be the real legacies of the Plan Colombia era, too often discussed in counterdrug terms, and thus dismissed as a failure. A 2008 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) document, for example, pointed out that coca cultivation and cocaine production levels [had] increased by about 15 and 4 percent, respectively since the Plans 1999 launch, while Amnesty International mentions that US policy has failed to reduce availability or use of cocaine in the US, one indication that Plan Colombia is a failure in every respect [.]
Perhaps, but does Washington even want to roll back drug smuggling? The vast profits made from drug production and trafficking are overwhelmingly reaped in rich consuming countries, Ed Vulliamy wrote in the Guardian two years ago, summarizing two Colombian academics conclusions. Alejandro Gaviria and Daniel Mejías research determined that a staggering 97.4% of profits are reaped by criminal syndicates, and laundered by banks, in Europe and the U.S. How many bankers has the drug war put in jail? Or would Washington undercut an allys source of funds? The Colombian paramilitaries, for example, function as the armys unofficial Sixth Division, according to Human Rights Watch. And Carlos Castaño, the paramilitaries former leader, admitted in March 2000 that some 70% of their funding came from drug trafficking, an assessment in line with U.S. intelligence estimates, which have consistently reported over a number of years that the paramilitaries are far more heavily involved than the FARC [guerrillas] in drug cultivation, refinement and transshipment to the US, International Security expert Doug Stokes writes.
But while counterdrug efforts have been predictable failures, U.S.-supported Colombia policy has succeeded on other fronts. The Colombian Ministry of National Defense, for instance, repeatedly stressed in its progress reports a decade ago that the state was aiming to increase its territorial control, and it appears to have achieved this goal. In 1998, the FARC controlled or operated freely in 40-60 percent of Colombian territory, María Clemencia Ramírez Lemus, Kimberly Stanton and John Walsh write in their chapter in Drugs and Democracy in Latin America. The GAO later found that, by 2003, the Colombian government had gained control of 70 percent of the nations territory, and was in full or partial control of about 90 percent of the country in 2007, its extended reach coinciding with the killing of tens of thousands, the displacement of millionsand heightened investor confidence. Capital is flowing back into Colombia, a 2012 International Business Publications book on Colombias mining sector noted, compared to a high rate of capital flight at the start of Plan Colombia.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/05/27/plan-colombias-genocidal-legacy/
Judi Lynn
(160,483 posts)From the article:
The U.S. government, itself a specialist in cultural annihilation, has aided its Colombian ally with extreme generosity. Plan Colombia has been the biggest US military aid program outside the Middle East, Al Jazeeras Chris Arsenault writes, noting its $9.3 billion price tag and the fact that Colombia remains the largest recipient of US military aid in Latin America. This fundings beneficiaries commit sickening crimes. Amnesty International reviewed them in its 2013 Colombia report: women and girls raped; tens of thousands of people forced from their homes; tens of thousands more disappeared; scores of human rights defenders and trade union members slaughtered. These are the victims of U.S. foreign policy under both Bush and Obamaand regarding the latter, it seems the ruin of Colombian indigenous culture is one kind of change we can believe in.